Probably the best couples for 2007 in Doha...

at least to my knowledge as I only know them well here in Doha... hehe

For the Newest Couple in Doha above, we keep their identities secret as they are still minor..hehe. As such we can only see their backsides..

A Wedding of The Local

An opportunity not to be missed!!!

That was my first reaction when a mail popped up in my inbox inviting me for a wedding of a Qatari colleague. It was indeed an opportunity that came once a life time, may be. It was the best opportunity to learn about local culture & people. From my conversation with colleagues who had been here for many years, not many had attended a wedding for local...

Hundreds of people braved the cold winter night to attend the wedding reception. It was held at an open space with only small portion of it covered under the tent. The area was carpeted though. The temperature that evening was only 13 Celcius! It was freezing cold...

For this kind of reception, it was meant for men only. I meant, ONLY the men were invited. No wife, no family. A very unique wedding reception. Nobody brought present either. No money exchanged hand. The reception was purely organised for families & friends to congratulate the groom on his big day. Nothing else.

What I could watch that night was a very traditional wedding reception night. A group of people played something like kompang & another group dance with the swords. They danced, they took some rest. They repeated the routine until dinner served. Dinner was served on big trays & shared among the guests. One big tray for a group of 6-8 people. I would say, it was done in full spirit of sunnah of the Prophet Mohamed SAW. I also had the opportunity to taste the camel's meat that night...

In short, it was a night to cherish..

p/s I will try to get the video of the wedding posted on this blog. Hopefully, soon.

Basking at The Corniche

The only photo I have from our picnic at The Corniche last Friday morning... The battery ran out soon too early in the morning..

There were too much food & too many activities at The Corniche that morning. Nasi lemak, mee goreng, mee hoon goreng & nasi goreng were on the menu apart form instant hot drinks like teh tongkat ali, milo, nescafe etc.

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Mat Le came with his stunt kite, Aizal came with two guitars. Myself & Dood came with our frisbees.. Oh ya.. Dood also brought along his football..

Aqiqah Ceremony For Baby Myra

I was torn into two last weekend. A hard decision had to be made. A choice between an aqiqah ceremony & a wedding. An aqiqah for baby Myra or a Qatari wedding. Both are almost once in a life time opportunity.

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At first I thought the aqiqah would be held in the afternoon whereby the wedding would be at night. Only later, I realised that both happened almost the same time ie 7pm onwards on Friday. It was a tough decision to make as you can imagine..
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Anyway, decision had to be made. I decided to attend both! Sound crazy? Crazy, indeed.. The wedding was in Al Khor, 50km away from the aqiqah ceremony. We were the 1st to turn up Baby Myra's ceremony as I had to drop my family off and say hello to the host. I rushed to Al Khor and managed to reach AL Khor within 30min for the wedding. For wedding details, please read here.

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I was back at Baby Myra's doorstep at about 9.20pm.. Took some photos for this blog, had my supper and went home to rest.. Missed most of the fun at the aqiqah but quite happy to be able to fulfill my responsibilities as friend... Thank you Aizal & Yeen for being so understanding..

Some of the photos were taken before the ceremony when I first arrived. Everything was still in order.. hehe

A date with desert: Qataris relive their past

Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Web posted at: 12/26/2007 5:5:47
Source ::: The Peninsula/ by Satish Kanady

The winter tent erected at Umm Al Amad

near Shamal. (Salim matramkot)

Doha • It’s time for romancing the desert. As mercury drops, many Qataris are flocking to the deserts where they are pitching the Khaymas -- traditional white tents.

Khaymas have sprouted in the interiors of Shamaal, Messaieed, Shahaniya, Umm Salal, Zubara and Duhail in large numbers this time. Qataris gather there for dinner, relish traditional cuisine, enjoy Arab music and witness the desert’s magical moments in a pleasant weather.

The tents vary in size and shapes. They have separate areas for men and guests, for women and children. The internal woven walls or carpets could be erected at nights to provide privacy. Sometimes there will be camp fires.While some use the traditional lanterns, some have generators for better lighting.

For some Qataris, the life in Khayma is a return to their yester years. “In one sense, it is a re-enactment of our ancient way of life sans its hardships. History has it that our forefathers didn't have permanent dwellings and survived on hunting. Winter is the best season to experience this life,” said Fatma Al Noeimi.

