Maldives - Day 2 - Myah's Birthday!!

 I woke up in the night with a runny nose..not a big deal you think but I wear CPAP to bed with just a nasal mask so in reality not great.  Not a lot I can do about it, I wiped it out, took another cold pill and went back to bed hoping it didn't happen again and planned to clean it well when I get up.

We briefly spoke last night about possibly doing the Yoga at 7am but several times I said "I'm not committing to 7am Yoga".  Good thing because I woke up around 9am!  We have black out curtains which are glorious.  Jay was up already, he said he had a good sleep but he woke in the night for about an hour and had an email that needed attention so he had to do that.  He'll likely make up for it in naps today - he does that...Vacation Jay as we call him - if he can get into the mode he will make up for months of sleep when on vacation.  He works long hours, he trains long hours but when he shuts'er down he shuts'er down which he needs every once in a while to recharge.

Maria is up but Jim is still sleeping and breakfast goes until 10am so Jay and I send her a message that we're going to head to the restaurant and we'll either meet them there or see them later.  We walk over, it's not far, not even a 10 min walk but A LOT of the guests call to their butlers and have them drive over with the golf carts.  It is hot here, so I can see the appeal, but I just decided that breakfast time I'll wear yesterdays clothes over so that when they're sweaty after walking back to the room I can change into fresh today clothes!

The buffet is Amazing (everything here is), there are fresh yogurts (I think they literally mix plain yogurt into flavours, I had the blueberry and it was heavenly), fresh fruit, fresh baked pastries, an omelette station, a Dosa station (which I really loved on the tour and he had said it was a breakfast food but for me would be more of a snack food).  I'm not a huge breakfast eater so I had a yogurt, some fruit and a croissant with a decaf cappuccino (which was perfect).

The restaurant Manager brought us out a very cool plate with some treats on it and a card wishing us a Happy 20th Anniversary.  I looked at it and wondered about the coral and dolphin.

When the Executive Chef came over to say hello and to ask how we like the dolphin I wondered if it was made of chocolate.  The Chef asked about our Anniversary, he had also just celebrated his 20th.  He has a wife, 19 year old daughter and 13 year old son in India.  After he left I said to Jay "break off a piece of that coral and see if it's chocolate" and it is!  So we took it back to our room and put it in the mini-fridge because now if we want something sweet rather than eating $18 M&Ms we can have a bit of the coral (I'm not sure if the dolphin is also chocolate or if it's fondant, we'll see).

On our way back to the room we passed Jim and Maria heading to breakfast and told them to let us know when they're done.  They saw Assan at breakfast (so did we, he came over to say hello and asked if we would like the morning service for our room and we said no) and I asked her to ask him to make a reservation for the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant for dinner tonight - she also arranged for him to pick us up to go to the restaurant because it's the furthest away (over a km) so that we don't get sweaty for dinner and then we'll walk back.

I came outside to sit on the deck and try to finish up the blog because I'm a couple of days behind and realized that even though it's not yet midnight at home (so it's March 1st) it's March 2nd here which means it's Myah's 16th birthday.  Then I cried.  I've actually cried 2-3 times so far today because we're missing her 16th. It's a huge milestone and I love her.  I sent her a birthday text and I know we'll do a celebration when we're home.  Juls sent a message to Maria and I with Kobe's schedule - he is rostered for the Canadian Men's 7 Rugby matches this weekend in Los Angeles!!  When the Toronto Arrows MLR team folded earlier this year he was offered the opportunity to move to Vancouver and train with the Canadian Men's team (it's an Olympic team, so he got his letter from the Olympic Committee and everything - they likely won't make the Olympics because there is only one more qualifying tournament left I think, in June, but what an accomplishment and Kobe is still young, for a professional rugby player, at 22 so if he does well then he could stay on for the next 4 years to train for the next Olympics).  They didn't think he would have the opportunity to play this season, that he would be in training mode, especially since he's a 15s player and not a 7s player (though he has played 7s)..but he's Kobe (and Steve and Juls are extremely humble) and so of course he's travelling as one of the 14 chosen to go to LA.  Kobe is...Kobe.  He's electric.  He's positive, driven, dynamic, energetic and a complete weapon on the field.  I can't wait to be able to see him in this new environment.  I love him too.  And now I'm crying again.  I’m very proud of all the Faust kids - I cry when I’m sad but mostly when I’m happy, I usually cry at least once while watching Kobe play (I’m a sucker for the National Anthem) and Myah dancing? I’m a mess.  Ava won’t let us go watch her ride but I’m sure - waterworks.

