Doha

Doha museum roof

Doha city skyline

Saturday 15.01.11

After huge queues at Melbourne Airport to get through customs, I finally made it to the gate just in time for boarding to open.  I was half dreading the 14 hour flight to Doha, however it turned out to be not so bad.  It was a pretty big jet with 9 seats across, but the flight was packed!  I managed to sleep for 5 hours straight at the beginning of the flight.  I even managed to get some lovely English neighbours who were quite chatty and friendly.  It was nice to have an aisle seat this time so i didn’t have to disrupt everyone every time i wanted to make my way to the toilet or get up to stretch.  After a movie, I managed to get some more sleep and all up ended with about 8 hours i think which is pretty impressive!

I arrived in Doha on time.  Mel and Ella picked me up and we headed back to their place.  The traffic is pretty crazy - nearly as unorganised as Kenya!  There are roundabouts everywhere but no rules, you just seem to go whenever you want and hope that other cars will wait for you!  And you can turn from any lane of course.  Every couple of minutes there seemed to be a horribly wrecked car lying on the roadside.  Accidents are frequent, and with all the money around, it is often easier to buy a new car than worry about having it towed and fixed!  After all this though, somehow it seems more organised than the chaos of Nairobi roads!

I met the other girls, Audrey and Grier and also a friend from Byron Bay that lives with them, Karen, who works at the Asian Cup with Andrew.  Andrew was home from work for the morning too.  The girls had a birthday party at the zoo for a young American boy.  Their family had lived in Kenya previously so it was interesting to hear their experience also!  We all went to the zoo where there was a mixed bunch of Westerners celebrating the young boys birthdays.  Most of them knew each other through the church that Mel and Andrew were attending.  Though of course, being a Muslim country, it is not able to be called a church, but a gathering of expats.

The zoo was interesting, and there is a sign out the front saying “families only” meaning that single men are not able to enter, unless they are white in which case they apparently can!  Apparently these signs are everywhere, including malls, and it strictly enforced by security staff.  There was a bunch of Qatari men standing out the front looking like they were waiting to get in to the zoo.  At the gate the staff can take anything off you for various reasons: a party balloon, a drink bottle, a jacket even.  Fortunately you are able to have it returned upon leaving.  They are constantly reminding you not to feed the animals, so perhaps this is the reason behind the confiscations?!

Entry to the zoo was about a dollar, and it a very small zoo.  As it turned out, most families head to the zoo to use the playground, as there are only a few in Doha.  Even so, playgrounds do not open until 1pm and are patrolled by security guards.  So I left the zoo without even having seen an animal, though apparently i didn’t miss much!  I did however, see a couple of stray cats with kittens around!

After the zoo we stopped at a mall where we took a motorised gondola ride down the chlorinated river through the shopping centre.  It was quite an unique experience!  There is also an ice rink in the mall and apparently an indoor amusement park, complete with roller coaster!  After a quick tour we dropped Andrew off at the venue for the night’s soccer game where he was working.

For a late lunch, we headed to Turkish Central to grab some of the more local food.  We ordered some dips, chicken, rice, salad and lime and mint juices which were surprisingly nice!  The girls were pretty tired and hungry by this stage, poor things!  On the way back to Mel’s compound we stopped at the Doha Museum.  The building itself is very architecturally interesting, and reminds me of the Melbourne Shrine of Remembrance in its shape.  I took some photos and then we went inside.  We didn’t have much time to look at the displays but we went in to the foyer where there is a lovely roof, similar to that of Crown Palladium.

I was starting to feel a bit tired by this stage as it was well into the evening in Australian time!  We headed home to get the girls some dinner and get them to bed and i used the time to upload some photos.  A couple of hours later Mel and Karen took me to the local Souq or Souk, which is a marketplace with restaurants and stalls.  It reminded me a lot of Singapore.  We ate at a Middle Eastern restaurant and i had a beautiful lentil soup and some vegetable rolls.  There was a stage set up in the middle of the Souq and as part of the Asian Cup cultural celebrations, there were some dance performances in progress.  It was very loud and colourful but interesting to watch.  We then browsed the stalls and by this stage even the stallholders were telling me I looked tired.  I was seriously struggling to stay awake, even while walking!  It was a shame I was so tired I didn’t think to get the camera out or buy anything.  Mel asked whether I was interested in trying those big smoking pipe things, whatever they are called, with the flavoured tobacco.  I was definitely interested but just too tired so we opted to head back home.

We walked back to Karen’s car, which she had parked right next to a camel enclosure, kept for rides during the day.  Once home, I jumped straight into bed.  Mel and Andrew put me up in the girls’ room and had them all pile into their bed, which was very generous!  Mel and Andrew had also warned me I would be woken about 5am by the compound prayer call over the speaker system, but fortunately I managed to sleep right through it - I must have been very tired!

The compound they live in is quite lovely but appears to be in the middle of nowhere.  It is quite near to the highway but there are no roads to it.  You just drive across the land until you reach the compound walls, where the road starts.  It is mostly locals living there and the girls have plenty of friends to play with, but there is a French family also.  There was another Australian family but they have returned home.  Mel says the compound and even the whole country is very safe with little crime.  They leave the house and car unlocked, and the girls playing in the compound with little worry.  Mel and the girls are heading home in two weeks to get Ella and Grier started at school.  Andrew’s job finishes at the end of February but he will stay on a few extra weeks to see if there is any other work going.  If not he will return home, or Mel and the girls will come back to Qatar.