Eid Mubarak - Happy Eid!

Today is the first day of Eid Al-Adha, which for us means it is one of the few days where things are actually closed! There is a link above about this one if you are interested in reading more.

Australia riding on the sheep’s back?

With Eid al-Adha approaching, the price of sheep has been reported to be increasing… all very exciting huh!

Not much point trying to explain this whole Eid thing in detail at the moment, but basically it includes distributing meat to the poor. To meet the demand for sheep there has been an increase in imports leading up to this time, and the prices are the thing I cannot work out at all…. Sudanese and Iranian sheep are going for QAR700-800, you can get Syrian sheep on the black market for QAR1000+ (apparently the most sort after)… and the lowly little Australian sheep are going for QAR370!!!!!

Doesn’t this all seem a little strange? Possibly the cheap Australian sheep is somehow tied into oil imports or something, but maybe this has something to do with why Australian farmers are doing so badly… maybe Australia just doesn’t have very good sheep to ride on anymore! The only thing I know for sure is you can buy Australian sheep cheaper in Qatar than you can in Australia and that just all seems a little strange.

Al Khor & Simaismah

Drove up to Al Khor today, which is about 20 minutes north of Doha. I suppose though the 20 minutes depends on where you consider the northern part of Doha to finish. It is really about 20 minutes north of West Bay, which means it is about 45 minutes from home.

Along the highway we past camels which was nice… I was thinking this was the first time we had seen any in the wild, but latter it occurred to me that it was more than likely a “camel farm” if there is such a thing (which I am guessing there is). Still was nice to see them wandering along the side of the road going about their camel business. With the high fences and camel grids on the side roads there isn’t really any chance of them venturing onto the road, but I have read of cars hitting them and doing much damage to both car and camel… just don’t think this happens on the highways, unless they manage to jump off the back of a ute… I don’t think they are that eager to get off when they are going for a ride though… they look like they enjoy it too much!

OK... so only one camel, but with them wandering one way and us driving the other it was the only one that made a photo!

Anyway really don’t have anything nice to say about Al Khor so best not say anything at all beyond the fact they do have a little Al Corniche and a bit of a beach with a park, but with a lot of road works going on there, you really don’t get to see much of it at the moment.

We decided to head back to Doha via any exit that went back out to the coast… we ended up in a seaside village called Simaismah, a very small little community. This place has a very flat tidal beach with sludgy muddy sand once you head off the first couple of metres of beach, and at one end there is a long rock wall with small fishing boats (not Dhows though, but rather small white boats). There were lots of shells to collect, and we returned home with yet another bag full as well as some broken tiles to put in the garden. Another nice afternoon wandering along with cool sea breezes blowing making us wish we had on warmer clothes!

Al Wakra

We went for a drive down to Al Wakra today, which is the nearest town to Doha heading south along the coast. Really it seems like an outer suburb as it is only a few minutes along the open highway, but does have the history of being it’s own entity over time so is not considered as being a southern part of Doha.

After sitting in the park feeding the wildlife (re: cats) bits of KFC we headed down onto the sand. At the southern end is the fishing harbour, which seemed very sleepy but did have many fishing Dhows tied up (looked like more than in Doha), and what looked like a couple of sand football pitches (if there is such a thing… but there were goal posts set up).

The beach at Al Wakra is a wide tidal beach with clumps of mangroves and the odd car part giving the sand bars something to grab hold of. We spent what seemed like a couple of hours wandering along sand and wading through shallow warm waters searching for shells. We even found a few unopened pearl shells, but when opened unfortunately didn’t have any little pearls in them. A nice way to spend an afternoon and will be even nicer when it starts to warm up a little… so somewhere we shall return to!

Al Corniche

This afternoon we headed off to Sheraton Park to have a little walk around what is more or less to top end of the Corniche. The park itself is really not much of anything apart from a nice large grassy area, but it is a nice section of the Corniche with the Dhow jetty that used to ferry people across to Palm Island plus there are places you can sit on the steps beside the water (not as nice as it could be since it is still pretty cold here in the afternoons).

We went down onto the rocks and tiny beach (a little bit of sand that has been caught by the jetty) and discovered lots of little shells. Think of normal shells, but shrink them! Most of them are not much bigger than large grains of sand, and all rather cute (well as cute as tiny shells can be). Anyway we did come home with a handful of Arabian Gulf shells regardless of how small they are!

Christmas in Qatar

Well while Christmas is just another working day here (well for those not on holidays), we were surprised at the amount of stores with decorations and Christmas trees. Yes, even in Qatar you can buy all your Christmas needs and the freezer sections are full of turkeys!