The seaplane lands just off our deck when guests are arriving and departing. 

We headed to the Adult Pool area, which is over by the Japanese restaurant and arrived and no one was there.  A server came down and brought water and asked if we wanted anything to drink - because I'm on the all inclusive I got a pina colada and asked for him to bring a bucket of ice, everywhere we go now I ask for a bucket of ice now - I like a COLD drink and the ice melts quickly.  While we went to the pool Jay went to the gym for a workout and then joined us.  Looking over the edge of the pool we could see fish and a small reef shark at one point.

I started to turn pink so we got out and went to the Thai place for lunch which is at the pool but raised up into the trees, it’s very cool and you get an awesome breeze.  I decided to get the grilled prawns with black pepper sauce and glass noodles - it was perfect, 3 large shrimp and about 2 tbsn of noodles (I could have had more noodles but I stole some of Maria's rice) and Jay and I shared vegetable rice paper wraps.  Jay had a beef dish with rice and the server asked if he wanted it spicy..he said "how spicy is spicy" the server said "there is medium spicy and then "indian spicy' and then "maldivian spicy" which is very spicy" - Jay opted for medium spicy but then asked for some peppers on the side and the server, who's name I can't remember how to spell but was like Zeruvan but longer than that so I'm missing something in the middle - he said if you added all of the peppers it would be maldivian spicy, he's from the Maldives.  He said that all the staff live on the island in staff quarters and there are about 150 of them in total.  He works in 2 restaurants, the Thai and the Japanese & Steakhouse so we'll see him tonight.  There are only 61 rooms on the resort between the beachfront villas and the overwater bungalows, most rooms only accomodate 2-3 guests so at most there are likely 150 guests at any given time so there is a 1-1 Guest-Staff ratio which is why the service is exceptional.  Maria had a Thai green curry dish and Jim had a fried rice dish and everyone said everything was excellent.

Walking back to the rooms, its a little over a km, we were passed by so many golf carts carrying guests either to or from their rooms.  I enjoy the walk, helps to digest our food, but I'm definitely looking forward to a dip in the pool when I get back.  

When we were walking back from dinner last night I wondered how the island was powered.  It's 180KM from Male, do they have a big generator?  Jim looked it up somehow and it does have an island generator that is powered by diesel fuel, Jay said "I guess we'll know if we see a tanker this week show up" but I bet that they do it at night so that the guests don't have to see the tanker or on the opposite side of the island from where all the villas and restaurants are.

I've had sunscreen in my eye since putting it on at the pool and my eye is burning and watering - such a pain!

I dip, I blog, Jay naps and then comes outside for his repositioning nap and now has gone back inside to read (and nap) hopefully he can sleep tonight after all this napping.

I definitely have a full blown head cold.  I'm still taking medication - thankfully it's not like a flu.  I don't feel achy or feverish or even tired really, just congested.

Somehow it's 5:30pm already.  I'm caught up on the blog - I need some photos from Maria, lol.  I'm going to read my book for 30 mins or so then take a shower before supper.  Also, time for another cold pill.

I didn't end up taking a shower, I read for longer and decided to just shower after dinner because I'll just get sweaty at dinner and walking home so that's when the cool shower is required.  Have I mentioned its HOT here?  It's supposed to be like this all week.  Its glorious in the shade but I also learned that the sun is INTENSE.  I only was wearing my tank top today for the walk to the pool (not wearing sunblock yet), lunch which was completely shaded (sunblocked but before we hung in the pool for 40 mins) and the walk back to the room which is also almost all shaded except for the pier back - and I'm burnt in my tank top shape!  Going forward I'll make sure I'm wearing sunblock from morning until night regardless of if I'm in full sun or not.

