It's been 6.5 years since I left Doha. It seems ages ago. Yet, the place is still close to my heart. The old times and the old friends. I am so happy to see the people that I used to work with. It's amazing that they still remember me, though I am no longer wearing the coverall! Vrinda, our secretary; Ismail, my crew chief, who has recently called me a number of times; Sunil, my ex-crew, MM Thomas, Thomas George, Joseph, Abdi, Ali, Ivan, Prakash, so forth.... Where's Danny (my ex-crew)? Oh, he is on vacation.
The new base in the Industrial Area is obviously much larger than the old one. But it's just a bit too far from the city center (30-min drive and in the middle of nowhere). Well, Doha is literally small anyway, even much smaller than Dubai. I reckon it's probably one fourth as big as Dubai.
Off I went to explore the city on the very first night. Not many changes on the Ras Abou Aboud side (I stay in Marriot, next to our old base who used to be inside QGPC Complex, not it's called QP). But you'll notice some ongoing constructions on the other side of the Corniche where Sheraton was the only high rise building. Now, lay the City Center shopping mall, Ritz Carlton and some other middle-high skyscrapers. A little farther, they will start reclaiming for the man-made The Pearl Island, similar to the Palms or The World in Dubai.
No wonder, they seem to be in a competition with Dubai. It's obvious from the way they are aggresively promoting Qatar Airways. I've recently seen QA ads on the tv more often than Emirates.
But can they really compete with Dubai? Well, it's true Qatar is probably richer than Dubai as they are the largest gas producer in the world. But what would they sell to the investors? I think this is going to be a challenge. And I think it is going to be years before they can be considered on par with Dubai in terms of infrastucture. Can they compete with Jebel Ali as an attractive tax-free zone, for example? Can they attract more tourists with the limitation of the natural resources?
Talking about tourism, I was just flipping through a tour brochure which belongs to one of the managers. Believe me, it reminds me of the Kish Island's (South Iran) tourism brochure in which they really try hard to advertise (or perhaps the exact word would be 'exaggerate') the small scales of tourist attractions. If I were a tourist, I would probably think twice to visit Qatar at least for now(no offense, please.) I don't know about 5 years for now. Things may change.
After all, I was quite impressed with the new airport. Spacious, robust and surprisingly efficient. I still remember exactly how small the old airport was. The duty free counters (not even shops) were probably about 10-m long. That was about it! It also came to my surprise that they are indeed in the process of constructing a new international airport in an island! (I assume it's going to be another man-made island.) So much for the money!I passed by our old compound next to The Centre. It's gone completely, demolished and replaced by some facilities. Then my mind started drifting down memory lane with my crazy friends: Karim, Kashif, Masa, Hamid, Artid, Amer Hanif, Tom, etc....
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