Dine at Height – Three Sixty Revolving Restaurant, The Torch

Dine at Height at Three Sixty as we turn 12

Turning 12

We turn 12 this March. Ah…time flies. 12 years ago we tied the knot, and here we are today.

Three sixty restaurant – the first Qatar’s revolving restaurant – at The Torch Doha Hotel is our witness in commemorating our 12.

No children please.

Indicative cost:

Aqua Panna 1L, 30QR

1 Onion Soup, 36QR – recommended

1 Caesar Salad, 60QR – recommended

1 Australian Lamb Fillet, 150QR -

1 Veal Scallopini, 160QR

1 Apple Crumble, 38QR – recommended

1 World Cup 2022 (mixed juice), 32QR

[see the following pictures of the hotel, restaurant and the food]

The Torch Doha Hotel is built on what used to be 2006 Asian Games's Aspire Tower

The Torch Hotel - Lobby Area is decorated with Arabic calligraphy

Three Sixty Restaurant is located on the 47th floor of the tower

A complete rotation at Three Sixty takes about an hour and half. Seen here Khalifa stadium and Al Waab St.

Free basket of bread to start with

How they name this juice World Cup 2022, I don't know

If I were to return back I would definitely be back for this Cesar salad

Veal Scallopini

Lamb fillet

apple crumble for our dessert

Overall, though view from the floor is not optimum, Three Sixty may be in one of your top restaurant lists. Personal service is fine but quite on the slow side, it has excellent cesar salad and dessert. I'd skip or carefully choose main menu.

 

Souq Land

Souq Land, at Souq Waqif, is just like another Pasar Malam (Ind. means Night Bazaar), but more modern, brand new and clean. Accompanied my kids, thrown myself back to childhood.

See The Peninsula for more detail.

6D Cinema: too short, rough movement, small screen. The blow of wind and water is quite entertaining tough

6D cinema at Souq Land

Souq Land

Souq Land

Sea World at Souq Land. No, this is not an aquarium

Playing squirrel at Sea World

Fathan looked uninterested with this

Too sexy genie at Souq Land

 

Where to go during National Sports Day?

Qatar is on full swing to celebrate the first National Sports Day, fall on the second Tuesday of February and also decreed as a holiday. Here are some ideas where to go during National Sports Day (NSD) celebration.

1. Attend your-company organized events

It’s probably the best time when you beat your boss or see them in sportswear or rather informal suit, or to catch up with your colleagues you only see their names on email. For example, Qatargas organizes NSD events at Al Gharafa Club for all its Doha-based employes and families and in Al Khor Community for its Al-Khor-based employees and families.

Where is your company-organized NSD event? If there is, you gotta attend it.

2. Head to for-public NSD events

If your company does not organize any event, why don’t you head to the popular places such as Corniche, Aspire Park, MIA Park, and Katara where big companies  and organizations such as QNB, Aspire Zone, Qtel, MIA, and QOC organize events for public. Some offer free gifts (QOC) or big reward (QNB for Mini Marathon).

Take a look the below flyers for details

QOC

9.00 – 21.00pm. Corniche with main activities (shooting, football, basketball, table tennis, tennis, athletics, electronic games, face painting, healthy food court, QOC majlees, FIREWORKS!) in QOC Sports Zone at the ground of QPost. Get 2 stamps (one for starts at MIA/Sheraton Park and one for finish line at Sports Zone) for free gift.

Qtel at MIA Park

9am - opening ceremonies. include many competitions and amazing prizes to win

10am – Hala Al Turk

11.30am – Martial Arts

01.00pm – Football talents featuring Arab Got Talent Celebrity Moaatz Al Qwasmi

02.30pm – Skating featuring Arab Got Talent Celebrity Hassan and Hussein

03-05.00pm Karamesh Children, famous children singing group

QNB at Aspire Park Section 2A

Starts at 12noon for activities for the whole families followed by mini marathon for amateurs at 2pm. Registration at http://www.qnb.com.qa

Aspire Zone

A Walk to Remember. Discover up-close Aspire Zone’s amazing world. 10am – 4pm. Enjoy a fun, healthy, informative walk. Get stamps for all 9 points during the walk and claim your free gift.

