Emir Cup 2013

Wow, it's been a busy weekend. Earlier this week the Emir’s Cup had been touring around Doha and it visited my workplace, the organizers then gave out tickets to the game and I managed to get one. A couple of friends were also going but they pulled out at the last minute but I grabbed my Al Sadd team scarf and went anyway (Al Sadd were playing Al Rayyan). I had a good time the last time I went.

So I got there more than an hour before kickoff and there were reasonably-sized crowds wandering around the outside of the stadium.



Just as I got up to the gate the police shut the gate! There were still probably 40 or 50 of us in line to get in. I immediately went to the next gate and it was already shut as well. It was starting to look like the same problem that occurred during the Asian Cup finale a couple of years ago, when thousands of ticketholders were locked out, including my friends and I. I started going around the stadium seeing if there was another gate open. There were still hundreds and hundreds of people who hadn't gotten in yet so if all the gates were closed this was going to get messy. Thankfully on the other side of the stadium the gates were still open so I managed to get in but had to sit in the second-tier. (I later found out through Twitter reports that in the end hundreds of people still did not manage to get in.)

The stadium was definitely packed. There was the odd section that had a few empty seats but I would say the stadium was 98%+ occupied. Here's some pictures from around an hour before kickoff and already it was pretty crowded.





When I arrived in my section it was almost completely empty but within 30 minutes it was full as police directed the crowds to the second-tier.

Dignitaries arrived wearing their bishts. His Highness arrived later, just before kickoff, but unfortunately all of my pictures were too blurry.



Al Rayyan fans were really hyped up, waving banners and flags. Check out the size of this Flag they unrolled:



Al Sadd fans unrolled a smaller flag. The Arabic says “Hamad”, His Highness’s name.



Anyway the game started off strong. Al Sadd scored but it was called offside, Al Rayyan then scored, then Al Rayyan were awarded a penalty and scored again, then Al Sadd had an amazing chance that we can believe missed. And this was all in the first 10 minutes!




After that things settled a bit. Al Rayyan were the stronger team in the first half but couldn't score again so at halftime the score was 2-0.

In the second-half Al Sadd upped their game and managed to get an early goal. I put a lot of pressure on but in the end it was to no avail and Al Rayyan won 2-1.



There was much cheering and rejoicing of course, His Highness handed out the trophy, and Al Rayyan celebrated for while.



It was a good match, and everyone was generally in good spirits. No hooliganism or other hassle that you hear about in soccer matches in Europe. Families and kids were there enjoying the evening. I had a nice time. Shame to find out about the entrance problems afterward.

Learning About the Antichrist

I know, the title seems a bit sensationalistic, but earlier this week I received a text message from FANAR, the Islamic Cultural Centre, informing me that there would be a lecture Friday night. As for what the lecture was about, here's the text (emphasis in original):

Join Sheikh Samir Abu Hamza – THIS WEEKEND - as we unlock the mysteries of "THE ANTICHRIST" . . . .

Well, how am I going to turn that down?

I had never really thought about Islamic views in terms of the Antichrist. I know Muslims believed in the Armageddon or The End Times, and that Jesus would return to help fight evil, but I didn't recall anything about the Antichrist. Clearly they do since there was going to be a lecture about it.

So off to the cultural centre I went.



The lecture started just after the Maghrib prayer and the lecture hall was pretty crowded, I estimate 300 to 400 men and an unknown number of women were in attendance (the women's area is on the mezzanine while the men sit on the ground floor so the men can't see the ladies). Sheikh Samir Abu Hamza arrived and sat down in a chair on the stage. He looked pretty much like I expected, a gentleman in a thobe with a big, bushy beard.



He started the talk with a few sentences/blessings in Arabic before switching to English at which point I became somewhat surprised. The accent was unmistakable.

Sheikh Samir Abu Hamza is Australian.

No, it doesn’t really matter and yes, Australians can be Muslims too, but the whole while it was like Paul Hogan was teaching you about the Antichrist. Kind of surreal.

Anyway, here’s a synopsis:

After a brief discussion establishing belief in the unseen and that only Allah knows the future we moved onto a description of the Antichrist. According to Hadiths:

• he is human
• he is short
• he is blind in his right eye and his left eye bulges
• he has curly hair
• he has some sort of markings on his forehead
• he will appear pious (but he is a great liar and deceiver) and will eventually claim to be a Prophet of God

To tell you the truth I was pretty impressed with the detailed description Islam has of the Antichrist, the Bible doesn't really have much of a description, certainly not to that level of detail.