The government has given permission to the nationals to erect tents during seven months beginning October. The Supreme Council for Environment and Natural Reserves (SCENR) has also given its permission to them to hunt certain wild animals during the period.

Like in most Arab countries, the winter is a great time to catch the desert spectacles in Qatar. As rain falls, a huge variety of micro-organisms sprout on the vast arid zone, especially in the northern deserts of the country.

A number of residents too join their Qatari friends these days in the desert to experience the magic moments of sunset and the night sky.

The Khayma culture is catching up these days. As the city becomes increasingly overcrowded, most of the nationals do not want to take their family to The Corniche during holidays. A large number of Qatari families have spent their Eid holidays at Khaymas this time, said a young Qatari, Hassan Al Mohannadi.

Al Mohannadi, who has just returned after enjoying his desert life at Messaieed, told The Peninsula that the northern deserts were the most favourite place for Qataris because of its the proximity to sand dunes, natural water reserves and sea.

“All nationals are allowed to pitch tents during seven months. However, they are not allowed to put up permanent structures. People have to keep the premises clean. A special team from SCENR will monitor the activities,” Al Mohannadi added.

The nomad life in deserts helps the nationals reconnect with the social milieu of their ancient Bedouin fathers when life was totally different. For short trips, Bedouins erected temporary windbreakers. Then, it was mainly the women who pitched the tents and unpacked them to move on, Al Mohannadi said.

“It is really a magical experience to see the sun going down over the vast sand dunes. The sun burns up before leaving only a dark pink curtain over the landscape", said a resident who enjoyed a sunset along with his Qatari friends in Shamaal last week.

Half A Day With Animals

We planned to visit Doha Zoo since our first day in this country... It never materialised till yesterday.

After we had a good breakfast, we left for the zoo at around 10.45am..It took us only 15 minutes to get there. And that included 'sesat jalan' for a while as I was unsure of the exact location. After 1 phone call, we found the entrance to the zoo. Unfortunately, it was closed!!!! Zoo closed during public holidays? Never happen in Malaysia, to my knowledge.. The guard informed me that it would only be opened after 2pm...sigh. I was not very sure whether the staffs needed siesta or the animals...hehe

At 3pm, we were back at the zoo entrance again. The entrance fees were only QR5 per adult above 18 and QR2 per kid up to 18 years old... so cheap... The weather was cold though. It was freezing, in fact. Not many animals to see but enough to keep us occupied till sunset. Nevertheless, Alisha enjoyed herself. So, did we....

Our New Found Restaurant..

It is not really a newly opened restaurant.. We just got to know about it from old timers in Doha ie Rizal Al Sadd etc.. It is an Indonesian restaurant called Central Restaurant, Indonesian Food in Umm Ghuwailina area.

This is the 2nd Indonesian restaurant in Doha that we know exists. The other one is on Asmakh St near the souq area. Heard there is another one in Al Fardan Plaza... We will soon find out.

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Over here, Malaysian restaurant serving typical Malaysian delicacies is no where to be seen. Heard rumours about its opening since my arrival in late June. Till now, I only know the name & its location (roughly) but never taste its food. For one obvious reason, it has yet to open its door to prospective customers especially Malaysians. Another restaurant, Marrybrown (a Malaysian fast food brand), can be seen on An Nasr St. Again, its door remains closed as long as I can remember..

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However, mamak style restaurant is available in Al Matar Al Qadeem St. We can always find roti telor, mee goreng mamak, nasi goreng and teh ais at the restaurant... So far, it is enough to cater for our crave for Malaysian food.

Till we meet again, Razi.

The day finally came when Razi would leave Doha for KL after his short holiday. He celebrated Eid in Doha with us. He joined us for picnics@breakfast at The Corniche.

To say farewell Doha style, Rizal TV Roundabout treated him at the famous Turkey Central Restaurant.. It is more like Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for us here now to bring guests to the restaurant. A legacy left to us by Deen... It was the 1st restaurant we went in Doha. This was the restaurant where we 1st met Abe Zu, Aizal & Yeen & Kak Diba.. The rest is history...hehe.

