Work: Doha, Qatar

2010-05-10T12:45:00.011+08:00

Ramada Plaza Hotel

Day 1: My trip started from KLIA at 11.30pm with a 45mins queue at the counter! They opened the counter only 2 hours before the flight which is ridiculous, since a lot of people has arrived early and started queuing up. I then boarded the plane that took off at 2.50am. Its the 1st time I boarded Qatar Air, and it is ABSOLUTELY MARVELOUS! It's a very new plane, comfortable seat, big leg room (probably coz I'm Asian size) with a BIG sensitive touch screen (better than Emirates')!!! which it doesn't entertained us due to system fault. Haha. But I dun really care about that because I passed out before the plane took off. I was extremely exhausted on that day after a day of hang out with Kenneth, Jackie and Yap Su Ling. I think arrived in Doha, at 5.30am after 7.5 hours. I got picked up my local agent that brought me to an anonymous hotel called Ramada Plaza Hotel. I was worried that it will be a crappy hotel but i was relieved as soon as i reached there. It has a golden color building, complete with security xray luggage scanned and metal detector just like the airport! I'm so pleased with the service although its a 4 star hotel but it feels like having a 5 star hotel service in Malaysia. It is equipped with 12 restaurants that served different cuisines from all over the world and 7 bars!!!

I then met up with two British guy, Kevin Gallagher and Paul Gallagher (Father and Son) working together as surveyor. We had some chit chats and discussion before the brought me to Ritz Carlton Marina to meet up with the boat's captain, John Martin. The marina is full with speed boats and jet skies and Sea-Doo 230 Wake actually caught my attention. Its one nice compact speedboat that is spacious enough to fit 12 persons with powerful engine which is build mainly for wake boarding. It will definitely consume a lot of petrol, but it will not be much of a problem fueling it in Qatar, since it only cost QAR0.80 / litre (roughly RM0.73 / litre)of petrol.

We then went to Admiral's Club in Ritz Carlton. I've to show my passport for the security guard to write it in the guest log. Doha actually have a rule that you have to present any of your official identification when you are entering the club. Inclusive of bars and golf clubs.

Our project manager introduced me to try ice blended lemon and mint juice which is very very refreshing! Which cost QAR30.

Day 2: We went to Ritz Carlton Marina again, and transferred our stuffs to the boat and did some testing. Its a 50 ft boat called Scuba Qatar. As they went out for party, (as their weekend starts on Friday and Sat), I went back to hotel because I'm not so much in a party mood when I'm working.

Day 3: We sailed out to a small town called Al Khor, which is 1.5 hours from our work site and 30 - 45 mins of drive from out hotel. So, we've to spent 4 hours just for traveling daily to our work site. Al Khor is a town which basically and obviously doesn't look like having a lot of massive development like Doha. The shops and houses are old, an I've yet to see any buildings that are taller than 2 storey high. I assume its more like a fisherman's village where the fisherman parks their boat in the marina.

Day 4: Since I can only do my work after Kevin and Paul did theirs, I decided to take my leave. I went to Villagio Mall Italian themed mall with water tunnel and boats are available for rental to bring u from one end to another. The ceiling is also painted with sky from different time of the day as u walk from one end to another.. from dusk to dawn. There's heaps of branded goods in the mall. I was looking for Starbucks tumbler with Doha / Qatar printed on it(which sadly they don't have that). I also checked out Burberry Bag (aka vegetable basket) for a friend, and amazingly the bag cost cheaper than what US website sold. I went for a three round of window shopping, drop by Starbucks for a drink and went home with local taxi after that. I was paying QAR30 to a private taxi sapu (roughly RM27) for a 20mins ride from hotel to the mall, however, I paid QAR16 for the same route we took! I happily give him extra QAR4 as tip. I got slaughtered... lol.

