Back home, take two

We did end up getting our exit visas. So we got the next flight home to chicago, IL. The Doha International Airport has free high-speed wireless internet which was so great after 6 weeks with dial up. We flew out from Doha to London on Qatar Airline. It is a nice as you have heard. The food was great, you had your own tv screen to pick what ever you wanted to watch with the ability to pause/rewind/forward. I like this because then there is not the "movie ended" rush to the bathroom. The seats had a massage function in them also and you could lay almost flat to sleep. Once we got to London Heathrow we found out that you can only have one piece of luggage on the plane. A purse is considered one piece. So we had to go through customs, passport check and out only to come back in to check the extra bag then go back trough passport check and security. It seems to me that it would have been easier for Doha to tell me that only one bag is allowed in London no matter where you are flying to. From London to Chicago we fly on United. As far as business class goes united is one of my least favorites. The food is ok, the movies are edited, seats don't recline as far as most other airlines do. The movies being edited are the strange thing. It edits out key parts of movies, I was watching In the Land Of Women on the way home and it deleted the grandma talking about her up coming death-nothing sexual or adult language, just death. So now i have to wonder if all the movies i have seen on united for the first time are also edited,,,that may explain why some of the movies i didn't quite understand.
Once we got back we went outside and it was only 80 degrees, it felt cool-i almost wanted a jacket!

Exit Vias

So there we are at the Doha International Airport. We had our boarding passes, our luggage was checked, we were on our way to Bahrain for the weekend. Well thats what we thought! When we got to the Passport check out we found out something very important. If you come to Qatar on a buisness visa (sponsored by whomever you are working for) and you stay for over 30 days they need to get you an Exit Visa. Without this you can not leave the country. So there we were in the airport finding out about this for the FIRST TIME. Don't worry the appropriate people will hear about it. So there we are in Doha airport with No car, No hotel, No luggage, No exit visas and now denied boarding passes. The plane we were supose to get on to go to Bahrain had our luggage on it and per new safety/security laws is not allowed to take off with the luggage on it. ok that rule actually makes some sence, i wouldn't want someone just putting luggage on a plane then not wanting to get on that plane. So that plane got delayed and our luggage removed, but we were not able to pick it up untill the next day! Luckily there are 50+ taxis outside the airport. So we grabed a cab and drove to a hotel-Sheraton. Luckily they had rooms available. We were able to cancel our hotel/car/plane tickets to Bahrain with no fees! Thats another funny thing. I have never in my life bought refundable plane tickets. I was online at my apartment using my pre-paid internet card. The card is for dial-up which goes at 40.6 KB speed (very very slow). I was having issues buying the tickets, every time i got to the check out page it kicked me off. So on my 4th attempt to buy plane tickets i forgot to remove the check box that would have made my ticket non-refundable. I was cursing the internet at the time, but thanks to it i saved about $500 in tickets! Sometimes you don't always get what you want, but you may just get what you need!
We are in the process of getting our exit visas. But we will not be able to go to Bahrain now. We have tickets back to the United States for monday....wish us luck!

Al Sultan Beach Resort

My flight was schedule for 6:30 pm on United from Chicago, USA. United has a very nice business section however the service of united tends to lack when comparing it to other airlines. I asked the ticket attendant if my flight was on time while I was checking in, my mistake...I cursed the flight by asking. They said, "Yes, your flight is on time. United international flights are 95% on time always". On time per an airline is 15 min or less. I would like to know if that time starts once we are all loaded, away from the gate or actually lift off the ground? Anyway ...I got to be part of the 5% that's not on time. The plane took off about 40 min late. The flight itself was uneventful, just as a flight should be! Troy and I did manage to find Scott one of the other people on this assignment. So it gave us an opportunity to talk to him more. I only briefly met him once before. While on the plane I got to see the movies "Catch and Release" and "Music & Lyrics". I stayed awake the whole flight because I was so excited about my new computer and my new iPod. I had to sit there and make my playlists and learn the new programs on the computer. I changed from a PC to a Macbook. For some of you how don't know what that means.... I changed from Microsoft to Apple. So I got my iPod all programmed. I would say that it was a productive flight.
Got to Frankfurt, Germany at 10 A.M. and headed for the business lounge. The lounge was huge but the snacks were on the skimpy side and you had to pay for drinks. Luckily our next flight was on time. The second part of our flight was on Lufthansa. This so far is my favorite business section. The sets lay down to almost a perfect flat bed, food is good, and staff is super friendly. On that flight I was not productive at all. I slept most of it.
Landed in Doha right on schedule. That just makes the start of a trip so much better. Getting off the plane down the stairs to the bus, I got my first "hit" of desert air. I knew it would be hot but I guess I thought since the sun was down it would be a little cooler. It really didn't make a difference. The air was hot and very humid. While getting on the bus to go to the terminal a lady sat next to me and made a comment about finally sitting next to a woman. I didn't notice until then but I was one of four women on the flight. Once I got to the terminal I was one of the first through the passport area, then once luggage started showing up, my luggage was the very first luggage off the rack! Once I had my bags I got through customs quickly and my car was waiting for me. It makes me giddy to have someone holding a sign with my name on it when you come out of the terminal. Just makes me feel special. I think the stars were in line for this trip. Never have I ever had that much ease when getting out of an airport.
The cars got Troy, Scott and myself to our hotel within an hour.
[PHOTO_ID_L=p1020081.jpg]We are staying at the Al Sultan Beach Resort in Al Khor (Al Khawr on the map). It is an OK hotel, not as nice as others in the area so my guess is we wouldn't stay here for more than 10 days. I guess we will see.[PHOTO_ID_R=p1020075.jpg]

