Family area and Family Day

Many restaurants have a "Family Area'
cordoned off for Woman and children only

In the Middle East, there is a strong reverence for the sanctity and privacy of the family, especially the female and children.

In many Qatari restaurants and playgrounds, there are areas cordoned off for females and/or families. Males are not allowed into these cordoned off area unless accompanied by a female or children.

Buses in Qatar has the front seats reserved for ladies and children only. If you are a male, you are not supposed to take these seats even if they are empty and not occupied.

Some banks has a women-only section so that women can do their banking transactions in privacy. All hair salons, beauty palors, tailors and even massage and spa palors are strictly divided into man or woman only establishments and it is not uncommon to see signs forbidding male entry into these premises.

Some shopping malls go as far as declaring Fridays as a family day. Men are to be accompanied by a woman or child in order to gain entry into the mall. Single or groups of males are not allowed into the malls on Fridays which have such family day. This include some of the largest and newest malls in Qatar.

If you are a scruffy Asian or African blue-collar worker dressed in your work-clothes, you are more likely than not, to be stopped and turned away.

Of course, if you are a well-dressed Arabic or Caucasian gentleman, the rule does not quite apply even if you are unaccompanied and the security guards tend to wave you through.

For many of us, we tend to question if this is 'Family Day' or 'Racist Day'.

There is an increasing vocal call on Internet forums to stop this blatantly racist policy disguised as a family day policy. I certainly hope it is a matter of time before the malls stop this policy and either stop implementing family day or make it a point to stop all single males from entering the malls regardless of their race.

Be fair to all or be fair to none!

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Qatar

Chinese New Year as known and celebrated in Asia or Chinatown in many parts of the world is a non-event in Qatar.

Nobody even know it is Chinese New Year in Qatar. It does not even get a mention in the local newspapers despite it being an important festival celebrated by more than a quarter of the world's population.

There is not a remote trace of Chinese New Year in Qatar even in the large shopping malls. No CNY music, no festive banners and not even a trace of red.

There is a small sprinkling of ethnic Chinese in Qatar. Many would have returned home to celebrate Chinese New Year but a fair number of mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, HongKongers, Malaysians and Singaporeans remain behind.

Most of these ethnic Chinese remaining in Qatar would quietly celebrate CNY in private home celebrations or have meals in the few available Chinese restaurants.

In the meantime, the rest of the Qatar's population go on with their daily lives.

Life goes on as usual on Chinese New Year in Qatar

Cultural Hiccups - 1

I am not a regular coffee person. However, even a non-coffee connoisseur like myself have heard of the famous Arabian Coffee or Arabian Roast.

There are Starbucks and Coffee-Beans in the shopping malls in Doha. Why would I want to try something that I can find at home or any other city in the world?

I ventured to the traditional Souk (marketplace) in the elusive hunt for age-old traditional Arabian coffee.

The guy in the coffeeshop is browsing wirelessly on a laptop, smoking a Seesha pipe and drinking Cappuccino. I looked for the most run-down, most shabby, most traditional looking coffee-shop to get a real taste of Arabian Coffee. After all, am I not in Arabian land? After some effort, I came upon this traditional looking coffee-shop. I ventured in. The shop-keeper was unable to speak English and I was certainly unable to speak Arabic. With some gesturing, it was established I wanted a cup of coffee. It cost US$0.80. The shop-keeper promptly proceed to make me a cup of Nescafe Instant Coffee - with extra sugar. I'm still trying to find out where to drink genuine traditional Arabian coffee. Even this old looking coffeeshop serves modern Nescafe

Does it rain in Qatar?

Some people believe that it never rain in the Qatar or for the matter, in the Middle East. That's an incorrect assumption.

It does rain. Especially between December to February of the winter months. The rain tend to be short and intense - 10 to 30 minutes at best.

Most people living here are happy for rain. Rain brings joy to everyone's face, washes away the dirt and sand, let flowers bloom for a while and add a snappy smell to the air.

Drivers though, do not really like rain. Qatari roads are not designed with proper drainage system for rain, even light rain, and they tend to flood quickly. Random potholes in the road add to the flooding problem.

In heavy rain, sand on the sidewalks and clogged drainage system draining onto the road quickly result in a quagmire of slush and mud and the roads become extremely slippery. The fast driving speed and unfamiliarity with wet roads of the local drivers often result in accident rates shooting up during raining days.