Katara

Indoor and Outdoor activities. From movie show, painting exhibition, lecture, fitness class, and photography exhibition for indoor, to mini marathon, bicycle track, table tennis, beach football, water sports demo, outdoor basketball, beach volley ball, yoga by the sea and sports zone for kids for outdoor activities. Free of charge, some activities require registration.

Government Institutions Across Qatar

Check many events organized by government institutions across Qatar:

http://www.olympic.qa/SiteCollectionImages/documents/events_en.pdf

3. Grab TV remote and enjoy view-for-free sports channels

Qtel opens its Mozaic sports channels from 11-16 February on the occasion of National Sports Day. Customers will be able to watch a full range of sports on all Al Jazeera, AD Sports, Cricone, Ten Cricket, Neo Cricket, OSN Sports, Fox Sports and Extreme Sports channels.

4. Sports+Valentine’s? Why not…

While I don’t believe Valentine Day and don’t celebrate it, the idea of mixing Sports+Valentine’s is not that bad. Sweat + Love smells romantic?

5. James Blunt concert

The British crooner will have a concert at InterContinental Hotel, 14 Feb, starts at 9pm. Ticket QR250 for general admission and QR500 for VIP, available at Virgin Megastores or InterContinental Hotel Lobby.

Now my plan is to attend Qatargas NSD events in Al Gharafa Sports Club, head to Katara if time permits, then enjoy a full range of Indonesian national dishes brought up by potlucks among Indonesian friends. It seems perfect end after sweating with NSD events (only thing reminds me with Sunday morning jogging at Gedung Sate Bandung that it’s not for the jogging but for the food and its Sunday road-side markets )

What is your plan then?

Qtel organizes National Sports Day at MIA Park

QOC organizes National Sports Day event in Corniche

Aspire Zone with its A Walk to Remember for National Sports Day

QNB organizes a big reward Mini Marathon for National Sports Day

Katara offers a range of activities for National Sports Day

Details of Katara's Sports Day

Details of Katara's Sports Day

 

Qatar Motor Show 2012 – A Guide

The second edition of Qatar Motor Show was just opened to public since today, 25 Jan 2012, and it runs until 28 Jan 2012. Here are some guides to the show.

- References: Facebook – Qatar Motor Show, Website – Qatar Motor Show

- Open for public: 25 – 28 Jan 2012. Free admission

- Timing: Wed-Thu (25-26) 4pm – 10pm, Fri – Sat (27-28) 1pm – 10pm

- Location: Doha Exhibition Center (next to Katara) for Exhibition and open area south of exhibition center for outdoor shows

- Parking: anywhere around the exhibition center both on asphalted parking lot and ground. Some parking on road side between Exhibition and Katara. Parking lot on the east side of the building is a bit quieter. Expect crowded parking and traffic jams during weekend

- Requirements: No children under 12 years old allowed to exhibition

- Food: Costa Cofee, snack counters near spectator seating in outdoor show arena

- Exhibitors: see Floor Plan below. Almost all big brands present except Honda, KIA, Mitsubishi. Don’t miss photo with many luxury cars, concept cars, and F1 cars. Also try F1 video games at Shell booth

Qatar Motor Show - Exhibition Floor Plan

- Outdoor Shows: Red Bull Drifting Shows, Stunt Biker Show, Red Bull FMX. Check the following link for outdoor show timing on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday

Here are some pictures I took on Wednesday.

One of the concept cars

Classic Car Show by Al Fardan

Aston Martin

Lamborghini

Harley Davidson

Ferrari

Mercedes

Texas A&M Qatar GTL Diesel-fueled Urban Concept Car

Red Bull Drift Show

With Scuderia Ferrari

 

Gone Fishing

I never like fishing until I found that it is not the fishing itself that is interesting but whatever around it.

