Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Central Market

For some reason only known to us (but obviously forgotten) we hadn’t actually made it to the wholesale market, which is just up the road on the way to AJA, until last weekend. As I keep saying, everything here seems to have at least 2 names and the Central Market… Wholesale Market… Fruit & Vegetable, Fish, Omani, Garden & Livestock Souqs are no different!

The whole area is really quite big with the biggest area devoted to the Fruit and Vegetable Market. There is a central marketplace, as well as several rows of stores running parallel to the marketplace selling the same things (I think maybe more in bulk though). Anyway we went for a walk around the market itself and ended up acquiring an old Arabic man with a wheelbarrow who proceeded to collect our purchases and follow us around. As you would imagine, everything was cheap, but the one thing I can’t quite work out is why all the stalls sell the same produce… it isn’t broken down into types of produce at all, but rather everyone seems to have more or less the same things at the same price. I imagine the guys that run them probably build some sort of relationship with returning customers over time because realistically you only need to go to the first stall through the doorway for everything you need.

Our old Arabic porter took our purchases out to the car for us and when Kerry tried to give him some money he proceeded to go through an “I am breathless” performance… as well as conveying the need for some stuff for his Asthma. Not sure why because she actually asked him how much he wanted rather than just handing over some money to him. Anyway I think he gave up after one more note was handed over. Saves carrying stuff but sometimes it just isn’t worth the hassle!

We also went and walked around the Omani Souq… it should actually be called the drive-thru souq! It is all under one roof with open sides and you can actually drive up to all the stalls and purchase from the comfort of your car if you so choose. There really isn’t much there that isn’t in other places within the Central Market but it is a good place to pick up cheap Frankincense and try to ingnore the smell of dried fish!

Not far from there is the Garden Souq, which is more or less a collection of small gardening shops along one of the back streets. Don't know how come we didn't know this was there before now! Believe it or not most of the plants are actually quite cheap (I guess we automatically thought desert = expensive plants). They also sell a variety of mostly terracotta pots of all shapes and sizes… also cheap! So we now have several pots sitting around outside, plus quite a few flowers stretching their little feet into the (somewhat sandy) soil. We also picked up a hedge trimmer… you may have noticed from the latest “rain” picky that the hedge is now straight! No more waves!

We had a drive around the outer part of the livestock souq and smelt the fish market as we went past (that was enough)! But at the back of where the sheep and goats are kept we came across the camel market. Once again, don’t really know why we hadn’t seen this before. I just presumed it would be a little marketplace where people bring their camels to be sold. It is actually a big area with lots of fences in various states of fallingness, full of camels of various sizes and colours. After only seeing the odd camel in the back of a ute driving down the road, it was a little surprising to see so many in one place… we will have to go for a return visit!


Must say the brown fluffy camels are rather cute (well as far as camels go)... must be their winter coat!

Monday, November 27, 2006

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Wetness...

Well it wasn’t that long ago that when we arrived we heard that some people had never seen rain in Doha so we really didn’t know what to expect (and I guess the same could be said for the whole country). Thinking back now though, I think they must have been people that had only been here since the beginning of the year. Over the past week we have felt cold, seen light rain on and off, plus had a few beautiful sunny days… but today again it is rain… and actually real rain this time.

We awoke to wet ground and dripping drains so it had rained a bit over night… but since I got home from dropping Kerry and Ashur off it has been pretty steady. I guess the funny part about it is that although I now know it does know how to rain in Qatar, I also know most people don’t know that driving in the rain is slightly different from driving on dry roads. The other funny part to it all is that although I said last week that the rain has come in time to clean off all the roads and buildings for the games, now there are other problems… what does happen when brand new roads get waterlogged! Did they test the Games flame to see if it works in the rain! Can they run the opening ceremony in the wet! If they turn on everything at the stadium will it explode into one giant short-circuited electrical blue flame!

…aahhhh I am sure it will be ok and at least everything is green!

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Saturday, November 25, 2006

Ready for the Games?

Finally got around to taking a few photos of Sports City yesterday. Things are looking ready but your guess is as good as ours. The occasional crane appears and then disappears which possibly means they thought everything was done and then remembered there was something more. There has been a helicopter flying around constantly, which is probably a security measure as today is the day they have the full dress rehearsal for the ceremonies. Metal detectors are in place and you can't even get close to the place anymore without clearance.

