PISA 2015 Results are Now Available

Prepare yourself for tons of news articles discussing your country's educational system and how well it's doing, or alarmist headlines about how poorly your country is doing, the results from the PISA 2015 test are out!

The PISA test is a test given out to a wide sample of 15-year-old students in countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (the OECD). Non-OECD countries can also be included in the program if they wish and Qatar has since 2006. The test is pretty comprehensive and looks at how well the students understand reading, mathematics and science. It's not a rote memorization test, to do well you have to be able to understand the material and apply it.

The results were released today and I guarantee you major newspapers around the world are pouring over the numbers and writing articles about how good/bad students did and thus how their educational system compares to other countries. UK papers absolutely love trashing on the UK because of this test, even though UK students tend to do pretty good, just not as good as some other countries. Singapore was #1 in all three categories.

For all of its wealth Qatar has never done well with the PISA test. In the early years it was scoring around the same level as much poorer countries such as Peru or Kyrgyzstan. Over time the scores have steadily improved, but there’s a long way to go before the scores or even comparable to OCED nations. So let’s see how Qatar did (I included the OECD average as well for comparison):

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/

Reading

OECD average
2006 492
2009 493
2012 496
2015 490

Qatar
2006 312
2009 372
2012 388
2015 402



Mathematics

OECD average
2006 499
2009 496
2012 494
2015 490

Qatar
2006 318
2009 368
2012 376
2015 402


Science

OECD average
2006 500
2009 501
2012 501
2015 493

Qatar
2006 349
2009 379
2012 384
2015 418


Okay, so the scores are up yet again, which is great. Also the average OECD score declined slightly across all three categories, maybe the test was a little bit tougher in which case the increase Qatar has shown is even better. Reading is up +14, Math +26 and Science an impressive +34 from the previous test. Slowly but surely Qatar is climbing up the rankings and its scores are now similar to countries that 6-10 years ago were well ahead. Qatar is now scoring roughly the same as countries such as Thailand, Columbia and Mexico.

It means there is still a long way to go though. Large swaths of the student population are just not able to understand and apply the material. PISA separates a students level of understanding into six categories (with 6 being the highest and 1 the lowest). The main table not only had the scores but also the percentage of students who scored level 5 or 6 in at least one subject, and the percentage of students who scored below level 2 in all three subjects. Qatar did not perform well when compared to Western countries. Below are some select countries for comparison:

Share of top performers in at least one subject (Level 5 or 6):

39.1% Singapore
25.8% Japan
21.4% Finland
22.7% Canada
18.4% Australia
16.9% UK
19.2% Germany
13.3% USA
18.4% France
3.4% Qatar


Share of low achievers in all three subjects (below Level 2)

4.8% Singapore
5.6% Japan
6.3% Finland
5.9% Canada
11.1% Australia
10.1% UK
9.8% Germany
13.6% USA
14.8% France
42.0% Qatar

Yep, 42% of the students scored poorly in all three categories. That's three times higher than the USA. Improvements in education in Qatar do not seem to really be reaching the students who need the most help, or perhaps the system still focuses on rote memorization.

Anyway there is tons more data and analysis available, the main report itself is 494 pages, and many countries have separate country-specific reports on top of that. Some countries even have statistics by region within a country so you can compare the different regions (Canada has some scores by each province, the Canadian news will be jumping on which provinces did better than others). There’s even analysis by gender, socio-economic background, whether the student was an immigrant, and so forth. Take some time to look over the detailed results.

Doha News Website Blocked in Qatar

Unfortunately a few days ago both telecom providers here in Qatar blocked the Doha News website, dohanews.co . Readers of this blog will be familiar with Doha News as I frequently link to their stories, and they sometimes cite a blog post of mine, or a couple of times asked me to do opinion articles for them. If you are reading this from outside Qatar then you'll still be able to see their website but for people in Qatar it's blocked. No reason was given before the weekend began, so there was little chance of a statement from the Government until tomorrow when it's a workday again.

Hopefully this will be sorted out soon. According to the Doha News team they had no prior warning nor any kind of message from the Government or a Ministry that something was wrong. There's rampant speculation of course, was it that article about WXYZ? or maybe that one about ABCD? I'd prefer to wait until there is a response from the Government instead of speculating. I think this is the first time something like this has happened to them.

For people in Qatar you can still keep up with them via their facebook and twitter feeds. As far as I can tell Doha News is continuing to post articles.

