I thought I’d a start a new thing where I bring all the online bloggers, posters, tweeters, and tubers in Qatar together under one roof. I haven’t figured out a name for this yet so if you’ve got an idea for a catchy name, post in the comments below.

So I’ve been seeing loads of tweets about this guy who has a Cheetah and decided to do a bit of digging around to see what I could find.

@shivasingh first tweeted: Dudes got a cheetah in his car!! #WTF #awesome and shared this picture. http://twitpic.com/2vefh5

I assumed it was probably just some Bedouinne guy who decided that he wanted his own cheetah. Maybe he wanted to take a nude self portrait of himself sitting on a bear skin carpet in front of the fireplace while stroking a cheetah, I really don’t know.

Then @rachelannmorris tweets a couple of photos of her own a week later. http://twitpic.com/2x8sxf and http://twitpic.com/2x8xfh

So is this just some stuffed cheetah and some guy’s ingenious method of getting people’s attention and then offering them massages? If so, that person has taking viral marketing to a whole new level.

Turns out though that there are loads of people with Cheetahs!

One tourist(?) and ‘Elite cyclist’ who races for Team Garmin, named Steven Cozza was visiting Qatar way back in February and blogged:

“Its just been one great adventure already. Just five minutes after leaving the hotel parking lot, I sensed something was looking at me. I turned to my left and there, sticking its head out of an SUV like a dog, was a full-grown cheetah. I was so excited because a cheetah is my favorite animal and here it was, just inches from my face. I was so bummed I didn’t have my camera.” A cheetah Drive by

On youtube, anasthvega, posted a video of one at a petrol station in some guys patrol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaupWVsLgsk

On the 17th of July, the Peninsula posts this Cool Ride for Big Cat. Cheetah’s aren’t riding in cars anymore, they’re now on freaking jetboats! I don’t know why but I’m now thinking of a Saturday Night Live song called “I’m on a boat”

Now I have a few obvious questions…. 1) Do they bite? 2) Where can I get one?!

Well…. the Gulf Times posts that there are people breeding cheetahs since they’re becoming popular pets! Gulf-Time’s article via ILQ So I guess it means that you CAN go out and buy one… hmm…

In all seriousness though, this can’t be safe or legal right (in Qatar of course, as we’re aware that CITES says they’re endangered)?

I’ll leave you guys with a photo that Jasmir123 posted on Photobucket. Thundercats Go!

Here’s something funny (or perhaps not). I was driving from the Zig Zag off to work and there was this mini-van that was driving all over the place. No indicator. Going from the right lane to the left lane on the round-a-bout and back to the right (presumably because this person was either an idiot or did not have the ability to turn a steering wheel properly; those things are heavy!!).

It’s normal, we get people who don’t know how to drive everyday. (I wonder when the Police are going to start stopping people for using the slip lane or not indicating or not even staying in LANE correctly?) What got to me was that it was a Shafallah bus! On the side it said, ‘Special needs children’. For those who don’t know, Shafallah is one of the regions leading institutes for disabled or special needs children, it was set up by Sheikha Mozah and is definately something to be proud of. Seeing a driver not taking extra care in such a bus bothers me… I just had to post this… *sighs*

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 passed on the Qatar side wished me a safe journey with a smile.

I was panicking about the Saudi side. No thanks to Omar I thought I was going to get ‘the glove’. The man at the first point asks for my I.D. no smiles, no thank you, no niceties. He looks at me for a second and says “go’. Omar looks at me and explains it’s never that easy. When it’s time to check my car, Omar says “get out and leave the doors open”. I do. The guy just looks into the trunk and says “Go”.

“Thank you”, I reply with a sense of releif. We’re now on the move. Driving through Saudi is a bit surreal. Busted up roads, crazy drivers that swirve for no reason, broken sheds on the sides of the road. You thought Qatari driving was so bad, just come to Saudi for a day. We’re on the road passing some soft and silky dunes. I see some camels relaxing on the side. “Want a smoke?” one asks? *shakes head*. Woops sorry, was day dreaming for a second. The camels there come in a variety of colours too! White, black, tan, and pink. Yep seems like someone thought it would be cool to spray paint one of the camel’s humps.