Sports City Road... across from the entrance to the compound looking up to the main games venue.
Al Waab Street... the entrance to Sports City and those weird "fishing-rod" lights! The tents house the metal detectors and secured entrance.

Khalifa Stadium... the odd crane still in action, but 6 days out from the opening ceremony! The calm before the storm...

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Music to our ears...

We made one of our “essential” purchases from Carrefour a couple of weeks ago… a Hi-Fi system. Ended up getting an LG LX-D6960, which from searching the Web for that model number, doesn’t actually exist (who knows!)… But anyway it has all the things you need like 5 speakers and a sub-woofer, 5 DVD changer, 5.1 & DTS sound, etc… your normal high range mini home theatre hi-fi system. Cost the grand total of QAR 1049 (about $370 AUD) which is somewhere in the region of half the price you would pay in Australia. It was set to Region 2, but the added bonus is after about a minute of playing around it was easily made into a region-free DVD player (got to love redundant technology).

Also bought the Cars DVD to go with it… can’t buy a home theatre system like that without getting something new to watch! DVD’s here are one of the things that aren’t cheap at all. Region 1 DVD’s are imported from the USA on release and cost QAR140 (about $50 AUD), then other various Region Codes (mostly Region 3 or 2) are available for between QAR80-100 (around $30 AUD). I think there is a 15% import tax on both DVD and CD media because CD’s aren’t cheap either; I suppose they have to tax something! Regardless we have also bought Ice Age 2 and Brother Bear 2, just to keep the sanity so we didn’t have Small Soldiers or Cats & Dogs going in the background repeatedly! Maybe we may get around to buying something non-animated one day.

With Free To Air Satellite TV we aren't watching many DVD’s anyway… although we only have about 10 English language channels compared to the 100+ Arabic ones. I am not actually sure why, but we don’t get Qatar TV through our service. They have QTV2 which is a English language channel… would be interesting to see, but given what we have seen of the Saudi English language channel it would be more for humour value rather than actually having anything worthwhile on it. Maybe we will get cable one day, but broadband comes first by far and hopefully we will get the application for that done soon. No doubt getting that on will not be a quick process as I am sure most of the Q-Tel staff are tied up with the Games.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Michael’s RP Process

Kerry hasn’t got around to posting about her RP process (but will eventually), but mine has been very long and drawn out. The whole thing has been thrown into chaos due to the influx of Games workers (or at least this is what we have been told). Added to this is the fact the system and locations are being updated, for example where the fingerprinting used to be done (and where Kerry had hers done) has now changed to a brand new building with new equipment (no more ink), which is located across the road from the compound. They are slowly moving the medicals from one location to several centres throughout Doha, but this has yet to take effect.

So after the initial blood typing which was done so long ago I have had to wait for Kerry to get her RP as the primary sponsored worker, as have all dependents whether they are working for AJA or not. This means I couldn’t get in for the medicals until 2 weeks ago and have only just come back from my second attempt at getting the fingerprinting done.

The medicals process consisted of heading off to the Medical Commission that is located very close to AJA with a number of other AJA-related people including Kerry and Ashur. Kerry needed to get some form filled in and that was the process completed for Ashur… no medicals or fingerprinting needed for child dependents under 15.

While that was taken care of I had to head off the “men’s section” to wait in a room with many others. We sat in rows of chairs waiting for our turn at the windows… every time someone went to a window you were gestured to move along a chair. This meant we slowly snaked our way up and down about 6 or 7 rows of chairs… sit down, stand up, shuffle along, sit down, stand up, shuffle forward a row, sit down… you get the idea! The mysterious windows consisted of handing over some money, getting a digital photo taken while you are standing there waiting, and being given some form.

Next you head off to the next room… the process is actually numbered and graphically represented on the wall… 1. money, 2. medicals, 3. blood, 4. x-ray…

When I walked towards the desk located in the middle of everything else, a man pointed next door to number 4 – x-ray. Always the sceptic I was a little worried about this as I know everything needs to follow the correct procedure around here otherwise you run the risk of having to start all over again! Anyway not one to go against the grain I headed towards door number 4 and then into a little room where I found about 10 Indians standing around with their shirts off talking and laughing. Once joined by other AJA people, as well as various other men from one country or another the whole thing possessed some weird locker room imagery with a few men and teens of Arabic and sub-continent decent giggling and not wanting to take shirts off until the last minute and so on… no nipple-cripples or wedgies that I saw, but I was just trying to ignore it all! Anyway the x-ray was quick and painless, as most x-rays are… no one grabbed me shouting “oh my god” so I am guessing everything was where it should be and looked as it should look.