Whoever wanted to block the site was not aware of the Streisand Effect. By blocking Doha News it's become a big story in Qatar on social media. Some world media have also picked up the story, such as the BBC, Reuters, and Amnesty International, so I think it would be in the best interest of the Government to look into what happened and stop blocking the website.

Rain -- with a Vengance!

Well it rained again yesterday but this time it was a good soaking, a thunderstorm that lasted around 20-30 minutes with heavy rain. Naturally the city was flooded, with low-lying areas collecting the water in large pools. Drainage in Doha is not great, and the land is mostly hard rock with a bit of muddy sand on top so the water doesn't have anywhere to go. So there were plenty of massive puddles:

I'm used to it now, this happens every major rainstorm. Social media was lit with plenty of people sharing photos and videos of harder hit areas, where it was essentially flooded. Even saw some cars floating in the water in one of the videos. There was also flooding at some of the malls as water leaked from the ceiling, something that also seems to happen every year.

Well then things got crazy. Today there was another huge thunderstorm. I was driving when it happened and the rain was so heavy I had to pull into a parking lot and wait out the storm in my car. Even with the wipers at their fastest speed I was struggling to see through the torrential rain. The streets were turning into rivers.

It stopped after 20 minutes but given the flooding from yesterday it just compounded the problem. This time there was some shocking videos going around social media of water pouring from the ceiling of a hospital or clinic, like a small waterfall. I hope they didn't have any expensive medical equipment ruined. Low-lying areas were flooded even more so I'm sure some homes have water in them now.

Not a lot that can be done, it would cost billions of dollars and major construction headaches to upgrade the drainage across the city. Not worth it for the occasional storm.

The Rainy Season has Begun

Tonight it rained a little! First time in 6 months or so. A 6-month gap between rain is actually pretty good for Qatar. Having rain in late November is pretty standard, just this year the rains lasted longer than I remember, I think in May it rained, usually it stops around March-April.

Now whether it rained a little or a lot seemed dependent on which neighbourhood you were in so the rain was somewhat isolated. I was out in Soudan when it started and it rained pretty good for maybe 10 minutes then stopped. After an hour or so it was mostly evaporated. But then I went to another neighbourhood on an errand and the place had minor flooding, with huge puddles in low-lying areas of the street. Weird. Where I live the rain must have been heavier as well, lots of big puddles.

At least it means the biting heat will end and winter is upon us. The daytime temperature will probably drop to the mid-20s over the next couple of weeks. I just hope the rain is spread out so we don't have the flooding problems that always occur when Qatar receives a lot of rain in a short time.

Soccer in Qatar

Yes, soccer. I'm Canadian dang it and that’s what we call it.

One criticism some had about Qatar winning the right to host the 2022 World Cup was that it was not a “soccer nation” with a long history of success in the sport. It's definitely true that the country has not had a history of soccer success but bear in mind two things:

1) Qatar is a small country. Right now there are probably less than 300,000 citizens.

2) Wealth was a fairly recent phenomenon to the country. The first schools and hospitals were built in the 1950s, oil wealth didn't begin to really impact the country until the 1980s. There were little in the way of modern soccer facilities until then.

Nowadays many of the soccer players on the national team were originally from other countries, something the country wouldn't have been able to afford until the last couple of decades.

As for the people living here soccer is a popular pastime and one of the most popular sports. While the local league struggles with attendance (click on my “Qatar Football League” link on the right bar to get an idea) Qataris love following big European clubs, especially in the English Premier League. Big matches such as Champions League are widely followed. It's not something that I really follow myself but I do know many Qataris who love to follow soccer.

As for casual playing it's probably more popular than you'd realize given the imposing climate for most of the year, and what should be a lack of green space since the country is entirely desert. If you go to many of the stadiums there are usually other fields nearby that people can play on (such as the Al-Sadd Stadium, Qatar Sports Club or Lekhwiya). There are also areas with fields for “small soccer”. I know Al Sadd Stadium has some and I think there’s some in Markhiya as well.

Which brings me to why the heck I'm posting about soccer now. Last weekend some of my friends invited me out to practice some soccer, kicking the ball around and so forth. Now I know it sounds stereotypical but, as a Canadian, I didn't even really know how to play -- not the rules but how to actually run with the ball, kick the ball, defend etc. No skills. I think the last time I had kicked a soccer ball was in middle school and as I was never the athletic type it was something I didn't play outside of gym class. Soccer was more of a casual sport in Canada, something to do in the summer if you weren’t into street hockey. The sport is becoming more popular in Canada now but it still doesn't have anywhere near the same popularity as hockey or football.

