Tuesday, August 30, 2005
FMPP
I.. don't know what FMPP stands for. But it's basically a 4-day pass to Camp As Sayliyah near Doha, Qatar. Qatar (pronounced "cutter" [and no, Doha isn't pronounced "DO HER", Cat. :-p]) is a little country that sticks out into the Persian Gulf, right next to Saudi Arabia, not far from Kuwait and Iraq.
I left on Friday, 26 August. I got an early flight out and was able to actually do stuff for a few hours before crashing on day Zero. The trip was long though and I didn't eat anything all day, so I found myself feeling sick. Some Motrin and some food helped some though. After I was feeling better me and this other PFC from my flight check out the PX and the gift shops (which were lame) and then went to "The Oasis" (original name, no?). The Oasis is the club here.. the young crowd goes there. There's a dance floor and a bar (they just sell certain beers, coolers, and champagnes.. and there's a 3-drink limit [which is easy to get around]). I had a Guinness and a pineapple cooler thingy. We went early though.. like 8-ish, so there was hardly anyone there. Supposedly it's hoppin' when it gets late. But I'm not much for clubs.. they're mostly for hooking up and such. If my girl was with me I'd have enjoyed it perhaps. But no, it's just a meat market really. The male-to-female ratio is terrible (fantastic if you're a girl, I guess) and I wasn't there for females anyway.
Day 1
After calling Cat in the morning, I went to the pool and caught some sun. There's a tiny Chili's RIGHT NEXT to the pool. Like here's the pool... *walks over about 5 steps* ...and here's Chili's! They had a limited menu, but it was still good. And they DID have the chocolate volcano cake thingy that is one of my favorite deserts ever.
That night I got a massage, which was awesome. Not only did it feel great, but it really loostened me up for the following days. I could feel it in my feet and in the way I walked that I wasn't as tense. It actually made my arms and shoulders hurt a little from having the muscles loostened for the first time in a long time. It was highly theraputic and I highly recommend it. Although you're better off getting one from your girlfriend. She may not be a professional, but ya never know what might happen afterwards. Rarr. Oh, and also it's free tht way. :-p
Day 2
I had to wake up a little early (Like 8am! GASP!) so I could be at the USO in time to sign up for one of the off-post trips. You can sign up any of the days, but my group had priority on day 2, so it made it easier to get a slot. I signed up for a trip to the "big" 4-story mall in the city of Doha.
After that I headed to the pool again and got some more sun.. making sure to get plenty of sunscrean on those little spots on my back I missed the day before. I burn super easily. I just went into Chili's for a bottomless coke afterwards this time.
That night, after I showered up and whatnot, I went to the Top Off Club.. which is the place to drink other than the Oasis. It's more of a quiet place. It's just like.. in this giant warehouse kind of place and there's some couches and a TV. There's a small bar with a variety of beer. There's also darts and pool. I had a Heinekin and two Guinnesses there while playing pool. It was quiet and nice. I like to be able to think and chew on my Guinness in peace.
After I finished there I got online and talked to Cat until the wee hours. Great conversations too.. usually when we talk there's tight time constraints or there are distractions or other priorities that come into play (Like work. Bleh!). It makes me miss her though..
Day 3
I had to get up kind of early to go on the trip to the Mall. The mall was fairly nice, I guess.. but they didn't have the kind of stuff that someone like me who has to go BACK to Iraq would want to buy. I bought a couple of DVD's and payed too much. I had some McDonalds which was so-so (I had a Royale with Cheese, Pulp Fiction fans!). Mostly the trip was just too long though.. I got bored and tired of walking around. I also didn't like that we had to go around in little groups.. minimum of 2 people together. It takes your freedom away. It'd be better if you knew or liked the people.. but they were boring and awkward and weird. They were fairly nice though. The highlight of the mall was getting a white chocolate mocha from starbucks.. with caramel on top. Mmmm. I got a grande... should have made it a venti.
More interesting than the mall though was the trip to and from. The city of Doha is pretty large.. and it looks like it's rising from the ashes of something. There's lots of old decrepit and dingy buildings.. some of which are still barely functional, but most of which are just rubble. A lot of that rubble is in the process of being cleared out. The roads look like they're trying to modernize, but it's still chaos on the streets. People just.. go when they WANT to go. Our bus totally cut off a cop and he didn't seem to give a crap. Also interesting are the cop cars actually. 3-series beamers, every one. Crazy.
What was really cool is that there are TONS of tall buildings. All of them are beautiful and unique looking.. much better architecture than the average building in a big city like NY or LA. And for every one of these buildings there's at least like 2 or 3 around it being built. The entire city looks like a fantastical work in progress. They also have other huge structures.. domes and zigurrats and such.. all very modern or futuristic looking. It was really interesting to me. It seemed like there weren't enough people in the city to even fill all of the buildings that were already built. ..but maybe that's because everyone is inside.
It definitely felt strange though. Like someone was building a huge elaborate hampster cage in the way of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the Truman Show.
After I returned from that I really just kinda.. chilled out for the rest of the day. That night they posted our formation time for returning home. Crashed a little early to try to get some Z's.
Day 4
We had our formation and got my final formation time, which a little bit later tonight. After the morning formation I went to the pool once more... there's not much else to do. It wasn't as sunny today so I kind of napped in one of the adorondac chairs. And that's.. all. I really did for this, the final day.