Next I had to head back to the counter where I was given a red stamp on my form and a small test tube. After joining yet another que (as you do), I walked into a little room, sat down while a very polite man jabbed me in the arm while I looked the other way… that was it… hhmmmmm! It would seem I got the good one, as many people made statements regarding pain, large bruises, or lumps coming up on their arms. I have seen it… I heard pain… saw blood… as I said; I think I got the good one!

…and that was it. I never got to see what was behind door number 2… the medicals room. I am guessing that this part of the process may be for those that enter the country without a valid medical certificate, something we had to get in Australia before leaving.

After a wait of a few days, my name appeared on the “fingerprinting list”. As the new fingerprinting place (CID) had just opened I don’t think Gulam was up to speed on the ins and outs of the new system… This resulted in the first time I went being shuffled around through a few waiting areas and one of the policemen getting rather annoyed with Gulam for not doing this or that; too many people from AJA at once, or not submitting the correct form first, or something else. Anyway it all ended with us being shuffled out of the VIP section, then them accepting 5 people to process… After waiting to see if anything changed for a while I just headed home.

The next fingerprinting list was for this morning, so once again a group of us headed off to the CID building with Gulam. Same policeman… and still not happy with Gulam for something said harshly in Arabic several times. Anyway with only three “men” we were allowed into the VIP section, given our forms and number to wait… then shuffled over to another building where some very polite men proceeded to do our fingerprinting very quickly. The system is now computerised and users hybrid photocopiers rather than the old ink and paper method that was used up until a few weeks ago. No pain, no mess, no fuss… just seems that getting in the door has a particular protocol that needs to be followed.

So after signing a yet another form and handing back my passport to Gulam, then giving him and his offsider (no idea who he is but was carrying Gulam’s bag for him) a lift back to AJA, I’m done. It has taken 3 months, but I was assured I would have my RP, Passport and ID Card by the end of the week. Just as well as my temporary drivers license expires in a few days and I need all my papers back to get a permanent one. Hopefully that wont turn into yet another adventure, but in the back of my mind I am thinking it wont be as easy as it should be…

...we shall wait and see!

Monday, November 20, 2006

The games of someones life...

Well it is under two weeks until the Asian Games start and things continue to progress; apparently there are early round football matches already on. It is so easy to focus on the negative aspects of the games (as many do), with doubts filtering in whether everything will be ready and the disruptions that are begin caused to “normal” life. Quite simply put… not everything is finished and nor will it be, but they will make the most out of what they have… secondly, the disruption to normal living is evident and continues. This runs from the speeded up road works and the opening and closing of roads and traffic diversions, through to prices rising or possibly not coming back down after Ramadan and Eid (even the souq operators are more hesitant to haggle).

Among the funnier things we have seen was one night when we were passing along Al Waab (the main road leading to the stadium). This has gone from being far from completed to being “nearly there” in what seems only a couple of weeks. The laying of pavers on the medium strips is being done late into the night, but do they have high-powered lights set up so they can actually see what they are doing? No, they are using the headlights of their cars. Ok so it does the job, but I wonder how long the paving will last!

We had a drive along the Corniche on the weekend and it is all looking very green and clean. Lots of flags are flying and overpasses are either in place or “nearly there” crossing the road (the cycling and road running is being held there). Cruise liners have arrived in the harbour to provide extra accommodation.


...flags flying, grass greening, flowers flowering...

...overpasses... well... passing over!

Not sure why the bottom of all the palm trees have all been painted white, but the cruise-liners are slowly arriving to provide extra spectator rooms.


...and just in case the cruise-liners run out of rooms as well!

Wooden barriers are up on the corners of roads to cover up construction sites and empty lots… covered in Games images of course. They even cleared up across the road from our compound, which until now has consisted of piles of sand and rock. Don’t know where it was all taken to, but it happened overnight as it was obviously a bit too close to event locations. Karwa taxis have all but vanished from the roads, as most of the taxis and buses (as well as their drivers) have been seconded by the organising committee to ferry athletes and officials. Apparently one of the newspapers counted 1000 cabs sitting in the lot waiting for the Games out of the total of 1300-1400 Karwa cabs (not bad).

