Bidding War

Takku sangka epal menjadi nangka.

I almost choked when I heard the news over the radio. Q won the bid to host 2022 World Cup. Nevermind the drama over who won bid for 2018, I'm more interested in this one. I got mixed feeling on this. Impressed, cynic and a touch of WTF.

Don't get me wrong, I do support their bid. Been there, did that, bought the t-shirt (and magnet) literally. Hmm come to think of it.. where the heck is my 2022 t-shirt. Read more about this here

Getting back to the point:

1. "Macam mana nak main dalam 50 degree in summer months? Gila ke". As my friend said, "Eh, depa banyak duit. Don't be surprised dia boleh buat stadium semua air-cond"

Believe it. They are planning to build 6 climate control stadiums. Oh, and there's someone in FIFA suggested, why don't the games be played in January/ Feb instead. My take on it, climate control stadium might be super cool, but it will be tough to fight the heat waves, sand storm and sudden migraine from the bursting heat outside the stadium and hotel.

Read more here

2. "Got Beer?". Alcohol is only served in hotels in Qatar. Will it be available at the venue? I hope they won't change the law on this. Nasib la kan, siapa nak minum, minum la air mineral ke Oren Rani(serious kuda sedap nak mampus!) ke kan. Even, per say if UK won the bid, I think they should ban alcohol as well. Nanti semua tu encourage orang jadi hooligan.

3. Live telecast - I'm disappointed to say that I did missed a few vital matches because there were no live telecast on TV. Kena subscribe tah channel apa tah. There were a few matches were shown halfway.. then tetiba jadi beach volleyball. Or was it handball. (OMG! Writing this is bringing back my angst!). So I had to resort to go and watch it at (not proud of this) kelab malam. Super sleazy ok. Tapi tak kisah la, ada super big screen, and food sedap.

I truly love what this guy wrote. Kelakar beruk.

Though they suck on the TV live telecast, but they do put a kick ass 'street party' for the games. Well, granted it was part of the 2022 bid, but check out the tent that they put up in Suoq Wakif. TV besar gila complete with tempat lepak. Fully air condition.

4. Tickets - Me and my colleague bought a ticket to watch the local league cup final. Memang la sampai lambat, tapi boleh we were refused addmission sebab stadium dah penuh. WTF? Ada ticket, patut boleh la masuk. It seems that is a norm. Bangsa dia suka hati masuk, ada ticket ke tak. Hamba abdi yang lain ada ticket ke takde ticket ke, boleh la balik rumah aje. How can they manage this during the WC nanti? There's about 10 years yet to educate themselves that the world doesn't revolve around them (try to tell that to the O&G company yang berlumba-lumba datang sujud kat depa, hahah), and other human beings have rights too. Especially if they pay for their tickets damn it!

Sudahnya hari tu, kitaorang posing-posing lemau aje la keliling stadium.



Sighhh... There was a colleague, a Q dude who had serious passion for football. He even wrote a few articles about footie in the local newspaper. I saw the clippings at his desk tapi haram tak paham sebab dalam bahasa Arab. I wonder what he must have felt about this. Most probably he will not be watching WC on his 50 inch 3D TV (kaya gaban!), comes 2022. Tah-tah jadi commentator kat TV. Tah-tah lagi jadi player or coach on Q team. Hahahah.

So will I return on 2022 to watch WC? Hanya Tuhan sahaja yang tahu. Kalau ada rezeki, apa salahnya :)


p/s: adakah ni telah membantu mereka menang bid itu? boleh dapat free flight ticket tak nak pi tengok nanti? :P

Circle in The Sand

'Round and round
Rising of the moon as the sun goes down
And you complete the heart of me
Our love is all we need - Belinda Carlisle

This is one of my favorite part of my stay in Qatar. Ima and Man, brought me and my colleague out for an afternoon at the sand dune. It's a singing dune. Supposedly the wind will produce an echo or sound against the dry sand around the dune. (Read more here). Unfortunately, takde pulak bunyi-bunyian hari tu.

I discovered a few things here 1. The sand is very smooth and it's very nice to bury your feet in 2. The harmless looking plant in the desert is not so harmless after you get its torn stuck on your feet. 3. I'm so out of shape, and climbing the sand dune almost cause a cardiac arrest. 4. Sliding down the steep dune is loads of fun.

Another activity out in the desert or dune, is dune bashing. I thought it's more suitable to call it car bashing as you are actually bashing your 4 wheel drive rather than the dune. Lucky us because we were invited by this local guy who was bashing the dune (so to speak) and seemingly bored, alone.

With little English, he call us over. No problem. No problem. Come. Come. He introduced himself and me feigning ignorance, shook his hand. He had the smoothest hand! I can see that he was a little shocked but kept his cool. Hehehe.. I'm so gonna burned in hell. So in we climb into his Prado Cruiser. He put his car in gear and off we go. We being me and my colleague. Up and down, zig zag, 45 degrees tilt, 60 degree climb and what not. At one point I almost hit the roof as the car bounced up and down the dune.

The guy didn't know much English. He asked my colleague if we are brothers and sisters. I wanted to answer yes to end further query. But my colleague sibuk jugak nak explain that we are officemates, colleagues bla bla bla. I can see that he is so confused. Apa benda pulak officemate tu. Aku dah risau dah... bila la pulak mamat ni nak keluar hujah-hujah...Not muhrin? Haram!!! So, went he dropped us off, I quickly jumped out from the car, after thanking him. Lupa pulak nak posing dengan dia. Heheheh. It was good fun. I wish I could drive the car myself though.. heheh. Below is the picture that I managed to snap while we were dune bashing.

We managed to stay a bit to see the sunset. To those camera buff, the photo op is to die for. I hope I could come back after I learn how to capture pictures properly :) To Ima and Man, thanks a million for this great experience. Below is a few of my favorite shot from the afternoon.

