Our trip to Doha, Qatar – Part 2

Did you miss Part 1 of our Doha, Qatar adventure with lots of food and friend pictures? Then check it out here.  

In April we flew over to Qatar to teach a class in relationship to what Reed + Rader does, make fun videos and gifs! The experience was one of a kind and amazing in all sorts of ways.  Part 3 will be coming soon where I show you what the students made and how the class went.  But for now, Part 2, I want to show you around Doha and show you how they do everything big and beautiful.  Actually that’s a understatement, they do everything bigger than big.    The trip was long but comfortable.  I had the tea flowing and the entire season of Downton Abbey was available to watch for me to catch up on.
   

First thing you notice is that everything is in immaculate shape. It’s not uncommon to see temperatures of 110 degrees there, so imagine how they keep their grass green and all these flowers growing year round.  I swear there’s not a dead flower or one out of place.  Qatar is a very #YOLO country in terms of the environment and there’s quite a big debate of how they take care of their employees.  One thing I noticed was that there are hundreds of workers out on the street taking care of these green areas all the time.  In NYC you’ll see one parks employee taking care of the entire park while here was 15 people helping with one flower bed, or assisting one man riding a mower.   

We took a day trip outside of the city to visit the Inland sea. To get there though we had to drive through this desert, in a experience called dune bashing.  Before starting our adventure in the desert we stopped to deflate our tires so we could ride over the sand. The driver in the vehicle (trained, or as “trained” as one can be in crazy driving) then bashes over the giant dunes as you bounce all around the vehicle.  It’s thrilling, the music will be loud, you’ll remember it forever. It’s a woah surreal moment.  You’re surrounded by such a different culture, but yet they are playing DMX songs while you dance over the sand dunes with Saudi Arabia in sight.

Then we stopped at some big ol dunes and people ran down or used inner tubes or rolled down. The run was fun downhill but people struggle really hard getting back up.

Oh yeah, and I rode a camel.

When I got home from Qatar I probably had 1,000 pictures to look at from either my camera or my phone.  There was so much to take pictures of I was a bit of a shutterbug. Immediately I wanted to share those photos with my family and friends who were anxious to hear all about it.  Using Amazon Cloud Drive I was able to upload my photos and videos securely to share and backup.  I had a ordeal a few years ago where my phones pictures got deleted and I was devastated.  I cried to be honest.  Now I’m hardcore about backing up all files, including photos, videos and files from my blog.  

I pretty much live in the Cloud since I’m able to access it via the web on PC (that’s me!), Mac or tablets.   When I got home from Doha I used the Amazon photo app for Android (also available for iOs) which automatically backs up my camera roll while freeing up space for my device so I can keep taking pictures.  The Amazon Photo app also allows me to access my phones and videos across devices which is great for sharing.  Photos and files can be shared with private links from the Amazon Photo app or by sharing a folder using the web interface on your computer.

I’m a Prime member because I am Amazon obsessed and pretty much buy everything off it.  In recent months I’m wild about Amazon Fresh and Amazon Pantry but that’s another addiction post!  If you have Prime then you already have access to Amazon Cloud Drive with provides unlimited photo storage.  You also get 5GB of additional storage for videos, movies, music and other files

Back to the city now where the water is clear and the Museum of Islamic is art by itself.

Seriously, look at this view from the top floor of the Museum.

 The museum has a outside area to look at the skyscrapers across the water. Again, it’s gorgeous.

We walked a few miles to the skyscrapers in their  downtown area during the middle of the day. This was not the best idea because we wanted air conditioning so bad, but we got to see some great sights.  

Look at the detail on this building.
 

We stayed at a magical hotel in the Souq Waqif where we felt like King and Queen.  It’s a market full of spices, textiles, food, furniture, and falcons.  Don’t ask about the last part, it’s sad.
 

One night I ran to buy some tea and I walked into this.
 

A falcon hospital, google falcons and Qatar if you want to learn more.

And to end with the marvels of Doha, Qatar check out our hotel. The bathroom was larger than most peoples apartments in NYC.    The hotel was the Al Bidda and it was the best hotel we’ve stayed at.  If we ever visit again, we’ll be staying here.  I want to move in.

Want to try Amazon Cloud Drive for your photos, videos or blog files?  Go here.
Amazon recently announced 2 unlimited storage plans, with both offering 3 month free trials.  There’s the Unlimited Everything Plan ($59.99 per year—equivalent of less than $5 per month) which allows you to sore an infinite number of new and existing photos, videos, files, documents, movies, and music in Cloud Drive and there’s Unlimited Photos Plan ($11.99 per year—equivalent of less than $1 per month) which is similar to the Prime member benefit – non Prime members can also store an infinite number of photos in Cloud Drive without worrying about taking up space on phones, cameras, or other devices. This plan also includes 5 GB of additional storage for videos or other documents and files.

Hope you enjoyed Part 2 of my trip to Doha!
Have you ever been to the Middle East?