Adventure Tour, a must in Doha-!!!

Manu, Reem & me








The meaningful Pearl represents Qatar in the old days.









On the way to experience the adventure tour, there are mountains one after another along the road. But if you look at it carefully, it's a sand mountain.








The camel group in front of the Sealine Beach Resort.









3 Jeeps arriving the starting point beside the camels.









To make sure it goes smooth on the sand, the tyres must be soft enough.

So, just let the air out of it... ( That's the 1st time I have ever seen somebody controlling the tyres to make sure it has NOT enough air) :-S





Let's get started......





me, Reem, Philipp



Keep checking the cars and poaring some cold water on car engine.








and Manu









The station between Qatar & Saudi.









Can you feel it? Those jeeps went up & down the hill.....
something like roller-coaster......
be sure to try it if you're here-!!!


























A camp in the desert, with a few camels...
all drivers were praying in front of this camp in the evening.

We all had our tea time here. The arabian tea is so "sweet".... huh..

Sealine Beach Resort

A view from the main entrance.......

A very first trial, walking & looking around....
It's just too hot-!!
There is nothing much around...







As usual, there are a few of this tame animal living around.
I saw them for quite a few times until now, but still haven't got the chance to ride on it.
May be I should just wait for a better occasion & time to really have fun with it, instead of the normal 60-second session.




The beach...







As I told you..... it looks like computer graphic..









A place for beach volleyball....
(photos are coming up, which I was here for the 2nd time yesterday)







There are horses & camels standing beside the jetski rental.

May be I will get my 1st camel ride along the beach... :-D







The swimming pool beside the seaside....
a nice feeling to alternate swimming in the sea & pool.








looking to the right...








and left...

Birthday 2008

everyone can read this i think.....












preparation........







before .........









after ........

special thanks to Tami who brought us "real beers" for the last round-!!






On the road to lebanese dinner at souk before the party begin. There are many trees everywhere, but it looks like computer graphic, every tree looks similar...




sky scrapers..





we were looking from the other side of the city, besides sky scrapers, there are boats on the water, which were being used for searching the pearls since decades ago.... now this historical activity is shown for the tourism.



malaysians should have no problem to read it right??.. keke..








the enormous Islamic Museum



still another side of the city..... a place for jetski....
Instead of enjoying jetski, we were actually searching for a "submarine-shape" building. We could see it from quite far away, but somehow it was impossible to get there.





visited Sheraton Hotel again. We went to the top of this piramid, but ran away like mad because we nearly caught by the safety guards............ :-S

about 10th & 11th floors are VIP suites...

nice view from the top.





the souk, the old town with many different restaurants, where everyone can enjoy their Shisha (indian-arabic traditional waterpipe for smoking) in- and outside of the restaurant. It smells great walking around there.....



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah



There are also many shops there, selling traditional instruments, clothes, etc...... AND, you could get a better price if are brave enough to argue with them. It's sort of "pasar malam" in Malaysia.






one of the restaurant at souk.

New instruments

Timpani arrived...

After waiting for 3 hours under the sun, we have decided to open those cases at our own risk, to save the timpani with calf skin.

We bought a few accessories from Vilaggio, which is next to our rehearsal hall, and opened the flight cases as fast as possible.

After an hour, we saved 5 timpani from 4 cases. Indeed, it was a rush & wild hour.....

The percussion instruments...... the rests are coming soon....

me, holding the famous hammer for Mahler's 6th Symphony.

tied up the belts for cymbals.....

Manu, me, Ferdi

the sweet Tami, wife of Ferdi, was giving us her helping hand for checking & counting all new instruments.

new super snare drum....

The QSO first ever orchestral rehearsal.

the Beethoven 5th.