Job Discussion Forums

[PatGund]

Can't leave right now - Interior has my passport while they do the resident visa. Won't really get a chance to explore the other parts of the region for about 3-4 more weeks :-/

[QatarChic]

awww sorry to hear that I don't think it will take too long- all my paper work was done within 10 days or so- patience!

[Bebsi]

I found driving in Qatar very easy, most Qataris and expats there were courteous, orderly, disciplined, law-abiding and skillful.

I am being serious here. Well, I will qualify by saying that everything in the universe is relative, and I am comparing them with Saudi Arabia.

After you have driven at 180 Km/h on the fast lane of Madinah Road in Jeddah, shortly after sunset on the last day of Ramadan, with the slow lane being full of trucks and slow-moving construction machinery, and the middle lane being a combination of slightly less-slow-moving machinery and vehicles trying to pass the guys doing 180 in the fast lane, life loses its challenges.

Now, throw in a guy behind you with no use for headlamps other than his persistent attempts to flash you out of his way, presumably so he can then proceed to flash the 10,000 guys in front of you out his way also (all doing 180, remember), and guys inside passing at 200 while trying to avoid smashing into the aforesaid machinery that's doing one tenth of that speed in the same lane, most of them eschewing trivial functions like lights. Well, it makes you feel like James Bond being chased by the whole Al Qaeda Kabul Brigade during the Bahrain Grand-Prix, in which the filming of the bank-robbery scene in Diehard 3 has inadvertently got mixed up.

To add to the drama, just in case boredom sets in (well, one DOES get rather used to it eventually), an ancient Caprice appears into view wobbling along the centre- and fast-lanes towards you in reverse (presumably having missed his intended turn-off), needless to say without any illumination whatsoever. I AM SERIOUS. When you have survived that sort of experience intact, you start to feel like the sole survivor of a thousand-plus-casualty multi-aircraft disaster.

What's that about driving on Doha roundabouts? Actually, the roundabouts are the worst part of driving in Doha. What I used to do was just accelerate and zoom through, on the basis that the less time I spent on the actual roundabout, the less my exposure was to potential accidents. Also, I tended to use the deflection principle, i.e. if I was going fast enough it would reduce the effect of the side impact.

That was my excuse anyway!!!!

[Bindair Dundat]

[veiledsentiments]

It is situations like this that are what makes life in the Gulf strangely attractive.

Rather like the time I got a ticket in Oman. During semester break the seat belt law had gone into effect... not that anyone was told. Anyway, I was stopped for not wearing mine. We had to go through the whole Arabic greeting formalities. He spoke nary a word of English, and my Arabic didn't extend to seat belt laws and why I wasn't wearing one. (having had some major surgery)

In Oman they take your driving license and give you a piece of paper that you must take to the police station and pay the fine to get your license back. Being Oman, I ws taken for a lecture from the police sargeant. He spoke excellent English... could have been my son. I had brought my hospital paper to show why I wasn't wearing my seatbelt. (which I had always done even before the law) He declared that he couldn't understand the form, so I offered to show him the incision and reached for the bottom of my shirt. It would have been worth the price of the fine just to see his face when he realized what I was going to do. (not that I really was going to) Instead he rushed me out the door while waiving the fee and telling the clerk to give me back my license.

BTW Qatarchic, I found the Omanis to be the some of the safest, most polite drivers in the world... certainly the best in the Gulf and 100% better than those in urban US. Yes, plenty of reckless speeding boys, but that is the same wherever they can afford to buy fast cars. At least in Oman there are regular speed traps which ticket every Omani they can get their hands on. Locals get little special treatment...

VS

[Bebsi]

I've never been to Oman, but my driving exploits in Saudi have already been documented. I have found, despite many myths and legends to the contrary among the western expat community, the Saudi police to be friendly, helpful, considerate and understanding. They have been, in my experience, not in the least bit biased against westerners in favour of Saudis. In Riyadh, I had a collision with a stupid driver (known to exist!) at a roundabout near the Al Mutlak Hotel. There was a cop close by, and when I tried to explain the circumstances to him, he explained in his limited English that it was OK, he understood, and as I drove away I had a distinct vision in my rear-view mirror of him giving the Saudi guy a ticket

I have been pulled a few times for speeding (my clock was erroneously showing 180 despite the fact that I could only possibly have been doing 120 ) in KSA and only once ever got a speeding ticket. That was when I had a very important appointment in Riyadh and was racing from Jeddah. Even then, the cop was remarkably lenient given I was doing close to 200 km/h. Other times, I have been pulled and simply cautioned.

