Where's A Taxi When You Need One!

Today was an adventure! That is the best way to describe it anyway.

This morning we headed off by bus to City Center Mall once again, partly to exchange the sandals I had got from Carrefour last time we were there, but also just to get away from the compound area (can start to feel a little isolated out here at times).

We actually got out there a bit before 10am so nothing was really opened, so did what so many seem to do and sat at Starbucks and had a coffee. I have read previously that coffee houses have always been a popular meeting place for locals. With the introduction of the franchises, they are equally popular. There were a few groups of Qatari’s sitting around pondering the days events and watching the world pass by. Is always funny to see men smoking in these places regardless of the no-smoking signs being plastered everywhere. I think it tradition is a difficult thing to compete with (and possibly ownership as well).

Anyway had the obligatory wander around and then ventured into Carrefour once again, which we discovered is open 8am to midnight (hows that for convenience). We decided to catch a taxi to Souq Waqif, the old one in what to a non-local, seems like the middle of Doha. First thing of interest – the taxi driver wasn’t actually sure at first where we wanted to go (Q is pronounced like a G).

One thing that seems to come up in conversations is that many of the Karwa taxi (the new “public transport” taxis) driver’s haven’t been in Doha very long so probably aren’t used to bad pronunciations or directions. They are very quickly taking all the old and privately run taxis off the road and importing new drivers (I am sure there is logic behind this beyond the fact the old taxis just look scary).

We made it to the old souq in one piece and it looked exactly like you would expect… many narrow lanes going off in various directions with many dark interested faces watching your every move trying to entice you through their doors. Actually not many off the stores were opened because as silly as westerners on their first trip there would be, we actually didn’t think about the fact that:

1. Nearly everything in this part of Doha is closed between 12-4pm
2. Not all the stores even bother to open during the morning session

The first place to entice our interest (actually Kerry’s desire for a bargain) was a small little Abaya store. I think the owner spotted tourists – we were already carrying bags from Carrefour, plus we were there at the wrong time of the day. He proceeded to hold one of the full-face veils (can’t remember their name) over his face, and then demonstrate how to wrap a headscarf. With a little shrewd bargaining (from Kerry of course) we walked out of there with a scarf, but no veil. I actually thought him holding the veil over his face was a little disturbing! Anyway our first time in a souq, our first store, and a purchase made – would you expect anything less.

We were then approached by an old sun-worn face of a man pushing a wheelbarrow. He managed to communicate the concept of “taxi” and “2 riyal”. Now stupidly I will admit I thought he wanted to either push all of us (which would have just been hilarious), or at the least Ashur (which would have been just as funny) around… the idea of our bags didn’t occur to me at first. Obliviously he was one of the men who push your purchases around in wheelbarrows and then take them to your car (or taxi as the case may be) for you.

There is something I have worked about this… and it might just be me, I’m not sure yet! While it is said that tipping is not required here, there is something to be said for the concept of sharing the wealth. To me at that point in time I thought the idea of giving someone even the measly amount of QAR 2 to carry a couple of bags was silly, because I don’t want someone following me around for 50 cents! But really what it is about is an endless stream of very low paid workers trying to make some extra Riyals here and there… whether it is a little old man in the souqs pushing around wheelbarrows, the guys who sit at the filling stations waiting for cars to pull up, or the little guys who want to pack your bags and take your trolley from you as you leave a hypermarket. They all see westerners as being well paid and if they think, “what difference does a few Riyal here and there make”, they are probably right. I just don’t really like the idea of someone (no matter who they are or where they are from) serving me… at the same time that will probably pass with time.

Anyway after working out that everything was closing as we were walking around and also feeling how hot it was getting we decided to try to get a taxi home and leave further exploration to another time. The taxi driver that took us there told us that we would be able to get one near the bank, so we strolled up there and waited for a little while… no luck! We then decided to walk around the front of HSBC, which is on the corniche… still no luck!

Something that was realised very quickly, there is a very good reason why you don’t get stuck in the sun in the middle of the day! It was hot! We found a tree to wait under, and then a friendly Arabic man stopped to help wave down a cab for us… still no luck. He gestured for us to follow him around the corner, as that was the way we were heading… now I am not sure how long we were standing around for but it felt like a long long time! The sun was hot, we were thirsty, Kerry had to carry Ashur… it was not fun.

After a little more time on the corner a women from the parking lot behind us called out from her car to find out where we were going and said she would take us. It turned out that she was a “policeman” that had just come off duty, and understood (more or less) where we needed to go. At that point in time any offer to get Ashur out of the sun was a good one. I think it was the family thing… I am pretty sure if we were a group of “bachelors” we would have been standing around for a lot longer. Unfortunately she didn’t speak a lot of English (but Kerry did manage to have snippets of a conversation with her along the way), nor did she understand the road map we had! But she did spend a lot of the drive on her mobile phone… don’t know if it was asking directions or just having a general chat with friends about the silly westerner family that were standing out in the midday sun that she was rescuing. We did go pass AJA, so she understood Kerry was a teacher, and I managed to give directions from there with only one missed turn.

We were driven all the way to our front door, which we said wasn’t needed. We actually tried to get her to drop us off out the front of the compound, but she proceeded to go through the boom gate (which the security guys opened very quickly on seeing her uniform). We showed great appreciation and gave as much thanks as we could… did think about offering money, but not sure about that one so didn’t… she was a policeman after all!