Aurora Hunting: Doha to Kuala Lumpur with a visit to the Oryx Lounge

• Introduction 
• Getting to Oslo 
• Exploring Oslo - The Attractions 
• Exploring Oslo - The Hotels (Radisson Blu Plaza Oslo & Doubletree by Hilton Oslo City Center) 
• Oslo to Tromso on SAS
• The Hunt
• Exploring Tromso
• Review of City Living Apartments, Tromso
• Tromso to Oslo on SAS
• Oslo to Doha
• Exploring Doha & Review of Ramada Encore Doha
• Doha to Kuala Lumpur with a visit to the Oryx Lounge
• Conclusion

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Since we were already bored and running out of things to do in Doha, we headed to the airport about 4 hours before departure. Since we had already checked-in online, we were able to use the internet check-in lines which had no queues. We had our boarding passes with bags checked in to Kuala Lumpur and passed through security and immigration formalities an efficient 10 minutes later. Almost felt like traveling with status or in premium cabins.

We spent the rest of the time in Doha in the Oryx lounge thanks to Calvin's Priority Pass membership. The lounge is used by all other airlines except Qatar and does accept pay-in passengers although I'm not sure what it costs though. The lounge was busy when we got in with passengers from an Emirates flight to Dubai mostly in the lounge. After that flight left, the lounge was definitely less busy.

The lounge was a much better place to spend waiting for our flights instead of roughing it outside. There was free Wifi which made the time go by much quicker. The food offerings were not that substantial with a hot soup, pastries, several sandwich choices and some middle eastern appertizers.

There is wine, beer and some liquor available but one has to order the drinks through one of the attendants that hang around the food area. Not sure why it isn't self serve.

Drink Menu

My favorite lounge offering was the Nespresso machine that was well stocked with several kinds of capsule. It was fun doing a Nespresso tasting.

The lounge also comes with a shower that we enjoyed just before we headed off to the boarding gate. Boarding was already in progress when we got to the gate. As with all flights in Doha, we were bussed to our plane. It did take a couple of minutes before the doors were opened when we got to the plane. I'm assuming the crew weren't ready for us yet.

Nothing new to say about the Qatar experience after 3 flights with them.  The in-flight service on this flight was once again top-notch for economy class. The service to Kuala Lumpur was the same routine as the flight to Doha where there was a sweet & napkin run followed by a drinks, hot towel and dinner service. It did take about 2-3 hours before the dinner service was completed and on this red-eye (leaves Doha at ~8pm arriving at ~6am), would have appreciated if it completed much quicker to allow for more sleep time. I managed to get ~3-4 hours of shut eye while Lydia just stayed up watching movies on the IFE. The IFE was pretty good with a large choice of both mainstream Hollywood movies and international selections from the Middle East, China, Hong Kong and even the Philippines. As usual, there was a snack service before arrival.

Leaving Doha..

The flight did get slightly interesting where the passenger sitting behind me was giving me trouble for reclining my seat when we took off. Much longer rant on this incident here but in summary, you gotta be kidding when the seat pitch is ~34" and the guy wasn't even that tall.