While much slagging of mid-east drivers takes place in this site (and Bebsi is among the guilty), I was in France this summer and standards there left a lot to be desired. The main difference is that the French are unskilled, impatient, arrogant and rude while Arabs are mainly unskilled, impatient, friendly and apologetic. OK, an apology doesn't pay for getting your car fixed in an accident, but at least it's a lot better than being F***ed out of it and called all sorts of abusive names, simply for not breaking the speed limit by more than 20Km/h in order to accommodate the impatient guy behind, who expects you to dash into a roundabout in front of a speeding artic so he can hurry home to watch Supernanny on M6!

The french drive as if they were acting out a scene from Ronin, but in reality their standards and abilities are more like an Inspector Clouseau or Jaques Tati movie.

Give me Gulf drivers any time!!

[Hector_Lector]

The best thing about driving in Qatar is (or used to be) the Magic (or Crazy) Roundabout. You enter one roundabout and when you exit, you immediately enter another one. Great fun!

My best driving memory in Qatar was in 1989. Trundling along the Corniche in my beat-up old Nissan Patrol, struggling to reach 90 kph, I realised that mine was the only vehicle on the road. Then, in my mirror, I saw a wall of light approaching at top speed. The entire three lanes were full of police cars, armoured cars and God-knows what else, belting along at a Hell of a speed. A helicopter swooped down and caught me in its spotlight. �Get off the road NOW!� a voice screamed, in Arabic and English. I swerved over to the edge of the road, and watched as Margaret Thatcher swooped past like a Valkyrie.

[dmb]

Why was she in Qatar? I bet she didn't go to the Marriot for happy hour.

[veiledsentiments]

Great story Hector!! That would make a great movie scene...

In my last job in Oman, my office overlooked the main road between the airport and the main palace in Muscat. Anyone who has worked there knows that it is pretty much the ONLY road. But, whenever VIPs arrived... as for the GCC fests... they would shut down the whole road for 3 or 4 hours. The rest of us just had to find any backroad that might or might not exist to get us to work. If you had to go to the airport, you were just out of luck.

VS

[Bebsi]

VS, one would know you've never been to KSA . Over there, such driving scenes as Hector_Lector describes are commonplace...and it's not even for a foreign (or any) dignitary. You could be just driving along a Corniche or main thoroghfare somewhere, when suddenly a wall of lights approaches rapidly from behind, beeping, honking and blaring...you actually WOULD think someone important was coming up behind, until on pulling over you get passed by a load of Saudi youths just joyriding .

Still, I would far greater probs knowingly and wittingly pulling over for Margeret Thatcher than I would for a gang of harmless youths!!!!!

[veiledsentiments]

Oh yes, I encountered that gang in Kuwait, only they didn't have flashing red lights, just flashing headlights... and they would all be rapidly lane switching... to be the first to run over the little car...

[Bindair Dundat]

[Bebsi]

[Bindair Dundat]

[Bebsi]

Point taken, BD.

What you say about SUVs is very interesting. On my soon-to-be return to KSA, I had planned on getting an SUV. Now I am going to look further into this.

Sticking with saloon cars, I am aware that the Japanese cars are now much better built than in the past, and that they offer much better protection all round. You are quite correct about the Accord. And while it is not as big as a Lincoln or Caddie, it hardly a small car like the Tercel, and is indeed rated at the top in terms of safetly. Never drove one but they are nice cars, from what I can see.

While the big American cars may not have as many safety gadgets as some far-eastern cars, they are still pretty sturdy, and I swear by a big car in a hard smash (from experience). Certainly, the Caddie I drove had airbags, including curtain airbags over the windows, traction control, ABS (which saved my life on one occasion many years ago) and last but not least, a substantial crumple zone.

I'm not a fan of Mercs, personally, as I find them a bit cumbersome and sluggish, tho I admit to only having driven old ones. BMWs are a joy to drive, but not worth the price you pay just for a badge. I once owned a Peugeot 605, and when it went off the road one night at 120Km/h (thanks to a local council having laid fresh chippings without any warning) and smashed into a tree and a telegraph pole, I not only walked out of it but eventually DROVE away from the scene in it. In fact, when I told the cop who arrived at the scene where I was going, he insisted I had been going the wrong way! We only cleared that one up when I explained that, on my way through the air, I had done a 180-degree turn and it was my REAR that collided with said onstacles, with me facing back the way I had come. Ahhh...that was some car! *SNIFF OF PRIDE*

In a nutshell, no car offers a guarantee of safety. The single most important safety feature in any vehicle is the flesh and blood one sitting in the driver's seat.

That being said, I would prefer to be in a Caddie than in a Ka in a high-speed smasherooney!!

[And on a lighter note:

Crocodile Dundee is driving a Caddie and collides with a Ford Ka. He gets out, and goes over to the Ka's driver, asking her "what the hell's THAT thing?"
"It's a Ka" she says.
"What?" says Croc, "that's not a car; this (pointing at his Caddie)...THIS is a car".]

I know...I know...