Exploring Doha

Went for our first big road exploration today. Headed out and the roads were rather quiet... so sort of just kept on going.

First we headed off down Salwa Rd to Ramada Junction to have McDonalds for lunch. Remember what I said previously about fast food, naturally this took a while because we had to wait for it to open at noon, plus the usual s-l-o-w service.
After that we drove up and down the full length of the Al-Corniche and stopped to have a little walk beside the sea… the first time we had done this. Very nice warm sea breezes coming off warm waters, and all really just what you would expect. It has definitively cooled down quite a lot since we got stuck when we couldn’t get a taxi.

We have also finally worked out what happened to Palm Tree Island. It used to be a popular little Palm covered island in the middle of Doha Bay that you would take a short Dhow ride to. Believe it or not they knocked it down in July… now I am not exactly sure how you knock down an island, but here anything is possible. There have been rumours in the paper saying there is going to be a big fountain on it before the games… but now the former Palm Tree Island looks like a big sand bar with 1 or 2 palms on it in the middle of the bay (you can kind of see it in the background).

We then drove around West Bay past the Sheraton past City Centre, then up towards the West Bay Lagoon area where The Pearl is being built passed the Intercontinental and Aladdin’s Kingdom (the local amusement park). The area where The Pearl is being developed is huge as I guess it should be when you decide to build an island that is supposed to house about 40,000 people. Along with the actually island is the Zig Zag Towers, Ritz Carlton Hotel (which is already open), and what looks like a very big canal development.

Drove out of that area and took the wrong turn, so started heading north on the major highway. Very big, fast, straight road and actually had to drive all the way up to Losail MotoGP track until there was a place to turn around (about 10 klms). The highways have huge barriers between the two-way traffic and large fences at the sides of the road.

From what we can work out, these are camel fences, because as soon as you turn off the major road there are very large cattle-type grids across the roads between the fences. Naturally these were not cattle grids, but camel grids (although we didn’t see any camels). Also the land to the north of Doha is very flat, dusty, and probably mostly limestone… no sand dunes, which I think are mostly to the south and west (we shall have to investigate as what is a visit to Qatar without the sand dunes).

Headed back towards the middle of town pass the Doha Golf Club and Qatar University (which looks much bigger than I thought it would). Then decided to have a walk around Al-Bidda Park in daylight and get some touristy photos. Apparently come the cooler months it will be the place to be with boats and amusement rides of some sort (…who knows).

Finally we decided to end our day with an exploration of Toys’R’us. It actually seemed pretty small once we got inside, but as far as large scale toy stores in Doha, we think this is it. Still an experience where we bought the obligatory cars of course!

Doha Sport City Tower

Just found this website (click external title link above) with some details of the huge tower that is being built up the road from our compound.

It is rather impressive to say the least and as with everything else around this part of town I am guessing is supposed to be completed over the next couple of months!!!!

When the road works around Sport City calm down a bit I will go for a walk up the road and get some good photos of the place. Will be an interesting place to visit once the actual games are over and done with. I love the fact there is an observation tower up the top because at the moment there really isn't much to see around this area but construction, but I am sure when everything is all finished it will become a world-class landmark.

Buying in bulk!

One of things you notice when you are shopping here is just how much people buy in bulk. Now when I think of buying in bulk, I remember when mum used to buy meat in NZ in bulk, or think of the big bags of rice you can get from the Asian supermarkets. The case here is that it would seem just about everything is available in bulk. I am not actually sure why because everyone seems to love shopping so it is no drama to pop down to any one of the numerous markets, hypermarkets, or grocery stores to pick up what is needed.

One of the stranger ones to me is tissues; 5 boxes at a time… I don’t get it. I know it is dusty and I know walking in and out of air conditioning makes your nose run sometimes, but I don’t see the need to buy a pack of 5 boxes of tissues (although no doubt we will get around to doing that in the not too distant future). hmmm just had a thought… maybe it is all related to the bidet thing!

An example is the other day we bought some pasta… well not just some pasta, but rather a bag with 8 or so smaller bags in it which would be more or less enough to last us at least a month (but maybe more). Don’t know why it comes in bulk, but it just does… but this of course leads to another issue. If most people buy in bulk I think they must have heaps of cupboard space in the kitchen… which perhaps provides some sort of explanation of why our kitchen is so big… but we just don’t have the cupboards.

Something else that comes in bulk is chocolate. No, you don’t just buy a chocolate bar here… you buy a box of them. Maybe that should be changed from chocolate, to sweeties and snacks. At the moment we have our junk food cupboard which is full of various bits and pieces that will probably be in there for a couple of months. Just to give you some idea the boxes of Nestle Hushhhh and Tola bars were about 10 Riyals each (24 bars in each). You have to love the Oreo’s!

They love packaging here, and most things are packaged well. What I don’t understand is why do we pay so much for everything in Australia!

Thursday Evening

We went for our first drive to the Corniche this evening. Traffic was not too bad really considering that it is probably equivalent to a Friday evening in Brisbane. Kerry did well considering this was our first real adventure on the roads outside our usual safety zone. It just all takes a little time to get used to.

