Today is the day

Blogging From Bahrain International Airport 30/10/2008

At Senai International before boarding

The flight from Jb to KL was ok. Mom, Tanti, Alang and Balqis sent me off at Senai. My baggage weigted just over 50kg, that means 20kg of excess, but I worked my charm and got exempted on JB - KUL leg and was only charged 10kg for KUL - DOH.

Received calls from Da'a, Zaitun, Anton and Fariza. I was also managed to talk to Hani and mom on the phone before boarding. I also received a message from my dive buddy Izura. I will miss them, friends and family, food, weather and everything Malaysian. You can move a Malaysian from its soil but you cannot remove Malaysia from a Malaysian's soul, well at least to me.

The flight from KUL to Bahrain went smoothly. I made friend with an English lady seated next to me, Chrissie she travels to Malaysia quite often. She now lives in Malaga, Spain. I made it pretty clear to her that she might see me knocking on her door someday. The 7 hours flight was a little too long for me. I spent good last 2 hours watching the flight route screen feeling anxious.

My ride to Bahrain

The plane finally touched down at Bahrain International 30 min past 2 in the afternoon local time. From above I saw the city down below, blanketed in dust, tree less and arid. This is it, this is the day, its real, and im not dreaming. I checked on my mobile, there were messages and miss calls from my brothers Along and Om, officemate Imelda, and Nas. Thanks for remembering guys.

Blogging From Ramada Plaza Hotel, Doha 31/10/2008

The flight from Bahrain to Doha last night took only 25 minutes. I touched down at 6.00pm. My arrival at Doha International was greeted by a personnel from Al Maha Service. She escorted me to their lounge, and wait for a mere 5 minutes while she deals with pasport control. We proceed to the baggage claim without me having to line up at the immigration officer. The baggages took some time to arrive. It was a busy night at Doha Airport. She took me to Ramada Hotel's desk at the arival hall and at 6.30pm I am already on a shuttle bus to Ramada. LA Recruitment had booked me 3 nights at Ramada Plaza Hotel. Everything went smoothly and I am thankful for that.

I was feeling rather lethargic but I already agreed to meet my friend Kaduk who could not believe that I am in Doha for real. I took a quick shower and went out in 15 minutes. Kaduk already waited for me downstairs.

Kaduk prepares a welcome drink

He took me to his place at Doha Jadeed, had a cup of tea, then we went to City Centre Mall at the West Bay area. The traffic was bad. Well its weekend's night in Doha and everybody has their own wheels in this country. West Bay area is a new CBD of Doha. It has a lot of impressive buildings but most of them are still in construction. The whole area is a big construction site. From Westbay we went to the other side of the Corniche, to Souq Waqif. I like this place. It has a traditional arabic feels with a very festive atmosphere. We had our dinner at Seri Kebaya Reastaurant at Souq Waqif before calling it a day.

At Souq Waqif

Doha view from my hotel window

More pictures here. I also would like to thanks Razak, Nizar, Asrul, Samsul, Jep, Sabrina, Wan Hidayat and all of you. Your well wishes and encouragements help me going through this phase of my journey.