So yeah, all-in-all Qatar is really boring. :-p But it's nice to have a change of pace.. something to break up the long months of being in Iraq. I just have a few more months to go before I'm done.
I left on Friday, 26 August. I got an early flight out and was able to actually do stuff for a few hours before crashing on day Zero. The trip was long though and I didn't eat anything all day, so I found myself feeling sick. Some Motrin and some food helped some though. After I was feeling better me and this other PFC from my flight check out the PX and the gift shops (which were lame) and then went to "The Oasis" (original name, no?). The Oasis is the club here.. the young crowd goes there. There's a dance floor and a bar (they just sell certain beers, coolers, and champagnes.. and there's a 3-drink limit [which is easy to get around]). I had a Guinness and a pineapple cooler thingy. We went early though.. like 8-ish, so there was hardly anyone there. Supposedly it's hoppin' when it gets late. But I'm not much for clubs.. they're mostly for hooking up and such. If my girl was with me I'd have enjoyed it perhaps. But no, it's just a meat market really. The male-to-female ratio is terrible (fantastic if you're a girl, I guess) and I wasn't there for females anyway.
Day 1
After calling Cat in the morning, I went to the pool and caught some sun. There's a tiny Chili's RIGHT NEXT to the pool. Like here's the pool... *walks over about 5 steps* ...and here's Chili's! They had a limited menu, but it was still good. And they DID have the chocolate volcano cake thingy that is one of my favorite deserts ever.
That night I got a massage, which was awesome. Not only did it feel great, but it really loostened me up for the following days. I could feel it in my feet and in the way I walked that I wasn't as tense. It actually made my arms and shoulders hurt a little from having the muscles loostened for the first time in a long time. It was highly theraputic and I highly recommend it. Although you're better off getting one from your girlfriend. She may not be a professional, but ya never know what might happen afterwards. Rarr. Oh, and also it's free tht way. :-p
Day 2
I had to wake up a little early (Like 8am! GASP!) so I could be at the USO in time to sign up for one of the off-post trips. You can sign up any of the days, but my group had priority on day 2, so it made it easier to get a slot. I signed up for a trip to the "big" 4-story mall in the city of Doha.
After that I headed to the pool again and got some more sun.. making sure to get plenty of sunscrean on those little spots on my back I missed the day before. I burn super easily. I just went into Chili's for a bottomless coke afterwards this time.
That night, after I showered up and whatnot, I went to the Top Off Club.. which is the place to drink other than the Oasis. It's more of a quiet place. It's just like.. in this giant warehouse kind of place and there's some couches and a TV. There's a small bar with a variety of beer. There's also darts and pool. I had a Heinekin and two Guinnesses there while playing pool. It was quiet and nice. I like to be able to think and chew on my Guinness in peace.
After I finished there I got online and talked to Cat until the wee hours. Great conversations too.. usually when we talk there's tight time constraints or there are distractions or other priorities that come into play (Like work. Bleh!). It makes me miss her though..
Day 3
I had to get up kind of early to go on the trip to the Mall. The mall was fairly nice, I guess.. but they didn't have the kind of stuff that someone like me who has to go BACK to Iraq would want to buy. I bought a couple of DVD's and payed too much. I had some McDonalds which was so-so (I had a Royale with Cheese, Pulp Fiction fans!). Mostly the trip was just too long though.. I got bored and tired of walking around. I also didn't like that we had to go around in little groups.. minimum of 2 people together. It takes your freedom away. It'd be better if you knew or liked the people.. but they were boring and awkward and weird. They were fairly nice though. The highlight of the mall was getting a white chocolate mocha from starbucks.. with caramel on top. Mmmm. I got a grande... should have made it a venti.
More interesting than the mall though was the trip to and from. The city of Doha is pretty large.. and it looks like it's rising from the ashes of something. There's lots of old decrepit and dingy buildings.. some of which are still barely functional, but most of which are just rubble. A lot of that rubble is in the process of being cleared out. The roads look like they're trying to modernize, but it's still chaos on the streets. People just.. go when they WANT to go. Our bus totally cut off a cop and he didn't seem to give a crap. Also interesting are the cop cars actually. 3-series beamers, every one. Crazy.
What was really cool is that there are TONS of tall buildings. All of them are beautiful and unique looking.. much better architecture than the average building in a big city like NY or LA. And for every one of these buildings there's at least like 2 or 3 around it being built. The entire city looks like a fantastical work in progress. They also have other huge structures.. domes and zigurrats and such.. all very modern or futuristic looking. It was really interesting to me. It seemed like there weren't enough people in the city to even fill all of the buildings that were already built. ..but maybe that's because everyone is inside.
It definitely felt strange though. Like someone was building a huge elaborate hampster cage in the way of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the Truman Show.
After I returned from that I really just kinda.. chilled out for the rest of the day. That night they posted our formation time for returning home. Crashed a little early to try to get some Z's.
Day 4
We had our formation and got my final formation time, which a little bit later tonight. After the morning formation I went to the pool once more... there's not much else to do. It wasn't as sunny today so I kind of napped in one of the adorondac chairs. And that's.. all. I really did for this, the final day.
So yeah, all-in-all Qatar is really boring. :-p But it's nice to have a change of pace.. something to break up the long months of being in Iraq. I just have a few more months to go before I'm done.
# posted by Squisher of Scorpions @ 10:00 AM 