We had a little walk around Al Bidda Park, which is a “family only park” – no “bachelors” allowed. It is about halfway along Al Corniche Street and while it maybe one of the major children’s playgrounds in the city (or maybe that is just one of the most well-known), it is actually really small (probably the same size as the children’s playground at New Farm Park in Bris). Even so it will be a nice place to escape when the weather cools down a little more.

Quite a few families, but mostly women in black sitting around on the grass while children of various races did what children do when they get to a playground (in other words Ashur had fun). Was a little hot and sticky, but really I don’t think it is too much different from a Bris summer apart from that burning sun during the middle of the day and the level of humidity in the mornings.

Regardless of the park, there was a gorgeous full moon that came up over the Gulf. That’s where it all is very surreal I think. While it is obvious that we are in a foreign country by all the funky scribbly writing, it still seems a bit strange when you sit back and think that just outside Doha Bay is the Arabian Gulf… and then out there in one direction is UAE and in the other is Iran. ‘tis all a big weird actually…

An Upate For All

Hi everyone

Just to let you know we are slowly catching up on all these entries. Make sure you keep on scrolling through the old ones as well as we are still adding and editing some of the posts and addign photos. I thought the easiest way to get this all started was to just treat it like a diary for the first couple of weeks and back-date posts, which means there is heaps to read through. It is just easier than emailing everyone and using up the pre-paid Internet cards.

Kerry has been really busy with her first week of work so hasn't even had a chance to post anything as yet. Our days at the moment consist of getting up around 5am (Ahsur is lucky as he gets to sleep in until 5:30!) We have been heading out on the roads around 6am as it is all still not too busy then. Takes us about 10-15 minutes to get to AJA, but the drive to pick everyone up at 2pm takes anywhere up to 30-40 minutes. Lots of traffic and lots of crazy drivers collecting children from school; both outside and inside the gates! I like Ashur's interpretation of school-time Doha traffic!


Anyway hopefully we will get up to date soon!

I trust everyone is well and we miss you all.
M

First day of school.

First proper journey to school was greeted by the nice site of a camel sitting in the back of a ute… we are noticing the lack of blue heelers in these parts! Unfortunately the school uniforms size 6 upwards aren’t available yet…They’re still on the Jordanian cutting room floor (in bales!). The kids are wearing their own clothes – with most dressing in national dress – guys in thobes and doovers (not the real name – but they look like big tea towels and come in a range of colours…white or red and white!) on their heads and girls in black Abaya’s… and Ashur in shorts, T’shirts and sandals (well I did say “national” costume and he doesn’t like thongs).

Speaking of Abayas – they come in many styles actually…full cloak and some like a long, split jacket. They are really just like any clothing – and you wear a different one each day…most are extremely elaborately decorated in sequins, glass beading, embroidery and printing. They are really quite gorgeous! I am definitely going to get myself a few of these thangs. I have (at times) commented to some of my mothers’ on the beauty of their abaya’s in the hope that I’ll get one as a pressy! In fact, I hint about all sorts of things – from their abaya’s to their flashy gold! Apparently, teachers are laden with lovely REAL gifts at the end of the school year – am just getting in early with my wish list(s).

Our Villa

Have just realised I never got around to uploading some photos of inside our villa.
Will post more comments soon!

Lounge Area








Dining Area








Study Area








Kitchen








Master Bedroom








Second Bedroom








Nanna Bathroom

Petrol

Filled up the car with petrol for the first time. The petrol stations consist of a few rows of pumps under a roof with various guys in blue overalls (the sub-continent expat uniform of choice) who fill the car with fuel and then happily take your money which then disappears into a pocket. Pumps look old and petrol is cheap… of course! From memory you can get two types of unleaded or diesel at the station we go to which is just around the corner (and beside the local KFC); all types of petrol cost the same amount – 0.70 QAR a litre. To give you a better idea, it costs 27 Riyals to fill the car… which all translates into about 25 Australian cents a litre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This of course explains why there are so many cars on the road… and more importantly, so many BIG cars. It also explains why when people are waiting anywhere in their cars they just leave the engine (and air conditioning) going.

Crazy Clarks... Middle East Style

Today Glen enlightened us to the Qatari equivalent of the 2-dollar shop! The 6 Riyal store (which is its actual name along with something Japanese which we have no idea of the meaning) stocks shelves full of all the great stuff every home needs – as seen in any Crazy Clarks but better quality and much better selection…. the majority of things are 6 Riyal…. so nothing over 2.50ish – and its just up the road! Whatever you recieve from us in the post - its guaranteed authentic Bedouin style made in Arabia!!!!! (and cost a fortune)...

Being Neighbourly

We have a friendly Australian woman next door to us – who we only speculated about as she was away for the entire holidays before school commenced. Her name is Glen and has been an international teacher for quite a few years, teaching in Nepal and Thailand. She invited us to dinner in our first few weeks and we took the opportunity to get to know her (considering we thought it was a him for a while!). She cooks fantastic Indian!!! Which was a welcome change to the makeshift meals we were living on at the time. Glen taught us which brand of OJ was palatable and resembled something from home – unlike the watery orange ‘stuff’ we’d been buying. Glen is now a regular with us in the morning traffic on the way to school