Plane day

Heading back to the states.

Plane day

Flying back home. Nothing to exciting.

Plane Day

Flying out of Chicago to Amsterdam, Netherlands today.

Visa Run

Today we headed out to Singapore. We flew out of the brand new Bangkok airport. It was much nicer than the old airport, of course since it is new it had its bugs-so we left an hour past schedule. We flew on Thai Airlines, which as of right now is my favorite airline. There is about one flight attendant to every 25 people. They wore beautiful silk uniforms and everything was decorated beautifully. But by having so many staff on board- I had a hot washcloth to wash my hands and face with in the first 10min after take off. Then we were feed with in the first 30 min, all you wanted to drink (alcohol, sodas, tea, etc), and there was a pillow for everyone, and blankets for all who wanted one. They also made sure you had enough to drink the whole time. We got a movie with headphones for free. Now if you have been flying lately you will know that they nickel and dime you for everything these days so it was refreshing to just get what you needed or wanted. And no this flight we did not fly business class this was the wonderful service in economy seating. Ok enough with the free advertisement for Thai Airlines.

Once we got into Singapore we got a taxi to our new hotel called the Meritus Mandarin Hotel http://www.mandarin-singapore.com/accommodation/premier_room .htm and it is amazing. It is about $400 dollars a night for just the premier room. It has a lot nicer rooms than that. I loved our room because it came with those really nicer leather reclining massage chairs. Which is good since I am not getting my Thai massage every night here.

The city its self is so clean. It does have few strict rules- (the below are 1st offenses!)

1. No chewing non-prescription gum ($500/fine)
2. Not flushing a public toilet ($750/fine)
3. Swearing ($1000/fine)
4. Vandalism (fine to fix damage and public caning)
5. Homosexual acts (life in prison-doesn't this seem a little strange that all the men who like men get put in small cells together!)-Only men as of now Singapore doesn't acknowledge girl on girl action as being a bad thing.
6. Owning/taking/selling drugs (death)
7. Murder (death)

They do one execution a week! So we were on our best behavior. It was a nice change not having to worry about carrying a purse or walking late at night. There are no bad areas of town. We were thinking this would be a good place to move once kids are almost teens some day!

And so it begins

My new life...At
least that's what it seems like. Today I officially became a world traveler. Troy
and I left on a flight from Chicago to Bangkok on Friday afternoon. The
ride was very long; we spent 20hrs in the plane. Luckily for us that
UOP puts us in business class for all flights over 12hrs. Business class
was awesome! I felt like I just laid around in bed all day. The seats
were so big I could sit cross-legged in them. It was a big recliner; I
couldn't even kick the seat in front of me. Since the recliner part
included my legs to go up it really was like being in bed all day. I
watched three movies and my first 6 episodes of House (thanks Mandy!).
It really made the time fly by. Plus we got meals every 3-4hrs and all
the snacks and drinks we wanted. They provide all the business class
with these little gift bags that have an eye pillow, booties,
toothbrush, toothpaste, Kleenex, lotion and ear plugs in them. So we
had pretty much everything we could have needed. I also brought my
computer and movies to watch, play station portable, magnetic chess,
and cards. So we just played and watched movies all day. My best bring
was my new iGO which I would recommend to anyone wanting to fly long
distances. An iGO is an adapter for all of your electronic stuff. It
has AC/DC/Empower adapters; our flight was Empower so I was able to run
my computer off of that the entire time. No worries about batteries. We
landed in Bangkok, Thailand at 12am on Sunday morning. Then we met up
with Mike, another UOP person. We all loaded up in a van and drove to
Rayong. Our hotel was very nice. It has some odd things in it. You have
to push a button in the bathroom and then wait 45 minutes for the hot
water. You can't drink water out of the faucets so we have bottled
water. And all of the door entryways are either elevated or dropped,
this prevents you from stepping on the entry way- it's a sacred thing
here. I hope to find out why sometime.