Anyway a Merry Christmas to all!

(The Australian phone system stills doesn't seem to be able to handle the yearly spike for Christmas phone calls)

Islam

We seem to be gathering quite a few things about Islam as there is a Ministry here that sets up stalls on a regular basis to communicate the masses. They aren't out there trying to convert people, rather it simply seems to be an exercise in education. We have been given a few books and booklets since our arrival including a English translation of the Qur'an. Anyway the best place I have found to get a basic overview of Islam is the Wikipedia page so I have put a link in the post title above. Being in an Islamic country it is helpful to have a basic understanding of what unerpins the culture and society.

The Closing Ceremony - Doha Asian Games

Well we went to the closing ceremony last night... and in one word, spectacular!

40,000+ people waiting in anticipation... it was all worth the wait!

We will get around to posting some photos and comments soon (promise)... so check back soon!

Doha Players Theatre

The other day we went past the old Doha Players Theatre; the only location of a terrorist attack in Qatar. They haven’t done much to the building since then either! It is all a bit weird really, but I suppose it is a reminder that even in a country that feels as safe as Qatar these thing can happen. That may sound strange coming from someone from Australia, but in all honesty this place feels far more peaceful and safe (well apart from on the roads at times). I think they should think about leaving this building the way it is to remind everyone that this should never happen again.

Have put the link above if you want to read more about the 19th of March 2005.

Eclect-O-Retro returns

Well it has taken a few months (and we still do not have broadband) but with the wet weather and holidays continuing, the eBay store is once again active.

Islamic Heritage Exhibition

We went to yet another exhibition running in conjunction with the games today. This time it was the Islamic Heritage Exhibition located at Al Resala Girls School near West Bay.

We were greeted at the door with Arabic coffee, dates and a traditional type of sweet. Kerry can’t do the Arabic coffee because of the cardamom so she cleverly swapped cups after I had nearly drunk all of mine. We were then guided into a room, which had been set up to look like the facades of the most important mosques with a replica of the Kaaba (the black stone building in the middle of the Sacred Mosque in Makkah) in the middle. We were given very well rehearsed explanations of the mosques, the Quran, as well as the Kaaba itself. As well as this there were little exhibits about some of the nearby countries like Oman, Lebanon, etc, with the odd handicrafts here and there.

We were also taken through some of things that are have a great importance to Islam such as honey , brushing your teeth with a “stick” (from an Iraqi tree that I can’t remember the name of), “cupping” (which to me seem much more like blood letting), and the qualities of Makkah water from the well inside the Sacred Mosque (which we were given a little cup of). All of which had interest value and we even bought some extra “toothbrush” sticks!

Permanent Driving Licenses

We decided to see what we could do about getting our permanent driving licenses as now we have the residence permits and both of our temporary licences had expired. Rather than go along and try to take care of the process ourselves we thought we would give Mr Mustafa (the licensing guy who had help those from AJA with the temporary ones) a call and see if he could help or not.

We got the photocopies ready that we knew were required and the QAR200 each that we knew he charged. Then Kerry gave him a call, which ended in his location getting lost in translation, but he said he would come to us instead… he ended up on our doorstep to collect everything within an hour. Not the easiest man to understand, after some confusion we worked out that because Kerry is my sponsor she had to provide a letter stating it was ok for me to have a license… this letter involved her signing at the bottom of one of the blank photocopied pages and him taking that away to type the letter in Arabic (you seem to put a lot of faith into the people who type stuff in Arabic for you, but what else are you going to do). He also asked for another QAR100 to cover the extra worked involved with mine (apparently)…

At about 6:30pm (he did say something about 6-7pm) he turned up on our doorstep once again with a big smile and handshake… as well as the documents and photos that weren’t needed… and most importantly our licenses! Don’t actually know how he did this as the license section is only open at certain times and he technically shouldn’t have been able to get mine until the following day.

All a bit strange and really don’t know what these people do, or how they do it… but it would seem that once you know what to do and who to do it through, you can do it for a lot of people for a fee!

Sports City at Night

We went up to Sports City again tonight as they have traditional Asian music playing across two stages between 6-9pm, not to mention all the people and bright lights. We strolled around for a little while and watched some Indonesian musicians and then headed to the other stage to watch some drummers from Malaysia doing their thing. All very impressive… although there is only so many summersaults someone can do over a drum before it drags on a little. Sat and had a coffee and watched Ashur watching and saying hello to anyone and soaking in all the lights!

