Early Days in a New Country

It's not often you wake up at the start of the weekend and realise that you need to get up and buy two cars, three beds, a table and chairs, an armchair, two TV's and some outdoor furniture.  That's what I did this weekend though, having completed my first working week in Doha.  I arrived last Saturday and have got two weeks before I need to get out of the W Hotel (quite like living in a night club, all black wood and pumping music) and move into the Villa that I am hoping I have managed to rent (more like living in a mausoleum, all pale marble and no sound at all).  

The foyer of the W Hotel

In between then and now I need to buy enough stuff to make the villa habitable.  Hence the list, although that obviously excludes less exciting items like a hoover, ironing board, sheets, saucepans etc. which I will deal with next weekend.  I am focusing on the big ticket items for now, although I'm not sure how to pay for them: while I am in Qatar, none of my money is.

It's been an interesting week.  I've got a visa but I need a residents permit before I can do anything like get a driving licence or buy alcohol (or pork). That entails some blood tests, a chest X Ray, a very rudimentary medical and the most cursory examination by a doctor I have ever had.  She did this by just looking at me and very briefly putting her stethoscope on my chest.  It must have taken at least ten seconds.  This form of non-invasive, high speed treatment would make a big difference to the NHS.  Anyway, I'd imagined the medical process would be a nightmare but fortunately my employer provided me with a chaperone who just goes pushes to the front of every queue and sorts it all out.  So it is quite simple really, assuming you can tolerate the death stare from the people who are politely queuing.  I found this quite easy. All that remains is for me to have my fingerprints done by the CID (no, I don't think its the same one): that's on Sunday morning.  Sunday is the first working day of the week, which takes a bit of getting used to.

This is the car I want

Qatar is quite a new country and most people I speak to in the UK only know three things about it - it's in the Middle East, it's a hot and sandy, and it's hosting the World Cup in 2022.  The last fact is more widely known (and resented) than the first two.  So I feel I should educate you a little about my new home.  Here are ten things I think you don't know about Doha:

• It has the highest per capita income in the world
• The first school was built in 1952 and it didn't have a hospital until 1960
• It's a peninsula jutting out from Saudi Arabia and has about 560km of coastline
• It gets dark very quickly at about 5pm (6pm in the summer)
• It's not very big - at 11,500 square KM, it's about 15 times the size of the Isle of Wight (but hotter)
• Only 10% of the population is Qatari
• It was a British protectorate until 1971
• People here drive like twats.  Twats in very big cars with very big engines (petrol is 17p per litre)
• Only 1.5% of the population are over 65
• It has the lowest unemployment in the world at about 0.4%

So there's quite a lot that adds up to make it an extraordinary place, especially when you add in the rate of economic growth, the absence of most forms of taxation, and the wealth of the local people.  The pace of development is amazing - there are estimated to be about 1 million construction workers in the country, which is about half the population.  When you drive around you can see what they are all up to.  There is development everywhere - office towers, residential blocks and villas, roads and infrastructure, sporting facilities, amphitheatres.  You name it, they're building it.  Or rather the immigrant workers are.  Mostly they do it very well: I had dinner at the St. Regis, one of the new hotels, last week and it is the most opulent hotel I have been into, albeit in quite a tasteful way. In ten years time the outside will look like a Tunisian package holiday hotel, but architecture aside the interior is stunning and the swimming pool must be at least an acre in size.  If you managed two lengths you'd be exhausted.  A 747 could crash in it and people wouldn't make it to the side.  We had a barbecue on the beach (the first time I've been to an all you can eat buffet where they bring you your food; and then bring you a lot more of it). The view of the city skyline was amazing, as you can see.  The St. Regis aside, there is some very inspiring architecture here.     

The view from the St. Regis

That's probably enough for my first week and I need to go and buy a car.  I will try and update this regularly. I haven't mentioned some of the other positives like the rather pleasant climate, the appeal of executive bathrooms or the pleasure of having a tea boy to bring you chilled water in the office (to mention but a few) but I will cover those in the future.  On the downside, it's already clear to me that turkey strips are not an effective substitute for bacon. But once I get my fingerprints done and have a residents permit, I should be able to rectify that.