Qatar Cupcake Heaven

New on QatarVisitor.com: Qatar Cupcake Heaven! Shabina reviews the best cupcake cafes in Qatar, provides a feast of cupcake pictures and pinpoints their location on a map. PLUS pick your favourite cupcake cafe in our poll and you could win a visit to your favourite cupcake cafe - courtesy of QatarVisitor.com! Click here to get started.

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Qatar Stadiums - Will they do the job?

In the latest article on QatarVisitor.com Mike Tuckerman looks at Qatar's stadiums.

In the 2022 World Cup the stadiums will have to protect both players and audience from summer temperatures which can reach a searing 50+ degrees. It's a tall order, but one that Qatar thinks it can manage - with a little help from some artificial cloud.

Click here for the full story: Qatar Stadiums.

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A New Way to Keep Up With Qatar News

Qatar is hitting the headlines at the moment.

Qatar is supporting the rebels in Libya, but the government in Bahrain. Al Jazeera has been challenged in it role of supporting freedom in the Middle East (and its assertions of editorial independence) after also supporting the Bahrain government, and Qatar jets could soon be in action over Libya.

It's not something we have covered on QatarVisitor.com, as some time ago we decided to focus on being a travel guide. So I am really glad that the excellent people from DohaNews, who supply us with a constant stream of both news and astute and funny comments on Twitter, have set up a new site focussed purely on Qatar and Qatar related news.

Check it out here: Doha News.

They have also promised to furnish us with their top stories every month, which we'll be adding to our monthly newsletter.

On a side note, I have been talking to the editor of our sister site in Japan. (Everyone involved in the site is fine, although a bit shaken up!) They have been covering the news there, and you check out their posts on the Japan Visitor blog or see this video by one of their bloggers: Tokyo Earthquake Trashed my Apartment.

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The Cursed City

You've probably heard of Petra, the ancient city carved into the rocks of Jordan. Less well known is its sister city Madain Saleh. Built by the same civilization, the curses of the prophets and travel restrictions have put off all but the most determined visitors - which means if you are brave enough to venture there, you can have the wonders of Madain Saleh to yourself.

QatarVisitor writer David Marwood braved the curse to see the city for himself - and provide a comprehensive guide. See Madain Saleh for the complete article.

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Alzheimer's Research Blogging Competition

I am helping out this month with a writing competition to raise money for Alzheimers' Research.

You may already have been touched by Alzheimer's. Nearly half of us have a relative or friend who has the disease. Unfortunately, this number is forecast to grow rapidly in the future. One in ten of us will get the disease if we reach the age of 65, a number increasing to more than half of us by the time we are 85.

Research has already managed to produce drugs which can slow the progress of the disease. However, it is desperately underfunded, receiving just a fraction of the funds cancer research receives.

TheDisabledShop is both donating funds to research to help stop the disease, and holding a competition to raise awareness and further funds.

There are some great prizes - including life pro-membership of popular blogging forum MyBlogGuest and a free c-commerce store from BigCommerce. But the best reason to get involved is to help defeat Alzhzeimer's. To learn more about the competition or to get involved click here.