There was a brief discussion of the end times and how some of the minor signs are coming true, such as cross-dressing, killing of innocents, riba (interest) everywhere, everyone respecting people who like etc. Cross-dressing was listed first, not sure why.
Also something about Muslims conquering Rome as one of the signs. There will also be three years where rainfall will steadily reduce until last year when there is no rain at all, by which point there will of course be a massive famine.

Much of the rest of the lecture was spent telling people that they must be closer to Allah, pray more, etc. Certainly nowhere near the level of "fire and brimstone" common with many fundamentalist Christian preachers, just Sheikh imploring people to read the Qur’an more and to live a more pious life. Barely any mention of burning in Hell at all. Prayers are your weapons against the Antichrist.

One thing of note is that Muslims also believe that Jesus will return during the end times to fight the Antichrist. I recall this from the Qur’an and I don't know how many Christians realize that Muslims hold this belief as well.

After an hour the lecture was over. I suppose for me the most informative bit was finding out just how detailed the descriptions of the Antichrist are.

Ezdan Mall Update – May 16th

[the most up-to-date information I have on Ezdan Mall is from August 21st and can be found here but this post has a lot of pictures of the shops].


Okay, so what's the updates for the new mall?


Food & Beverage

I saw a menu at Tim Hortons that listed breakfast sandwiches so if you go there in the morning I guess they'll have them available. Breakfast sandwiches were around QAR 12-19.

At the moment the iced coffees are not available but the place is installing the equipment for them so they should be available soon.

More tables have been added in the mall so hopefully people going to Tim’s will be able to find a table now.

For all of you Tim-haters another café has opened in the mall.



And in the food court the KFC is now open, so there are now two places open in the food court (the other being MotiMahal)


Stores

Forever 21 is not open yet but it can definitely be listed as "any day now".






Carrefour and WHSmith remained closed.



Here's some photos of some stores that are now open




















And here’s some pictures of places close to opening:

Pegasus Airlines and Local Air Prices

So there is a lot of advertising around about a new airline flying to Doha in June, the Turkish discount airline Pegasus.



As soon as I saw the ads I called the Turkish friend of mine to let him know and he was really excited. Typically to fly from Doha to Istanbul would cost around QAR 2400 or more (~$660+) but Pegasus was advertising rates as low as QAR 1100 ($300). That's big savings, especially for your average Turk.

Even better, Pegasus would be the first discount airline to fly to Doha that has a good European network. They fly to a number of cities in Europe like London, Barcelona, Milan, Zürich, Copenhagen etc. so now people in Doha have a reasonably priced option to get to many European cities.

But why would Pegasus be so much cheaper? Well it is a no-frills airline. I've flown it once in Turkey and it is not fancy like the airlines here. But it also has something to do with the fact that in the Middle East if you live in the main city of an airline they charge you through the roof for a ticket. It's an outrageous practice, these airlines all want transit passengers to use their hubs so the tickets for people transiting through are more reasonably priced than for people who actually live in the city.

Here's an example, today I decided to check out the prices for a trip to London leaving August 16 and returning September 1. It's around Eid time so the prices should be more than usual.

On Pegasus, Doha-Istanbul-London was QAR 1990 ($545)
On Qatar Airways, Doha-London was QAR 6420 ($1,759)

Yep, look at that again. A price difference of $1,200! Yes, I realize Qatar Airways is a quality airline with very nice planes and services -- but that doesn't excuse charging triple the fare.

So I decided to look up what it would be if I was in Bangkok and wanted to fly to London through Qatar Airways, same dates:

Bangkok-Doha-London QAR 4973 ($1,362)

So someone flying from Bangkok to Doha, then changing planes and going on the same flight as someone who was only flying from Doha to London, still would pay almost $400 less for their entire trip!

I think it’s outrageous that the airlines do this, but it's something a lot of people here know -- it's a lot cheaper when transiting. I remember a while back some Qataris were organizing an online boycott because of how annoying this was. I doubt it will work since the vast majority of Qatar Airways' passengers are transit passengers anyway.