So they are actually getting it all together… “the games of your life…”

There is something missing though… it really all looks so “Western”. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I suppose promoting how “developed” Qatar is will be great for the country, but unfortunately in some cases “developed” seems to equal “western”. As far as this particular event is concerned, “developed” also seems to equate to Australian… not as strange as it sounds! The mascot for the Games is Orry Oryx… and no offence, but I don’t know of many countries that would come up with a name like that outside of Australia. The same company that did the opening and closing ceremonies for the Sydney Olympics is running the Doha ceremonies. Australian songwriters have written the Games song. “…the games of your life…” is the slogan and the “Friendship Flame” is about to return to Qatar after doing the rounds of Asia; of course both have that Aussie ring to it. The best money can buy maybe, but yet again it just seems to lack that sense of authenticity that I am continually searching for here.

I don’t know if anyone else will feel this way, but from Michael the marketing guy’s viewpoint it all seems to be doing a major disservice to this region along with it’s history and culture. I just hope that given time while the Asian Games may continue the process of putting Qatar on the map, it will be the countries unique culture, history, environment and lifestyle that keeps it there.

It's raining again!

aahhhhhh... 21 degress and light rain... 'tis a beautiful morning in Doha!

...just in time to clean off the latest layer of dust... someone is smiling down upon the Games organisers!

Friday, November 17, 2006

The Burnt Out Towers

The burnt out twin towers are a bit of a local (little mentioned) landmark on West Bay.

What do you do when you have two incomplete buildings that have had two separate pretty major fires in them within the 6 months during late 2005 – early 2006! You just leave them alone until you can work out what to do with them… maybe you could knock them down; maybe you could fix them... if you are lucky they may just disappear!

What do you do with said fire damaged buildings when you know millions of eyes from all over Asia (plus many from outside of the Asian region no doubt) are going to be focused on your capital city… ahhh, cover them with shade cloth and hope the wind isn't too strong! Maybe no one will notice!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Old (Current) Airport

Went for a drive the other day to show Kerry where the Traffic Dept I had to go to was. After all this time I have only just worked out that when you see reference to the “old airport” area, it isn’t actually where the old airport “was” but rather is where the old airport is (as in the current airport). If you follow that!

Ever since the plans were laid for the new airport, which is under construction (and will continue to be an artists impression for another couple of years still), the area beside the airport has been called Old Airport… which is more or less Najma where the apartments that some of the AJA staff are housed are. Anyway as we were driving down Oqba Bin Nafie (the road the traffic dept is on and don’t ask for a pronunciation) we saw just how close it is to the airport!


Al Matar (road), which is also known as Old Airport Road is at the end of Oqba Bin Nafie… but of course they are currently rebuilding Al Matar, so maybe it will be called New Old Airport Road! As far as I can tell most roads seem to have at least two names, and of course even if you can pronounce the Arabic name the chances of anyone knowing what you are talking about are pretty limited. Hence everyone takes directions from landmarks and roundabouts, but the newer issue here is that some of the roundabouts have been replaced with traffic lights, so the intersections have become “interchanges” rather than roundabouts. So even they have their old roundabout name and their newer interchange name. I guess the funny thing is that since most of the Karwa taxi drivers are relatively new to Qatar, many of them really have little idea where they are going… no wonder!

Ah but we are now locals... or at least we can always head towards the tower that can be seen from just about everywhere (as long as they turn the lights on) and pretend we are never lost!

Sunday, November 12, 2006

November rolls along

Well November is progressing along nicely and we are all well… first two weeks have been taken up with AJA and shopping trips… a normal life… the weather continues to cool down… cats continue to congregate by the back door when it is open and they are feeling hungry… our villa continues to become more like home, as does Doha… oh and of course Games preparations continue (more about that later though)!

I have been applying for jobs still and my search has now extended beyond Qatar (if I was to get something elsewhere, we can deal with it if it eventuates). I honestly have lost count of the number of positions I have applied for in Doha. It isn’t that the work isn’t here, but I really want to get something substantial (preference for an internationally recruited position with at least some of the “expat package” benefits). For the moment though everything in Qatar seems destined to continue the way it is for at least another month with the singular focus on the Asian Games… to be honest I am looking forward to getting the whole thing over and done with so we can experience this place under normal conditions. It feels a little like it has been one thing after another thus far with the initial settling in, then Ramadan followed by Eid, and now with the Games and winter holidays approaching… role on mid-December.