Episode 23:  Qatar

July 12, 2005 3:00 p.m. (Baghdad Time)
Al Asad, Iraq
By LCpl Sincioco

"A vacation is like love—anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort and remembered with nostalgia."
—Anonymous

Al Asad, Iraq

Third time is the charm, so it has been said.  The first time I tried to go to Qatar, I ended up waiting for my flight for 5 hours only to find out that I’ve been booted out of my own flight even though I had a “reservation” (an ASR as it is called in the military).  The second time around I waited for the weather to clear, until finally they just canceled all flights due to lack of visibility (thanks weather) 5 hours later.  The third time around it almost got canceled.  My plane was broken, and they had to “duct tape” it to get it to work, so to speak.  After 4 hours of waiting, they told us they finally fixed the plane and we can go to Qatar, assuming the “duct tape” held.

Destination Qatar

On July 6 at 0100 I left Al Asad, Iraq.  After being in Al Asad for 7 months I was eager to see what lies beyond the horizon.  I landed on Qatar’s air base 3 hours later.  One thing I noticed right away is how well lit Qatar is, in contrast to the minimal lighting in Al Asad (as it is still considered a combat zone).  Unlike the dusty base of Al Asad, Qatar is so much nicer, cleaner and newer.

Camp As Saliyah

About 30 minutes later, I got transported to Camp Saliyah where I would spend the next 6 days.  Camp Saliyah, as I was briefed, was a secret base during the first Persian Gulf War.  It was used to transport man and material to the front (obviously we couldn’t use Kuwait then like we can now).  Now, Camp Saliyah is only used primarily to transport troops or people.  In the case of people, I mean like myself, people who are on R&R (rest and relaxation).

During my brief, it was explained that the reason all buildings in Camp Saliyah look the same was to maintain that secrecy.  Even today, photographs are not allowed on base.  You can only take pictures indoors.

LCpl Mummey

I did not think I was going to see Mummey in Qatar at all, but I did—and I’m glad too.  I saw Sgt Swindell, Cpl Smith, LCpl Whitemore by the pool as Cpl Bowling and I were checking it out.  Sgt Swindell mentioned that Mummey was around.  I chilled by the pool, got tan and swam while I waited for Mummey.  Eventually, I had enough of the pool and just sat down and started reading a Time Magazine special about China.

Sure enough, Mummey showed up a couple of hours later.  He said he noticed me, took a second look, didn’t recognize me and moved on.  As I flipped through the pages of my magazine, I glanced by the pool and saw him.

We shook hand even though we felt like hugging because a table separated us.  Mummey and I are all about pictures, so we both took pictures of us flexing our six-pack and also standing by Chili’s Restaurant.  Hey, I haven't gone to the gym in over two months, so I'm by no means as muscular as Mummey.

We got stuck waiting for a bus on our way to The Oasis (bar/club).  At some point, we got up and started walking to the bar.  The bus runs every 5 minutes, but for whatever reason it was delayed that night.  Delays can be a good thing; it gives people who haven’t seen each other some time to catch up.

Mummey's flight home, back to Camp Blue Diamond, got delayed.  So he ended up staying in Qatar an extra day, like I did.  Instead of us not overlapping in Qatar at all, we overlapped by two days.  Again, delays can be a wonderful thing.  Delays served against us on our way to Qatar, it’s about time it served in favor of us while we were in Qatar.

Safari

I’ve seen pictures and movies of the Safari venue from Sgt Williams' trip to Qatar.  And I tell you, it’s a lot more fun being in it than just watching the videos and looking at the pictures.  Who said Middle Eastern doesn’t know how to have fun in the sand?  Forget the camel, never mind the horse, hop inside a luxurious SUV!

I had shotgun, so I had a clear view of everything from the front row seat, which turned out to be great since I was taking videos and pictures.  The driver kept saying that we were a hard crowd to please.  He was right.  I didn’t feel at all in any danger of the SUV rolling over.  And if it did, I figured I'd live.

They had to deflate the tires a little before we entered the sand dunes.  We drove up and down and all around the dunes.  It was fun.  I could feel the seat belt working hard to restrain me as my body had the tendency to want to fly out the window or the windshield.  I wasn’t holding on to anything as I had the camera in my hand half the time.

The driver thought we were nuts!  He spoke and understood English pretty well.  He is a native Qatarian and the SUV we are driving around is his personal SUV.

He thought about it for a little, trying to do the Qatar to Dollar conversation.

At some point, we drove up to a pretty steep dune.  It was probably a 45-degree angle slope and it was pretty high.  High enough that it scared some from trying to sand-ski or sand-snowboard.  I personally wanted to get on the snowboard, but our guide kept insisting that the skis are more fun.  So with much hesitation I tried the skis.  I handed him my camera to capture the moment.  I almost made it all the way to the bottom before face-met-sand.  Lucky for me, sand provides for plenty of good cushion.  Of all 15 of us, only 1 person made it all the way to the bottom before he ate sand too.  No one got down perfectly, not even the guide himself.

