Doha Gallery 5 October
There are still pockets of serenity; one of the older fishing boats moored in Doha:
This isn’t a great shot, shooting through the windshield while at a stop-light, but this is the Barzan Towers. It used to be one of my very favorite buildings in town; I loved the way it incorporated some of the old Gulf themes into it’s modern day structure. Now, it is dwarfed by taller buildings, some of which also incorporate traditional details, most of which don’t. You really have to look for it to see it now.
Role Reversal?
“Oh AdventureMan, I was SO embarrased!”
I had just finished telling him how while doing a major grocery shopping, I got to the front of the check-out line and realized – I had the wrong basket! How could that be? Where had I picked up this basket?
I headed quickly back to the dairy area where I had desperately been looking for sour cream; the shelves empty and looking like Florida-when-a-hurricane-is-on-the-way. A very nice gentleman said “I think you have my basket” and I apologized profusely. He was very kind. He said “Your basket is over there,” and pointed, and he was exactly right, there it was.
AdventureMan laughed and said “You have really gone to extreme lengths to meet new men! Maybe I need to keep a better eye on you!”
I agreed.
“In fact,” I said, “We could go the whole route, and I could just stay secluded in our home, and at the end of your very long working day, after driving through the grid-locked-going-home-traffic in Doha, you could stop by the aisle-packed grocery store and do a major shopping for me!”
We both laughed. Isn’t going to happen.
How Does Your ‘Garden’ Grow?
We have shown you the site of the former Garden, now a huge pile of rubble, indistinguishable from the surrounding rubble of many small businesses. We mourned the passing of The Garden, only to learn in this morning’s Peninsula that a new All-Veg Garden will open closer to our own neighborhood. 🙂 I hope the prices are comparable to the former Garden on Karabaa (Old Electricity Street).
The Garden to open restaurant in Najma next month
Web posted at: 10/4/2009 0:56:49
Source ::: The Peninsula
Doha: The vegetarian division of “The Garden” restaurants has been awarded ‘The Best Vegetarian Restaurant” Award for the year 2008-2009. This is the fourth consecutive year that the restaurant wins this award. The award is based on voting by diners.
Yoonus Salim Vappattu, Managing Director of the Garden Group, said yesterday at a press conference that the group will open a pure vegetarian restaurant in Najma next month. The outlet will be located near the American Airlines office.
“We have also identified and fantastic location in Doha Jadeed, to open a first class family non-vegetarian restaurant, which is expected to open by early first quarter of 2010. Till then our restaurant in the Le-Mirage Executive Residence, Musherib, as our non-vegetarian restaurant will remain open. We have planned to open one bigger vegetarian and two more non-vegetarian restaurants in Qatar, said Tomson Jeffery, Senior Operations Manager, The Garden Group.
“We have decided to expand our F&B business with diversified interest in restaurant concepts. Under the leadership our chairman, we have formed one more company called SAW, where we have already signed international brands from Spain, France and Kuwait (for Italian and French outlets, and Spanish coffee shops). As a first step our first outlet with unique concept of Biriyani & Kabab called Buriyani Hut (where Biriyani meets Kebab) will be opening by this year at Wakhra near KFC. Apart from we have identified location in Pearl Qatar, Ezdan Mall and Barwa Mall. We will be announcing shortly our plan to launch the garden outlets in other GCC countries very soon,” he added.
New Regulations Enforced for Drinking in Qatar Bars
New bar rules evoke complaints
By Peter Townson/Staff Reporter
From The Gulf Times
A number of residents in Doha have complained about recently introduced regulations requiring them to apply for membership to certain bars and clubs as well as providing ID upon entering such establishments in Qatar.
Due to new national regulations, hotels are enforcing membership rules, ensuring that all visitors have either a valid Qatari ID, their passport, or in many cases a membership card to enter the premises.
The bars now have a published set of rules outside the premises to indicate the necessary entry requirements, and although certain rules change from place to place, the general guidelines are the same throughout.
All applicants for membership must be over 21 years of age and possess a valid Qatari ID card, and the printing of membership cards usually costs a small fee, ranging from around QR30 to QR50 (and QR100 for replacements in some cases).
However, the new rules have meant that many places have substantial queues outside their establishments, and during special events guests can often have to wait for over half-an-hour to have their membership cards of ID scanned by hotel staff.