So we went out onto a field, did a bit of jogging to warm up, and the guys started giving me tips as to how to kick the ball properly. We started passing the ball around back and forth, I wound up for a big kick to pass it to a friend farther down the field . . .

… and felt a sharp shocking pain in my upper leg. I had pulled a quad muscle kicking the ball.

Why hadn't anyone told me that could happen? We didn't even warm up our quads before playing. I hadn’t played for five minutes.

So I hobbled over to the bench and sat there with my leg aching. Spent the next couple of days resting and icing it and walking with a limp. It was a struggle to put socks and shoes on. Thankfully I think it was just a Level 1 sprain (there's levels for this, who knew?) because after 3 days I’d say it’s at around 80% now. Still a bit of pain if I move the leg up too much.

I think that was a hint that while soccer might be for Qataris it’s probably not for me. I might stick to squash and tennis.

Busy, busy, busy

Sorry everyone for not posting for a while. With the weather finally cooling down the evenings have been busy as everybody is out doing things. This week was soccer, dinners out, squash, and hanging out at majlises (except outside). The months of repressive heat is over, and the rains haven't started yet, so now it's time to enjoy the evenings while you can.

I'll try to post an update in a few days.

Fun with Bitmoji

A while ago I loaded an app called Bitmoji that I've been using on some of my social media. You create an avatar and then the app will incorporate the avatar into their pre-set images, which you can then send. How's my avatar look?

There's hundreds of images you can send, some get unusual.

Of course with Halloween approaching they offer costumes . . .

Well, that's the things I get up to on a lazy Friday morning.

Kayaking in Qatar

When I was in Abu Dhabi a couple of weekends ago one of the activities that I did was kayaking. Our hotel was near a mangrove forest and you could rent kayaks to explore the waterways and canals in the forest. We had fun and my friends thought it was a great activity so when we returned to Qatar they went out and bought some kayaks.

Qatar also has some areas with mangroves, one of the largest ones being just north of Al Khor on the shore of a town called Dhakhira (its name translates as “ammunition”, not sure why it’s called that). So after breakfast on a Friday we loaded up a truck with the kayaks and headed to Dhakhira.

We spent a couple of hours touring around. Mostly saw herons and some fish, sometimes small crabs near the shore.

After a while we found a small beach on the other side of the bay where a tour company sets up tents and/or BBQs for their clients. They rent kayaks for people to use to explore the mangroves.

If you happen to know any Qataris with the last name Al Mohannadi ask them about the area, back in the day the land around Al Khor and Dhakhira was controlled by the Al Mohannadis and so chances are any Qatari with that last name has plenty of relatives still living there.

If you're interested in kayaking amongst the mangroves do an internet search for tour companies that offer kayaking. Definitely remember to bring sunscreen, and make sure you take it with you on the kayaks, you’ll be in the sun for many hours.

Saudi Transit Visa

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted on the blog. Not due to a particular crisis or dilemma, I've just been pretty busy in the evenings so haven't had time to sit down and write anything.

One of the things I was busy with was acquiring a transit visa for Saudi Arabia. A group of Qatari friends were driving to the UAE for an exhibition and wanted me to come with them. One problem with that though – Qatar and the UAE do not share a border, you have to go through Saudi Arabia to get to the UAE, and Saudi doesn’t just let Westerners into the country with a visa on arrival, you need to apply for one in advance.

Why there is a narrow part of Saudi Arabia between Qatar and the UAE is a bit of a story (I blogged about it here) and there’s no likelihood of that changing anytime soon.

Getting the visa is not as straightforward as you might think, though this may change in the near future. On October 1, 2016 the Saudi Government changed their fee structure for visas (the transit visa now costs QAR 300) and took down their website and e-visa processing system to upgrade it. At the time you couldn’t use their system for a transit visa to/from the UAE as it was not listed, you need to use an authorized agency that could process the application, but perhaps with the upgrade to their system maybe it will allow for people to apply to the transit visa without using an agency. We’ll see.