A Short Trip to Sealine

A group of QP staffs decided to spend their Saturday at the beach yesterday. At 6.45am, it was a cold Saturday with temperature around 19 degrees. There were 3 unofficial meeting points for us to meet. At first I thought there would be 3-4 families joining the group. I only realised that it was a big group when our wait took longer than I expected at 2nd meeting point. (The 1st meeting point was at my apartment. It was a breeze as everybody was on time. ) We only left the 2nd meeting point after almost an hour wait!! The group swelled to a group of nine cars.. It was just difficult to get everyone on time when we had such a group...

The next stop was the 3rd meeting point as well as toilet stop in front of a mosque in Mesaaid Industrial City (MIC), an industrial city developed by QP. It was now apparent to me that all public toilets in this part of the world had one thing in common-SMELL. Cleanliness was out of question..hmm.

Finally we arrived at the beach, Sealine Beach just after 9am. The programme started with arranging the cars so as to break the strong wind. Then tents were erected. Then the mats were laid down. Before we started the eagerly waited breakfast as most of us were already hungry at that point, the group leader made announcement on Health, Safety & Environment (HSE). Yes, HSE was very much a live yesterday as we were dealing with sea, beach, desert & motorbikes. The real activities only started with the deliveries of motorbikes, 4 of them with different horse power to cater for every age group in the big group.

I left at around 11am to rush back to Doha for another engagement.. It was a fun but short visit to Sealine...

When The Usual Suspects Met....

We had so much fun this morning.. We were the first to arrive at The Corniche for our weekly picnic. Rizal TV Roundabout, the food supplier turned up a bit late due to technical problem..hehe. His apartment had water shortage apparently.

This time around we had better frisbees. Frisbees for adult. What we bought last time for Alisha was meant for kids. It was difficult to make it fly. This time around, even Rizal TV Roundabout successfully made it flew..hmmm. More fun this caused Abe Zu, Nije & Sha were also there..

When the Usual Suspects met, you could only expect us to have so much fun. We played football, we played frisbees. We played till we got tired and ready to go home for Friday prayer..

Open House of Rizal TV Roundabout

Rizal TV Roundabout organised an open house at his apartment yesterday. Started at 2pm and end till late night ( as usual )... Laksa Pinang, Nasi Tomato were on the menu offered to the guests.

Unfortunately, we stayed on till around 6.15pm only. At 6.15pm, we went to Al Bayyan Gardens for a bbq at Villa A58.

More pix after solat Aidil Adha & ibadah qurban

Hope you enjoy the pix taken after solat Aidil Adha & ibadah qurban in Malaysian Embassy...

EID MUBARAK

to all Muslims especially those who are performing Haj.

Around solat Aidil Adha at Malaysian Embassy

National Day of Qatar

Today is the National Day for Qatar! Mabrouk to the people of Qatar.

Apparently this year is the 1st year people of Qatar celebrate their National Day on 18 Dec. Previously, National Day was celebrated on 3 September every year on the occasion of 1st day of independence from the British.

According to the today's newspaper, Gulf Times, it was on this day, December 18, 1878, when Sheikh Jassem bin Mohamed al-Thani, founder of the State of Qatar, assumed power.

Congratulation again to the people of Qatar & her Resident Permit (RP) holders...

Frisbees Day

We went to Corniche again last Friday for a picnic & breakfast by the sea. Rizal TV Roundabout joined us with his visiting friend from KL. Rizal as usual brought along some food. This time it was mee goreng, hot water & selection of '3 in 1' drinks. As for us, we only brought prata, fresh from the kitchen of Sahara Restaurant..haha. Oh ya, we also provided 'tikar' that could only accommodate our small family ;-D

The main aim was to test the frisbees that we bought from Toys"R"Us few days before when we went there to look for birthday presents.

It was a very cold Friday morning that day as the temperature was around 19 Celcius. It felt colder when the wind blew..sigh

Dato' K was also present to add to the fun on that day. It was humorous to see Rizal TV Roundabout on the act. He never got the frisbees to fly the way it was supposed to fly.. It is a skill by itself and only Rizal TV Roundabout could teach us.. I will get the pix from Dato' K's camera to proof it..hehe. Stay tune....

Azerdills's Casa Impian

I have been given to honour to showcase Azerdills's Casa Impian. It is meant for those who do not have the opportunity to see it with their own eyes. Yes, it is specially for Deen in Malaysia...

Birthday Bash For Aidil

Someone turned 4 recently... With careful planning, the party went well last Fri night with guests turned up as early as 7pm ie on time.

