Decision taken, Plans made!

In my last post, I had asked you all to give me your opinion about the idea of blogging while going for Umrah. I got some very positive feedback from all of you and I really thank you for your contribution.

I have decided that I will blog on my trip to Makkah inshallah! I will try to give you guys a touch of how it feels to be in the most holy place to Muslims around the world. I will take some pictures (but not a lot) to show those who have never been there how beautiful and peaceful the Haram is. However, I will not deviate from the main theme of this blog, travel. I will tell you all about the trip to Makkah and what makes this city different from all the other cities in the world.

So far, the trip plan is that I will go to Oman on the 14th of August and travel with Mom ( and hopefully sisters) to Makkah on the 16th. I will return to Qatar on the 20th by bus and my family will return to Oman.

I am 100% positive that this trip plan will change because when ever I travel with family, there is always a high degree of uncertainty. However, I have a back up plan in case my family decides not to go. Simply take a bus on the 14th to Makkah and stay there till the 20th!

I personally don't mind going to Makkah alone since I have done it 3 times already. The bus ride is long (23~24 hrs one way) but its completely worth it. I am really expecting this trip to be awesome since it will be during the Holy month of Ramadan and Makkah is completely different during that month!

I might not be writing any new posts until I get close to the first week of August because I will be extremely busy with a lot of work. However, if any changes happen to this plan, I will let you all know.

The stats, and my next travel plans!

Hey Everyone!

I know I said that my last blog post would be the last one until I plan to travel somewhere, but I felt that I had to finish the India trip by telling you about the stats I got from my blog.

I connected my blog to Google Analytics which basically gives you daily updates about the number of visits you had to your blog and other interesting facts. I wanted to share these with you since I found them very interesting.

In total, I posted 7 posts for my India trip and I had a total of around 134 visits until yesterday. I am saying around because this number also includes the times I personally visited the blog. So theoretically, speaking, around 100 visits would be a good estimate.

I got visits from 13 different countries. I know the people who visited from each country except one,the UK. Google analytics is so cool that it actually gives you the cities within the countries. My anonymous friend from the UK is from London. Pretty weird!

I really want to thank each and everyone of you for taking the time to read my blog posts, even if you didn't read them all because you thought they were too long. I am sorry, but I love to write alot.

Keeping this blog post short, I will just share with you guys my next travel plan. I am actually planning to go for umrah during the first ten days of Ramadan which will be in August. My plan is to go back home (Oman) on the 14th of Aug and travel with mom to Saudi Arabia from the 16th to the 19th.

The dilemma here is: what is your opinion about blogging during this religious trip. For those who don't know about Umrah, please click the link above. However, for others, what is your opinion? I personally don't mind because I would be giving a perspective about this amazing trip to the people who haven't been there.

Please let me know your opinion by commenting below.

Thanks for reading!

'India Bandh!' and my last day in India

This blog is actually one day late. I am in Doha now and chilling in my dorm. However, I still need to talk about my last day in Delhi.

We started the day off at around 8 and were all set and ready to go to the market place, Chandi Chowk, to do some last minute shopping before we head to the airport. We had also planned to go see Jama Masjid and the Red Fort.

However, as you know, sometimes you just plan for things and what happens is something completely different, thats how this day was. Dad switched on the TV before leaving and saw that there were protests all over the country and people were going crazy on the streets. They were protesting against the rise in fuel prices and other commodities. All the big opposition leaders were on the streets in different big cities in India and were telling the shops and all the businesses to shut down for one day. They named it India "Bandh" or shut down in english.

Few minutes after we watched all this, I looked out of the window in our hotel and saw that the protesters had reached our area! Honestly, at that moment, I was more excited about watching the protests then pissed at the fact that our plans had been changed. However, what happened was that we went down and stood on the side street watching what was going on. Dad got bored after some time and went into the hotel. I had my camera with me and I took many videos and pictures. By then, I had completely forgotten that we had other plans and I focused on getting the most out of this insane experience. I am currently finding difficulties uploading the videos so here is a picture I took. You can look at the album at the end of this blog and see all the pictures. I will try to work on getting the video uploaded soon.

