I was surprised today. While visiting one of my favourite sites www.autoblog.com , I saw the word ‘Qatar’. Yay, we’ve got a mention I thought. Sadly, it made me lower my head in shame.

Someone left their beautiful XJ220 to die. Autoblog got the article from CrankandPiston.com (article here), and by the looks of the photos, it looks like it’s a write-off in the Industrial area. For those that don’t know, the Industrial area is the equivelant of the rusty ship from the movie Waterworld. It’s a dump.

If I find this car, I’m going to chase down the owner and ask to buy it since he has no need for it. (Hopefully it can be restored!)

Yesterday was an usual day. While driving from the underpass that leads onto Rainbow roundabout, a car came speeding behind me (I was already going 87 and at the rate he was going I had decided to accelerate to move to the right).

I hit 100 and he was still coming up behind me. By now I could see it was some tiny hatch-back. He got so close to me (bumper to bumper) that I breaked to get him to back off. When he did, I moved over to the right hand lane and looked into his car.

He was a police man. In fact, he looked like a traffic police man. ‘Oh reeeeeeaally?’ I thought. So I opened my window and he did too (we were both driving around 60 now and talking).

‘What do you think you’re doing putting my life at risk?’

‘What?’ he says.

‘Why are you speeding! It’s dangerous.’, I scream back.

‘YOU were speeding’, he replies. It’s obvious he’s trying to cover himself now.

‘Only to avoid being rammed into by you!’

He grins and by then I take it he’s just another idiot on the road, (except sadly he’s also shaming his uniform), so I raise the window and he shoots off.

*sighs*

update: just to be clear, this road was an 80km road and the person coming up behind me had just passed a camera.

Well guys, it’s Grand Prix time! And since I’m quite sad that I’m not in Bahrain (to enjoy my favourite dinner and shisha place called Don Vito), the closest thing I have is the fact that I can call Bahrain for a great rate.

Wow! What a segway there! Anyway, I was just told that calling Bahrain on Vodafone for the Grand Prix costs QR 0.69  per minute (so that’s the 12th to the 14th).

Well I’m kind of excited! I had written a concept about a new type of speed camera two years ago and it seems like it’s now become a reality. Although the current cameras are a bit different in functionality they acheive the same goal.

In short, my concept was that there would be a speed camera that would tag a car that passed by with an unique identifier. When passing the second speed camera, it would calculate how long it took the car to reach it and calculate the average speed. If the car passed the second camera’s checkpoint too quickly, then you would be fined.

Pros: You can’t slow down at the camera then speed up, you have to follow the speed limit.

Cons: The only way to escape is to be a mathematician. If the limit is 80km, and you drove up to 100km for 50 meters and then slowed down to 60 for 50 meters then you’d be safe. (People who speed aren’t geniuses though right?)

Here’s a picture of the new camera and here’s their explanation of how it works

New Traffic Cameras Qatar are not just nice looking – they are intelligent technology.

What does this mean?
It means that you can stop speeding up between cameras and slowing down as it does not matter anymore. If you are speeding in between 2 cameras you will get fined.

I can’t believe that I saw this yesterday. While on the way to Villaggio on Al Waab street, this small old car goes from the right lane (lane 3) to the left lane (lane 1) without indicating and cutting a car off. (I thought it was funny how we were the ONLY 3 cars on the road and that guy still almost caused an accident.).

What happened next was a shocker. The guy that the indian guy cut off was in a jeep and it looked like he was pretty pissed off because he over-took the car and then tried to ‘slice him’ (Slicing is when you turn onto another car as close as possible with the intention of scaring the other individual and is usually done to teach someone a ‘lesson’.)

The jeep mis-judged it seems (or this could be intentional) and smashed the tiny car causing him to fly onto the side-walk. The jeep kept going but then slowed down to park on the emergency lane. As I passed I looked into the car to see it looked like a Shami family. A male driver, a woman in the passenger seat and two people in the back.

So I memorized his plate and called the police to let them know what I just saw. (I wanted to explain what I saw before one or the other lied about it.)

Talk about serious road-rage! As I arrived at the mall, I kind of empathized with the Jeep. I myself am sick and tired of people not indicating and almost crashing into me. (The day before I had called Karwa to let them know that one of their taxis almost crashed me on a round-about and then was unapologetic about it AND he had a passenger!)

On the other hand, of course crashing another person intentionally isn’t acceptable at all!

MT told me about Al Anabi team just a few days ago and what a coincidence that I find this picture. Apparantly these guys have been streaking their way to the top of the Drag Racing and Funny Car scene. These guys chased their dreams and acheived this all on a tight budget when they started. A quarter of what the professionals spent.

Respect to these guys, it’s fantastic to see that Qatar is representing in the US!

Click below for more pictures Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, bullet mode. My mind was constantly mapping out the journey. Pack. Sleep. Put bags in boot. Work. Finish work. Meet Omar. Leave. Check boot. Buy some snacks (a.k.a snakes). Head for the border.

Driving there was pretty easy thanks to my navigation but I can tell you that the most difficulty you’ll face is in Saudi thanks to lack of signs.

While driving to the Qatar-Saudi border, Omar tells me to get ready, smile, don’t give any lip to the Saudies. I pass the Qatari side smoothly. It’s all very straight forward. Go to window one, show your ID and registration, get some Saudi insurance (daily or weekly) in case you break down in that country, and then get your car checked out (for smuggling and whatnot). It’s the same process once you reach the Saudi side. The difference? It looks like it’s been deserted. Glass if broken, the checkpoints aren’t all accessible and the men don’t smile. Luckily Qatar’s side had cute friendly girls that smiled and tried to make you feel relaxed. In fact, every single person I Read the rest of this entry »

Usually I’m a relaxed individual in certain situations, but today I’m fuming. After entering a round about, a blonde woman in her black Pajero, entered from the right while I was half way through. She was in the center lane and tried to turn left. Then she had the audacity of honking at me as if I was wrong!

I looked at the police man on the round about and made gestures as if to say ‘Look at her!’. At that point I rolled down the window and said “Are you blind? I was coming in from there and she just turned into me”. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders as if to say “Ah well, that’s life”. WTF?!

Now tell me, was I wrong?

So I had an accident yesterday. It’s inevitable in Qatar. As cautious as you are, there are just some idiots who do not pay attention. Just today on the roundabout, some Indian guy in a pick up went from the right lane to the left and almost hit me. It wasn’t intentional, he just was blissfully unaware that I was even on the road. They need to teach people to use their mirrors and turn their heads!

My accident was a stupid one as well. While at a round about, I was turning right and there was a car in front of me. The road was clear. He accelerated to turn right, I looked left to ensure there were no cars, he continues turning right and for NO REASON, he slams on his breaks! I bang into him unable to swerve. I even followed the two second distance rule.

His car looked scratched up from the back but no way I could have done that! He explains that it wasn’t me, in fact it was caused by bikes hitting the back of his car. Bikes!! Even BIKES crash into him. He must slam on the breaks for fun!

So the Indian guy apologizes and says that his foot slipped onto the break… fine… We move our cars to the side and I ask to speak to Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a nice tip by ILQ’s Asther that I thought I’d highlight.

When driving with Karwa (Taxi) always make sure to check the meters just in case you get a taxi man trying to be sneaky.

Just an FYI to others who relies on KARWA taxis as their means of transportation. Do check the meter codes when you get on a taxi. The meter code should be number 1 (inter-city meter charging) and NOT number “0″. The “0″ code is outside DOHA and the meter charge is much higher.