I’m being sent out to Qatar for 8 weeks on business, was just wondering if anyone had been/ lived out there and had any hints on things I might need to know/ be aware of before I go…
Any advice (other than take sunscreen- I worked that out for myself) would be gratefully received!
Wil
It’s not such a great place. Largely because it’s only bordered by Saudi (which is an awful place, and you probably won’t get a visa to go there, even if you wanted to, unless you’re on some work-sponsored thing).
You can drink there, which is the reason why Doha is rammed with drunken Saudi’s every weekend (lots of road accidents when they try to drive back across the causeway to Saudi, pissed).
On the positive side, it’s a short-ish flight to the other Gulf states, and Doha (the capital) is a hub for Gulf Air, so you can get away quite quickly.
I’ve only spent time in Doha, which is like the country cousin of Dubai. The whole country is only very small, but I suppose there must be rural parts which might be good to explore. They used to have a pearl growing trade there, so maybe there’s remnants of that.
I’d recommend visiting the other Gulf States if you get any free time. Oman is wonderful (I’m biased, I lived there for a couple of years), and far and away the best place in the region. The Musandam Peninsula is fantastic as well. Really remote. Off-road driving is an excellent thing to do and you will be able to find places to hire a jeep/landcruiser and if you look around you’ll probably find books in local stores telling you some good off-road drives.
HTH
I used to go there quite frequently about 13 years ago…not long after the first Gulf War. Because it was very closely aligned to Saudi it was one of the more strict Gulf states in terms of the application of Islam. For example the only drinking that Ex-pats could do was in the international hotels and these ‘bars’ were curtained off from general view.It was also about the time the Qatari’s got rumbled for diagonally drilling into Bahrain’s newly discovered gas fields…I would imagine that given the motor racing there, the business expansion of the Al-Thani ruling family and the general touristic focus of Gulf states like Bahrain and Dubai that it has relaxed somewhat in the last decade. From what I remember Doha was pretty good for facilities but the country was not exactly inspiring scenery like say Oman and its mountains.
On a biking note, they’ll be holding the first 2008 MotoGP round there again, but this time it’ll be AT NIGHT, to fit in with euro timetables, and also to cool things down. Interesting to say the least.
Nice one guys, cheers for the heads up.
I know it isn’t going to be the most exciting place, but hey, its gonna be warmer than here… I wonder what the potential for me getting hold of a bike while I’m out there is?! I was having a look at the circuit on google earth, I’d be pretty happy if I could get my first track day in there! Doubt its open except for the races though.
Well a good book and my best sand-resistant trousers sounds like the way forward! Its only 8 weeks, I reckon I’ll be working most of the time so the beach it is!
Catch you at BM when I’m back!
It’s a small peninsula, bordered only by Saudi, so I think you’ll be unlikely to find any bikes as there’s nowhere really to ride them (except there’s probably a Harley dealers so rich people can keep them in their garage as a toy and get the servants to bring them out on a cold day to have a look at and rev the engine). Of course, the recent motorsport interest over there may have changed things…but…
…if it’s anything like Oman/Dubai/Sharjah, you’ll probably not see a bike the whole time you’re there. It’s the sort of place where it’s so hot that you burn yourself on the steering wheel of your car. The idea of even wearing a helmet would be pretty awful, let alone any protective gear.
But I hope, for your sake, that I’m wrong. If you’re into cars, then you can probably have a lot of fun pretending that you’ve just moved there and want to buy a Porsche/Hummer/Jeep/Lexus etc and doing a few test drives.
