Skip to main content

Qrossing to Qatar

Image
By
I am intrigued by borders, boundaries, particularly those of states or nations. What does the border crossing tell of a country's character. or its attitude toward its neighbor? At the key Saudi-Qatari road crossing, the Saudi border post appears to be about 30 years old, with little maintenance. The guard perfunctorily stamped our passport and waved us through. At the true boundary, the highway suddenly became a 4-lane new blacktop perfectly surfaced roadway. The customs building is bright and new, with bilingual directional signs. Another pleasant surprise: the passport clerk was female! After inspecting passports, driver's license, registration, she diverted us to the office where we had to pay visa-fees of QAR100 ($27.50) each. Again, pristine, modern surroundings. Later, another fee: QAR100 for a week of car insurance -- curiously, he first quoted a price of QAR160, then said "oh, just 100" without explanation. Border lesson: Qatar is new, modern, and more expensive. Driving on another hour of new smooth swift 4-lane highway, past a long line of sewage tanker trucks returning from a landfill near the border. We saw the same long queue when driving out of Qatar a few days later, so it is a major effort that makes one wonder about their waste-handling capabilities in the future. My earlier google-maps investigation of the location of our hotel, the Retaj Residence Al-Sadd assured me of simple directions -- just follow the main road from the Saudi border into town. Big construction works detoured us onto a service road, then rush-hour traffic, then a mysterious 15-minute stoppage, then I attempted a detour into more construction and one-way streets and road-closings... one hour later we finally drove past the google-map-indicated point: nothing there. Phone number from my Expedia reservation? not in service! Coleman called his classmate now living in Doha, who claimed to know our hotel and gave us directions. Coleman also compared various numbers, deduced that Doha recently added an extra number 4 to all phones, and retried with success...the desk clerk pointed us in a different direction, finally arriving exhausted at 6:30. Lesson1: Doha is under construction; Lesson2: you will get lost--few streets are straight for long, streetnames change, and signs typically point to neighborhoods, not streetnames; Lesson3: always call ahead to the hotel to confirm location.
Labels:
Location: Hamad Medical City, Doha, Qatar

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My COVID journey, finally

By
11oct22 story of Covid: I flew to Des Moines for a mini-reunion of Thomas cousins; flew back on Monday the 3rd.  I did not wear a mask.  Evidently I should have worn a mask, as I later came down with Covid.  The infection could come from anywhere, typically airborne virus shed by someone in the communicable phase of the disease.   Throughout my airport and flight experience was quite calm and uneventful, so my guess is the most likely vector for the virus was the deplaning time – people are really eager to get out,  they are talking, pressing close together, straining to grab bags from the overhead compartment and coordinate with their partners, thus breathing heavily.  Very few people wore a mask.  I do not remember anyone coughing or sniffling or breathing heavily around me, but that deplaning process is always rather hectic.  I did not press to go quickly, but I did not want to delay my windowside seatmate, so I joined the crowd.  As it was, when I arrived at baggage claim, my suit
Post a Comment
Read more

Montpellier

By
  [23mar22] Another walking day: to the A rc de Triomphe , passing through quaint quiet attractive old neighborhoods, particularly the P lace de Marché des Fleurs.  Arc de Triomphe is spectacular, next to an equally impressive Palais de Justice , and the Promenade de Peyrou that has a great view of the surrounding hills and the aqueduct built by Peyrou to supply the city's fountains.  The Jardin des Plantes – oldest botanical garden in Europe – opens at noon, so we walk around to the Cathedral St.Etienne, with its obscure side entrance, but huge interior space, really huge and rather stark, in keeping with its 13 th century origin – though of course several later kings and bishops added chapels, stained-glass, and organ.  While there, the organ started up, providing appropriate sonic accompaniment to the surroundings (ref. My video).   We return to the garden to await its opening, chatting with some Chicago tourists (go Bears!).  The garden is very nice place for sauntering, and
Post a Comment
Read more

Riding the Bus often

By
From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back.  His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty.  The air-conditioning usually works too well.  I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 students
2 comments
Read more