To me, I thought fishing was wasting time, throwing your bait then wait…wait…wait…until poor, unfortunate fish attracted to your bit and ouch ..hooked! And it is a kind of deception, isn’t it. That’s why I don’t like it.

As time goes, I started to like offroad while in Qatar. When we went for night dune bashing, the morning after is always fishing time for most of my friends. I just watched them, tried to understand what joy fishing does bring. Many of my friends are fishing maniac; they bought boat, went fishing every weekend: in Al Dhakira, in Simaisma, and in Inland Sea.

My father-in-law is also a fishing maniac so maniac that whenever he sees a pool of water, he retorically asks himself “Is there fish inside? He never persuades me to like fishing but when I express my interest in buying fishing tools he can’t hide his enthusiasm. So here we go, I bring along a fishing kit from my last vacation.

Last weekend was my first fishing lesson. First, throwing bait, rolling up, throwing, rolling up. I didn’t get any fish yet, nor heaps of enjoyment. But at least I started, though I am thinking that may be watching them doing fishing amidst laugh, jeers and jokes can’t be more jollifying.

I don’t know.

Fishing amidst fog, at Rock Island, Inland Sea

 

After quite some time, I joined night dune bashing and morning fishing

 

..when stuck is no longer a shame nor frightening

 

Jeep thing you won't understand

 

...and tire slippage or out of place is just another lesson learned

 

Bandung

As I’ve said in the previous post, Bandung is a city called home though it’s not where I was born. A capital of West Java, Bandung offers what other cities in Indonesia commonly don’t have: creative industries! Cuisines, tourist attractions, fashions and arts are among elements where Bandung is more advanced than any other city in Indonesia. Every time I’m back to Bandung, new tourist attractions sprouted, and new creative cuisines invented. Added with Sundanese cultures and pleasant weather Bandung is lovely.

Tasting the hottest casava crisp - Level 10. The latest addition to Bandung creative cuisine

It’s still 3 am in the morning when we arrived in Bandung after 3 hours driving from Jakarta. Street vendors have started their stall preparation in this wee hours. Hungry from the trip we stopped by at one of the street vendor stall selling ‘bubur ayam’ (chicken porridge). Along with Tofu Dumpling (Kupat Tahu), chicken porridge is the most favorite breakfast menu in Bandung. A journey of cuisine sensor calibration has started

Unfortunately, vacation is not always about leisure. Priority still to be assigned. The week ahead I was busy with completing all administrative things: obtaining Overseas Worker Identity Card, renewing Resident Identity Card and Family Card, renewing Education Savings, printing bank statements, updating Manulife Pension Plan (while at the same time withdrawing Jamsostek’s Old Days Insurance) and working with an architect for house renovation plan. Fiuh…and all of these took almost half of my vacation!

Now the fun part. Every Indonesian vacationers must do this: culinary traveling. Hunting for the best cuisine in town. And Bandung is never sort of cuisines. So let me mention some we’ve tried: Kupat Tahu (tofu dumpling), Bubur Ayam (chicken porridge), Batagor (fried tofu meatballs), Siomay (steamed meat with or without tofu), Lotek (a mixed boiled vegetables, served with peanut paste and some chillies, similar to gado gado), Mie Kocok (a noodle soup, served with beef foot, beef skin and tauge or mung bean sprout), Martabak (The savory martabak is a thin fried pancake stuffed with eggs, some vegetables, mushrooms, chicken/beef and one filled with sweet corn and cheese), and Nasi Timbel (the famous Sundanese dish. It is a tube-shaped rice that has a distinguish flavour, because it is cooked inside a banana leaf. It is usually served with lalapan (raw vegetables), fried tofu & tempe, fried chicken and chili paste).

Did I mention I had a durian party?

Apart from culinary traveling, we also spent some time to enjoy the latest addition to Bandung’s attraction. We visited Trans Studio (one of the largest theme parks in the world) and spent almost a day inside. I recommend that you visit Trans studio whenever you have a chance to Bandung. Just a precaution, as it is popular among tourist, Trans Studio may become crowded and regular visitor may experience a very long queue that they may need to consider buying VIP access. To me I’m proud that Indonesia can make their own Universal Studio.

