It was a hectic travel day yesterday. Not hectic in sense of tiring, but yeah could have been better, but given the flight schedules. This time even had a stop over at Doha. Of all things I ended up doing what I hate the most, getting up early, on what was supposed to be the first of the weekend days...err first of the weekdays, depending on where you are, so another lost weekend.
Having reached airport and surprisingly was through check-in, immigration and security in flat 25 mins. Now that is very quick for Delhi Airport, but that was how it was so what was to follow was an agonizing two and half hour wait, with some time for breakfast. This was the first time was flying by Qatar and would rate it better than many of the airlines flying out of Gulf region, but alas, even though my boarding card clearly had my food option listed, the staff told me they don't have in their list, but then he arranged it.
Landing in Doha was again different, they had color coded jackets for boarding cards to ensure you are on the right terminal for transits or exits, but surprisingly even when Doha is being used as a transit terminal, it had no aerobridges. All Boarding and de-boarding was using buses et all. Was informed that new airport under construction, and probably one of the reasons that Bahrain, just next to it, with an airport which lacks space gets more traffic.
Now onto Doha appears to be a city in rush to grow and develop. It is more cosmo than most cities in Gulf, but yes, not yet Dubai. The way its going, it will get there, sooner rather than later. Dint have much time in Doha between the stuff to be done, lunch squeezed in and all. Lunch in Doha was good, some of the best halloumi I have tasted yet.
Well post lunch back to the airport for an intragulf flight to Riyadh. Problem with intra gulf flights is lack of choice of food even to preorder, but given the flight was only 1.5 hours it is manageable. The crowd surprisingly was far better than what we had from Bahrain, i was seated with a local Qatar citizen and had some interesting conversation.
Riyadh Airport this time was a surprise, with immigration queues were based on visa type and only separate section for GCC citizens as they get express processing. One person from Europe, standing behind me not used to this, tried to talk to Immigration officer to get his done first, was sternly told to wait for his turn in queue. Another thing was a foreigner entering Riyadh immigration in a 3/4th which was another surprise. Clearing all the formalities and getting baggage scanned was out in the limo. I had hit the road right before office peak hours and by the time we were just 2-3 Kms from our hotel, traffic was crawling, it took us 40 mins to do those last couple of Kms. The chauffeur told me, it can crawl like this for hours. Traffic is notorious here, with most of the drivers and taxi folks from subcontinent. (The person driving my limo was from Faisalabad, Punjab Pakistan). What this traffic did was to let me the kind of cars (some I would say were trucks, not cars) that people drive on the roads. Majority of them SUVs or high-end luxury sedans but you do find cars of every make on the road. I could see an Alto, though just 1 on the entire trip and an Accent too.
Anyways' checkin as always was smooth, a quick dash to the mobile operator to get a new sim, some cash from ATM and all set for dinner and thats one thing you will find good in Riyadh...food, amazing variety and quality. I just wanted to finish food, be back and hit the slack. In a day when all 3 meals were done in 3 different countries (not in flights).
Anyways, its Sunday morning now and need to headout in a few mins for some meetings. Yes, work day 2 of the week. Now that I will start to head out and explore the place in evening.
Having reached airport and surprisingly was through check-in, immigration and security in flat 25 mins. Now that is very quick for Delhi Airport, but that was how it was so what was to follow was an agonizing two and half hour wait, with some time for breakfast. This was the first time was flying by Qatar and would rate it better than many of the airlines flying out of Gulf region, but alas, even though my boarding card clearly had my food option listed, the staff told me they don't have in their list, but then he arranged it.
Landing in Doha was again different, they had color coded jackets for boarding cards to ensure you are on the right terminal for transits or exits, but surprisingly even when Doha is being used as a transit terminal, it had no aerobridges. All Boarding and de-boarding was using buses et all. Was informed that new airport under construction, and probably one of the reasons that Bahrain, just next to it, with an airport which lacks space gets more traffic.
Now onto Doha appears to be a city in rush to grow and develop. It is more cosmo than most cities in Gulf, but yes, not yet Dubai. The way its going, it will get there, sooner rather than later. Dint have much time in Doha between the stuff to be done, lunch squeezed in and all. Lunch in Doha was good, some of the best halloumi I have tasted yet.
Well post lunch back to the airport for an intragulf flight to Riyadh. Problem with intra gulf flights is lack of choice of food even to preorder, but given the flight was only 1.5 hours it is manageable. The crowd surprisingly was far better than what we had from Bahrain, i was seated with a local Qatar citizen and had some interesting conversation.
Riyadh Airport this time was a surprise, with immigration queues were based on visa type and only separate section for GCC citizens as they get express processing. One person from Europe, standing behind me not used to this, tried to talk to Immigration officer to get his done first, was sternly told to wait for his turn in queue. Another thing was a foreigner entering Riyadh immigration in a 3/4th which was another surprise. Clearing all the formalities and getting baggage scanned was out in the limo. I had hit the road right before office peak hours and by the time we were just 2-3 Kms from our hotel, traffic was crawling, it took us 40 mins to do those last couple of Kms. The chauffeur told me, it can crawl like this for hours. Traffic is notorious here, with most of the drivers and taxi folks from subcontinent. (The person driving my limo was from Faisalabad, Punjab Pakistan). What this traffic did was to let me the kind of cars (some I would say were trucks, not cars) that people drive on the roads. Majority of them SUVs or high-end luxury sedans but you do find cars of every make on the road. I could see an Alto, though just 1 on the entire trip and an Accent too.
Anyways' checkin as always was smooth, a quick dash to the mobile operator to get a new sim, some cash from ATM and all set for dinner and thats one thing you will find good in Riyadh...food, amazing variety and quality. I just wanted to finish food, be back and hit the slack. In a day when all 3 meals were done in 3 different countries (not in flights).
Anyways, its Sunday morning now and need to headout in a few mins for some meetings. Yes, work day 2 of the week. Now that I will start to head out and explore the place in evening.
Get your camera out and post some pictures.
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