Qatar and Dubai - Observations

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It was an extremely busy, hectic week at work, with meetings, new projects and trying to finish one huge report.

Nothing special report, but observations of life in Qatar, or the Middle East in general. First of all - fried chicken. Always! There is KFC, MFC, SFC, etc. But instead of mashed potatoes and biscuits, they come with french fries and a hamburger bun - really? Fast food here is very very prevalent. I'm not a fan of fast food, but I've had more than a fare share, especially since this is served at work.

Another observation is having children ride in the cars in crazy traffic and not be in their car seats. I don't even know if there is a carseat in the car. I get behind these cars with kids standing up between the seats or on the seats, swinging from the upper bars, hanging out of windows and I think WHY?? The traffic here is horrible - we're not talking about driving down a gravel road in BFE Mississippi - we're talking about roundabouts three lanes wide after sitting in an hour long wait. It is seriously frightening!

I also find small things interesting or comical. For instance, often on the radio, they'll play songs up until the last minute of the hour, but rather than waiting for the completion of the song to talk, they just interrupt and go right into their commentary or news story or commercial - it is funny. The call to prayer, especially at sunset also just interrupts the music, but I can see that.

Wednesday, I met with Matt and we ordered some arabic food while going over a couple of projects.

Thursday I had a few different meetings, then met up with Melvin for dinner and later a drink before heading to the airport to return to Dubai. My dinner was meh -shrimp linguine - more like shrimp in heavy cream soup with noodles. We had a drink at the sports bar at Radisson Blu, which was actually a nice little bar. When you go to a bar in Doha, you either have to scan your passport or be a "member" (similar to Salt Lake City); while there are few places to go (Western Hotels), and it is insanely expensive, it is a fairly easy process. Then we got a crazy cab to take us to the airport. He and I were both put in middle seats, and as is usual, I was seated in front of the little ones who have parents that allow them to kick my chair. At least it was only a 45 minute flight.

You don't know how sad I was to totally miss Thanksgiving - that has never ever happened before. If I haven't been with my family, i've had potlucks with friends, or spent the day with their families. Friday, Melvin and I went to McGettigan's for brunch. I was happy to get the porkbelly with mashed potatoes and cabbage, but he really wanted the bbq. They have this bbq advertised on the internet and on the menu as part of the brunch, but we've been twice and both times it "just happens" to be the day that they do not have it. Needless to say, Melvin was not happy. But the manager gave him his card to call ahead next time in case some other random crap reason comes up. The guinness was great and the band was a signifcant improvement over the last time - in fact, they were pretty good and played good nostalgic music.

After brunch, I went to go to the Marina Mall to get a laptop charger as I forgot mine in Doha and I had work to do and lots of miscellaneous projects to work on that were partially my main reason for coing to Dubai in the first place (my internet is good vs my crappy hotel connection). I walked from McG's across Sheikh Zayed Road and to the mall. On the way, I passed a massage parlor and booked a 30 minutes session for the next morning (by the way, it was not the best - I am actually bruised!). I get to the mall - no laptop chargers. It's a small mall, but their advertisement is that they have everything you need - guess not. So, I walk to the Dubai Marina metro station to go to the Mall of the Emirates. (more on this portion of the walk below). I get to the mall and visited FIVE stores before I finally found a place that would give me a charger - a universal one. It works ok to keep it alive, but doesn't charge as the voltages are different. However, I kept getting referred to Dell customer service, which is apparently somewhere near the mall, but is not open on the weekends anyway - really? Super lame.

Well, I was happy to find something that worked, so I relaxed and saw Breaking Dawn at the Gold theater. It is amazing how much better every single theater I've been in in Dubai is about 50 times better than the best one in Doha. Last week, I purchased the more expensive balcony tickets (not much, about 45 riyals) and it was horrible - the seats were torn, the movie kept skipping in the beginning, and if there was a fire, i probably would have died as there was only one entrance and I was in the far corner. Scary! Which brings me to what I had referred to earlier:

Last Sunday, there was a terrible fire in my neighborhood. Tamweel Tower in Cluster U burned up. I believe it is a 35 story tower like mine and somehow the cladding along the outside of the building caught fire and spread throughout like it was doused in kerosene. The fire started at 2am and was fully engulfed by 6am; fire crews managed to get it under control by about 9am. The most amazing thing is that no one was killed. The upper 8 floors were completely destroyed and most other apartments above the 10th floor have some kind of damage. The debris rained down onto the cars below, destroying about 11 vehicles, but still no one was hurt. I can't believe everyone was able to get out. People said between the alarm in the building and the alarms in the two adjacent buildings, plus the emergency response sirens, oh and the windows exploding because of the heat, they were sufficiently alarmed. Which is somewhat of a relief - the alarm in my building has gone off a couple of times, but I cannot hear it well. I think I'll invest in a rope to be able to rapel down from the 26th floor...

Each cluster here consists of three buildings and I guess this one was in the center. The two adjacent buildings were also evacuated as there was a fear it may spread with the wind, but they were fine. The firefighters could not reach above the eighth floor so they used the other buildings to shoot water towards the flames. The people are being housed in various hotels and towers nearby, but many of them are completely out of a home and have little money - here you do not always pay month to month rent; you often pay for a whole year or 6 months up front, so if they just paid for a place, that was a good chunk of savings! Anyway, I hope everything works out for those people as it is obvious fires can happen anywhere at anytime. Of course, now there are signs and flyers posted all over - no cigarette or cigar butts to be tossed (I swear everyone here smokes), no sheesha or bbqs on your balcony, etc. They do take it seriously here, but I still wonder if it happens what I would do....

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Photos

Call to prayer
The call to prayer, especially sunset, interrupts radio and tv

Arabic work dinner
everything comes with fries! But we have hummus, hot mezzah, and a meats plates

Mmmm... Guinness
I hardly get to drink in Qatar, so it is refreshing

Comments

[Amber]

I miss our potlucks too
Spent my 2nd Thanksgiving completely alone here...totally blows! Even though I went all over the place with Dixie, I really miss potlucks with everyone back in Ventura! Whenever you come to visit us in Ventucky, we'll have a big BBQ / potluck with everyone around! :) In the mean time, maybe just get yourself a good smoke alarm for in your apartment, cant be too careful especially when living so high up. Be safe! Miss You!!!

[Romsa]

Porkbelly?
How was that? It looks like an interesting meal. I can't say I've ever had that. Thanks for the pictures and the update. I hope all is well, pookie.