A representative of one hotel bar in Doha claimed that another major issue with the new membership rules had been the problem of informing their guests of the regulations.
“It seems it has been the hotels who have had to tell people about these new rules, not the people who have instigated them,” he said, arguing that it would have been beneficial to have some information regarding the reasons for the new rules and their specific details.
“I think they brought in the rules to prevent people who are living here illegally from drinking in the bars, and also to stop Qatari ladies from entering any drinking establishments,” he added.
Another hotel representative explained that the introduction of the new membership system had cost the hotel a significant amount.
“It was a big cost to the hotel to get all the necessary software and hardware to create the membership cards and register everyone’s details,” he said, adding: “However, we are trying to keep the cost of membership as low as possible for our guests.”
He pointed out that the new regulations do make it somewhat easier to “control the clientele,” and said that the rules have made life easier for the busier bars in Qatar.
However, a number of Western expatriates who have lived here for many years have become disgruntled at the new rules, claiming that it makes it more difficult for them to enter bars – especially if they have guests visiting from aboard.
Many have reported that visitors have travelled to hotels, only to be informed that they cannot enter without their passport – a document most travellers like to keep safe in their hotel room when abroad.
And other visitors to the bars – especially those who are quite obviously over 21 – resent the need to screen their ID before entering establishments they have been frequenting for years.
Government regulations defining what is appropriate dress and behaviour have also been highlighted by the hotels.
But these have also been bemoaned by customers who have in fact been turned away from places because of the clothes they are wearing.
Government officials were unable to comment, except to confirm that new rules had recently been introduced to all establishments serving alcohol in the country.
Drive to Reduce Traffic Deaths in Qatar
I am a great admirer of Brig Mohamed Abduallah al-Malki. I remember once, when Qatar was much smaller, when he printed his phone number in the paper and told people to call him when they saw drivers misbehaving. What a brave man, a committed man, and a courageous man.
I admire his persistence, his sincere desire to bring down traffic deaths in Qatar.
Yesterday, as I was driving, I noticed most drivers slowing down – when that happens, you know there are new speed cameras set up, and you slow down too. You slow down – or most of us do. There are a visible few who seem to believe that the rules do not apply to them.
There is a persistent rumor that traffic fatalities fell dramatically when the new laws were introduced – and enforced – equally – against all law breakers. As long as laws are enforced equally against ALL nationalities, the death rate will lower.
To me, it is a huge national tragedy that so many young Qatteri men lose their lives, or are seriously physically damaged, in traffic accidents that could have been prevented. It is like a huge national resource, just wasted, all that potential, gone.
This is from today’s Gulf Times
Drive to raise students’ road safety awareness
Traffic department and IBQ officials at the launch of the campaign yesterday
By Riham el-Houshi
The ‘Schools without Accidents’ campaign launched yesterday for the second year running by the Traffic Department is aimed at cutting the number of road accidents in Qatar by half, a top official has said. The campaign aims at raising awareness about road safety among students.
Traffic Department expert and general co-ordinator of the National Campaign for Road Accident Prevention, Brig Mohamed Abduallah al-Malki, said “there has been a decrease in the number of deaths in 2009 but a final picture will emerge only by December.”
The number of road accident deaths in the country fell by 20% in 2008 compared to the previous year. The total number of road accidents last year was 20,455, with approximately 200 deaths, according to the Traffic Department.
The initiative, launched within the framework of the ‘National Campaign for Road Accidents Prevention,’ is a programme to raise awareness on the importance of road safety among students across Qatar.
Al-Malki added that 35% of road accident victims were pedestrians who were usually expatriates.
“Therefore the campaign this year will focus on expatriate schools as well as local ones,” al-Malki pointed out.
The campaign will be funded by the International Bank of Qatar (IBQ), who has given QR500,000 to the Traffic Department. The bank donated QR250,000 to the cause last year. According to al-Malki, the money will be spent on brochures, signboards, and competitions.
“Too many of our young people never have the chance to realise life’s opportunities as their lives are cut tragically short by preventable road accidents,” said IBQ managing director George Nasra.
“We can and must do even more to reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities – especially among our youth.”
A recent survey conducted by Gulf Times had shown that 41% of the respondents feel that Qatar was the worst country to drive because of the number of accidents caused by reckless driving.
Changing Times for Qatar Divorcees?