In the meantime you'll need to use an agency. When I did an Internet search for agencies the most recent information I found was from 2011 and it wasn’t very good, some of the agencies on the list no longer processed the Saudi transit visa. I am not going to post the list because at the end of the day I tried three agencies and I did not manage to get the visa (I will tell you why in a minute) so I can't even tell you whether a particular agency is good or not.

Assuming the requirements are still the same one of the agencies helpfully put up the list of things you need to apply for the visa. (one thing is missing from the list so continue to read this post after the list).

And the fee of course. The photos that they refer to are passport-sized photos. I believe that the last item refers to proof that you have a visa to enter the UAE, or are using a passport that allows you to acquire a visa at the border. The UAE allows most Western passport holders a visa on arrival. The agencies never asked me for proof of eligibility to enter the UAE.

What is this letter? Well it's a letter from your employer, that must be in Arabic, giving you permission to apply for the visa. Weird, huh? But in this part of the world Exit Permits and permission from employers to leave the country is a big thing. Most of my friends have to apply to their workplace for an exit visa every time they wish to leave the country. The agencies can hand you a copy (in Arabic) of what the letter should say, and your HR department will need to type out the letter on their letterhead and give it to you.

But there’s one more piece of information that you need. As you will be in a vehicle the agency will want a copy of the registration of the vehicle that you will be traveling in. I guess the visa is so specific it names the vehicle that you will be in. When I told the agency that I would not be driving and that I would be in a friend's car, they wanted a copy of my friend’s ID and his vehicle registration! Ummmmmm, okay. My friend had no problem providing me with copies. Here’s the kicker, the agency warned me that if I was not in that specific car with that specific person I'll probably be turned back at the border. That’s pretty strict.

In the end I didn't get a visa though. Why? Because I tried to apply the day that the Saudi Government took down the system for upgrades. Even the agency couldn't access the system so could not lodge the application. After 2 1/2 days the system was still down. A friend of mine suspected it was just that this one agency had problems, which is why we then traveled around and spoke with other agencies. All of them had the same problem. So now it was Tuesday, my friends were leaving Thursday, the visa takes 2-3 days to process, and we still weren't sure when we could even submit the application. So we scrapped the idea, I just bought a plane ticket to the UAE and met my friends there. Shame because I wanted to see Saudi, if only a little bit of it. I've lived in Qatar over 10 years and have yet to go to Saudi Arabia.

Not that I'm planning to visit the country anytime soon. The oil price crisis seems to really be hitting the Saudi finances, and they want money, so now visas to visit the country have got to be some of the most expensive in the world. The transit visa was QAR 300 but if you want a single-use visit visa you have to pay QAR 2000 (US$540!!), and QAR 3000 for a six-month multi-use visa. I can’t see that encouraging a lot of tourism so I’m guessing visitors will be largely pilgrims going to Mecca.

My friends said they will probably drive again to the UAE next year. They said next time they'll give me a lot more advance notice so that I can get the visa in time.

Eid Vacation in Turkey

So during Eid I went to Turkey to meet up with some friends. Like last year we went to a resort in Bodrum, this time the Voyage between Bodrum and Gumbet. I think my friends wanted a quieter vacation this time so picked a no-children resort.

It was a nice place, and all inclusive so we rarely left the resort. In the five days I was there I went to Bodrum twice and my friends only once.

We did go out to a couple of evening concerts, the first one by popular lounge/pop singer Serdar Ortac, and the next night by Turkish popstar Fatih Urek (who apparently also has belly dancer training). Both concerts started (yes, started) at 1:30 in the morning! Turks apparently love to stay up all night during vacations. There were even children in attendance at the concert. So some of my vacation was spent sleeping in late, eating lunch, then sitting a lounger snoozing some more.

[The Fatih Urek link is to a video of his that also shows Bodrum.]


All in all a relaxing vacation. I do like Turkey, and the recent issues there haven't caused any problems in the "sun cities" in the south. Unfortunately the coup attempt and an airport bombing have scared many tourists away so some places are suffering economically. Hopefully next year things will improve for the industry.

Vehicle Fatalities in Qatar

Back in 2014 I did a blog post analyzing the road fatality rate in Qatar. It seemed to indicate that despite the population growing, and the number of cars on the road growing, the fatality rate was decreasing. I speculated that it might be due to the increased traffic congestion, which means that on average drivers cannot go as fast as they did in the past. Statistics seemed to indicate that the number of small accidents was steadily increasing, which would make sense if the number of cars on the road would increase.

