Sunday, December 21, 2008

Camping and Such

I really have to start posting more than once a week. Here are some of the things that have been floating around in the old noggin as of late.

This week has been fairly eventful. I have become somewhat of an item with the girl, Inna, I have been interested in here. We started hanging out pretty consistently a week or two ago and I like her. She is smart, cute, independent and outspoken.

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This weekend was another camping trip, and it was organized by one of our Finnish friends. She, Eeva, had two of her Finnish friends coming into town so she wanted to show them a good time. Camping in the Inland Sea is arguably the coolest thing to do while in Qatar because getting there is an adventure, the scenery is gorgeous, and alcohol is usually plentiful on such a trip. The problem with this time was that it’s now cold in Qatar. Yes it can get cold here. I was inclined not to go, but having one of the few vehicles capable of making the trip, I was persuaded to come along. Besides last time it was a good time, up until the end (see Proper Smashed post).

So Friday comes along and we load up the cars and head out into the desert. Before all of this we had made it very clear that we wanted to take the easy way to the inland sea. Because last time the hard way added a couple of hours and gray hairs to the trip, quite unnecessarily. Despite this, we ended up taking the hard way. Why? Because the guy with the GPS system led us that way, and no one new any better to know he was leading us astray. So the trip became quite the adventure. Complete with ravine crossings, near head on collisions, sand traps, and one instance of a car almost flipping over into the sea. But we eventually got there, more or less in one piece. The visiting Finns in my car handled the ride impressively well; they were even polite enough to ask “Is it OK if we scream?” It was OK and they did. I give 60% of our relative ease in the journey to my awesome 4x4 ‘Jerry the Jeep’ (credit Inna for the name), and 40% to my awesome driving abilities.

After searching for a campsite, we settle down and get unpacked. The second the tents were unpacked the drinks were flowing. To be honest, I suspect most were drinking to stay warm just as much as they were intending to get drink. By sunset (which was beautiful) the crew was feeling good and a fire was started. Let me vent my anger at some of the stupidity that was part of this trip: you don’t burn half your wood before the sun goes down; you don’t cook all your food in tin foil bags when you have no way to know if its done; and you don’t put the group in unnecessary danger because you want to have fun. Ok, now that I am done with that, I can get back to the story.

We cook, rather unsuccessfully, and not long afterwards it starts to get cold. To me, it was cold when the sun was up, but with the sun good and set, it was downright frigid. From a combination of Inna drinking a little too much and me being cold, we decided to call it a night long before anyone else. We had set up a tent, but Inna insisted on sleeping in the Jeep. That was the smartest idea ever. Compared to the tents, the Jeep was a sauna. With the blankets, it was actually warm. We were fairly well rested when we got up in the morning, and that’s when we were told all about the madness of the other night.

Before I went to sleep the group had met some Qatari’s who were also out camping and had invited them for a few drinks and food. Despite the law and culture, in the desert, anything seems to go. So around the time I retired, two or three of them were just getting comfortable. Evidently after Inna and I left, another group of Qatari’s showed up and joined the party. They drank, they smoked (evidently they somehow had pot), and they proceeded to hit on all the women, particularly the Finnish girls. It turns out they thought all the women with in group were prostitutes, and that all the guys had rented them for the camping trip. You would think this is an easily clarified point but it turned into a two hour ordeal. The Qatari’s told one of our girls that ‘here in Qatar, we F*** for free’, which of course was doubly insulting having not even offered to pay her imaginary prostitute fee. Soon the guys decided to put an end to this, half intent on beating ass while the other half for peace talks, and the girls went to the tents to sleep/hide. Supposedly for the next 30 to 60 minutes the guys protected the tents while the Qataris tried to force their way into them. There was some shoving, some words, and much confusion. Meanwhile I am nicely sleep in my Jeep. Eventually they went home, but not before asking some of the guys ‘did they want to kiss’.

Not a very good showing for the Qatari’s, but they did have one good Samaritan. Someone managed to get enough phone signal to call a Qatari friend, and he drove all the way to our campsite to help us deal with the situation. It was late and it was not an easy drive, so that was very nice of him.

We insisted on taking the easy way home this time, and that worked out nicely. I got back to my place in the afternoon and pretty much slept the rest of the day.

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In other news… I leave for Ethiopia on Monday. I am looking forward to that. I am meeting up with my mom and we are going to travel all around the country. I will surely have a lot to write about on my return.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I experienced a similar problem. When I bought my iPhone, I first checked with “Got Reception?” (Gotreception.com) It’s a great resource for finding out where reception problems are most likely to occur BEFORE you lock yourself with a specific carrier.

4:51 AM  
Blogger CJ Nichol said...

Hmm, who persuaded you to use your Jeep, I wonder???

You forget to mention your fairly in son duties. Everyone, all this occurred on our Mom's 50th Birthday so she heard nothing and received nothing from Anthony on her big day :(

2 thumbs down my brother...manipulation begins already...

4:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah...you managed to miss all the fun though Anthony! And you weren't even pissed wandering through the desert this time!

Also for the record...Jerry...come on that's a pretty lousy name for a Jeep. What are you going to do...walk around saying 'Oh...well...I just happened to crawl up and pass out in the back of Jerry?' or you could say 'Yeah I rode Jerry hard last night!' or anything of the shorts...

Candy's right...two thumbs down for Anthony!

12:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeah...you managed to miss all the fun though Anthony! And you weren't even pissed wandering through the desert this time!

Also for the record...Jerry...come on that's a pretty lousy name for a Jeep. What are you going to do...walk around saying 'Oh...well...I just happened to crawl up and pass out in the back of Jerry?' or you could say 'Yeah I rode Jerry hard last night!' or anything of the shorts...

Candy's right...two thumbs down for Anthony!

12:31 AM  
Blogger Tatamwari said...

I have tagged you in my blog http://tatamwari.blogspot.com

10:25 AM  

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