One of the secrets of the region is to go where the petroleum people go; they take good care of themselves and have the money, so we found the Tuha Petroleum Hotel a little without grace in terms of its name, but otherwise a very nice hotel. It's large with correspondingly nice large modern rooms, but one where the staff were gracious and really tried to look after us. Tired of local food, we skipped the usual Chinese restaurant, and opted for a hamburger and pizza in the western dining room one evening and both were excellent--a great thin pizza crust and a real hamburger bun (where they came from is anyone's guess). Yes, there are large tour groups that come and go, but the lobby is huge and there's a little bar off to one side where one can sit and people watch, and the waitress served our humble little bottle of local red wine as if it were a Lafitte. A nice interlude from some otherwise pretty dreary hotels in this part of the world. In the mini-bar, a bottle of water, beer or... more