That was two years ago, so how have things been since?

Improved actually, at least in terms of fatalities. Qatar still collects monthly statistics on the population and the number of traffic accidents as well as related fatalities (you can find the monthly statistics here). I compiled the monthly statistics on the spreadsheet to get a snapshot of the number of fatalities, major accidents, and minor accidents that occurred in Qatar over the year. ( I assume that "minor accidents" are vehicle accidents where there was some form of injury, if it was just a minor fender-bender the statistics would be too low, there would be tens of thousands of these every month).

As of end-June 2016:
Population: 2,477,113
Fatalities over the last 12 months: 165
Major accidents in the last 12 months: 564
Minor accidents in the last 12 months: 5217

As of end-December 2015:
Population: 2,421,055
Fatalities over the last 12 months: 204
Major accidents in the last 12 months: 567
Minor accidents in the last 12 months: 5317

As of end-June 2015:
Population: 2,344,557
Fatalities over the last 12 months: 212
Major accidents in the last 12 months: 595
Minor accidents in the last 12 months: 5032

As of end-December 2014:
Population: 2,235,431
Fatalities over the last 12 months: 182
Major accidents in the last 12 months: 532
Minor accidents in the last 12 months: 4559


Seems to fluctuate a bit but bear in mind at the end of 2010, when the population was only 1,699,435 (source here), the number of road fatalities for the year was 226! (source here). The population has increased by nearly 50% yet the number of road fatalities has decreased. Accidents appear to be generally increasing, and unfortunately the monthly data only starts in 2014 so I can't go back farther to see if there is a real trend.

A recent news article stated that the government credits a road safety campaign for the decrease but I'm not so sure given I think the trend in the number of fatalities per 100,000 population has been decreasing steadily for the last 5 to 6 years, and I'm not so sure that the number of accidents has decreased. I still think that the, highly annoying, traffic congestion might be a major factor in reducing the fatalities.

Summer Weather in Qatar

Summer is more than halfway over, with luck the heat will break by October. Not surprisingly summers here are H-O-T, temps in the mid-40s are the norm. It makes mid-day pretty challenging to go outside for any length of time but if it is dry then the days are manageable. By evening it drops down to the mid-30s, not great, but okay. Unless it's humid.

As the old saying goes it's not the heat, it's the humidity. The humidity can vary widely in the summer, I think based on the wind direction (if from the sea then it's humid, if from the south where the desert is then it's dry. The humidity can make it unbearable, even in the evening. Just the other day I left a mall and walked maybe 200m to my car, and when I reached it I looked like I had jogged a mile. My clothes were drenched in a combination of condensation and sweat, and my forehead was dripping. Ugh. On humid days you can't even go outside in the evening for more than a couple of minutes, after which you look like someone poured water on you. Air conditioning is the greatest invention ever!

Of course there's also the risk of sandstorms. Usually they are larger storms from Saudi or Kuwait that you receive advance warning about but other times they can be quite sudden. Last week a thunderstorm in northern Qatar kicked up a lot of dust and sent it south into the city.

That wasn't the worst I'd seen but it was pretty bad. Thankfully because it was small it lasted maybe an hour or so; larger, slower storms can create a dusty haze that can last for days.

One plus about summer is that the weather drives the ex-pats away as tens of thousands head home to wait out the hot weather, returning when schools are back in session. This makes the traffic in Doha better and I'm not looking forward to after Eid when the traffic is again in full misery. My commute time to work will nearly double. It is for this reason that I actually prefer to stay in Doha for the summer. With the Eid holidays now in the summer I of course take vacations but if not for that I'd probably stay here over the summer without a vacation. I can handle the heat, but the traffic can be maddening when everyone returns.

Gaming

Usually at least once a week I'm hanging out with friends at a majlis. The guys like to play various games to pass the time, either electronic, board, or card games. Gulf Arabs like games and don't get all fussed about them. Brazillia (Buraco) remains very popular, as is Monopoly, FIFA on the PS4 is also a go-to (I can't play it worth a damn though) but we also like to play a classic strategy game, Risk.

With Risk now available on the iPad it makes it a lot easier to play a game and makes it portable. We played a few times on the airplane to the Seychelles, and another time at a restaurant that had a TV in our booth as we were able to connect the iPad display to the TV (one of the pictures is from the restaurant). Something to while away some time.


