Monday, 26th November
Traveled to Doha, stopping in Colombo en route.
Left KL at 8.50 a.m. and arrived in
Colombo at 9.45 a.m. or so. Took a tuk-tuk to town after several rounds of
haggling and boarding the airport shuttle etc. The guy looked half dead with
red-eyes and his bike was no better. But sharing with another guy, it cost me
630 rupees, which was about half the going rate and I really didn’t have the
time to wait for buses etc. Arrived in Pettah Market which turned out to be a
market district instead of a single building. Was denied entry to a masjid,
(apparently ladies did not pray in public places), I wandered around and did
not find anything worth buying. Ate some snacks at a corner shop with Coke and
milk tea which turned out unacceptably too sweet. Asked around and was directed
to another masjid in the area. Apparently the first one catered to Indian
“bonos’, whatever that meant.
Found the people there very friendly and helpful.
Communicating was easy since we all spoke some kind of English and I have like
3 crucial words of Tamil I learnt in Malaysia. The caretakers kindly spread a sejadah
for me at a corner of the ground floor so I could pray in relative privacy.
Afterwards, I bought some fruits outside and made my way back to the airport. I
caught the 187 bus from the main road but it was really slow going as it’s a
normal bus which stopped all along the way. At one point a priest (who looked
exactly like the one on my flight from KL) came on board and the guy next to me
stood up. I gave him a dirty look, daring him to sit next to me, but soon found
MYSELF the focus of imploring looks from the public! Ooopss… Apparently, one was supposed to give up yr
coveted seat for exalted priests of the land. Eeps.. my bad! Another aunty
quickly offered me her seat instead, which I was reluctant to take at first,
but eventually accepted upon learning that it was still some distance to the
airport. After more than an hour in that rattletrap, I was praying for the bus
to quickly get to the airport already so that I could enjoy the relative
comfort of the waiting hall.
Almost missed the stop, but managed to get down in time, and
took a tuk2 to the departure gate. It’s normally 50 rupees but of course the
guy insisted I pay the special price of 100 rupees. Since I did not have small
change on me, I offered him a loose USD1 I had in my purse and he accepted.
Changed out of my dusty t-shirt into a blouse and washed my face in the
bathroom once I got to the airport. Immediately felt better! Bought some
overpriced tea at the shop and just sat
around waiting for boarding. Yun and Julia joined me there, having come over
from Colombo; they had overnighted in Kandy the previous day.
If the airport was deserted during arrival, it was PACKED
for departure. There were so many people sending family members off, and there
were numerous people from Nepal, Philippines and Indonesia heading towards
Doha. The 747 towards Colombo was quite empty, but the Airbus 330-200 to Doha
was filled to the gills. I sat next to an Indian guy who dared to challenge me
at Sudoku, even though he just learnt to do it 5 minutes earlier. Heh, typical Indian overconfident male! He
lost. Everyone slept after dinner.
Upon arrival in Doha, we took a cab to Ezdan Hotel where we
were booked. Unfortunately the hotel messed up our booking and we ended up in a
standard room with one king bed which dominated 95% of the floor space. I ended
up sleeping on the floor but I didn’t care because I was so damned exhausted.
End of Day 1
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