Assan picks us all up at 7pm and drives us over to the Japanese and Steakhouse restaurant, we have a reservation but didn't specify inside or outside.  They want to put us inside but we want to be outside so they move 2 tables for 2 together to accommodate us.

They brought curry leaf bread and chimichurri to the table to start and it's so good.  I love chimichurri.  Jay, Jim and Maria all order off the Steakhouse menu - Wagu steak with sides of broccolini and parmesan truffle fries without the truffle oil and I order off of the Japanese menu some spicy tuna rolls to start (and so did Jay) and then teppanyaki chicken for dinner which is just stir fried chicken and sauteed vegetables. Dinner at this restaurant isn't included in our stay but our drinks are still included and we get 60% off of the meal so overall dinner came to just under $200USD after our discount.  I had 2 glasses of the Rose, which grew on me, it wasn't amazing but that's ok and Jay tried a Sri Lankan beer called Lion which was kind of a mid-colour beer, not quite amber, he liked it.

Our server tonight is also from the Maldives, his home island is 3 islands away and has a population of about 1,200. He gets 1 day off a week so usually saves them up so that he has 3-4 days off and goes home which is about a 40 min speedboat ride.

After dinner we walked back to the room and said good night to Jim and Maria with plans to play 5 Crowns tomorrow night - we just have to find a place with a table inside that has air because it's too windy to play outside.  I think it's about 9:30pm when I put my phone on Do Not Disturb and go have my cool shower and get ready for bed.  I've taken another couple of cold medications, I'm almost out of what Maria gave me but I know she has more.

I read my book until I finished it and then couldn't get to sleep, it was 1:30am when I got out of bed the last time.  The girls have a hockey game (Playdown) while it's the middle of the night here, it's too long to stay up for but because it's too late now when I'm going to bed I won't get up to watch it either so I'll just have to check the score in the morning.

The Maldives - JW Resort

 The shuttle to the airport goes really smoothly.  They wanted us to get on the shuttle for 9pm but I said it was too early and so we switched it to 10pm.  Jay's Dad flew out from the Doha airport back to London and I asked him if it was smooth and he said it was so I wasn't concerned about timing since we are flying Business and so have dedicated check in and security.

The Doha lounge for Business is the largest, nicest lounge I've seen. The restaurant is still buffet but they have servers who come and take your drink order and seat you.  We met Jim and Maria up there and have a light meal (because it's 11pm).

They're not on the same flight as us - some kind of debacle.  When I originally booked my flight it was at 1:05am and so when Maria asked what flight we were on I checked my confirmation and forwarded it to her and it said QR676 1:05am..but somewhere along the way (without notification) our flight got moved to 1:20am and they added a NEW flight at 1:05am which is the one Maria booked.  No big deal but kind of a pain in the ass.  The only reason we found out before actually getting to the airport was that Maria asked for the Hotel to confirm that we are on the same seaplane flight to the resort and they said "you're arriving at different times but we can likely accommodate that because the times are close together".  WHAT?!  When I gave the hotel the flight times I must have gone to the Qatar Airways website instead of using my confirmation in my email and given them the correct timing.  Anyway, we're at Gates 53 and 59 and departing within 15 mins of eachother and our planes are parked next to one another so it's not the end of the world.

On the flight as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign goes off and we're at altitude Jay and I both put our seats down in the lay flat position and go to sleep.  I asked the flight attendant to wake me up for a light breakfast (instead of the dinner option), she wakes me with 90 mins left before landing, so I slept for a solid 2 hours, and have a yogurt, fruit and a croissant along with this Orangeade drink that  I had on the flight here which is delicious.  It's fresh squeezed orange juice with soda, lemon and a little simple syrup - so good.

