The Story So Far ...

We said farewell to our work friends at the RSPCA and BBC on 14 September, farewell to our families on 3 October, and set off for Africa to save cheetahs, decorate school buildings, and look around a bit. After a trip home for Christmas, we headed for South East Asia on 6 January -- where we were stunned by Qatar and Cambodia, taught novice monks in Laos, and acted as security guards at an Elephant Festival. It was back home for four weeks to look after John's dad, before we tangoed our way through five South American countries in fifteen days. We then snooped our way through New Zealand, dipped our toes into Fiji, drove-thru California and were home from home with family in Vancouver.

Now, we are home itself. Fulfilled, happy, and ready to earn the respect of our friends and family by knuckling down and earning some money once again ...

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

The Gulf

Mine's bigger than yours


There's something confected about Qatar, the bit of the Gulf that juts out above Saudi Arabia.  It's like a bag of cupcakes dropped in a piping hot building site.

The very generous friends who were hosting us took us for lunch at their club.  A beautiful spot, with a private beach and a pool, and a buffet to make the eyes water as well as the mouth.  The seafood lay on a bed of crushed ice, pink-perfect.  The roast beef sighed succulence.  The chocolate was melted into a waterfall, a silver tureen for a lake.  Our view?  Of skyscrapers, gleaming as if iced in vanilla, amidst the dust and craters of the not-quite-yet-built.

We'd dropped in because Qatar Airways were flying us from London to Bangkok, and this seemed a golden opportunity to see a part of the world we would never choose to visit.  Golden it was, and we're very glad we did.  We need benchmarks on this adventure.  The mud-huts of Uganda have, we hope, provided one.  Doha's soaring skyline has delivered, surely, the other.  A gulf indeed.

John 

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