Day 5: I was planning to go to Pearl's Mall. Pearl's a place they are planning to build like Dubai's palm. However, I received a call at 7am which they requires me to standby in the boat. After work, we went to Admiral's Club in Ritz Carlton. I've to show my passport for the security guard to write it in the guest log.

Day 6: Same thing different day... I was bored and decided to do a bit of sun bath.. only while the sun is hiding behind the cloud. haha.. and yet i still manage to get myself burned. After work, we went to Admiral's Club in Ritz Carlton again. Same thing I've to show my passport for the security guard to write it in the guest log.

Day 7: The time for work! We took a 2 man little inflatable boat and sailed to shore for a little work. I was in my t-shirt, shorts and bata slippers! I'm proud to dominate the desert with that pair of slippers! and got myself burned on the feel. I've used sun block but it doesnt seems to work to well. haha. Again.. Ritz Carlton Admiral's Club... same thing with the security checks. (I wonder if he ever get tired writing my 16 alphabets' name)

Day 8: Holiday! The weather wasn't very promising and we went to the Golf Club for a meal. And we chill out in hotel after that.

Day 9: Its kinda special day today, where we went out to the sea, and there's a dolphin who actually swims next to our boat 2 meters away as if it is racing with us, and it even leap out of water... I went to grab my phone to video it, but by the time i have my phone in my hand, it swims away. We had a few dolphins sighting in the sea. It has been 4 years since I last see a dolphin in Miri water. Again, we went to Ritz Carlton Hotel but this time, the decided to let me pass without a passport. I guess he had enough writing my looooong name in the little column that he had.

Day 10: We check out from Ramada Hotel to check into Ritz Carlton Hotel. I tipped the bell boy in Ramada Hotel QAR5 and he was so happy about it. I was told QAR5 as tip is more than enough for them as their salary per month is roughly QAR1000 only. No wonder the bell boy who carry my bags to my room when I 1st arrived in Ramada Hotel almost burst to tears from his gloomy looking face when I took out QAR20 for him.

As soon as I arrived in Ritz, I was greeted by bell captain, very polite. I was wearing company tshirt with imitated quicksilver shorts and bata slippers again! (I'm sure he will generalised me as pinoy, but who cares... I'm a guest and like it or not.. u still have to serve me!) He must have many question marks in his head as I arrived with a Mercedes and two of my British friends are on their feet walking from car park to entrance. We checked in and have the bell boy sending our luggage to our room.

Ritz Carlton, Doha is a very very nice hotel. It has one of the best hotel service I ever had in my whole life! It is ever FAR better than Ramada Hotel. They had a piano at the lobby, where u can hear the pianist playing the piano even from you room's entrance, since the walkway to ur room was build like a balcony that you can see the lobby from any floor. When I went into the room, I have the feeling that I DO NOT EVER WANNA LEAVE the room. It has a nice comfortable room layout. Even the bathroom is equipped with speaker that you can play music while having a shower / bubble bath and etc. It has coffee brewer with 3 different types of coffee for u to choose from. It has a nice sea view balcony which I woke up at 5am, sitting at balcony enjoying my sea view sunrise.

Day 11 + Day 12: We had a complimentary buffet breakfast that cost QAR125. They served eggs, sausages, fruits, juices, breads and many more. We then drove up to Al Khor to pick the boat and sail it back to Ritz Carlton Marina. It was noon time with 45deg C! and we've and we had to carry our equipment under the sun. I felt like i'm cooking myself in an oven. I don't sweat a lot even after I drank tones of water... I then took a shower and check out from the hotel, chilling out in Admirals again with Kevin, Paul and John, and I realised the bar tender is from Bali. We had chit chats and he gave me complimentary lemon and mint juice! :)

Then I went off to airport at 6pm. I took hotel's transport which was supposed to be BMW 5 series but I was lucky to get BMW 7 series since they were out of 5 series.

I hopped on the plane, watched two movies, and chit chat with Algerian + French guy next to me, and sleep all the way to KL.