We land, we grab our bags, we find the JW Representative in a sea of resort representatives, find Jim and Maria and the Rep takes us to get checked in for the seaplane and then takes us to the Lounge to wait until our flight.  

The girls had their 5th (of 6) play off games tonight and the timing is right that I can watch the score unfold on Team Snap by updating the app - they won 1-0.  So we now have 8 points with 3 wins and 2 ties.  We have 1 game left vs Lindsay.  If we win or tie this one we are moving on to the next round.  If we lose we could still move on if Napanee loses or ties any of their remaining 3 games but if they win them all they would move on if we lose.  There is a 2nd round of Play Offs and that's it, the winner of that round moves on to the Tournament of Champions in April.

Paige hit a player and fell and hit her head on the ice tonight, Jim took the girls to the game so they called me from the car. Jim is serious about concussion protocols and I trust him, he said that she has a bit of a headache but no dizziness, nausea or anything so he doesn't have any concerns.  She says she's fine so we'll check in with her tomorrow.

Our flight is ready so we get escorted to the gate, sit for about 10 mins and then are escorted to the plane.  They really have this whole thing down.  Originally the email that we got about the transfers made it sound like it was first come first serve when you got to the airport and you could be waiting for a while.  The transfer service only runs from 6am to 3pm which is the reason we went on this overnight flight because we wanted to make sure that we got to Male early so that we could get transferred to the resort.  But Maria found out a few days ago that the day prior to your departure they'll give you an actual time for your flight.  This would have likely changed the way that I organized my return to Toronto too because we have a SUPER long travel home.  We will try to get the last transfer to Male and then will have about a 4 hour wait before our flight to Doha, once in Doha we have an 8 hour layover so I've rented a hotel room at the airport so we can nap and relax checking in at 11:30pm and checking out at probably 6am, then we have the 6 hr flight to Frankfurt with a 3 hr layover and then the 8 hr flight home to Toronto.  We leave here at 3pm on the 7th and arrive home at 7:30pm on the 8th (but that's 8:30am here time on the 9th - so it's a fucking long way home).

The flight is on a little 16 seater seaplane, it's hot and extremely cramped.  One of Jim and Maria's bags didn't make it on that flight so will be arriving at 1pm (they told us that in the lounge - they had extra bags because they went to Dubai and then Doha and then here).  They had everything they needed in their carry-on roller bags and backpacks so losing one of their medium size rollers for a few hours wasn't a big deal.

The flight is just under an hour and you can really see just how many little islands make up the archipelago.  We learned when we got here that we are another hour ahead of Male, which we didn't realize so we lost an extra hour from home (now we're 11 hours ahead) which will make work stuff even harder now but Nicole and Cindy have been AMAZING.  Nicole helped clients purchase a home while I was in Doha and she has another set of our clients who are putting an offer in on Tuesday while I'm gone.  I love that I can leave clients with someone that I can trust to do the same job I would do.

We arrive to a lovely greeting.  A row of staff welcoming us at the pier and a welcome drink which is honey water and fresh basil.  We meet our butler, Assan, who takes us on a tour of the resort by golf cart and then drops us to our room and then takes Jim and Maria to their room which is further down.  We were upgraded to a sunset overwater bungalow (from the sunrise one) which is nice because, now that we've been here for a day, I realize is on the less windy side - we still get a breeze but it's not blowing directly at our pool area.  Jim and Maria, because Maria is a Titanium Rewards Member get upgraded to a duplex overwater bungalow which is the same as ours but has a living room area on the second floor with a 2nd bathroom (which is good for Jim!).

When I booked and they asked if we were celebrating anything I said we were celebrating our 20th Anniversary - which was in October and we didn't do anything really to celebrate because typically we don't celebrate each other (which we should more).  But because of that they had a nice cake in our room on arrival and had written in palm leaves on the bed.