Trans Studio Bandung

 

Transcar of Trans Studio Bandung

 

Flying the hot air balloon at Science Center of Trans Studio Bandung

 

Ouch! ...laying down over the nail bed at Science Center of Trans Studio Bandung

Special Effects Actions! at Trans Studio Bandung

 

 

We also visited Rumah Sosis (sausage house) in Jalan Setiabudi. Apart from its delicious sausage, games and activities inside are not so attractive (except for its rickshaw!). Better heading to Kampung Gajah (another outdoor theme park on the slope of mountain), I guess. The nearby Kampung Baso, across and down the street from Rumah Sosis, however, gave us a pleasant lunch with its traditional menu. Head for inner yard where traditional gazebo amidst shady and green environment can only make our stomach even hungrier.

Rumah Sosis

 

Becoming a rickshaw driver in Rumah Sosis

Kampung Baso

Not to be missed in Bandung is shopping. Mention Factory Outlets or Distro (independent Distribution Outlet) then Bandung will pop up as the lead. We did FO hopping: from Rumah Mode in Jalan Setiabudi, to Happening in Jalan Dago, to Heritage and Cascade in Jalan Riau (RE Martadinata). Don’t miss street vendor selling original Crocs for 40-60% less around western part of Jalan Riau. though Setiabudi, Riau and Dago are where the most FOs and Distros are located, nowadays they spread out to its old location wings: to Jalan Supratman, to Sultan Agung and Trunojoyo and so forth.

Pasar baru (New Market) is my wife’s shopping heaven for moslem attires, where on the other side I was heading to BEC (Bandung Electronic Center) for gadget and electronic. Ny. Liem in Jalan Naripan, and Kijang Mas in Jalan Haria Banga were my wife’s other destination for her passion in baking and cake making. These two old stores are the os you need for the baking and cake ingredients and tools supplies.

Nowadays, Bandung however suffers from what  typical major cities in Indonesia have: traffic jams, and lack of convenient public transportation. This is where motorcycle comes handy. If Bandung is not blessed with rain that day, I’d prefer to use motorcycle: navigating traffic jam, zig-zag among cars, cutting the queue and arriving in lesser time. Super! What makes Bandung different to traffic jam-suffering cities is its resident are more tolerant and respect among road users. I’m not sure if it’s because the cold weather or culture. The former is unfortunately changing. It is hard to encounter the day when temperature can reach below 20 C. temperature now hovers around 22 – 28 C throughout the year, unlike 18 years ago when I first arrived in Bandung, mercury could go down to 17-18 C. Climate change?

Whatever, Bandung is Bandung as it was Parijs van Java (Paris of the Java).

A section of Cipaganti Road. Many areas in Bandung are still well kept for its 'lungs'

 

Bandung as seen from IBCC Plaza

 

Back to Reality!

Yeah….and time flies so fast and I’m already coming back to Doha after a more-than-2-week-long vacation in my home country, Indonesia. Welcome back to Doha, welcome back to reality. As my friend put it in his Facebook status – back to dishwasher job soon

Indeed, vacation is not a reality. This is when you don’t bother withwork loads, don’t bother with waking up late, when you’re having some loose spending, rewarding yourself with visiting new places, meeting old friends, tracking back memories, calibrating culinary taste sensor.

But Doha is our second home and we feel it by the time we landed in Doha International Airport. It’s the start of January 2012 and our fourth year (can’t imagine) in Doha…with new challenges and interesting work and life ahead.

 

Miss many and more …

December this year is quite strange for me. Unlike last year, I missed many big events, loss of interest to catch them, and have a big feeling of ‘it’s okay to miss them’.

