My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
On Tuesday Carly took her only personal day of the year off work so she could play with me. Our driver picked us up at the compound. He asked if it would be okay if he stopped at his house on the way. We said sure. Carly thought it was a bit sketchy. I didn’t know what to expect. We stopped at his house and he ran inside for a minute, then we continued on our way. He stopped outside what would be considered a mini mall– a line of shops on the street. He bipped his horn and a guy came out from one of the shops. Our driver held up three fingers. A few minutes later he came back out with a plastic bag. Our driver handed out some flaky delicious flatbread. Then we stopped outside of another shop where our driver held up three fingers once again and a guy came out with three cups of creamy sweet tea. The driver told us to dip the bread in the tea. It was delicious. We drove about an hour south of Doha through the dusty desert. We came to the entrance to the sand dunes and stopped to let some air out of the tires to drive on the dunes.
When Carly was sending me a proposed itinerary for the week, I said I wanted to ride a camel just because it seemed like a middle east thing to do. I didn’t realize it was already built into the plan!
The ride was only about 5 minutes and the best part was trying to stay on while the camel got up and down. It was fun to do something so iconic.
We were offered more tea.
Here we are with our driver.
Now it was time to Dune bash. Carly described it as like riding on a rollercoaster but in a car. Our driver had been bashing these dunes for the last 20 years so it wasn’t as scary as I thought it would be.
Carly had gone dune bashing before with her family and Ben’s family when they came to visit and they’d always gone on the weekends. Carly had prepped me that we would be going out in a caravan of 4 or 5 other cars. But this was a weekday so we had the whole desert to ourselves!
We slid sideways down the dunes and sped up to climb the hills. It was an awesome thrill ride and yet I felt totally safe. We stopped to take in the views.
Carly is having fun too!
There’s Saudi Arabia!
We stopped for a swim by Saudi Arabia. The water was warm and completely clear. It drops off and gets really deep where the water gets dark.
On the way back asked if I drove. I said yes, at home, I drive. Then he came to a stop and asked if I wanted to drive. Sure!
Carly and I couldn’t believe what was happening. We were on a flat part and I cautiously increased the speed. Should I stop? Did he want to trade back? No. For a second it occurred to me that he was entertaining me by letting me do his job (as my friend Jase says, work smarter not harder) but I didn’t care, I was having a blast.
Pretty soon we were getting closer to the dunes. He told me to keep going. I drove us up and down and over the sandy hills!
We switched back and our driver showed us again how it’s really done. We stopped to put air back in the tires and then our driver asked if we would mind if he stopped to pray. He went to a nearby prayer room for the midday prayers. Carly said it was the best day of Dune Bashing she had ever experienced. It was mine too.
That night Ben and Carly had had their fill of Middle Eastern food so we went to a German restaurant in a hotel.
As we talked about our new lives, I realized the similarities of our situations. We both had lower living expenses and thus had more opportunities to save and travel. We had months off at a time to travel further and take longer vacations. We lived and worked with the same group of people. People would come and go more frequently than they had in real life. We interacted with people who came from all over the world but mostly followed the rules and customs of our home country. And we lived far away enough that keeping in touch with friends and family had its challenges.
Qatar was such an interesting place to visit and I keep thinking about its eccentricities and sharing stories since I’ve left. It’s so odd to be in a place so empty and yet so new and intentional. There were no homeless people or beggars because everyone who came in had to have a job. The traffic was crazy, yet no one ran a red light because the consequential ticket was so expensive. I wondered if these strongly enforced rules actually decreased traffic incidents. Some people with fancy expensive cars will buy expensive license plates with fewer numbers. Between that and falcons, it baffles me what people do with infinite amounts of money.
Also I can’t tell you how awesome it was to hang out with my good friends again. They really spoiled me.
The next day I flew to London. As I approached the airport, there were three options for drop off: First and business class, economy class, and then all other airlines (besides Qatar airlines). The way the flights are scheduled, most activity at the airport is between midnight and 4am. As Ben predicted, there was nobody in the airport as I waited for my 10am flight. There were hardly any people on the plane too– after full flights on my way there, I had a whole row to myself. Once again it was unpopulated in Doha.
Camel Ride and Dune Bashing