It does rain in Qatar

Roads flood quickly.
This is a typical road after 15 minutes of light rain.

People in Qatar

The Qataris are a minority in their own country. Less than 20% out of the estimated 1.2 million people in the country are Qatar nationals.

The Qataris and other Arabic nationalities form the majority of government officials and civil servants. The Americans and Europeans form the management, engineering and teaching professionals.

The construction industry, high-end retail, jeweleries and automobile showrooms tend to be supervised by Lebanese, Jordanians and Egyptians. (I may be prejudiced but Lebanese and Jordanian men and women seems to be preening their hair, clothes and accessories all the time.)

There are a sprinkling of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans who are here to build roads, bridges, highways, skyscrapers and petrol-chemical plants.

The Africans and Nepalese make up security guards and waiters positions.

Filipinos form the core of service, sales, F&B and technical staff. Even more than them are nationalities from the Indian sub-continent including Indians, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshi, Pakistanis and Nepalis who form the majority of IT, public transport, construction, cleaning and hard labour work force.

Seriously, without the Indians and Filipinos, the Middle East would not be a very happy nor hospitable place.

You're likely to make more friends in Qatar if you speak Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali or Tamil than ever Arabic or English.

Even Qatar has a little India

Shopping malls in Doha

The Middle Eastern countries believe that big is good. Grand is even better.

The shopping malls in Qatar are large and grand. Not only in their physical size but also the importance malls play as a social glue for locals and foreigners alike.

The Qataris sees malls as an escape from the constant heat and perhaps to buy their next Rolex. The expatriates come to stock up for their kitchens and have their weekend meals. The blue-collar workers window shop as a break from their monotonous and tiring work. The children love the amusement parks and fast food restaurants.

All shopping malls in Qatar have large supermarkets as anchor tenants. Some have bowling alleys. Some also have cinemas. Some put in ice-skating rinks. Some decide that only a canal with Gondolas is the minimum they can offer to their shoppers.

Unlike the real Venice, the gondolier does not sing for you

Low crime rate

This is a Islamic country. It has plenty of oil and gas. It's rich as well.

There is little crime and the country boast a crime rate even lower than Singapore or Japan. People who have been here for a while tells me that you can leave your car unlocked, walk away and the car will still be there even if you come back 3 days later. I believe them.

Murderous crime in most countries are usually due to:

1. A desire for quick money
2. Crimes of passion

In this country, there is no shortage of quick money. You can also legally have four wives as long as you build four equal size villas in accordance to Islamic law of providing equally.

Alcohol can only be sold and consumed in hotels. Not anywhere else. That's good ...no bar brawls, drunkards in the streets, drunk driving accidents or alcohol addiction.

You can't find drugs here either. Since there is no drug, there is also little drug-induced crimes such as petty thefts, burglaries and fights.

And if anyone still think of committing any kind of crime, they will have these gentlemen to deal with.

Keeping the peace in Qatar

To work or not to work?

According to the Koran, the holy day of the week is Friday; not Sunday.

Hence, the work week in Qatar is Sunday to Thursday. Most companies will rest on Friday and Saturday. Some, only Friday.

Work hours for government service is 7am-1pm. Banks too.

It helps that these guys start work so early. These are the guys with hugh SUVs and MPVs and you wouldn't want to meet them during rush hours. Being horned or flashed at all the time is no fun.

Shops normally open from 8am to 12pm. Then close and re-open at 4pm to 7pm. Nobody goes shopping in the Middle-East during the hottest hours of 12-4pm where temperature can go as high as 45C. Unless it is in a sleek shopping mall with powerful air-conditioners.

The rest of us thankfully work normal 8am-4pm or 9am-5pm hours.

You'll get use to it after a while that sneaking out during lunch hours to run errands at the bank or Post office does not work because they would have closed by the time we reach lunch hour.

Thankfully, ATM machines does not close after 2pm.

Accomodation in Qatar

Most rich Qataris, CEOs and diplomats live in palatial villas. Professional expatriates tend to live in apartments or duplex houses in gated residential compounds. Most skilled or technician level workers live in shared apartments in low-rise apartment blocks. Blue-collar workers are normally housed in cramp dormitories.