After standing outside for about an hour, I went in and decided with dad that we were going to get the first taxi to the hotel since we might not be able to get a taxi if we waited any longer. Now this was around 1pm and our flight was at 7!

We checked out of the hotel, grabbed a taxi, and were in the airport by around 2. Now to waste time, dad was online on his laptop, and I was busy reading my book. The take off time came and I said good bye to dad, since he was going back to Oman and I was coming to Qatar. I boarded my plane and said good bye to India.

The plane ride was nice. I unfortunately did not get to ride on first class this time, but the economy seats were not bad. On the plane, I watched " Wake Up Sid" which is honestly one of the best indian movies I have seen. I actually did not complete the movie by the time I had reached Doha, so I asked a friend to give me the link to watch it online. It amazing people, go watch it if you didn't.

With this, I am going to end my posts about India. My last few words about India would be that its really an amazing country. If you are young and willing to travel and take some risks, India is perfect for you. The best thing I loved about the country is how friendly the people are. They are always willing to help and show you around. The country is dirty for sure, but I personally feel that this gives it a special flavor!

I really hope that you all enjoyed reading my posts about India. I will be stopping this blog temporarily until I find another place to travel to. I am sure it wont be for long, since I already have some travel plans in my head. Lets hope everything goes well. Please leave a comment if you have reached this far and let me know which country you think I should put on my "countries I have to visit before I am 30 " list!.

If you want to see all the pictures I took from India, you can click below!

India Trip July 2010

Agra, the City of Love!

We started off the day very early, at 5:30 am. Got up and were out in our cab by 6:10am heading off to Agra. Now the reason we went by a car and not by the train ( like everyone else does) was because of two main reasons.

Remember the long 4 hours business meeting we had two days ago. Well one thing that could be said from that meeting was that the people we met with were very generous and kind that they insisted we go to Agra by a car that they provided and have a tour guide waiting for us in Agra to explain the Taj Mahal for us in detail. Initially, we hesitated, since we had planned to go by train, but the second reason convinced us to go. It was because the train tickets were sold out. We actually called the train company to ask and confirm. With these two reasons, we were forced to take the offer.

Our journey to Agra took around 5 hours. We only stopped once on the way to have breakfast at a very expensive and touristy restaurant. Nothing interesting happened on the way as I slept through most of it.

We reached Agra at 11 and were greeted by our Indian Tour guide. We picked him up from the side of the road. It was pretty random. I think he had already contacted our driver, but still , it was random!

As soon as the guide gets into the car, he says, " Gentlemen, welcome to the city of love, Agra".

Agra is a small city if you compare it Delhi but still noisy, dirty, and of course, filled with people. It took as another 5 to 10 minutes to reach the gates of the Taj Mahal. After those gates, cars are not allowed and we had to take electric cars. The government is doing this to preserve the walls of the Taj from the pollution. Good move Indian government!.

Now came the time to buy our tickets. They cost 750 Rs for tourist and 10 Rs for Indians. I really wanted to do the same " act like an Indian " and get the cheap tickets but this time, we had the tour guide with us so we couldn't do it. We paid the amount, got our tickets, and headed towards the Taj.

Whenever I saw the Taj Mahal in pictures or on the television, I always thought it was just that white building with the huge garden around it. Apparently, there are three gates surrounding it from the South, East, and West. The North side has a river. We walked in through the East gate and on the way, our guide explained to us all about the building of the Taj Mahal.

The Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum built by the Mughul Emperor Shah Jahan, for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It took 22 years to build and the whole white structure is made of white marble. I was thinking, would a husband do something like this for his wife in today's world. I doubt it! I wont go into more details since you all can google it. I would prefer giving you my own perspective of the Taj.

After walking around for a few minutes, we entered through The Great Gate which is the main gateway to the Taj Mahal. It was really a breathtaking view as I had always seen this building in pictures, but trust me, its way more beautiful in real life. The size and beauty of this building cannot be described in words. All I can say is that I took out my camera and went crazy taking pictures.

