Although Qatar has gone months without rain, buildings sites like these soon fill up with ground-water.

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Dust Plume

In this picture captured by a Nasa Satellite a dust plume hangs over the Persian Gulf before swirling back into Saudi Arabia.



This original picture can be found on the Modis website.

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New tennis event for Qatar

Qatar is to hold the Sony Erricson WTA end of season championship after offering prize money of four and a half million dollars, the highest prize money ever offered in the history of women's tennis. The event will start in November 2008 and will be held for three years. In preparation for the event a new tennis court will be built in the Khalifa squash and tennis stadium.

Qatar was the first country in the Middle East to hold a women's tennis event with the Qatar Total Open . They also held a men's event, the Qatar Open, which this year saw Murray and Lubjic battling in the finals. Tennis is hardly a traditional desert sport - it certainly doesn't have the same appeal as camel and horse racing - but women's tennis does seem to be more popular than men's.

Also see: Qatar Tennis.


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Qatar Street Racing

As you lie safe and sound in bed at night in Qatar, you may be suddenly woken by the roar of cars and bikes racing illegally outside your window. The same nutters that pose on the Corniche of a Friday afternoon are implementing their population control strategy of latent birth control by racing up and down Doha’s streets.

Actually, I really don’t mind if these people want to kill themselves - although I have a traffic-policeman friend who feels differently. I have learned to stop asking him how his weekends were. He always replies morosely that he has been picking up bodies again.

No, these people know the risk and the danger. One Egyptian mother complained to me that her son said he only felt alive when he was in danger. Obviously, if you are stupid and insensitive enough to say something like that to your mother you need something extreme to penetrate your thick skull.

What worries me is the obvious danger to other innocent drivers and passengers that these people cause. It’s not as if they are not aware of it – you can hardly miss the Government’s road safety campaign.

All this passed my mind when a friend emailed me today. She had read today’s Gulf Times article on Orkut, which mentioned one group called Qatar Street Racing. So I went on to Orkut (you can log in if you have a Google account), ploughed though the lengthy profile section filling in as little as possible about my sexual orientation as I could and came to Qatar Street Racing:

atar Street Racing

description:

There is no matter u have a car or bike !!!! The thing is u have passion of adventure !!! street racing in QATAR !!! When the hell is full Modified cars walk on earth

Oh well, at least they'll be keeping my policeman friend in work for a long time...


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Doha Fog

A thick murky fog hung over Doha yesterday, and at times even the Doha Skyline was obscured.



It was windy too, although a sandstorm never developed, and small waves broke upon the Corniche. The heat didn't let up either, reaching a humid 106 degrees farenheit (weather.com).


Also see: Qatar Weather

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Buildings going up, buildings going down.

There's been no let up in the frenetic building that has now characterised Doha for several years - if anything, it has picked up in recent times. Buildings going up in West Bay seem to out-number those already up by a ratio of three to one - even though the majority of those are spanking new. While new buildings are going up, old ones are going down - Qatar is systematically destroying anything old, ugly or shabby.

To many Doha residents, the sound pollution that this creates - often in the early hours of the morning - has become one of the two sounds of Qatar that is always with them. The other being, of course, that of traffic, beeping hours and ambulance sirens.

Listen to the sound of building in Doha

Going Up

Going down

Listen to Adhan, the Muslim Prayer Call

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Qatar to hold Asian Cup

Qatar seems likely to hold the next Asian Cup in 2011, after being the only country to get its act together enough to submit its bid prior to the deadline.

The Asian Cup is usually held every four years. However, this year the Asian Cup is being held a year early due to a rather full sports calandar next year. Starting on July 7th, the current games are being co-hosted by Indonesian, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Qatar will meet Japan in the first round of the cup in Hanoi, Vietnam on the 9th July. Qatar have yet to win an Asian cup, although they hosted it in 1988, but they may be feeling confident after winning the Asian Games Football inside a packed out Al Sadd Stadium. (See this post for report and pictures.)

Both the Asian Cup and the Qatar-Japan game next week will be covered in detail by our sister site Soccerphile.

Also see: Qatar Football


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Moving Stationary

Sign at The Centre:


Thank you for pointing this out, Frances!

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Free First Aid Course

Hamad Emergency Department is providing free Basic Life Support and First Aid Courses for the public. To register send an SMS to 5814439.


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Cheap Qatar Hotels - update

Future updates to this will be made to the Budget Hotels page on our website.

Write your own hotel review

Prior to the Doha Asian Games, we did a post on cheap Qatar hotels, listing all the hotels we could find under QR500. As inflation has been so high here, we though it was time for an update. We were surprised to find that, perhaps because of the time of year, prices overall have dropped rather than increased.

Doha Youth Hostel
Tel: (974)-4867180; 4866402 (It's probably not worth ringing mid-day).
Fax: (974)4863968
Address: PO Box 9660, Doha, Qatar
Price per night: QR100 ($27)
Age: despite being a youth hostel they assured us there was no age limit.
Beds: 16 rooms and 56 beds.
Minimum stay: two nights.
Location: Al Lakka.

Almaha Palace Hotel
PO Box 5330
Tel 4367301
Single: 200 ($55)
Double: 450 ($120)
Location: Al Smakh
Rooms: 64

Alzahra Hotel
PO Box 1043
Tel: 4321503
Single: QR200 ($55)
Double: QR230 ($60)
Location: “near Regency Hotel”
Rooms: “Too much” claimed the receptionist, and refused to give a number!

Qatar International Hotel
PO Box 2572
Tel: 4321761
PO Box 2572
Single: 250 ($70)
Double: 300 ($80)
Location: Wadi Mushereib Street behind Sofatel Hotel
Rooms: 40

Guest Palace Hotel
PO Box 22182
Tel: 4411996
Single: 300 ($70)
Double: 350 ($95)
Location: Al Ghanim Al Ghadim Street, between “Crazy Roundabout” and Sennah Roundabout.
Rooms: 100
Apartments: 34

New Capital Hotel
PO Box 1003
Tel: 4445445
Single: 300 ($80)
Double: 400 ($110)
Location: Wadi Mushereib Street near Sofatel Hotel
Rooms: 77

Al Muntazah Plaza Hotel
PO Box 9488
Tel 4355677
Fax 4355757
Email: info@almutazahlaza.com
Single room: QR400 ($110)
Double room: QR550 ($150)
Location: Al Muntazah (near KFC)
Rooms: 30

Gulf Horizon Hotel
PO Box 22182
Tel: 4432525
Single: 480 ($130)
Double: 580 ($160)
Note: Prices include all tax, service charges, breakfast and airport drop off.
Location: Soukh Al Jaber behind Standard Chartered Bank
Rooms: 76




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Flood in Al Nasser Street

Cars navigate a flood in Al Nasser street, Doha. Despite the lack of rain, floods like these due to pipes that have burst or been broken by builders are common.


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Al Jazeera arrests?

There have been rumours of seven arrests in Al Jazeeta by Qatar police, according to this report. One of those arrested is reported to be the Head of Finance. So far these rumours haven't been confirmed by Al Jazeera, whose media-relations department have been unavailable for comment. Meanwhile, some Al Jazeera staff seem to be unaware that anything is happening - which it may not be, of course.

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