Jay and I have the Savour the Endless (all-inclusive) package, it was somewhere between $200 and $250 a day US for us to add and includes our food and drinks so it made total sense for us because I figured (rightly) that a la carte drinks are probably about $25 USD each.  Jay doesn't drink a lot but he often has 2 entrees at dinner so even just on food it was a good deal.  Jim and Maria booked the trip on points so for them to add the package was almost $600USD per night so they opted not to add it but I would guess it's going to be about a wash for them.  The only dinner that isn't included for us is at the Japanese and Steakhouse which we get a 60% discount on our food there.

I take photos of snacks in the room thinking they’re included. They’re not, I say to Jay “do not eat the M&Ms!” they’re $12 or $18 USD  

It's HOT here, like hot hot.  But there is always a breeze so it's bearable, it's also humid.

I've been popping cold medication like its Jr Mints since we got here, my equilibrium is all messed up because of the little seaplane flight and if I close my eyes I feel like I'm on a boat.

We get settled in our room and decide we'll go for lunch. We walk over and decide to sit by the pool, which is the Italian restaurant.  Jim had a meatball sandwich, which he said was more like a chopped steak sandwich and was excellent, with fries, Maria had the spagetti bolonese, Jay and I both had the caesar salad him with chicken and me with shrimp and then we shared a burrata appetizer and bruschetta on crisps.  I also had a pina colada with dark rum and this is the first example of them not scrimping on the alcohol because it was beige, just like it should be.  Yum.

After lunch we walk back to our rooms, I went for a swim/float while Jay had a nap inside.  I'm so tired at this point because it's almost 4pm and I haven't slept more than the 2 hours on the plane.  When Jay comes outside and starts his second nap (really just a repositioning nap) I text Maria, we agree to meet at 7:30pm for dinner at the main restaurant and I go inside, lay down, set an alarm for 2 hours and fall promptly asleep for an amazing nap until 6pm.

On our tour there was a boutique that they have where you can buy hats, etc.  We didn't go in but Jay said he might go grab flip flops.  His flip flops broke last year and he went into town and bought awful sandals from the shoe store in town, they're Merrells but they're bad.  Anyway, Jim made a comment about how he didn't know he was dining with Jesus and I said "we call him Jay-zeus" - Jim cracked up.  Jim is a funny guy, one of the wittiest people that I know so a comment like that was right up his alley and I'm sure he was like "damn, why didn't I think of that".

Dinner at the main restaurant is a la carte, I wasn't sure if it was buffet but that's only at breakfast. Jay and I decide to split a rice dish and an asian noodle dish. I have a margarita (I actually ordered a drink that Maria introduced me to in Curacao in December called a caipirinha which is the native drink of Brazil, it's made with a liquor called cachaca which I would say is similar to rum, lime and sugar but they don't have the liquor) with our appetizer and then have a glass of prosecco with dinner.  Dinner?  Also excellent.  The staff is extremely attentive and the chef comes to the table to welcome us.

After dinner everyone was tired still and so we walked back to our rooms.  Even though the sun had set and there is a breeze it's still hot.  I had a cool shower before dinner and again afterwards to cool off.  I haven't been having hot flashes per se but during my travel days I'm definitely running warm - I don't know if the travel stresses me or what but on our travel day home I'll definitely wear something light.

I love our room, but it's not the same as sharing a space with Jim and Maria where you socialize as well. I sent her a message this afternoon to tell her I wish I had brought my floatie and we were floating together and I brought 5 Crowns and a deck of cards so hopefully tomorrow when we're all rested we can hang out together.  Their living room on the 2nd floor is just like a couch bed kind of set up (no table) and outside I think it's too breezy for cards (but you need the breeze so I wouldn't give it up!) so we'll have to figure out something.

It's about 10pm and it's time for bed.

Doha - 3rd Race Day - 50M Free

 Jay's nervous for this race, maybe a little more anxious than nervous.  He knows that he can race it really fast but he hasn't been able to capture it DURING a competition.  In a race everything has to go perfect, the pre-race routine, entering the staging area, mounting the blocks, the set, the start, the dive and then the 24-25second of the race itself for you to have that ONE RACE..and that's what he's looking for.  He's listed as 3rd fastest in his age group (45-49yr old men) but he knows with THAT race he could be fastest if it all comes together.