After a long while of driving, I see something on the road. It’s a large camel. For a moment by brain doesn’t register that as a fact. “Omar… is that a camel?”. Omar was sleeping. He gets up and looks. “Yeah, they sleep on the roads sometimes.”. I swirve to avoid it. Ok. Now it’s time to be vigilant.

What next? A swarm of locusts? SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECH. The damn roads have SPEEDBUMPS with no warning prior on a highway! What the hell is that?! Who does that? (I ended up having to fix my disc thanks to that).

As I entered into the main city, I start to see that the roads are no better and that it looks like I’m one of the most oldest looking towns I’ve ever seen. The driver in front of me veers left and right. I usually don’t care but he didn’t have anyone in front of him! Typical.

After a few hours of driving I’m at the Saudi Bahrain bridge. The Saudi side is actually friendly and it’s smooth. The Bahraini side wasn’t. The funny thing is, I expected them to be nicer than the Saudi side. I guess the ones who spoke to me didn’t like Qataris or thought that we are like the Saudis that come over to have a couple of drinks and go home. I spent 17 years of my life in Bahrain and I still love that country. The Bahraini side though looked like a cheap christmas tree with it’s lighting and burnt out lights. To be honest, this was one of the first times that I saw that Qatar’s side was amazing in comparison.

I arrive home after around 6 hours of driving (1 hour was at the Bahrain side because it was PACKED full of Saudis trying to get their groove on for the weekend.)

I sink into bed. It’s late now and I’m tired of driving. Tired… driving… O_O …. o_o …. -_- zzzzzz

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 his boss (He was a driver). I explain what happened and the guy was more than friendly and just seemed to care more about my health. We later went to the police station where I had to get a police report so that I could fix my bumper.

Filled out the forms and was told to come back the next day for the stamp of approval because they only stamped documents during the day. As the Indian man left, he shook my hand and said ‘thank you’ with a smile. I autonymously answered “It’s ok, take care.” and smiled back.

I headed off to Lexus so that they could order and spray the new bumper. After filling out the papers I was told that it would cost around 2,000QR (it’s 700 for the bumper, 100 for the paint, and around 1,200 for the labour!). I was shocked when they said it would be ready tomorrow!

“What? The lexus service which I loathe has improved?”, I asked myself. The next day I went back to the police station where I was shocked at how they treated me and others. They were amazingly friendly.

They were renovating the police department and it actually looks much better inside and out. As I approached the first desk, the woman smiled at me and asked for the paper. “300 QR and 3 points for parking on in a no parking zone”. (Side note, there were no signs or indications that it was a no parking zone). I paid. “Hope that God protects you from bad things. Take care of yourself.”, she says as she hands me the receipt. I get a stamp on the document that I need to take to the insurance company.

To my right, I see a black American man, he’s confused and doesn’t know where to go. “Hey sir, can you tell me where the registration desk is.”, he asks a police man standing on the side. He answers in his best possible English, “My friend, you in wrong place. Come, I show. How are you?”, he puts his arm on the guys shoulder and guides him. (and not in the LAPD way).

As I walk out, a man asks me where the traffic plates are, I point to the direction. He smiles and says “thank you, I’ve been trying to find it and didn’t know where to go, peacefull journey.”.

It was almost as if this was traffic fine bliss. Imagine a paradise. Clouds. Smiling people. All waving their traffic fines high up over their heads as if they’d won the lottery.

I drove to the insurance department to get some new papers which I had to hand over to Lexus. While cuing, a British man starting talking to me how he’d reversed into a pole in his Porsche and felt stupid. We chatted about how the weather was getting better while waiting for our turns. After finishing off, I got into my car and headed back to the office. I was going to go to Lexus after work.

Lexus called me. -_-.

“The bumper will take three more days, you know what, it’s a weekend in three days, let’s just say next week.”, a man says.

“Whatever. Fine.”, I say. You don’t even bother with Toyota Qatar. They suck. Oh well, at least most of the day was nice.