Morrocan Meal at Tajine

No. This is not a food blog per say...but I'm in a 'let the pictures do the talking' kinda of mood. Or in this case..'let the food to the talking'. This is from my 2nd visit to Tajine at Souq Wakif. I had to come back again because I wanted to try the camel. Plus the restaurant had an aircond blower fit to blow off a 747 into take off. Panas gila, tapi nak makan punya pasal, keluar jugak.

Mixed cold starters. Mostly unidentified object (because I'm not sophisticated enough to bother to read the menu properly and remember what they are :P) but I think there's chicken liver thrown in there somewhere. Sedap gila.

...and it must be eaten with bread. Bread also comes with this sambal and olives. Again, not food savvy enough to eat the olive as a whole (normally picked out mine from pizzas). So mostly cecah the bread with the sambal. Sodap.



I don't know what this is called, so I shall named it myself. Murtabak ayam morrocon style. It is fried, filled with tasty chicken filling and the best part, it is covered in honey and almond on the outside. Since we ordered an assortment of everyting else, tak berdaya nak habiskan. If I ever get the chance, I will only eat this and this alone (ya right)


Tajine (or tagine) is actually the name of the special pot used to slow-cooked stews braised at low temperatures, resulting in tender meat with aromatic vegetables and sauce.

So here's the first end result. Lamb with prunes. Superb.


Then, here's the camel that I have dreamt about. (Slightly disappointed) it tasted like lamb curry. Aik?. I thought it will excite my palate to a different kind of taste. Or did I order the wrong thing? And actually order lamb. Whatever, as the record states. Aku dah makan daging unta. Yang sangat sedap, by the way :)


By the time desert came, dah nak pengsan dah. This is actually lempeng with ice cream filling

Exotic? Hah, kat KL pun ada. Check out this link

Mock Me!

Alcohol is not freely available in Doha. Only in bars in hotels. So, that leaves me to freely order all sorts of 'cocktail' drinks at food joints especially TGIF. I can't remember what is this one called but it's a mix of raspberry syrup, strawberry juice, lime and loads of mint leaves. Best gila babs! The only time I drank something else was when they were out of the raspberry syrup :(

Now, I can only look at this and reminisce of good times (sic). Heheheh.

Tea time in Doha

4.05 pm - Shut down. Shut down now!

4.10 pm - Parading around in sunnies at Al Mirqab lobby waiting for shuttle.

4.20 pm - Zzzzz in shuttle.

4.30 pm - Reach Golf Garden

4.35 pm - Sampai rumah, bukak fridge.

4.37 pm - Slouching on the sofa with the TV on while munching on these

Exhibit A - Twistos - Baked Bread Bites.

Sekali bite, nak 10 bungkus lagi. I was attracted to it since it says baked bread. Hmm, thinking to myself best kot if dip in soup or something. Ya right, to be honest, I have never eaten it with soup or something, because once I start eating them I can't stop. I can finish the whole pack by myself. Tau-tau, Seinfeld dah habis so is the Twistos.

Apa rasanya? Macam twisties but only better. Seriously, I can't bring myself to eat twisties now that I have tasted twistos. Sigggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I don't even have a picture of Twistos sebab sibuk makan, mana ada masa nak snap pictures. So had to look for it from the net. It comes in two flavours Olive & Oregano and Cheese & Onion. Nasib la bag aku lepas nak bawak balik Malaysia. If I have to repacked my bag, terpaksa la picnic Twistos kat airport. God knows how many I managed to bring back :P

Exhibit B - Welch's 100% Grape Juice

Dah makan Twistos satu karung, haus la pulak. So wash it down with a chilled Welch's Grape Juice. I bought them in all sizes, dari sekecik2 botol sampai la ke sebesar-besar botol. I just can't stop drinking them. I bet the cleaner who cleaned the apartment would thing that I have a drinking problem sebab my thrash is full of the clang-clang sound from the many empty bottles of the grape juice. Best gila. Plus kononnya it's a healthy drink, so kurang la rasa bersalah minum banyak-banyak. Read more here.

Again, no pictures so kena cilok dari Internet.

I'm not sure if I can get Twistos in KL, but the grape juice is available in Cold Storage. Expensive la of course. Tak boleh la nak minum macam air paip. Hehehe. In Doha, Starbucks do sell Twistos over the counter.. perhaps there's still hope yet.

75 Days in Doha

This was the aerial view that welcomed me to Doha. Oh oo... is this all? Nothing but barren land ... sand? Alemaakkkk...this is going to be depressing.

On the ground, it's not helping either. They are not big on landscaping yet. I really missed trees and the color green. (The top right picture is the outside of our compound. Shocking!)

Just kidding. It's not that bad. Driving along the corniche heading towards West Bay isn't all that bad. On some days you do feel like you're cruising along a beachfront in LA, with all the yellow and red Hummer buzzing by, racing alongside the sweet looking GTO. Damn I envy them.

Well, when I reached the hotel and take a peak into my room.

And looking out to this.


Yeah, I will survive. Overlooking the suspiciously greenish blue body of water (I'm not really sure what to call it? A river? Cannal? Small lake?), is the pride of Qatar - The Pearl (something like the Palm of Jumeira in Dubai). Terasa la kaya kejap. Hahahaha.

After 10 days in bliss and having people call me Ms Mahmood at Hyatt, we had to moved out to the company's compound/ accomodation. That's what they call Taman Perumahan in Qatar. Compound. So below is what it's look like in A14 Golf Garden Compound. Not too shabby. Plus I get the place to myself which was heaven. But not for long. I had a housemate from Syria and Netherlands. Fascinating. Ho hum.