They're running behind again and right before Jay goes to go to the staging area he can't find his race goggles and it's throwing him off.  They were in his pocket he says but they're not around his seat and they're not in his bag (we tore it apart twice).  When we arrived he and Grey were sitting on the floor in the walking aisle (Maria actually took a photo!) and someone asked that they move - 

I suggested maybe they fell out there and someone had moved them up onto the next level, which was a little raised, to move them out of the way.  They hadn't, but they had moved everything off to the side and out of the way and Jay's goggles were there.  That was about 35 mins before his race.  Might affect him, or he might have calmed down the moment he found his goggles.  He had practice googles and a second pair of practice goggles available if needed but those weren't the ones he wanted.

He and Grey set off, they're about 50 mins behind again - how they can be 50 mins behind schedule at 10am is beyond me but I think that the oldest age groups are taking longer than their 'anticipated' entry times.  Grey is in Heat 32, the 3rd fasted Heat for the same Men's age group and pulls out another Personal Best.  

Oh, I forgot to mention yesterday that Jay's 50M Breaststroke time was a Canadian Record that he smashed by about a second for the Mens 45-49 Age group!  He's already got a couple of Canadian Records, I think in the 50M and maybe 100M Freestyle in short course (25M pools) - this is a long course competition (50M pool).

Jay's race he comes 3rd - he's in the fastest Heat so he's got BRONZE!!  He finishes and I'm like - well he got Bronze but he won't be happy with his time of 24.88s he really wanted to be low 24s and his STRETCH goal was 23.95 - he hasn't really analyzed what went 'wrong' or why it didn't all come together other than it didn't.

We have a food tour booked for this afternoon, but now we'll wait for the medal ceremony for Jay to claim his Bronze.  Jay originally said that he would do the food tour but then Grey came to watch Jay swim yesterday (even though Grey wasn't swimming so he made the trek over to the event location and stayed and waited) so we agreed that he wanted to be there for Grey's "big race" the 100M Fly in the afternoon.  We assume, because of the way they've been running behind on everything that Jay's just going to miss the food tour but if he has the opportunity to meet up with us then he will half way through.

I sent a video of the Ceremony to Jay's Dad, who left early this morning to go and do his presentation in London, UK that he was over here for and to his Mom, who's very proud and stayed up to stream the race.  I sent them both a video of the race too - it's all so close I didn't know if he got 2nd or 3rd until it popped up on the screen.  And, of course, my family and Steve and Juls got all the updates too.

Maria, Jim and I left for the food tour, we're meeting on The Pearl, where Chrissy lives and doing a walking/driving tour of the 3 different areas (Porto Arabia, Medina Central and the Italian area which I can't remember what it's called). We got there about 20 mins early so we did a walk around in a loop of the area which is supposed to be like Venice with the canal and bridges.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat (I didn't tell Jay because I didn't want him to get in his head that I might be sick and that's why he might be tired) and throughout the day today I've had random bouts of sneezing because my sinuses are irritated.  It might just be the change in weather and the flying but I think I might be getting a cold.

We met Basil, the owner of the tour company, he's just graduated University in Mechanical Engineering and has been applying for jobs for the last 6 months.  He works in Sales right now selling furniture for a company that builds and furnishes commercial office spaces and does tours on the side.

He's not a good tour guide.  We're not sure how this tour got such good reviews, he's very quiet - mosies too slow and doesn't give us any local information while we're walking around really.  He can't answer a lot of questions, which I would assume are questions most tourists would ask.  But, we get to the first place and we have Masala Dosa which is DELICIOUS and I think maybe I've judged too harshly and it will all be ok.  No, that was the best part of the tour, by far.