Transiting though one of the Middle East hubs does make it cheaper, though not as cheap as Pegasus:

Emirates, Doha-Dubai-London = QAR 3510 ($961)
Etihad, Doha-Abu Dhabi-London = QAR 3990 ($1,093)

So instead of triple, you pay double and, like Pegasus, have to deal with a layover.

Now before you go and say I'm just picking on Qatar Airways the others gouge as well. Let's use that “hub to London” versus the “Bangkok to London” example again:

Emirates, Dubai-London = QAR 5485
Emirates, Bangkok-Dubai-London QAR 6064

Etihad, Abu Dhabi-London QAR 5730
Etihad, Bangkok-Abu Dhabi-London QAR 5386

So Qatar Airways was the most expensive for “Hub to London” but the least expensive of the three going from Bangkok. Etihad, like Qatar Airways, charged more for people leaving from Abu Dhabi to London than someone going from Bangkok to London through Abu Dhabi. Emirates charged the Bangkok flight all of about $150 more. Emirates and Etihad charged local passengers way more for a direct flight than for someone transiting from Doha.

Is there a way to change this? Why can’t these airlines be more reasonable to local passengers?

With any luck Pegasus will drive down some of the prices from Qatar Airways.


I booked using their website but someone left a comment that Regency Travels is an approved agent for Pegasus so if you need an agent try them.

Ezdan Mall Update – May 9th

[the most up-to-date information I have on Ezdan Mall is from August 21st and can be found here But the post from May 16 also has a lot of pictures of the shops].

So aside from the fantastic news that Tim Hortons opened (see previous post) what else has opened at Ezdan Mall?

Here's some pictures of some of the new stores that have opened:









No other food place is open aside from the Tim Hortons and in the Food Court one Indian place, “MotiMahal”

Some places are nearly open, could be any day now:





The amusement area isn't open but they have set out a small play area for children:



Carrefour and WHSmith are still closed:



Someone asked me about Forever 21. Sorry, looks like at least a week. Definitely work happening there though:



I’ll try to stop by in the next week for more updates.

Tim Hortons is Open in Qatar!

I went to Ezdan Mall today and sure enough Tim Hortons is open for business!

Evidence:



Bonus info for all you Canadians out there:

• Donuts cost QAR 5 each, not 8 as I previously reported. Other pastries start around QAR 8. A box of six donuts is QAR 27.
• Sandwiches are available, as is soup and chili.
• Of course there are Timbits
• As you can see from the picture of my donut there were no Maple Dip donuts available, but I'm assuming they will have them (I think they were sold out).
• The place is small, I think there was maybe 8 tables. Once the mall is fully open chances are you'll have to get take away unless they can put some tables out in the mall.
• I think it was their first day of operation so service was a bit chaotic and definitely not as speedy and polished as typical for Tim Hortons. Be patient, I’m sure the staff will soon get the hang of it.

Enjoy!

For some more Tim Hortonsupdates click on this link.

Ezdan Mall Update – May 4th

[the most up-to-date information I have on Ezdan Mall is from August 21st and can be found here but the post from May 16 also has a lot of pictures of the shops].

A friend of mine was at Ezdan Mall today and informed me that:

• One of the places in the food court is now open, an Indian place called something like “MotiMulal”;
• no other food and beverage is open, including the Tim Hortons and Mado;
• Carrefour is still not open;
• nor is WHSmith;
• nor is the children's amusement area.

I'll try to stop by later this week and post another update.

Stormy Weather

This afternoon a storm started up: rain, high winds, lightning, even some reports of hail!

So far the rain might cause some localized flooding but, so far, I don't think there will be much in the way of flood damage. If the winds increase further there will probably be some windstorm damage. Traffic on some of the main roads is snarled up, probably because drivers are slowing down due to the weather. Hopefully there won't be any major accidents.

I don't recall any rain in May in the time I've been here, and certainly nothing like this. Having a storm like this so late in the year is really unusual. Then again I would normally say the same thing about April but Steff Gaulter, a meteorologist at Al Jazeera, tweeted a while ago that in the last 10 years it has rained in Qatar in April every year except one. Shows how good my memory is. I bet it hasn't rained like this every year for the last 10 years though.

While the storm won't (hopefully) cause major damage it has been devastating in parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman. Take a look at this picture I took in the mountains of Oman.