Downtown Doha

When you take a look at downtown Doha, nearly 1/3 of the city is under construction.  You will see cranes everywhere.  Office towers, light commercial buildings, and apartment complex are under construction seemingly everywhere you look.

City block upon city block are on scaffold and cranes.  It almost looks like parts of the city has been bombed.  But the city is in rubble from all the simultaneous construction happening at once.  The architecture is definitely very Middle Eastern.  By comparison, American buildings are utterly dull, but functional--economics first, beauty second.  Whereas, the buildings in Doha are very colorful, expressive in its architecture and fun to look at, a good balance between economics and culture.

They use a lot of cement for construction on most of the buildings.  The buildings are very heavy from what I can tell.  I guess they don’t have to worry about earthquakes like they do in California.  As for the tall office towers (less than 20 stories) they seem to construct them the same way we do in the States using steel frame and light materials for the walls.  They don’t really have tall building like they do in New York or San Francisco.  I was wondering why, actually.  Maybe their economy just doesn’t warrant such tall office towers—just yet.

The Water

The water around downtown Doha is surprisingly clean.  As I got on the boat, I looked down on the water.  It doesn’t have that foul polluted smell like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.  On the contrary, I could see fish swimming all around the boat.  The boat travels to a nearby island where the fun begins.

I didn’t realize just how salty the water was until I jumped in.  It felt like I was swimming in fish sauce water.  It was extremely salty.  But that did not deter me from getting on that Jet Ski and having fun.  Wheee!

On the cruise, I just lay there on top of the double-decker boat.  I put sun tan lotion on and just relaxed.  The sound of ocean water coupled with the swaying of the ship helped to create a very relaxing mood.  I felt like a kid sleeping in a cradle.

Day Spa

The Day Spa, despite its name, is actually a place where you can get a full body massage, a facial, a manicure and a pedicure.  It is located inside the gym where the Internet café, phone center, barber/beauty shop and a smoothie place.

For merely $17 dollars, you can get a full-body massage for 30 minutes.  So I tried it one day and loved it.  The next day I went back and got the works, the whole "enchilada."  First I got a facial, then the body massage, then a manicure and a pedicure.  That should make mom happy, she always wanted me to get a facial.

I wasn't even thinking about a pedicure until I spoke to several Army guys who said it would do wonders to my feet.  They scrapped so much skin off my feet I didn’t think there would be any left.  What boot camp and MCT worked so hard to mold, the Filipina lady who was working on my foot happily reversed.  Now, my feet are nearly as soft as my pre-military days.  Let’s just hope I don’t have to go on any hike anytime soon, or my boots are going to kill me.

Filipinos in Camp Saliyah

There are a lot of Filipinos working in Camp Saliyah.  The Day Spa workers are all Filipinos.  They would sometimes chitchat to one another, always joking around.  One time this Filipina woman named Ofelia was massaging my arms and chest and someone said something.

Everyone laughed.

I had my eyes closed and was trying not to laugh, but Ofelia noticed me.

As soon as I said that, I just started laughing as I couldn’t hold it anymore.  They’ve been joking amongst each other for the past 5 minutes and they didn’t know I could understand them.

The girls laughed.

She spent the next five minutes apologizing to me.

I laughed.  A scene of a thousand bad deeds came to mind in a split second.

The Matchmaker

A Filipina woman named Merla did my pedicure.  As I sat down on and dip my feet in the warm water she started talking to me.

I just smiled back.

Merla is an older woman, probably in her 40s, but given her Asian complexion she looked like she was in her 30s.

I just smiled.

I just smiled again.

I just laughed.

A female customer who wanted a massage walked-in.  She was well endowed so the girls were trying to figure out who should give her the massage.  Merla yells to have Ofelia do it.

Ofelia forgot I was still around getting my manicure.

All the girls laughed.

Thirty minutes went by.  I was in the corner getting my pedicure.  It would seem that Ofelia is the favorite as far as getting teased because she is a good sport about it and always have a funny remark back.  They started picking on her about marriage, in particular how she wants to get married.

All the girls started laughing.  I started laughing too.

Ofelia pokes her head out.

Great times, great times at the Day Spa.  I won’t even go in details of the massage itself.  Suffice to say it was sensually good!  Well worth the money.  :-p

Ofelia reminds me of this girl I used to have a crush on middle school and in high school, Felomina.  The very name Ofelia almost sounds like Felomina in my mind.  Ofelia had very well animated facial expressions (which I like).  I’ve had two full body massages from her.  She certainly knows a whole lot more about me than I of her—I certainly would welcome the opportunity to reciprocate the favor.  :-)

Qatar without a doubt is probably one of the best vacations I’ve had.  The fun activities coupled with the hours spent in the Day Spa does wonders for the mind, body and soul.