Regardless of residential type, most of them do not come with facilities or amenities. You need to drive a certain distance to the malls just to buy a packet of milk or get a cup of coffee.

The high-rise or skyscrapers you see in photos are mostly located in West Bay, which is the new downtown area of Doha. There are some condominiums and serviced apartments in that area and more and more expatriates are choosing to live there because modern facilities such as shopping malls, cinemas, restaurants, laundries, swimming pools are within easy walking distance.

Otherwise, if you are not lucky enough to live in that area, you will either:

1. Be able to afford a car so that you can go buy a packet of milk
2. Stay at home after work and forget about ever drinking milk
3. Keep a cow at home

Typical low-rise residential apartment in a gated compound.
Note the ever brown, beige, white and gray color theme

Modern or traditional?

Qatar is both modern and traditional. You can drive past old Souks (traditional markets) and in the next minute, be driving along spanking modern skyscrapers.

You can buy local Middle Eastern products in the local Souks and the latest New York fashion in any of the large modern shopping malls. Arabian gentlemen in this country have a choice of modern Western clothes or traditional Arabic clothes; most choose to go traditional. Local and other Arabian ladies are dressed in black Abayas but they do not need to mask their face.

Tourists, expatriates and workers from other countries do not face any kind of clothing restrictions. However, ladies are expected not to wear spaghetti strap tops nor mini-skirts in public.

The Qataris are proud of their tradition and culture. There are many grand museums, theaters, art-houses and parks that collect or showcase local culture and tradition.

At the same time, they are also proud of building towering skyscrapers that zig-zag in mid-air.

From Al Corniche, Doha

Traditional dhows (fishing boats) with the modern Doha skyline in the background

First impressions - 3

If your impressions of Middle-East come from movies and popular literature, you will come gamely prepared in canopy-hats, sun-shades, T-shirts and sun-blocks.

Ha ... you will freeze your toes off. There can be winter in the deserts too and the temperature now in Doha, Qatar for January is about 16C in the day and 10C at night. The most popular item in supermarket cashier lines is an electric heater to make sleeping at night bearable.

Offices in Qatar also tend to keep their air-conditioner low because of the all-year heat. However, most offices forget to adjust the air-conditioner during the winter months and so, you have the winter cold plus cold air-conditioner breeze. Brrrrr.....

The Qataris and other Arabians are in their traditional headgear and clothes; which can be quite thick and make the winter cold acceptable. The rest of the foreign population are in a mixture of scarfs, hats, sweaters and jackets.

Welcome to the land of sun and sand! Except winter...

From Jan 10, 2009_3

Note that the Arabian ladies and gentlemen in traditional clothes are able to keep warm

First impressions - 2

Everything is white, beige, gray or brown. Well, almost everything - buildings, malls, walkways, cars, and signboards.

There are of course dashes of other bright colors - but the overwhelming color tone of Doha, Qatar seems to be white, brown and beige. Even the colors of vehicles on the road are overwhelmingly white, black, brown and gray.

Most people of Arabian origin seems to dress in white, black, beige or brown too. It is rare to see a red, blue, yellow or green building, car or person dressed in bright clothes.

See what I mean?
Haagen Dazs Ice-cream Palor decked out in white, gray, brown and beige.

First impressions - 1

This is obviously a modern and rapidly growing country. Qatar airways is new, modern and service-oriented. Construction is going on everywhere in Doha. Everything looks relatively new - roads, cars, buildings, malls, hotels...even people.

The roads, buildings, cars and even trees look new

Qatar Profile

Qatar is a peninsula of 11,437sqm located centrally along the west coast of the Arabian Gulf. The country has a moderate desert climate with hot summers and cool winter.

The ruler of Qatar is the Emir, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose family has been in Qatar since mid-18th century. Modern Qatar economy evolve around oil and gas.

The official language of the country is Arabic but English is widely used. The population in 2008 is estimated at 1.4 million with more than half living in the capital of Doha.

Early Qatar revolve around fishing and pearl-fishing.
A large 'Pearl Statute' reminds Qataris of their roots

Doha, Qatar

I landed in Doha, Qatar on 2nd January 2009 to start a new career. For those who are not familiar with Qatar, here is a video from the Qatar Tourism Board that will give you a quick overview of Qatar. Enjoy!