It’s winter and it’s still beautiful here in San Diego, California. I wouldn’t get in the water, but sitting on the bluff eating a California burrito (basically carne asada with french fries) is definitely something I can do. ;)
Also, it was a beautiful day in Laguna Beach today. This is from my grandma’s house on the cliff in Laguna — I spent a lot of summers on this beach!
A few hours before my flight back to Nairobi, I looked at my itinerary and realized I was scheduled for a twenty-one-hour layover in Doha. Sad panda. I’ve spent a few hours there before, but always with a few episodes of some TV show on my phone and a good book. So I decided to book a hotel and get a visa to enter Doha for the day — at least then I could get some sleep, take a shower, and see something new!
From a shared computer in the hostel in Bangkok I hurriedly found a hotel in Doha which was on the Embassy of Qatar’s approved list of hotels and made a booking. It turns out that this isn’t as important as I thought, as they don’t do any checking or anything; the immigration lady just asked where I was staying and I said the name and it was enough. For reference, I stayed at the Mövenpick Hotel Doha.
I was in South Africa last week visiting Cassandra’s family. Because there’s only so much to do in Kimberley (yes, I’ve seen the Big Hole), we decided to take a road trip to see some new scenery. I had been looking at the map of South Africa and noticed that Lesotho, the small nation enclave surrounded entirely by South Africa, was fairly close. Cassandra’s dad suggested that we drive to Clarens to get a good view of the Maluti Mountains.
Clarens was a pleasant surprise. It kinda reminded me of little towns I’d been to in Northern California (especially Calistoga) — quaint, quiet, clean, and safe. The town is situated around one or two main streets and a small square, with cute restaurants, pubs, antique shops, and bed and breakfasts dotted along the way.