Hi there,
It's just my 2nd day in Doha and am slowly settling in.
On my arrival, I checked into Ramada Plaza, a rather distinct gold-paneled building – hard to miss landmark if you get lost. After a much needed nap to recover from the 9-hour flight, I decided to compose a walk route with my Garmin handheld GPS. Didn't get quite far, about 5km out of Ramada's range. Many shops were closed and there wasn't really very much to gawk at. The nearest grocery store was The Centre. An overly priced store filled with expats shopping to fill their weekend trolleys. To give you an idea, a bag of Doritos corn chips is about SGD7, and I thought Kettle Chips was expensive!
Climate-wise, it's a hot and cool affair. Daytime is about 27-30 deg. C and by 5-6pm, temperatures drop to about 15 deg.C. Yesterday was a clear blue-sky day but today, I experienced my 1st sand-haze! It's just a lot of dust in the air, and if you are donning any dark coloured clothes, you will find specks of dust settling on them. Truly amazing.
So my 1st day of work started with a 30km drive out of the City to a location I can't even pronounce. The company's offices (HR & Admin) are temporarily housed in Villas, and with a quick orientation and surrendering my passport and mugshots to the immigration centre in exchange for a residence permit, back into the car I went for a drive back to the city centre – it was time to meet the boss and the legal team.
As we drove out of the "villa-desert", the landscape changed to one of modern high-rise buildings; impressive tall structures that are architecturally bold – there's a "WOW" factor to them.
Salam Tower is a dwarf amongst the bigger buildings surrounding it, but when I got to the 12th floor, the view was quite spectacular. My boss's room looks out to the Corniche, a 13km esplanade that greets the Arabian Sea. If the skies were clear, I would have a brilliant view of the buildings standing along the Corniche's coastal line.
My room is about 150sq.ft. (what a stark contrast to what I was used to at KW). There was space for a large table, a stand-alone antique cupboard and two tall chairs. I was in awe, and I just had to sit and soak in the reality of having a room of that size, albeit without a view, but I didn't really care.
After chatting with boss and an intro to colleagues, it was time for lunch – I couldn't refuse free food, which everyone was entitled to.
Time ticked away, and by 3:30pm, I was whisked back to Ramada by my chauffeur, who was quick at the wheel, avoiding any sort of jam.
Observation:
From the time I landed, I had been greeted by a Bangladeshi, met several Indians, Pinoys, US and Canadian citizens. My boss is Sudanese and the legal team is made of persons from varied nationalities/cultures; had not been introduced to someone local just yet. So truly, Doha is run and serviced by expats.
There are many more days, weeks, months, years for me to discover more of Qatar. Honestly, I feel quite welcomed, pooling with other expats, and am looking forward to what's in store in the days ahead.
Anyway, attached are some snapshots for your viewing pleasure -
http://picasaweb.google.com/marthaleemei/DohaFirstImpressions?feat=directlink
Till the next time.
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