Overwhelming workload (being alone in the Section for others out of the office) during the period of World Petroleum Congress forced me to skip it, though I had one ticket already. Then, next big thing is Arab Games Opening Ceremony. I’ve bought tickets long days before the D-Day, then an offer I couldn’t resist: outing to Fuwairit for fishing and camping, with all best friends. And again I more gravitated towards friends than ceremony. I knew Arab Games might be a rare opportunity while I am here, but.

Arab Games in itself is becoming unreachable for me. My kids love to see gymnastic but we can’t simply afford to do this.

To add to the list is Doha International Book Fair. Skipped.

And now with my mind already gone to Indonesia, as we’ll have vacation backhome this weekend, Qatar National Day 2011 celebration is an easy skip. Not a single event was attended nor plan to be attended. We missed Darb Al Sai, we will miss National Parade, we will miss Fire Works.

Winter has brought bad things. Seems all good events dumped into very narrow time slot that you’ll need to carefully schedule or miss entirely, like myself.

The only guilty feeling reliever of December is that I can attend a gathering in Dukhan Beach for alumni association of ITB (Bandung Institute Of Technology), this Friday afternoon.

However, the real reliever comes about a day from now when Qatar Airways flight to Jakarta touch down Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Welcome to Indonesia. *Yipee*

Happy National Day, Qatar!

Happy New Year 2012 to all of you! See you in 2012….you’ll see me quite off until then

 

We’ve made it red!

We’ve made Al Sadd Stadium red on the World Cup 2014 Qualifiers Qatar versus Indonesia, 11 Nov 2011. Though Qatar finally trashed Indonesia 4:0 (and it means Indonesian does not qualify), we had a good time: singing, yelling, mexican-waving, applauding and jeering. It’s not about the result but about nationalism (ahh that’s probably too much), or may be about the atmosphere.

13,500-capacity Al Sadd Stadium was filled with full of Indonesians in the whole section behind one goal, a half section behind another goal, and a half section on the VIP areas. Meanwhile Qataris (and its supporters including those labors I saw herded to the stadium prior to the match) occupied one whole long sections of the stadium. Though tension was quite warm, the match and the supporters watched very peacefully.

Qatar wanted to become a good host but again it was under a test with a smaller scale of similar Asian Cup consternation on ticketing  repeated. A lot of ticket holders couldn’t enter the stadium for a classic reason: stadium is full. Again this was because non-ticket holders were allowed to enter, or two tickets or less for the whole family, while those ticket holders who were coming late rejected. Many were also back home dissappointingly after queueing from 3pm for ticket booth closed earlier. Anyway it’s another lesson learned for Qatar before 11 years to come to host World Cup 2022.

From a credible source I learned that there is a maximum number of spectators from the guest team (8%? means about 1000 out of 13,000) but the organizers, QFA, match commissioners, security agency and Embassy worked together to ensure as many as supporters could watch inside the stadium. The total number of Indonesian supporters was estimated at around 3000, many more should have been able to enter only if Qatar coach did not reject the idea of admitting more Indoensian supporters for valid reason: Qatar is playing home not away!

On that basis, thank you Qatar!

Meanwhile, Qatar national team played with full determination, high stamina and excellent passing and crossing. They deserved winning the match. Mabruk!

We've made it red!

 

An Indonesian supporter

 

 

 

 

Another Indonesian supporters

 

Indonesian National Team players - seen here Christian Gonzales (center)

 

Qatar's marching band

 

Singing national anthems

 

Qatari supporters

Fathan (my son, left) and his friend watched the match

 

Thirst for Entertainment – Top Post Reveals

It is aparent from Top Posts report of this blog that Doha residents are thirst for entertainment. Especially for making the best out of 9 calendar days of Eid Adha Holidays. The three most read destinations are Qatar, UAE, and Istanbul

Here are the Top Posts:

1. French Beach and Fuwairit Beach

2. Purple Island

3. Istanbul – How to Getting Around

4. Dream Park

5. Katara

6. Zekreet and Dukhan Beach, Zekreet, Mystery Village and Film City

7. UAE & Oman Trip – Crossing 16 Borders