Then, the usual suspects turn up after their sand dune adventure looking very fresh. Wonder if they actually went to sand dune...

Nasi Ayam, laksam, spaghetti were the main menu for the night..yummy. As for desert guests were offered bubur jagung, apple crumble & off course birthday cake.

Rizal TV Roundabout also organised surprise birthday cakes for Ruby, Dato' K & Fran. It also meant that we had to sing Happy Birthday song twice..hmm. In fact, we sang three times as we also sang Malay version of Happy Birthday for Aidil..

When we left at 10.30pm last night, Nije, Sha & Dato' K were still around. Believe me, we were among the last to leave. Definitely a change of pattern. We would normally be the first to leave any party...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIDIL

Breakfast@Corniche on 7 Dec 2007

A group of us decided to seize the good weather last Friday. It was also meant to celebrate the return of Dood from Abu Dhabi for the weekend. We went to Corniche for a picnic cum breakfast. This time around, Ramzi & family managed to join us as their cute little daughter, Jasmin had fully recovered from her toe accident. It was a bit more happening as there were plenty of food. Ramzi's family brought along with them the whole kitchen...hehe. The came complete with stainless steel forks & knives when most of us only brought disposable cutlery..

Menu on the park that day were :

1. Kerepok Terengganu ( yummy.. I ate most of them )
2. Mee Hoon Pedas
3. Mee Hoon Less Pedas
4. Nasi Lemak
5. Fried Rice
6. Bananas & agar-agar for desert
6. Fruit juices & mineral water

Oh my.. It was really interesting having so much food around us. In fact, we may need bigger tikar next time just to place the food..hehe..

We were also promised of kuih bakar for our next year's breakfast as some of us ( actually the cook ) will balik kampung till end of the year.

To The Circus We Went

It was the first circus experience in Alisha's life. She was thrilled. We were equally thrilled. If I am not mistaken, this was the 2nd circus experience for me. I could not remember the first time I went though. What I remember it was during my childhood age in Rembau. During those days, going to circus was such a happening thing to do. Nowadays, it is just difficult to see circus around even in the small town like Rembau.

We were there at the Qatar Sports Club car park at 5.20pm. The show was scheduled at 5.30pm. There were not many cars in the car park. Once we were in and ready for the show, it became apparent that not many people turn up for the show. I would think there were about 20 families that night, if not less. I blamed it on the promotion. You could hardly see any promotion about the circus anywhere.

The circus somehow did not have many animals unlike the one I had watched last time. It had tigers, lions, elephants etc. This circus only had python , bear & baby crocodile. Pity Alisha. She was really looking forward for a baby elephant and tiger. Nevertheless, she seemed to enjoy herself. She was particularly like the acrobatic parts where the gymnast 'fly' using the rope. It felt very short show though. After 1 1/2hours the show ended.. No doubt, it was worth every single penny for us..

After the show, we went to Doha 18th International Book Fair at International Exhibition Centre in Dafna area. Somehow, I became centre of attraction for Vietnamese workers at the exhibition. Then I realised that I wore Vietnam's football jersey. They came and asked if I was a Vietnamese. Obviously they had not been back to Vietnam for quite some time. Why I concluded that? I am not as fair as any typical Vietnamese. In the contrary, I am considered very dark for Vietnamese standard... It was good though talking to them. Reminisced me of good old time in Vietnam... It also gave me the opportunity to impress them with my broken Vietnamese..

It was rather unfortunate for the exhibition that size caused there were not many English books. We, somehow, managed to grab story books for Alisha. It would be better if the had many English books as 2/3 of the population are English speaking people...
We promised ourselves to come back to explore more stalls as we needed more time... We headed home at 10pm as Alisha was already tired..

Let's go to circus

We plan to take Alisha for an International European Circus this Thursday nite!!! We hope it will be fun. I am sure she will love it. At the same time, I wonder if she likes it. This will be the first time she has the opportunity to watch a circus. Knowing Alisha, she is a bit scared with clowns. We just hope she will not freak out during the show...hehe..

Btw, there are three types of tickets :

1. VIP - QR100
2. First class - QR70
3. Second class - QR40

Tickets can be purchased in advance or on the day of the show as long as there are seats available. The location of the circus is next to Qatar Sports Club Roundabout. From my source, there will be one show on weekdays. Not very sure how many shows on weekend though.

Anyone wants to join us?