What looks like a dry riverbed in the distance is actually a wadi, a channel where flash-flood waters come down the mountain. Flash floods are a frequent problem in parts of Oman so one has to be careful crossing wadis a suspect it might be raining in the mountains. Sadly a number of people have already been killed in Oman and Saudi by flooding.


If there’s any reports of major damage in Qatar I will post an update.

Mysteries of Qatar

If someone knows the answer to these please feel free to let me know:

1. Why is it called West Bay when it's not west of anything? It’s slightly northeast of the city.

2. Why do so many people wait for 20+ minutes to get into City Centre Mall on the weekend to look for a parking spot?

3. Why, despite the fact that it has been demonstrated in many countries that seatbelts and child-safety seats save lives and help prevent injuries, has the Qatari Government not passed a law requiring everyone to use seatbelts? And why do so many people in Qatar not wear seatbelts, or allow their children to not wear seatbelts?

4. The word for “what” in Classical Arabic is “matha” but Qataris say “shinu”. How in the world did the word go from matha to shinu? They’re not even close in pronunciation.

5. Why do some Arabs conduct the most death-defying maneuvers when driving to shave a couple of seconds off their trip but when they get there they’re supposed to relax, maybe have a coffee, and chat for a while before engaging in any serious discussions? [My Qatari friends couldn’t explain it either.]

6. Why are apartment buildings approved to have fewer parking spaces than the number of apartments in the building?

7. Why are they called ring roads (A-Ring, B-Ring, C-Ring etc.) when they don’t actually ring around Doha?

8. Why do a lot of people wear t-shirts with English writing on them when they don't understand the English? (I'm not talking just about here either, it seems to apply to a lot of places in the world). Every now and then I see someone wearing a t-shirt and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be wearing it if they knew what it said.

Ezdan Mall Update - 1st May 2013

[the most up-to-date information I have on Ezdan Mall is from August 21st and can be found here but the post from May 16 also has a lot of pictures of the shops].



Took a quick wander around Ezdan Mall, a few more clothing stores have opened but I would still say at most a third of the shops are open or close to opening. I’m skeptical of the claim by the Ezdan Group that most of the shops will be open by end of May. Carrefour and WHSmith remain closed.

No food and beverage outlets were open yet. At the food court it looks like KFC and an Indian restaurant were nearly finished.

Of all the food places in the mall the Tim Hortons was closest to opening. The lights were on, tables were ready, signs were up and it looked like the staff was being trained. I spoke to a manager and he said all they’re waiting for now is a permit or signoff from some Ministry and they're ready to go.

For those of you Canadians wondering about the prices a Tim Hortons coffee costs 7/9/12 riyal for S/M/L. Lattes and cappuccinos were in the 14+ range. I think a donut was 5 riyal but don’t hold me to that.

“Fire of Anatolia” at Katara

Last night a Turkish friend of mine invited me to watch a Turkish dance production that was at Katara for one night only. Called “Fire of Anatolia” the group is apparently well-known in Turkey, conducting performances of traditional dances from all the regions of Turkey, albeit with some modern choreography. Needless to say there were a lot of Turks in the audience, and loudspeaker announcements were made in English, Arabic and Turkish.

The show took place at the amphitheater at Katara, the first time I've attended an event there. I took a couple of pictures before the show started as they said you weren't allowed to take pictures during the show. The pictures are from well before the start of the show so there were a lot more people in the audience than the pictures would indicate.




It was a big dance troupe, I think at one point I counted almost 50 dancers. It was a very athletic performance, with elements of ballet and modern dance blended in with the traditional folk dances.

As promised there were energetic performances of traditional dances. It was surprising how varied the dances were but my friend and his wife were able to immediately note which region of Turkey the dances originated from, for example meditative Sufi-inspired dances from Konya, line dances similar to traditional Irish dancing (lots of leg work with the little upper-body movement)from the Istanbul region and an even more intensive one from the Black Sea region, belly-dancing, a traditional dance from Izmit, and a dance with powerful leaps and spins from the northeastern mountains with clear similarities to other dances from the Caucuses.

At one point during the second half it started raining! I got a little worried for the dancers lest they slip and fall but "the show must go on” as they say, and it did not appear to affect the performance. For the dance from the Black Sea region they seem to take advantage of it, a couple of times some gentlemen were using the rain to slide on the stage.

I enjoyed the performance, it was great to see such a variety of dances at one show. My friend as promised when I next visit Turkey he will take me to see some traditional dancing from the Bursa and Ankara regions.