As we were walking towards the main building across the gardens, a local photographer approached us offering his service. I was not convinced since he wanted to take a lot of money but dad said, " how many times will you come to the Taj Mahal in your life? ". Wise man my dad!

The Photographer took our pictures from every angle possible and he really did a great job. I promise to upload all the pictures once I am back to Doha,but as for now, here is one.

After another 20 to 30 minutes of walking around the place and inside the building, which was not very fascinating, we took our printed pictures from the photographer and headed out. As we were going to drop our guide, he said he wanted to show us a small shop. I knew here is where he wanted to rip us off!

He took us to a small shop that makes marble pieces. He said that the workers working in this shop are the great grand children of the Persians who worked on the Taj Mahal! ( yea right! ).

A little (not so persian looking) man greeted us and showed us around. The place was actually very beautiful and you could see that the marble pieces they made were really hand made and not from China. However, the prices he told us were ridiculous. My dad, being a businessman, told him that he will come latter to buy a lot of his marble pieces. He even took his business card!

After giving the shop owner so much hope, we left and said good bye to our tour guide. With my dad having a little cold from the AC in our hotel, we couldn't see anything else in Agra so we started driving back to Delhi.

The drive was actually longer, 6 and half hours. On the way, I got really bored so I started taking pictures of things I would see only in India. I will upload them all back in Doha, but enjoy this one for the time being. Only in India!

We got back to Delhi almost by sunset. I was extremely tired after this long drive and crashed on my bed. I didn't wake up except now , 3:30 am.

Tomorrow, or actually today, we are going to Chandi Chowk, Jama Masjid, and the Red Fort. After that, we are each heading back home. Me, back to Doha, and dad, back to Muscat. Our flights actually leave at the exact same time from Delhi!

Touring Around Delhi

The day started off today pretty late. We woke up at 9 and were out of the hotel within an hour. We had made our plans of places to visit and had our map of Delhi with us and everything was set. The plan was to visit the farthest place on our map and then come back for the rest later. So we headed off to the Lotus Temple.

Our means of transportation to get there were the Delhi

metro and then a 40 minute ride on a bus. The metro ride was, well let this picture speak instead. Thats dad in the hat if you did not meet him before.

The bus ride was not bad though it did get crowded by the time we reached Nehru Place, the area where the Temple

is located.

After a five minute walk, we reached the Lotus Temple. I must say this is one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen. The Lotus Temple is actually a place of worship for the Bha'i religion.

I learnt a lot about this religion and its really interesting and not as small as I thought it was. The Bha'i religion has a

p After a good 30 minute walk around the area, we headed off to our next destination, having lunch.

We took a rikshaw to drop us to a Mc donalds we saw on our way to the temple. I know that most of you must be saying that I should be trying local food, but the problem is that dad does not trust their food at all, and I think you all should not too. More on the local food topic later.

After our tummies were full, we headed back to the bus stop and took a bus to India Gate. I personally thought India Gate was pretty impressive but dad had a different opinion. He said, " you got me all the way here to see this! ".

Love you dad. India gate was actually built to remember all the Indian soldiers that died during WW1. Pretty cool.

After taking all the touristy pictures near India Gate,we took another rikshaw to drop us to the President's residence area or as it is called in Hindi, Rashtrapati Bhawan. We could not get inside ( obviously!) so we took pictures outside. Now the rikshaw guy, a Sikh punjabi offered to take us around 4 or 5 tourist places for 750 INR (16 $) and drop us back to the metro.

We thought it was a good idea since we wanted to be back home early to watch the Germany vs Argentina game and we were tired. However, being Arabs, we didn't agree for the price he gave us. We bargained with him until we got it down to 600 INR (12 $) and minus one museum. I believe we could have done a better job at bargaining but dad was loosing his patience and just wanted to get going. So we started our journey with our Sikh Punjabi rikshaw driver and went off to Mahatma Ghandi's museum.

It turned out that it was also the place where he was assassinated at. I loved the museum. I now know why all Indians love this man. He united the Indians of all faiths under one name, India. Thats me with a huge statue of Ghandi in his museum.