The most important part of the evening was after trying to get tickets to something, somehow Kerry managed to walk away with tickets to the closing ceremony! Not sure about this since we were told a few days ago that it was sold out… apparently not! We may not be going to see any of the sporting events but I think going to at least one of the ceremonies will make up for it all!

Rain continues (on and off)

Well it has now officially become the wettest December in 42 years! So much for deserts being dry I say! Admittedly “wettest” translates into about 25-30 mm of rain, but it seems much wetter as most of it just lies around until the sun appears once again to start the evaporation process… puddles and potholes are appearing (and getting bigger) and really not going anywhere… but everything is green (and a bit slushy)!

Asian Games Tickets

We tried to get tickets to a few things over the past couple of days, but everytime we come up with somehting we think would be worth going to, it seems sold out. It seems either everything has sold out because of the low ticket prices (most are QAR 5 or 10), or there is something not quite right with the computer system between the Internet sales, the kiosks, and the outlets... anyway we are going to try again!

Rentals Cars

We received an email from our rental car company today letting us know that they hadn’t taken the payments from the credit card for the last 3 months. This technically means that we had only paid 2 weeks worth of rental for 3 ½ months! Apparently they like to have personal approval each monthly payment and hadn’t got through to us on the phone or something along those lines.

So anyway after a quick phone call and some directions we headed off to the industrial area to fix up the payments. I just thought it was funny that the company would let one of their cars be out there on the roads, while letting the payment lapse for three months. They are going to come over in a few days to replace the car so they can take care of the little dent from our accident and give the car it’s first full service… we have driven 5000 klms since we arrived!

The Sports City Doha

We decided to get into the spirit of everything at the moment and head up to Sports City to soak in some of the Games atmosphere and more than anything, just to have a look around… After walking around the fence to get to the entrance which included us going through metal detectors and everything else passing through xray machines we entered what is a a huge complex! With the Khalifa Stadium, Aspire Complex and basketball stadium spread out throughout the place… as well as the tower, womans club and a very funky looking mosque, it took a fair bit of walking to get around. Sore feet, but all well worth the look and all very impressive!

KandA outside Khalifa Stadium

Aspire - The undercover stadium not really looking as impressive as it really is!

The basketball stadium with some locals wandering one way as we wander the other

MandA tower gazing!

Apart from the sporting venues there was another group of exhibitions set up by the museums authority at the Woman’s Club. In various rooms within the building there was “Dawn of Photography” (which had some very funky and old cameras, photography, and a huge stereoscopic viewer that you sit up and look at some rather old Middle Eastern images). Also there was a display from the Qatar Weaponry Museum, “Weapons to Sports” which traced the history of sports such as fencing and archery etc (also another beautiful “bargain” book). There was also the Philatelic & Numismatic Exhibition (stamps and coins galore), Asian Visual Art Exhibition, Asia in Photography Exhibition and the Architecture Through Photography Exhibition. Finally, if all that hadn’t kept you occupied for a while, outside the building was a display of sand sculptures.

Sand looking very well sculptured

Food World

Food World, which seems an appropriate name for a store that sells food, is our “bread shop”. It has become known as the bread shop because it is the nearest place that sells Bateel Bakery white bread… soft and squishy white bread without the overdose of sugar that much of the white bread here seems to consist of. The actual sweet white bread here is called Milk Bread. I am not sure as to the relationship between milk and sugar, but I can assure you it does exist. Food World is the usual medium sized food store with bits and pieces of everything ranging from food to perfumes, and the upstairs is currently going through renovations and clothes through to whitegoods are appearing. It is just up on Salwa Road, and really is only just around the corner. Also in the small row of stores is a bookshop, pharmacy and TATA truck and bus “store”. For those that don’t know, Tata buses are big scary Indian vehicles that are very chunky and solid, and many are driven in a bit of a scary manner… we call them potato buses!

Across the road is Al Jazira petrol station… another one of those translations that are evident here. You get used to seeing Al Jazeera written, but of course all the translations from Arabic to English are phonetic so there is normally at least a couple of spellings floating around… and no, that isn’t a ghost making its way across the road… just another local taking his life into his own hands crossing Salwa Rd!

On the way home snapped this photo of Sports City… the Asian Games in full swing! The little street lights in the foreground at the bottom of the picture is our compound.

