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Published: July 17th 2006
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Salaam Alaykum!!!
A big hearty hello from Doha, Qatar!
Having been in this dirty old town for a month now, it’s about time we gave you a few little insights into life on the Arabian Peninsula…
Doha is very hot. But we’ve adjusted well irrespective of the 50 degree temperature change from our little old lives in F.N.J.! Average temperatures for the past month have been around 45degrees C, with the humidity variable on a daily basis. Variable also is the amount of desert sand that gets whipped up into the air creating, on some days, a beige haze over the whole city. The fact that the city is almost 100% under construction adds to the joy…gritty sand sticks to your sweaty face and the cuffs and pockets of your pants accumulate a minor beach by the end of the day.
We have been living at the Multiplex villa, which is in West Bay, a swanky new area of town with healthy looking date palms, grass on the median strips and high rise towers springing up like a plague of mushrooms in a bare backyard. The villa is ginormous. It has about 10 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and
2 large living zones. We have very much appreciated the efforts of Tek, our Nepali houseboy, over the past month, who has dutifully relieved us of all household chores, bless him 😊
But we’re soon to be in a place of our own in an area called Bin Omran. Finding accommodation over here is not fun. The market is completely inflated as a result of huge demand and minimal supply. Many of the villas and apartments are sitting empty, waiting for the influx of people for the Asian Games in December. The rents have risen by up to 300% in the past year or two, so we too have had no choice but to sign up for a small, 2 bedroom apartment for an extortionate amount of money…what can you do?! It’s a brand new building with 18 apartments and ours is on the 2nd floor. From the rooftop we can see the corniche, the ‘bay’ of the gulf that is the pride of Doha. Although brand new, the apartment gets handed over to the lessee without even having a final builder’s clean so we have half a desert in each bedroom as a result of the holes in
the wall for where the airconditioners go, paint globules on the tiled floors, silicone missing between the glazing and frame…the defects list goes on! So the past week has been shop shop shop for furniture, whitegoods, A/C’s, wardrobes, linen, crockery etc. We have spent a small fortune but we’re starting to get really excited about the move and will hopefully be in our own little pad very soon.
Bin Omran is a fairly centrally located area of Doha. The city is not huge, so we’ll be accessible to both of our workplaces, the corniche and the souqs (markets) in the city center. The area seems to house predominantly Indians, Pakistanis, Phillipinos and Egyptians. While searching for a place, we were given a piece of advice by a work colleague who suggested we avoid being too close to a mosque, unless we fancied being woken at 4am by the first of 5 calls to prayer per day. Our apartment is surrounded, in close proximity, by about 7 mosques so it seems not only will we be woken, but we’ll have the pleasure of Islam in surround sound stereo!! Bring it on Allah!!
The Qataris are a fascinating bunch. They
are wealthy beyond comprehension. This country has an astonishing percentage of the world’s remaining oil and natural as supplies and as a result, every Qatari is a king! The men and women wear traditional dress. The men wear full length, cuffed and collared white shirts (a thobe) and a teatowel on their head (dishdash) which is either white or the more jazzy red and white check. The women wear full length black ‘abbayas’ and most cover their entire faces or leave just their eyes exposed. All have ornate eyemakeup, designer sunglasses and the likes of Louis and Prada handbags over their shoulders. The men and women don’t mix.
The roads over here are insanely mad. People drive like they hate the world….on the wrong side of the road! Seeing as 95% of roads are partially under construction or ‘renovation’ the daily commute must be tackled with heightened awareness, 1200 head-checks, 2400 rearview and sideview mirror checks and a healthy dose of attitoood! Oh another funny one...Qatari people don’t take the plastic off the seats of their cars after they buy them! Classic! Qatari people operate in two shifts, with a shutdown between about 12pm and 4pm. They hit the
shopping malls en masse on Friday afternoons, after their holy-day morning obligations. It is a very family oriented place. The supermarkets have everything and most items are the same or cheaper than home. Second hand cars are cheap, but not as cheap as Japan. You need a license to purchase alcohol from one grog shop located half way to Saudi Arabia! In order to get a license, you need a Residency Permit (RP), and in order to get an RP, you need a medical check, criminal check and patience! Gav’s is likely to come through next week, and who knows when Sal will get hers…it is a very slow-moving place in this regard. Everybody is late to meetings, people don’t do things when they say they will do it and all the while the ordered chaos somehow ‘works’ and slowly there is progress.
Gav is working as the Site Manager for a “W” Hotel. It’s a small team and he is finding it really challenging, but it’s a great project to be on. He works long hours, 6 days a week. He’s already started playing cricket on Thursday arvo’s with the Indian contingent from site. They play in a
disused carpark, use a tennis ball taped to precision, and have umpires. Cricket is their religion! Sal is working 5 days as a Senior Project Manager / Architect, primarily on the new 10 storey Ali Bin Ali Tower. The new headquarters will house all the businesses in the Ali Bin Ali Group, including Kodak, Masterfoods, Nestle, Proctor & Gamble, Medical division, Travel Bureau and high class diamond dealership…fingers crossed for some sparkling perks along the way! Sal’s manager has been absolutely fantastic in a support role, making the integration into life here and absolute breeze 😊
Weekends (or ‘day-off’ in Gav’s case) we have been lucky enough to be invited by friends who are members at all manner of high class five star hotel establishments. There we lie by the pool on a banana lounge in the shade of a palm, drink tasty fruit cocktails and dreamily love the life we have! The week’s hardships and frustrations just disappear. The gulf is too hot to be refreshing a this time of year, but we had an obligatory dip last weekend and the water’s much saltier than home. Night times there is heaps to do, mainly revolving around food and
beverage consumption! We’ve been avidly watching the World Cup…several nights at the “Aussie Legend’s Bar” at Rydges hotel and you could be mistaken for thinking you were in Dingley, not Doha!
Anyway, we’re both absolutely thrilled we made the decision to move to the Arabian Peninsula. The culture is fascinating and we’re so excited about imminent adventures in the region. Our jobs are amazing - huge amounts of responsibility and opportunities to be involved in projects that have to be seen to be believed (ie. Last week’s visit to the site of the Emir’s new beachside villa & 3D virtual tour by the Mexican architect! Holy Todelo!!) We really are a lucky pair…Allah o Akbar ! (Thanks be to God !)
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Jess
Jessica
Hey Gav and Fruffle! So fab to see in pics what you've been talking about. You sound really happy which makes me happy too. Keep the updates coming. Jooj x