I'm familiar with a lot of boardgames so I introduced the group to a game called Lords of Vegas. It was a hit and we usually play it at least once during an evening. A game called Power Grid is also played occasionally but not as often as Lords of Vegas.

This is not a serious gaming bunch, games need to be reasonably quick to learn and play and have lots of inter-player interaction. Someone brought Axis & Allies once but that didn't work out well -- way too complex, too much setup and turns took a long time.


In time I might introduce a couple of other games (Settlers of Catan?) but everyone seems to be doing fine for now with what we have.

The Murphy's Law of a New Car

About four months ago I bought a new car. I had my previous car for nearly ten years so it was time for an upgrade, it also helped that prices were really good. With all of the layoffs business was down at the dealerships and used car places so there were lots of sales. I picked myself up a nice new car, a bit snazzier than my old basic-model 1.3 L Honda City. I've been here long enough to treat myself to something a bit better.

With my old Honda it had a number of small scratches and door dings but once the car is a few years old I didn't really sweat it. Well within six weeks of having my new car someone left a major door ding in it, enough to expose the underlayers beneath the paint. That was annoying, and I have no idea where it happened because it was on the passenger side, which I usually don't approach my car from. Oh, well.

But two nights ago I had parked my car in the street (the parking garage in my building is too narrow so I'd be at real risk of side-swiping my car against a post) and someone decided that it would be a good idea to u-turn on the road. The next morning I see a nice egg-sized scratch where the corner of their bumper hit the side of my car. So in four months I have two scratches that are worse than what I received on my old car in ten years. Murphy's Law of owning a new car I guess. If it had happened to my old car I wouldn't have cared too much but it's my new car!

Naturally I have no idea who did it. If you did it and you're reading this I hope your life sucks.

Dates Festival at Souq Waqif

For the next couple of weeks Souq Waqif has set up a large tent where local farms can sell dates.

Despite the fact that it was a weekday evening, and it was H-O-T out, there was still a decent crowd of people shopping for dates. Many wheelbarrow guys were parked outside the tent to take the shopper's wares to their car. At the festival people weren't buying a small box, they seemed to be buying at least 5-10 kg of dates.

A couple of years ago I posted about the various stages of ripeness for dates. We are most familiar with dark brown, wrinkly dates, which are actually the final stage of ripeness and are called tamr in Arabic. At the festival only a few stall sold tamr dates, the vast majority were selling dates that were at an early stage of ripeness and were yellow or red (bessar), or slightly brown rutab dates.

I didn't buy anything, bessar and rutab dates aren't really to my liking (less sweet, somewhat bitter and crunchy depending on the stage of ripeness) but a Qatari friend once told me that a lot of Qataris prefer them over tamr dates. If you've never tried bessar or rutab dates head over to the Souq sometime this week and give them a try.

Seychelles

Shortly after returning to Doha I was off on another trip, this time to the Seychelles, a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. A friend had organized a trip for a bunch of the guys so we headed out for almost a week.

It's a beautiful place, a lot more mountainous than Bermuda and it has a lot of nice beaches. We had rented a villa in an upscale area called Eden island which overlooked a small beach.

The Seychelles were very isolated islands so had a lot of unique endemic flora and fauna. One of the most famous is "coco de mer" a tree found only in the Seychelles with a massive nut/seed. There are issues with conservation as the nuts are very expensive, and it's illegal to buy one except through an authorized shop (the stickers on the coco de mer in the picture indicate that they can be exported).

The islands are also one of only two places in the world to have giant tortoises, in this case the Aldabra Giant Tortoise (the other being the more famous, and slightly larger, Galapagos Tortoise from the Galapagos islands off the coast of Ecuador). The tortoises are actually native to a small atoll north of the main island but at the Botanical Gardens they have many and for a fee tourists can feed them and take pictures. Despite a small native habitat the species is doing okay now thanks to intensive conservation efforts, I believe almost no one is allowed to live on their island and efforts are underway to eradicate any non-native animals from the island.

The Seychelles has at various times been under French and British influence but the general culture is more French than English though both languages are widely spoken. Restaurants of all types are available but French and African-based cuisine seemed common. The friends I were with were Muslim and at one restaurant they were pleased to see cheese fondue available so ordered it (I was away at the time and didn't realize they had ordered it). When it arrived I assumed they had ordered a non-alcohol version so I never warned them (oops). Naturally after a few people tasted it they realized something didn't taste right -- they didn't know that cheese fondue typically has white wine in it. By then most of it had been eaten so they just put the fondue forks down in disappointment. Lesson learned, be careful of European cuisine if you don't drink alcohol.