After snapping some photos over there, we got back into our rikshaw and went to Lodi Garden. It had the tombs of some of the Muslim leaders of India. I honestly did not find this building as impressive as the one we saw next. Humayun's Tomb was the best part of the day for me. I loved the building and the whole atmosphere around it.

Another strike to my amazing Urdu (Hindi) speaking skills was when I went to buy the tickets for Humayun's Tomb. I read on the board, Indians = 10 Rs, Foreigners = 250 Rs. Seeing that ridiculous number, I told dad to step aside and let me go buy the tickets. I took exactly 20 Rs and went in with full confidence and asked the ticket guy for two tickets ( in Urdu).

The man did not even hesitate to ask where I am from and gave me the tickets. However, the security man at the gate asked us where we are from. I said I was from UP (Uttar Pradesh), and dont ask why! Dad on the other hand said Kerla ( again, dont ask why! very random). The security man was a bit suspicious about dad being Indian but when he said Kerla, the doubts were cleared!. If you are not a desi, you wont get this. So let me say in one senstence, people from Kerla usually don't speak Hindi, they speak their own local language.

Now, Humayun's Tomb was an amazing building to see and take pictures off. I

felt it was very photogenic and had a lot to give. The walk from the gate to the Tomb itself was a bit tiring so dad left half way and decided to go out and wait for me near the entrance. I went up and down the building taking pictures from every angle possible. I loved this building. The two Pictures on the side and the bottom are of Humayun's Tomb. I had to put two pictures of this place, its amazing.

The last stop in our journey with the Sikh driver was a Sikh temple. He wanted to show us one very badly. The Sikh temple we saw was not that impressive but it was something I haven't seen before. There was not much to see inside so we just took a few pictures (and my memory card was full) and left back to the metro station.

A quick ride back on the metro and we were back in our hotel room. After chilling in the hotel and watching the Germany vs Argentina game, we went out in search of dinner. Now as I said, my dad does not trust the food over here. He decided to go out in the first place ( we used to have food at the hotel before today) because he was sick and tired of the hotel food. After searching for about 15 minutes for a good place to eat, we had chicken korma and butter naan followed by a not so good mango juice for me and a pomegranate juice for dad.

Tomorrow, we have an early start at 6am when the cab will come to pick us up to go to Agra and see the Taj Mahal. Why we are taking a cab instead of a train?wait till you know tomorrow. Its a good story!

Lets talk business!

Before I start talking about my first day in India, let me tell you about the amazing flight I had. I check in the airport at Doha and everything is fine. I don't check my boarding pass for my seat until I get into the plane and notice that it says 6C. I look around and see that 6C is the last seat in the business class! I was upgraded to business class without even knowing! Jet airways, you guys rock!

After an amazing 3 hrs 40 mins flight in the business class, I got to India. After getting done with passport control, I found myself a taxi and head to the hotel. On the way, I told myself that I would put my urdu (hindi) to the ultimate test and see if this local indian taxi driver will notice that I am not desi ( from the sub-continent). I start talking to him and after a while, he says in hindi,' so you are from punjab?'. In my head, I was thinking, why in the world punjab? I instantly reply, ' yes of course I am from Punjab'. My Urdu has passed the test! This is amazing.

The hotel was easy to find. After meeting dad and talking about the two days he spent in India before I came, he told me to head to bed since we had a business meeting at 10.

Before I continue, can someone please tell me why in the world did the hotel put a fan in the toilet! This is the most random thing I have ever seen.

The business meeting was really cool, but I am sorry to say that I wont be able to disclose any of the content of that meeting because its confidential. So let me just say that I learnt a lot about business and how deals are made. A good switch from the engineering world I have been living in for so long. The meeting went from 12 to 4 and by the time we got back home, it was 6pm.

Me and dad decided to have a walk around the area we were living in. Nice little town with small shops and people everywhere. Then we got back to the hotel and watched the world cup games. (Go Holland).

Here is a picture of the view from outside our hotel room. The thing on the top is the Delhi Metro rails.

Its true that we didn't go out any where but the plan for tomorrow is to go around the famous sites of Delhi and on Sunday, head to Agra and check out the Taj Mahal and the cool sites over there. Then on Monday, well no plan yet for Monday!