Many Westerners think all Qattaris (and Kuwaitis, and Emiratis, and Saudis) are rich. The movies tell us so, just as they tell the rest of the world that all us US citizens live on large ranches outside of Dallas and have big hair and wear cocktail dresses during the daytime and lead immoral lives, LLLLOOOOLLLLL. The truth, as I see it, is that in every country I live, we all face similar problems.
Qatari divorcees call for review of law on housing
Web posted at: 9/29/2009 1:8:46
Source ::: The Peninsula
DOHA: Qatari divorcees are entitled to free government housing only if they remain unmarried (after divorce) for five years in a row, so many of them with no job and children to support are urging the authorities to review this rule.
The divorce rate being very high in Qatar and many divorcees taking custody of their children as well prefer to live away from their parents in rented accommodation.
And since not all divorcees are employed and financially independent they struggle to make ends meet with meager monthly maintenance amounts they receive from their former husbands.
Government housing rules in the country specify that Qatari women who remain unmarried up to the age of 35 are entitled to free state housing.
One of the divorcees told Al Sharq on grounds of anonymity that life for her and her children had become miserable as the monthly rent she had to pay for the rented accommodation was quite high.
Living off meager maintenance amount, she said she was finding it extremely hard to make ends meet, especially as children’s education is to be taken care of which is an expensive affair.
“We, therefore, want the government to review its housing rules and consider our plight on humanitarian grounds,” she said emphatically.
“More than the spinsters, we need a government house because spinsters can anyway stay with their parents,” said the woman.
According to her, living in rented accommodation with children for five years consecutively after divorce is near-impossible due to the fact that the maintenance amounts given by their former husbands are fixed while rents have been going up.
Expose Violators to Protect Consumers?
This article is from the Qatar Peninsula but it applies equally in Kuwait, in Seattle, in Pensacola . . . when a restaurant violates a health code, shouldn’t those results be made public? They are serving the public, they take our money, shouldn’t we know the state of hygiene and the safe-practices they observe – or don’t observe?
We still remember a time in Monterey, California when we walked into one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in town and found a table, without having to wait. It was astonishing. There were few customers that night. The next day in the paper we found it had been closed for health-code violations. We took comfort in knowing that when it re-opened, it had to pass a re-check, and it was probably the cleanest it had ever been, or would be for a time to come. 🙂
Restaurateurs want names of eateries violating rules to be made public
Web posted at: 9/27/2009 23:45:38
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
DOHA: The identity of the eateries punished for flouting health and safety rules should be disclosed by the authorities concerned, feel a number of restaurateurs in the city.
Not disclosing the name of an erring eating outlet is unadvisable since it can make all the eateries of a locality suspect in the eyes of patrons, say restaurateurs.
This happens especially as the authorities do mention the area an erring eatery is located in but fight shy of publishing its name in local newspapers.
Al Sharq Arabic newspaper in its weekly online survey took up this issue this time and an overwhelming 94 percent of the respondents said they were in favor of disclosing the identity of an erring eateries.
Only five percent said they did not back the idea, while one percent said they were undecided.
Big Mistake – Early Morning Eid in Doha
After all these years living here, I still have so much to learn.
Jet-lagging, wide awake and the sun is just up – it’s Eid, and I am betting that with everything closed, the roads will be mine.
Almost immediately after leaving the compound, I get the idea that I am very very wrong. Cars are racing past our entrance as if it were night-time, when I rarely drive if I can help it. There is a feeling of unrestrained energy in the driving, a release. As I circle the nearest roundabout, I watch two cars crash. One, a woman, is exiting the roundabout, the other, a man whose car was parked just outside the roundabout which is also outside the mosque, just drove right into one another. Neither would yield.
All this, and it is not even six in the morning. It’s kind of like everyone is up for sunrise service on Eid in Qatar.
But I really want to capture some of the early morning light. Not taking the hint, I head downtown, and traffic is heavy. I get to the old spit Where-Bandar-restaurants-used-to-be, and as soon as I exit the car, my camera lens fogs up and I have to wait for the camera to heat a little before I can shoot anything. Oh yeh – me and all the other camera-toting people with the same idea. I shoot The Pearl, and then I shoot a young man just coming from prayers with his very nice camera – a Nikon digital.