Ritz Carlton

Admiral's Club

Scuba Qatar

Inflatable boat

Villagio Mall

Villagio Mall

Villagio Mall

Sea- Doo 230 Wake

Burned feet marks from slipper

Coffee and Sunrise @ Ritz

Bukit Tinggi Photoshoot

2010-04-25T20:00:00.003+08:00

It was Sunday, and I've finally got my chance to go to a place that I've always wanted to visit - Bukit Tinggi. I went there together with David, Winnie and Minna. We've visited two famous spots in Bukit Tinggi, The French Village and Japanese Tea House. We were supposed to depart at 8am in the morning so that it will not be too hot when we're having a photoshoot, but after all the delays we managed to depart at 10++am.

The whole journey took approximately 1 hour of car ride from Subang Jaya, and so call assisted by my manual GPS (paper map which basically useless because I do not know where we are.). We arrived there at noon, which initially was very hot but it gets cloudy and rains for a while later on.

We had a few shots in French Village before heading to Japanese Tea House. At Japanese Tea House, we had to park our car at the designated parking lot, which is 300m away from our 1st destination. Minna was wearing 4" heels so there is no way that she's going to walk up the steep slope without herself rolling down like a bowling ball. So, David managed to convince the guard to let us through, by putting me as a mortgage redeemable by parking the car back to the designated parking lot after dropping the gals (-.-").

I love the atmosphere in Japanese Tea House.. it was surrounded by nature, with BIG koi fish, and apparently someone try to do fish spa with his finger and got bitten by the Koi. haha. I also met Rachel Yap's cousin there and thanks to her, she help out with the kimono photoshoot.

Finally, we left Bukit Tinggi at 5.30pm heading to Sg. Buloh for the lovely Dim Sum (not sure if its lovely or we are starving... )! It was a tiring but lovely day!

Regards,
Pete

Putrajaya Photoshoot

2010-04-18T23:59:00.001+08:00

It's sort of a last minute thingy when we decided to go to Putrajaya for a photoshoot. We didn't do a lot of preparation so we decided to go for casual photoshoot. My fren, David brought along two pretty models for the shoot, together with a borrowed car. We travel from KL town to Subang Jaya, then to our shooting location in Putrajaya and finally back to PJ for dinner. None of us know the direction of the road very well, and we happened to make 3 - 4 wrong turnings that happened to lead us to the correct way! How lucky would tat be??? We started the shoot about 5pm, and ended at 7pm. Again, thanks to everyone that helped out in holding the flash (i'm gonna have to bring my light stand to Subang soon!).

It was a FUN DAY!

Easter Holiday Photoshoot

2010-04-02T12:00:00.002+08:00

Its been a loooooong time since i updated my blog.. I've been busily lazing around for many months. I have a few shots from December last year which I did not post it up.

Anyway, today I'm tagging along with Marlene Lim (who flew all the way from Aussie), Christine and Ruby on a photo shoot. We went to the very well known shooting place in KL - The Heritage Station Hotel. We started shooting from 10am, since that's the earliest available time for us to shoot. We wanted to shoot at the roof to get the nice dome and cityscape / old structures but we cancel it after a few shots because Marlene's make up was melting and everybody was sweating like a p*g! It was very very HOT, HUMID and SUNNY day...

We end up shooting indoor instead. Within this 4 hours time, Marlene wore 4 nice and elegant outfits, with 3 different make ups (which is a lot!).

Thanks to Ruby and Christine + Christine(M.U.A) in helping me to hold the reflector and my flash. haha.. Do visit Ruby's and Christine's blog for more photos when they updated theirs.

Finally, please visit my gallery for more Marlene's photo.

Thanks for dropping by,
Pete

Peter Ng Photography

Work: Doha, Qatar

Bukit Tinggi Photoshoot

Putrajaya Photoshoot

Easter Holiday Photoshoot