Shop&Ship

Learned something very valuable last week from my South African office mate... Apparently, there is a service called Shop&Ship provided by some courier company in Qatar. It is a way to shop online from Amazon.Com, eBay etc when we can not get the product couriered / shipped to this part of the world.

It is always frustrating to do online shopping when at the end of your transaction the message is "We can not courier the books to the country you are residing". My colleague suggested I opened up an account with Aramex to have a PO Box in USA & UK...hmm. Sound very interesting. Even the price the open both PO Boxes is very interesting. It cost us a one time fees of only USD35 and you get permanent PO Boxes in the both countries. Wow.. at the current exchange rate, USD35 is nothing. I did charge it to my Malaysian credit card for that matter. With exchange rate of USD1=RM3.38, it is better to charge to Malaysian card rather than Qatar's...hehe..

Now, I can shop online with Amazon.Com without having to worry about the delivery issue. Technically, what we buy online from UK or US will be sent to the PO Box in respective countries and Aramex will courier it to Qatar with a fees of QR31 for first 1/2kg and QR25 for the next 1/2kg. Sound so affordable to me... If you want to know the details of how it works, you can go to Aramex's website.. Or you can drop by at its shop opposite Merz Showroom near Decoration Roundabout...

Breakfast@Corniche

A few of us had breakfast at The Corniche last Friday. It was nice sunny day in Doha with temperature around 28 Celcius. Kids had the chance to test their scooters & bicycle on the pavement. It was fun when we had friends around.. Thank you to Azerdills, Mat Le & Aiyeen's family for taking their time off to have breakfast with us.. Santai....


We plan to have another Breakfast@Corniche again this coming Friday...

Semoga kita ke temu Ramadhan di tahun hadapan...

Apparently, today is the first day of Th-AlQeda for us in Middle East. What it simply means is that Syawal 1428 has gone for the year... Hope we will still be around to celebrate Ramadhan & Syawal 1429 next year..

So long guys.. No more open houses..uhuk....

I am also taking away the lagu-lagu raya, takbir raya & our raya wish from the blog...

2 extreme weathers in 1 hour

Got out from house a bit late today. Sunny day with temperature around 25 C. It is nice to have that kind of temperature, a very pleasant temperature to do a bit of walking.. I also managed to take few shots of pix on my way to office. All around Doha, we can see all kind of flowers with nice bright colours. Almost the same feeling during summer in UK... Next question - Where are the tulips?

It is completely different story when I reached the start of highway to Ras Laffan. It was all foggy with visibility dropped to 100 meters. At one point the visibility was only 50 meters. The temperature dropped to 20 C!!! Feel like in UK during summer again. We could see some cars pulled over for only one reason-SAFETY. Only near Simaisma exit the fog was clear. Manage to get few shots while driving...hehe.. Some experience people told me that it would get worse during peak winter... Interesting. We never thought of such kind of weather situation in Middle East. How ignorant of me. How could we never learn such thing in our Geography lesson at school?

Aloha.... A weekend of Great Hawaian Escape

It was a busy & fun weekend last weekend as we had to attend Ras Laffan Industrial City's ( RLC ) Family Day. The family day was held as Qatar Gas & Ras Gas Beach Club in Ras Laffan. It just felt like normal office day for me as I had to drive all the way to Ras Laffan like any other day. The day meant for kids so we made an extra effort to attend just to get away from boring weekend routine for Alisha.

Departed for Ras Laffan at about 8.45am and reached there within 1 hour inclusive of sesat. The map provided was confusing. From our conversation with other participants, most of them sesat jugak ler. Ironically, the map was provided by RLC Public Affair Office..hmm. The easier route would have been through Ras Mulaiji near Ras Laffan security gate exit rather than via Ras Gas Roundabout.

The theme for RLC Family Day this year was Great Hawaiian Escape. A nice theme with a good location. It was on the beach club with white sandy beach & sparkling blue water. I must admit that the water was superbly clear, way above popular resort in Malaysia. We spent most of the time at the beach as Alisha could not stay away from the water and sand...

We decided to make an early exit at 1.30pm right after lunch to attend the last Eid 2007 open house for this year... A grand open house hosted by 6 families held at Al-Bayyan Gardens Club House and attended by no less than 200 people. We met almost everyone there including my old friend who was in Doha for a short business trip. Small world!!!