After the Masala Dosa we're waiting in line to get on a little boat, their version of the gondolas through the canals and we ask if it's taking us somewhere (like a water taxi) or if it's just a loop.  It's just a loop and the canal has at least a 10 ft concrete foundation raised from the water, and we already did a walk around the loop, so after waiting 10-15 mins and not making it very far in the line I text Maria when I see her pull her phone out and say "We could just skip the boat?"  She quickly replies "Yup" and so we tell Basil we'll just move on, we don't need to get on the boat to do the loop.  He's apologetic and says this is the busy time and when it's not as busy the driver would drive us right over to Porto Arabia but that port is actually closed right now and the drivers are too busy to 'taxi' you they're only doing the tour loop.

Next we drive over in his car to Porto Arabia and sit down on a nice, open patio for some Karak tea.  I had this tea with Chrissy in the souq and, because Maria had already warned me it was sweet, it was good.  I don't like sweet drinks really, but because I knew to expect it it was nice.  This Karak tea was much nicer than the one I had at the souq, it was more flavourful and a little less sweet.  It has cardamom in it and other spices.  Jim and Maria both had red tea with mint instead because they both find the Karak too sweet.  Basil told us that this chain used to only have one cafeteria style branch far north in Qatar but one of the Royal brothers went to it and posted about the tea on his social media and within a few years there are now 70 branches throughout Doha and now they're restaurants as well.  Where it was located far north was where people would go to do Falcon challenges - 5-6 friends would drive up to the dessert in their special vehicles meant to drive their falcons and stop, they would release 1 prey bird and all release their falcons and whoevers falcon caught the bird would be the winner.

After the tea we walked over to get lamb and chicken kabobs, they were really good too.  Too bad Basil was such a dud.  He did open up more but usually the tour guides are pretty dynamic and really engage in teaching you - I guess there isn't that much history in The Pearl though either because I asked him when it was all built and he said "I think 2014".

After the kabobs we walked over to Medina Central, the Spanish inspired area.  I asked if there was any reason why the 3 areas were Italian, Spanish and Saudi Arabian inspired and he said no, he didn't think so, just to attract tourists with a theme.  At this point Jay had texted me, I didn't see it right away so it was about 20 minutes later, I told him not to worry about joining us because it wasn't worth it.  It's too bad that we had paid for Jay but then we figured we wouldn't leave Basil an extra tip because a) he got the money for Jay's tour which was $150Cad and b) he's not a great tour guide.

This is, in my opinion, the nicest of the 3 areas, the streets are lined with mature trees and lots of restaurants with patios out front.  This is the area that I would stay in if we ever came back to Doha, which is unlikely.  Here we had the fried cheese again that Chrissy had us sample at the souq.  We told him before we got there that we would just get 1 to share because we all just wanted a taste of it, but he still bought 4 so 3 of them sat pretty much untouched.

Our final stop was for Arabic Coffee which he explained how that works and the traditions it entails.  Each home has a 'guest house' essentially where there is always coffee available and the gate is always unlocked.  Anyone can come and go as they please and you can't ask them to leave.

We grabbed an Uber after saying a quick goodbye to Basil and back to the hotel.

I'm definitely getting sick.  I send a message to Maria, because I know she brought a small pharmacy, asking if she could leave some of her cold medication accessible for when we meet at the airport for our flight tonight.  She texts a little while later and says she and Jim are going to go for a walk and they could walk over to our hotel if I wanted some now.  So they walk through the mall from their hotel to our hotel and I meet them on the 2nd floor in a loungy area and chat for a few mins before heading back to finish packing up and getting ready.

On their way back to their hotel they went to the Pharmacy for me and got more cold medication and vitamin C tablets. I really do have the best friends!

We have a 1am flight to Male so we kept our hotel for the night even though we have to check out at 10pm because I didn't want to have to check out at 11am this morning and figure out what to do with our bags, etc and have no place to relax for the afternoon and evening.

Tomorrow will be a long day - we have a 4 hour flight to Male and then a couple hours before an island hopper on a sea plane to our resort which is a 55 min flight.  It's a 2 hr time difference to Male so now we'll be 10 hours behind home time.  But also we land at 5:45am Doha time but it's 7:45am Male time so we have to adjust to less sleep again.

Here goes!