The spit is crowded – everyone is there. Some guys in cars are just sitting there smoking in public, just because they can. Entire families are all out enjoying the breezy morning temperatures (LOL, in the 90’s Fahrenheit)
This is my absolute favorite shot:
Actually, I love the water in this one, but I can’t take any credit for that.
This one I call Scrambled Eggs, because there is so much going on, but it is definitely a Doha kind of chaos:
This is taken where Al Rayyan Road begins, at the mouth of the entrance to Souq al Waqif, sheer chaos:
And this is my own palm tree shooting out some new shoots – maybe it is a sign that winter is on its way?
The Worst is Over – Eid Mubarak!
Last night, even early last night, we could hear the fireworks begin – a sure sign that the new crescent moon had been sighted and the long hot Ramadan was over.
Eid Mubarak, my Moslem friends.
I have been congratulating myself for not jet-lagging, but yesterday, after running errands in the hot humid heat of September in Doha, I was lagging, I don’t know if it was climate-lagging, or jet-lagging, but I napped and then I was still having a hard time staying awake until 9 last night. I slept HARD, it felt great. It felt great until about 3:30 this morning, when I could no longer sleep.
Since I no longer have that gorgeous sunrise coming up in front of my house, I decided to walk this morning, and at 90°F/33°C it is about the coolest it will be all day. I walked and walked, relishing the safety of the compound, where at 0400, there is not another soul in evidence until, near the gate, a guard comes out on his bicycle, making the hourly round. I felt so free.
I also felt so tired. Walking in the heat and humidity is hard work. My socks were soaked and my clothes were soaked by the time I finished. I came in, put the coffee on to brew and showered. I know today will also be loony, most stores closed, heavy traffic as people make their Eid calls on friends and family. The thing that gives me a grin – because I truly do not like exercise very much and I only do it because I want to live a long and healthy life – I know the worst part of my day is over (insh’allah!)
Here is a photo from the Peninsula of all the people out last night celebrating the end of Ramadan:
Eid Confusion
After writing that I don’t get a lot of phone calls, my VOIP started ringing. Four times, it was AdventureMan – we always have a lot to talk about. Once, my Mom, who calls just because she can and because the number we got is her area code, so it is like calling next door, and we all like that. Last, one of my friends in Kuwait – we have discovered we can call VOIP to VOIP. It’s like double the trouble – VOIP phones don’t always have the best connection, sometimes they are echo-y, sometimes one person can hear and the other can’t, sometimes you get other people on the conversation with you – so when you talk VOIP to VOIP, you have double the risk of technical difficulties, but still, an cost-per-phonecall that encourages long conversations (if you can hear and understand one another.)
“Has Eid started in Kuwait?” I asked at one point.
“I don’t thing so,” she replied. “I think it starts like Monday or so.”
It’s confusing to me. I know that Ramadan started four weeks ago tomorrow, so it is likely Eid will be 28 days later, like tonight or tomorrow or Sunday. But Kuwait started the Eid holidays on Friday, the official holidays, so that people will have nine full days of Eid celebration. (two weekends and a five day week). I don’t know if it is the same in Qatar.
It is also confusing as to just who gets the Eid holiday. When I lived in Tunis, lo, these many years ago, the entire country got every celebration. Those of us at the Embassy were doubly blessed; we got all the American holidays AND we got all the Tunisian holidays. So did just about everybody; the country shut down. For at least three days, no restaurants were open, no stores were open – you had to know about this in advance and bring in provisions to last until the Eid celebrations were over.
I wonder, did it used to be that way in Qatar? In Kuwait? That everything shut down, at least for the first day of Eid, and often longer?
In Kuwait and in Qatar, occasionally – like the first day of Eid – the stores will be closed a day – some just half a day. So many workers here are non-Muslim that it makes it possible to keep places open without intruding on someone’s celebration of Eid, in fact, I would think being able to go to restaurants and pick up a few items in the stores enhances the Eid experiences. I know most of my friends in Qatar are leaving town, just as I am getting back, beating feet for Europe, for Africa, for the Maldives, celebrating by traveling.
All the same, I am not sure when exactly Eid is expected to start officially, like according to the lunar calendar. Anyone?
Recent Comments
ExpatAlien on What Country am I Living … intlxpatr on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Michelle on Yellowstone: Old Faithful to C… Cathy on No Grown-Ups in Charge intlxpatr on Waiting for Snow Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 