08.08.08

The date has different importance & significance to me. To the whole world, it is the official opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic 2008 in China.

To me, it was on this date I passed my driving licence in Qatar! Yes, it has been one year since I passed my licence in Qatar. It was a big achievement & relieve to get a licence here. It was like having the key to your freedom. More than one month without car was never easy. The most noticeable problem was to get to work & back. With unreliable public transport, it was a nightmare to commute to work. I still remember I had to book Karwa taxi operated by Mowasalat one day in advance! What a nightmare... Not mention, my little Alisha kept asking me when we would have our own car again.. For one month she bombarded me with the question... hehe. What made it harder to swallow was due to the fact that I had been chauferred driven during my last posting in Vietnam before we came to Doha. Without a car seem unimagineable to Alisha.

A year ago, so many people informed me that not many Malaysians passed their driving test on the 1st test. That sent shivers to my spine. The pressure was so great especially knowing fully well that you had more that 20 years driving experience. To fail the test was not in the equation.
To begin with, I found the whole process of getting the licence unique :

1. You start with the filling up of a form complete with No Objection Letter from your sponsor for you to take the driving licence. Since the form is in Arabic, my Transport Department filled them up for me..hehe

2. 3 photos must be attached to the form (see note 4 below)

3. You must get the blood group confirmation from approved clinic (wonder why they need the info. Till now I still wonder...)

4. Get vision test for your eyes. The funny thing is that, you must make sure your appearance for the test is the same as in the photo in your application form. If your photo shows that you wear glasses, you must come for the vision test with glasses on. Else, the clinic will not proceed to do the test.

5. The completed form must be surrendered together with your valid Malaysian driving licence to the police to allow you to take 12 hours lesson. Without it, you will have to take full lesson ie 24 hours as they consider you as beginner.

6. Once everything is okay, you will be told the time of your class. Mine was from 8-9pm. Totally mencabar..

One driving school informed me that there was a que to enrol with them for the class. Guess how long the que was? 4 months! I almost fainted when I heard it. One month without a car was bad enough. To extend it for another 4 month was crazy. Totally unimagineable.

The learning part itself did not take place without any sweet experience. Some of us kept banging the door when they tried to change gear. Mind you, the gear is on your right hand side as we are driving left hand drive car. It was funny. Back home, we drive on right hand side. Imagine this... after 20 odd years of driving right hand side, you now drive on left hand side for the 1st time. Surely you disciplined and ever obliging left hand and your brain confuse.. The parking lot allocated for the test is also another issue. Back home, you can fit 2 Kancils in the test parking spot. In Doha, the test car can hardly go inside. It is so demanding. You have to stick to the formula. If you try to be creative, you will have to visit the test center again & again & again.. Fail la tu..

Now the test part... There are 4 parts in the test.

1. On the day itself, we have to come very early. The morning session test starts at 6am. We have to be there well before 6 to que to get the test card. Then we proceed to do oral Road Sign Test. In this part, you have to memorise every single road sign as they are written on the card. You are not allowed to use your own word. Imagine you have to say simple No U Turn in this manner - Turning Backward Prohibited. No Entry is called No Entry to All Vehicles. To name but a few... If you fail the sign test, see you again next time in 1 week time. You are not allowed to proceed.

2. If you are lucky, you will go to Slope & L Parking test. For experienced drivers, this is peanuts.

3. If you pass, you proceed to Pocket Parking. The most horrendous part of the driving test. So many people succumbed to this test.

4. Those who pass will proceed to the last leg of the test - on the road test. You need to decide whether you want to go 1st or later. If later, then you have to travel by the bus provided to wait for the car. Normally, the bus will follow the test car. It can be a nerve wrecking experience waiting for your turn. At this point, you really need luck. Sometime, people fail for no reason at this stage. In short, you are at the mercy of the tester.

If you fail at any stage between 2-4 above, you can only sit for the next test after 1 month. Imagine the pressure I was in during the test day. It was like going for a big battle & only luck not skill would decide your fate. If you fail for the 2nd time, you need to take full lessons of 24 hours.

Luckily, I passed 1st time. It was a huge relief... At that point, Merdeka month really meant well for me...hehe