Qatar Museum Exhibits – Sheraton & Palace

During the Games, Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) have set up a number of exhibitions around town to entertain and educate the masses. I think all the mini-exhibitions contain parts of greater collections that are normally housed in the Museum (which is currently closed for renovations), the Photographic Museum (which is currently under construction; and only just), the Museum of Islamic Arts (which looks finished but doesn’t open until next year), and some other places around town we have yet to discover. But to make things easier the nice people at QMA have nicely set up these exhibitions in central locations for us all.

Today we headed off to one of the conference halls at the Sheraton Hotel – Al Majlis Hall. In this one location we were treated to “Lost World Returns” (dinosaur bones and bits and pieces), “Mughal Jewellery Exhibition” (a nice collection of very old and impressive Indian bling) and the “Traditional Costumes Exhibition” (which I guess is self-explanatory).

A couple of things that we were more impressed with than anything else were the freebies. The first thing was all these exhibitions are free. As you walk in to each section you are handed a rather nicely produced soft cover book with lots of photos and explanations of the exhibition. Apart from that Ashur was given three bags of goodies as we wandered around… one QMA bag of goodies, another for the dinosaur exhibition, and then a final one, which had a very nicely boxed QMA branded coffee set (I think that one may have been meant for the parents). We also purchased a beautiful “Lost World Returns” book which only cost 50 QAR; apparently a special price during the games, which doesn’t really make sense since the exhibition is only on during the games… but very cheap regardless!

After that we headed off to Fahd Bin Ali Palace, just next to the beautiful mosque behind Emiri Diwan (the closest thing we have to a government house here). Here we were treated to some classic cars from one of the Sheiks private collections, the “Qatari Historical Photos Exhibition”, and “From Cordoba to Samarkand” (some key works from the Islamic Arts Museum). All very impressive and another no cost venue… although a bit light on the “freebies” this time around! Once again though we bought ourselves a beautiful book on the Islamic Artworks for a “games special” QAR 50!

As a side note, the wind when we were leaving the Palace was the coldest we have felt here… believe it or not it felt icy!

The Opening Ceremony

The 15th Asian Games began last night with a bang! Many bangs to be honest…

Friday was a yuck day… windy, overcast, and quite a bit of rain. Not the best conditions for the Opening Ceremony at all. We actually drove past the site earlier in the day and apart from everything being wet, there was of course still work going on. As the afternoon rolled into evening the weather continued being pretty horrible, but dry and warm at home we flicked through the numerous Al Jazeera Sports channels and found one that was doing the English language telecast.

It actually started… hhmmm… interestingly is the best way to describe it all. Orry’s riding around on bicycles and running around in the rain being chased by children. Very Sydney Olympics, minus the kangaroos… looked like “insert national animal mascot here” sort of thing. But after a little while of that and come the “official” start time, the rain finally stopped and the whole thing got under way with the sell-out crowd looking like they were having fun, albeit wet and wind blown. We couldn’t here it from home, but it was all very impressive and made us wish we were there. Although the sitting in the rain for a few hours before the ceremony got under way would have been no fun!

I am guessing that most of the world saw the flame being lit… the horse (which was bought and trained in Australia) nearly slid over just before it made it to the top, but obviously someone was looking down on the whole event. As a side note, the reason stated for using Australian horses was that Arabian horses are far too intelligent and stubborn to perform a feat such as running up the number of stairs and the ramp… also there are no hills high enough in Qatar to train them on (suppose that makes sense).

Once flames (both the one in the stadium and the other on the tower) were lit the fireworks started, which dragged just about everyone from the compound on to the street to watch… the normal firework-type “oohhhssss” & “aahhhsss” were heard in many languages!

Overall the ceremony was impressive… the best money can buy! Admittedly some of it didn’t seem to make sense but that was probably because the enormity of what was going on was better to see in person rather than on a little TV screen. I still like the guy’s furry hat with the lights in it… he looked like he was having fun – for anyone who saw the ceremony you would know what I mean!

Kitten becomes “Kitten”

Well it has taken a few months but the little kitten that was hanging around not long after we arrived has finally become “pet” friendly. She now spends most of her time around home and comes in for scratches. “Kitten” (appropriate name for at least a few more months) can be seen most evenings either snuggled up beside one of us on the couch having a nap and sitting on a lap having a pat. 'tis all rather cute!

Michael Got ID

It has taken many months but I finally became “legal” the other day and I am now in proud possession of a Qatari ID card and my passport. Yes, it has finally been returned to me with the addition of a full-page sheet stuck in there… apparently that page is actually my Residents Permit and quite impressive I must say! But it does say “Family Vis” which makes Kerry my sponsor. Rather generous of her to sponsor me I think, so I guess I better do some more cooking, cleaning and driving or she may just have me deported!