My first impression of Delhi is that I am really surprised by how developed this city is. I did not expect to see such a huge metro network. The roads are not as bad as I expected them to be. The food is amazing, I love it! The people are really friendly and especially when you talk to them in Urdu, they really feel comfortable and willing to help.

However, I cant say everything in India is amazing. The insane traffic, the pollution and the dirt every where are just some of the things I could list as things I really did not like. But seriously, who doesn't know all this!

let me sign off before you guys hate me for making you read all this. Sorry for this not so interesting post but I promise tomorrow will be fun!

I am going to India Baby! (extended version)

I finally made it to India! But before I forget, let me elaborate on what happened yesterday since my last post was quick.

'After finishing work, I rushed to meet some friends to go go-KARTING in Villagio. It was amazing. Omer, florent, noor, taina, and luma ( a new friend ) were all there and it was amazing. Pictures will be coming up soon'.

Actually what happened was that I left

work early and went for a quick

meeting regarding the International orientation ( will elaborate on that some other time). After the meeting, I went to Villagio with

Benazir to meet up the

rest of the group. Go-Karting was amazing. If you are in Doha and bored, its the best thing to do. Its true that its a bit expensive ( 60 QAR for 10 mins), but its really worth it.

Than was a crazy drive back home since I was really late and had literally 20 minutes to pack and be ready to leave to the airport. Thankfully, everything went as planned and I was at the airport on time to leave to India. Basel, thanks once again for the ride.

Now for the story you all have been waiting for, how I got my visa! I know most of you reading this actually know the story but here it goes.

So I go to the Indian Embassy last Monday to apply for my visa and I have all my papers ready. Benazir, a friend of mine who is interning at the same company I am interning at, was with me since I give her a ride everyday. So I enter the embassy and see the longest queue of Indian men I have ever seen.

Remembering what Corinne told me about her experience with the Embassy, I tell Benazir to submit my papers since she was a girl and she could cut through the line without anyone questioning.

After cutting through the photocopying machine queue, and the general inquiry queue, I realized there was a problem. The Officer told me that the visa will need between one to two weeks to be issued and I was travelling in 3 days. At that point, I was really going to go crazy at the officer because when I called two days ago, the lady on the phone said that I will get the visa within one day. Anyways, moving on, I called my dad and told him the bad news. However, my dad with his smart thinking, gave me an idea (even though it sounded crazy to me).

He told me to go to the airport and give my passport to any trustworthy looking person who was travelling to Oman. My dad would then get the passport from him and get me the visa from the Indian Embassy in Oman. It does take a day in Oman to get it. And to get my passport back, my dad would send the passport with someone who was travelling to Doha! Genius

That is exactly what happened. My passport went to Oman with a group of three Qatari men and came back the next day in the evening with a Omani family.

Now I know that some of you might think its crazy to give your passport to a random person, but when you think about it, I had no other option.

Right now, I am at the hotel with my dad and its 7:30am. I think I will take a nap until our business meeting with some companies at 10.

In tonight's blog, I will try to give you my first impressions of India and my little list of things I am planning to do while in Delhi.

I am going to India Baby!

Just to give you guys the heads up, I am actually posting this post from my phone, so please excuse the grammar. I am right now in the airport waiting to get into the plane. Yes i made it, I am finally going to India.

Many things happened today and I dont think i will be able to type it all up with my phone, so i will just give you the main headings and i will elaborate on them when I get to India safely.

After finishing work, I rushed to meet some friends to go go-KARTING in villagio. It was amazing. Omer, florent, noor, taina, and luma ( a new friend ) were all there and it was amazing. Pictures will be coming up soon.

Then it was rushing back home to pack my bags and head to the airport. Basel, thanks for the ride, i really appreciate it. I had to rush becuase my flight is at 10pm and I left villagio at 7:15pm! Crazy, I know!.

I am really excited about India and I dont know what to expect. I am sure it will be dirty and messy!

I know that I still owe you guys the story of how I got my visa, but that will have to wait becuase i have a plane to catch now.

Talk to you all from India!