Monschau, Germany

euro saki 2011, a set on Flickr.

It's been a while since I got back from Germany but I haven't posted the pictures from the trip. I will be updating the rest of the Euro set when I get the chance.

I guess it's better late than never.

Travel: Hundred dollar night in Doha, Qatar

The other day, we decided to have some Turkish food in the vicinity of Doha. In the midst of the city, we found this restaurant called Turkey Central Restaurant. Sounds authentic to me.

 

So we walked in and first thing that you will see is the shawarma meat being shaved off the grill. We're off to a good start. Walked in and went upstairs to dine in.

A glossy paper menu is given with half written in English and the other half in Arabic. There was a lot of food to choose from. From hummus to shawarma to BB-Q'd meat. We chose to share appetizer so we ordered the Maza appetizer which consists of Tsiziki sauce, hummus, olives, and a lot more. It is then served with hot, freshly baked pita bread.

Excuse me while I wipe my mouth, still salivating while I picture the things that they had to offer.

 

 

The service was not the greatest, mostly because of the language barrier, but they are attentive.

Here is the picture of the bread with the Maza getting scooped down. It is delicious.

Here is the meat plate. It's an orgy of the mouth.

Shawarma Plate. Fries and meat hiding under the seasoned bread.

 

I wish I can tell you guys about what the food consists of and all that jazz about it, but I am really no expert when it comes to this. From what I can tell, it's one of the best Turkish food I have ever had. Even one of the guys that was with us, confirmed that everything that they offer in this restaurant tastes the same as the ones offered in the streets of Turkey but in a lot cleaner environment.

 

To top it all off, we paid QR (Qatari Riyals) 167.00 for the whole table. That's $47.00 to feed five big full grown man. Trust me, we had a lot of left overs. Well worth it.

We then walked down the street to purchase some baklava from Pattiserie Sweets. I bought half a ki of pistachio baklava for QR 35. Close to $10. It was, again, delicious.

To end our night, we decided to go down the souqs to hang out, enjoy a cup of coffee and smoke some hookah. We sat there for about 2 hours, I had a cappuccino and ordered strawberry mint shisha to smoke. For the 5 of us, it costs around the same amount of money we spent to eat. It was QR 160 for coffee and shisha.

One hundred dollars to feed five person and enjoy the scenery of downtown Doha was a budget compared to other city America has to offer. When you get the chance to visit this country, hopefully around the winter/spring timeframe due to lower temperature and comfortable weather to cruise around town, try these places and explore others. Thanks Doha!

The view where we were sitting at while smoking shisha.

 

Travel: Wake Island

During my recent trip in the Pacific, we were lucky enough to land in a coral atoll 2,300 miles west of Honolulu and 1,510 miles east of Guam. It has 12 miles of Coastline in the North Pacific Ocean. Where is this place?

Wake Island.

It felt like I was Tom Hanks in the movie Cast Away, aside from having my friends around me. And having food. And water. And a bed to sleep on. And clothes. And my phone. And we did not have Wilson to accompany us. Ok, well, it's not like the movie but the place seems very serene and "untouched". No tourists to rub elbows with while sunbathing. No loud obnoxious sounds. It's you and the water. From the looks of it, it will be that way for a very long time. Access to the island is restricted. It almost felt like we rented an island for the day, with our big private jet that we flew in. Wow, we are a bunch of rockstars.

Walking around the island felt very relaxing. Even though I was wearing my Abercrombie leather sandals, that are not made for walking around the beach, which was the reason you bought it, did not matter. The amazing views and the clear blue water will soothe your mind. It felt like they laid the whole thing for us to explore. In 1935, Pan American Airways constructed a small village, we eagerly looked for it to see any remains of the place. For being that long of a time and all the typhoons that have passed by, we didn't see much. But, it was enough for us to get a grasp of how they have lived and probably partied, a lot, in this island.

Pathways was every uneasy for me. Both sides are filled with wild brushes and you certainly have no clue what lies beneath. Am I gonna get bit by a snake? As scary as it was to get bit by a venom infested snake, we kept walking. There was a weird tread marks on the sand. It looks like a bike track but we had to cross the lagoon, a bit impossible to cross with a BMX, even Cru or Bart Taylor from Rad could not cross this. (If you are unfamiliar with the movie Rad, then don't worry about it. You aren't rad enough, youtube some scenes, it's well worth it). Finally, we came to conclusion that it is snake tracks. Not a big fan. Later on the day it turned out it was hermit crabs, there was hundreds of them hanging out with the rest of their bros, chillin, by the shore.

Not a big fan of getting bit by a snake.

The culprit of the said track.

We only stayed in Wake for a total of 24 hours. It was well worth the fun and history received from the said place. It's one of the places that you would like to mark as "been there" but don't want to get stuck there. I miss the obnoxious sounds and rubbing elbows with the other tourists. Cellphone signal, 3G, facebook, and other things that you will find in a normal city. If you like the opposite of all that I mentioned then Wake Island is the spot for you. I know that this is not a destination that you can just normally purchase from your local travel agency and I actually admitted it to myself how lucky we were to stop by this historical island.

Next time you find yourself flying between Hawaii and Guam make sure to peek outside to catch a glimpse of this coral atoll called Wake Island.

One for the ladies... err, I mean my wife.