Nins' Travelog

Exactly five years ago today, I started my new job in the Middle East. I landed in Doha just the night before. At that time I was excited to work in Doha, not only because the new job or because the salary they offered me, but as I wrote earlier in my blog: it is because of the adventure! It is the idea and the opportunity to see the transformation of Doha.

My big boss, Peter was kind enough to give me an introduction tour around the City. Well, it was not rally “around” the city, but just enough to give me some ideas of landmark of the city. With my little baby camera with capacity only 3 MB, I snapped-happy on places where ever I found it interesting.

Five years later, I did the same trip, and try to capture the same buildings with my husband driving and this time with bigger camera…. Doha had changed tremendously…

Below is a comparison of my small collection of my day 1 in Doha:

Yet there are some new buildings that was no sign of it then…

St Andrews - the Golfing Mecca

As usual, before we travel, I booked my hotel online thru various online booking agencies. When I tried St Andrew, I wonder why all hotel prices are above £ 80.- and from the pictures and the review it worth not more than max £60.-???

As I have no choice, and I don’t want to stay in a too shabby hotel, – this was supposed to be our honeymoon – I finally picked a hotel with a rather middle of the road price, not too cheap and not too expensive according to St Andrews’ standard (which is different from Edinburgh’s standard).

map of St Andrews

The Albany hotel was located in a good street, within access to the main attraction of St Andrews golf course and a few other local attractions, such as the harbor and an old ruined of St Andrews Castle, Fife Coastal Path, and St Andrews Cathedral. On the map, it’s located just in the middle of North Street. Within walking distance you could end up on the water front wheather it’s by St. Andrew’s Cathedral, an old ruin from the year 1160. From this point I could see the golf course as well as the harbour; and they are all within walking distance.

Harbour of St Andrews

Ruin of St Andrews' Castle - Built in 1200 by Bishop Roger, this was the St Andrews Episcopal Palace for 400 years.

St Andrews Cathedral - was founded in 1160, it took some 100 years to build by successive Bishop, but then parts collapsed in 1409, and in 1649 The Scottish Parliament authorised use of its stones to fortify the town.

Signboard of the city map very handy for tourists

St Rules Tower - the oldest tower in St Andrews built between 4th and 9th century.

The Royal & Ancient (R&A) Club House - the old Golf Course Club House

The Swilken Burn Bridge - the most famous little bridge, located on the 18th green of the Old Course. Whenever there's no game, tourist takes turn to pose on it.

Once my sat-nav took us there, I was very surprice that the hotel was only very small hotel. From the facade, it’s part of a long row houses that stretch along the block. It took only 3 bays, one bay for a widish single entrance door, and the other 2 bays are for windows that lighten the lounge which was only around 5 by 5 m size. I can asure that the width of the hotel building max is 8 m and only 2 storeys above the ground. This must be a very small hotel with less that 10 bedrooms.

"The Den" - small hotel room at the Albany hotel

Our room was straight ahead from the entrance door. They call it “the den”. I think this is a rip off…. for a very small bedroom with limited fasilities (small bathroom, small tv and very tight bedroom) I have to pay £110.- with the same price in Edinburgh we have stayed in a 5 stars hotel. But to my surprise, the hotel is very popular…. Must be the golf attraction that made all hotels in this city are exceptionally expensive

I was worried as one of my guest to my wedding who comes from London were driving all the way to Edinburgh, and as I mentioned before, none of us knows anything about Edinburgh at all. She might have been to Edinburgh before, as she said, but it was on business trip, and I am pretty sure that she was flying in to Edinburgh.

This time she had to drive to Edinburgh, I am sure she could find her way out when it comes to intercity driving, as the map and the signage along the way was very clear. I’ve done that (navigating from London to Bristol) relying on UK map and the sign post along the road – considering I am an Indonesian tourist. But when entering the city, with some roadwork, one way street system, traffic lights and not to mention the traffic jam…. I don’t think it’s that easy….

But to cut the story short, she made it. Arrive in time for my wedding. Later on when we asked her, how she managed to find the hotel easily and without getting lost, she said it was really easy. She is using “Sat-Nav” which helped her a great deal.

“It’s very easy to work with; just in put the post code address, and it’ll direct you there…” that was her answer when we asked her how it works.

Normally I am the gadget freak; whenever we travel, I never forgot my gadget toys, from mobile, laptop, to camera, “Come on Nin, how come you are not updated on these things…. I thought you are the gizmo kid …. “ that was Keith commented on me for not urging to use Sat Nav system. To be honest, the reason I did not insist of doing so is because I had a bad experience using Sat Nav in the US. My Sat Nav device did not work and we were force to return it to the Car Hire Company.

Anyway, as she managed to convince us how easy it was, and I saw how it works, we decided to give it a try when we hired a car to travel around Scotland. Tomtom, the brand of the satnav gizmo Avis Car Hire gave us, and they charged extra for this.

I must admit, it is so much easier now than 3 years ago… and by just inputting the post code of the next hotel in St Andrews, TomTom did not fail us. It gets us there, thru the shortest and least traveled way, and maybe more scenic road as well.

Here we are... in St Andrews

After a couple of weeks of uncertainty, and two days before our date to go, we decided to cancel everything booking we made on traveling to Scotland, from car hire, hotel booking to the photographer, except the airline booking. We accept that it could be some loss as well as some booking would charge us a nominal amount for cancelation.

This bloody volcanic ash, was really annoying, as we were forced to cancel everything; the deciding factor was that even though there would be a slim change that the airport might open during the day of our planned trip, but we might not be able to travel back. Worst of all, we were forced to canceled our wedding which means to tell our guests who come from different places in Europe as well as Doha itself.

Our flight was schedule to leave at almost midnight of the 21^st April. After we canceled almost every booking (except the flight) on the evening of the 20^th, the news that we were following said that there could be a change that Heathrow is in operation tomorrow, for long haul flights and that will include our flight from Doha. But as we could not afford to be stranded in UK after our scheduled holiday, we decided to call off the wedding and reschedule it sometimes in the future. Things getting complicated when it’s not easy to reschedule everything, as it all related to everybody’s (the guest of honor’s) schedule as well.