Anyway it was a great vacation. We went snorkeling and saw lots of fish, many that were similar to fish that were common in Bermuda (various species of parrot fish, sergeant majors, butterfly fish) as well as others I had never seen before. There was lots of relaxing on the beach or by the pool and, maybe for once, I managed to not get sunburned at all. One of the guys had a run-in with a sea urchin but thankfully he had flip-flops on and only got a couple of pokes. Driving around the island we saw a ton of beaches and nice views from up the (steep!) mountain roads. Definitely worth a visit if you get a chance but be warned that it is an expensive place so it's would not be easy for budget travellers.

Eid Vacation

Back from vacation, as soon as Eid hit I was off to Paris where I stayed with some friends. The weather reports said it would be mostly cloudy and around 23-24 degrees so I backed light jackets, jeans etc. I was looking forward to some colder weather. Well, Murphy's Law of Travel, it turned out to be sunny and 29-30 pretty much the whole time I was there (except when I was at the Eiffel Tower).

All you Parisians who were thrilled with that, you're welcome.

As I like walking around seeing the sights temperatures like that are pretty draining, and Northern Europe is not big on having air conditioning everywhere, so even restaurants could be hot.

On the plus side the Euro Cup was on and I got to go to a bar with my friends to watch the France semi-finals. They won so of course everyone was happy. I was a bit unhappy that I would not be in Paris for the final, but it turned out that it was for the best since France lost.

Anyway, I had a great time. Paris is a lovely place. Just be careful with your stuff, while we were at a restaurant a lady at a nearby table had her bag stolen.

Ramadan 2016 Ends Tomorrow Night

So the Ministry of Islamic Affairs announced that Eid will not start tonight but tomorrow night. They were unable to spot the light of the Crescent Moon. It was expected, most months in the Islamic Calendar are 30 days, with the occasional one being 29 days. Eid would have started tonight if the month had been 29 days.

One more day of fasting to go.

Ramadan 2016, Day 27 – Meals and Buffets

Only a couple of days to go before Eid. We will know tomorrow night whether Eid officially starts or whether it will start the next night. I'm actually looking forward to shifting back to normal sleeping and eating habits. The first few days of fasting are tough, then you start to get into the routine and get the hang of it, but after a while the disruption to how you eat, how you sleep, how late you stay up, starts to slowly wear you down. It’s weird going to bed at 1 or 2am, getting up again at 3am, going back to bed then getting up around 7:30, and going to work before coming back home for a huge nap. I'm looking forward to actually sleeping a solid eight hours in a row, not having to take 2-hour naps in the afternoon, and not being concerned about being outside in 45 degree heat because I can't drink water. I also miss being able to drink coffee at the office.

I managed to keep the buffets to a minimum and had only attended two iftars at hotels and no sohours. I did go with my friends to a couple of sohours at restaurants (one Turkish, one Canaanite), and as usual we ordered way too much food, so at the end of the day I guess I went to four big dinners during Ramadan, which was pretty subdued for me. Thankfully my friends and colleagues toned it down too so I didn’t have to turn down tons of invitations. I recall a few years ago I went to a hotel buffet iftar, a hotel buffet ghabga (a traditional meal between iftar and sohour) and a hotel sohour buffet all in one evening! That was nuts.

Did I lose weight? I don’t know, maybe a little. I did try to get an average of 10,000 steps a day, and most days I did manage it, but it was probably offset by all the eating out at friend's majlises and restaurants.

Almost there, just a couple more days.

Ramadan 2016, Day 25 - Corniche Car Parade

Every Ramadan, around 4:30-6:00pm, people go down to the Corniche in fancy or vintage cars and drive up and down the street. Not sure why, but it's something that people do every day of Ramadan. I think I have pictures from a Ramadan Car parade each year for the last 3-4 years on my blog.

This time there were a lot of foreign cars parading, mostly from Saudi but I also saw a few from Bahrain, UAE and even a Kuwaiti car.

In the past many people would have their kids in the car and the kids would be hanging out the window or standing up and peering out of the sunroof. I think the police have cracked down on this the last couple of years so at least one car came up with a novel solution.

So here are pictures of the cars I saw this year. Enjoy.