Searching for "Fire of Anatolia" on youtube gets lots of videos, look at this one and go to around the 9:00 mark for an example of the Black Sea dance.

Qatari Weddings – Lighting the House

Around Qatar you will occasionally see a house with strings of lights on it.




This is part of the wedding celebrations, the lights are used to signify that someone in the house has or will be getting married. According to a Qatari friend of mine, the lights are typically put up a few days before the wedding and stay up for a few days afterward (I think some families keep them up longer, I'm sure I've seen houses where those lights are there for a couple of weeks).

And just to clarify, the lights are put up around the time of the wedding parties, not at the time the marriage contract is signed. They are two separate events: the couple signs a marriage contract (at which point they are legally married) but cannot live together until they have had the parties (one for men, and one for ladies). The parties can occur well after the contract is signed, in some cases over a year later.

Change the Pearl!

Today dohanews posted a report that UDC, the company behind the development of the Pearl, has hired a consultancy firm to revisit its strategy of being a “high-end” shopping destination, possibly shifting to stores more in the mid-range.



UDC could spare itself the huge consultancy fees and ask me for advice -- I'll charge a lot less. ;-) Do I think the Pearl should change from its high-end shopping strategy?

YES!

Tons of super-expensive overpriced stores and restaurants has not worked. In fact it's become kind of a joke. A colleague of mine and I still laugh about the time we were at the Pearl a year or so ago and popped into this top-end housewares store (I don't remember its name) where we saw things like a bottle opener for QAR 400 ($US 110). Seriously, are you kidding me!?! And we’re not talking some kind of fancy electric-bottle opener, this was a bottle opener like the one a bartender uses to open a bottle. We were the only ones in the store. Gee, I wonder why. I guess there's not enough blindly-rich people in Qatar to support this type of stuff.

UDC just needs to look at two things:

• what are the people who frequent the Pearl looking for; and
• what shops at the Pearl seem to be doing decent business

It's that simple -- find out what people want and provide it.




I've been to the Pearl many times and what seems to be busy? Reasonably-priced restaurants and reasonably-priced coffee shops. Everything else, with the exception of the supermarket, is pretty much empty. Second Cup seems to be busy, meanwhile many restaurants have closed. Visitors to the Pearl seem to be families or casual walkers just out for a stroll, not the type of people who are going to pop into a store to buy a multi-thousand riyal purse. The only reason I go there is to wander around and see what’s changed.

UDC will also have to fix the parking situation. On the one hand they want more people to visit yet even now parking is not always easy to find, the parking lots near buildings 1-6 tend to be pretty busy, you have to go much farther out (maybe to the parking lot near Carluccios, is that building 16?) to find parking. How does UDC expect to have double or triple the number of people visiting if there is no parking?

So I think UDC needs to bite the bullet and lower the rents so it can attract more low to mid-range enterprises. I think that's what visitors really want anyway -- something casual.

UDC may also want to consider more shisha places. Go to the Souq and Katara and what is popular there? Places where you can have shisha. Is there a place in the Pearl that has shisha? Maybe the Lebanese place near building 1? (I think it might but I'm not 100% sure). The Pearl has better views than the Souq so I'm sure it would attract visitors if they have shisha places.

My hope is on Qanat Quartier section of the Pearl, the Venetian-looking area. Get nice cafes in there and it would probably be a nicer place to hang out in than the main area of the Pearl.

Another Tremor, April 16, 2013

So I was sitting on the second floor of a building visiting a company when my chair vibrated a little. A colleague was with me and he said, "Hey, my chair is vibrating”.

We figured it was another tremor. Sure enough, alarms went off and people started leaving the building. Most buildings in West Bay evacuated.

Turns out it was a much stronger earthquake but much farther away, a magnitude 7.8 near the Iran-Pakistan border. That we could feel it all the way over here in Qatar was pretty surprising and goes to show just how powerful it was. The damage at the epicenter must be catastrophic.

So another tremor in less than two weeks. This one didn't cause the disorientation and dizziness the last one did but I was on a much lower floor so that could've been a factor. I spoke to a few people from the office and none of them really experienced the dizziness either.

So far there are no reports of injuries or damage in Qatar, which doesn't surprise me given that the vibration was approximately the same as an 18-wheeler driving past.