R&R - Doha, Qatar

I left for my 4 day R&R last Sunday (16Jan). I am not allowed to talk about specific travel plans or take pictures of planes or buses we rode in, or the base in Qatar. We were allowed to wear civilian clothes and told not to wear anything with military insignia, USA flags, and basically wear conservative clothes. Everything else is ok. Due to layover it took about 2 days to get to Qatar. We arrived on Tuesday morning but that day is day 0. We stayed in warehouse type building which I called "Sam's Club". Officers had their own quarters. Which were trailers or Pods stacked two high. There were two beds in each pod, but we only had 1 person per pod. Enlisted Soldiers were in smaller rooms, with maybe ten beds in the same warehouse. Also, bathrooms, showers, and laundry were in the same building, which was a nice change. It was a short walk to the USO and MWR building where all the activities were held. In there was the computer lab, movie room, briefings, snacks, and restaurant. Everyday they had like 2-3 events or venues to chose from. They had mall trips, fishing trips, river cruise, inland tour, city tour, and soccer games. Some were free others were maybe $15-30 per event. We were allowed 3 beers a day and they kept track of how many you had. They had a good variety of beers and a few wine coolers. Beers were about $5-6. On base we could use dollars or our eagle cash card. But in the city we used Riyals, one dollar to every 3 riyals. The next day I went on a mall trip to Villagio. It was American-style mall but had a ice skating rink, small amusement park, and Italian-style gondola river. They had a valet parking out front with a Ferrari outside. People from all cultures were there. Women in their burka's. We were told not to look at the females or their children. At the KFC, one female Soldier was in line for 15 minutes and when she got to the front, the cashier said he could not help since she was female and had to go to the female only line. The food was great and did not eat the DFAC (military dining) once. At night we went on Doha city cruise. It was a wooden boat and we cruised about a hour along the city line and then anchored and they had a dinner buffet for us. The next day, we went on a city tour and went to a Muslim artifact museum. The building itself was cool and the artifacts were neat. They were holding the Asian World Cup in Qatar. We went to a game that night. It was Uzbekistan v Jordan, Jordan won 2-1. The final day, I went on a Inland tour. We were on the Persian Gulf. We were taken out in SUVs. And we stopped at a beach front where they had a nice little setup. They had camel rides, sand dune boarding, volleyball, swimming, ping pong, lunch buffet, hookah, and tables to just sit and relax. That was basically my R&R overall a good time in Qatar. Finally made it back to Adder 27 January.