Qatar forever - Against time

Time flies. We all know that. But how fast can time sometimes be I learned not until now. Welcome to Qatar, the Time Sink.

“What? Today is Thursday again?” I wondered once again when I was kicked out of the office at 4pm and stood in the heat of afternoon sun in front of our collection station. “Why is that the days pass so fast here?” I began to think.

I started mindlessly my 40 minutes drive home through the busy city of Doha. When I looked into some other drivers I saw that I was not alone there going the thousand times known route through empty Doha city center and then flat boring landscape full of low sandy villas, feeling lethargic and tired, with no better plan than to sit at home, have a dinner, surf internet and fall asleep. Actually they were not only a few of them, it seemed that that all the others were having the same “zero” plan.

And then I got it!! When you do the same thing all and all over again, all the days will fall into one and week will chase a week in a devilish fast sequence. “Every day same. I feel like a robot” I immediately recalled a sentence from 5^th grade English class many years backJ That’s why I was feeling so psychically sick!! Cure? Break the routine!!

Break the routine. Easy to say, but much harder to do. Especially in Qatar it is double truth. Why? Because you are in this alone!! Nobody else seems to be bothered the monotonicity of the everyday life. So nobody else will accompany you, support you or encourage you. They are dragging you with them. You have to have a big deal of self motivation to break the cage. Other problem is that there is seemingly nothing to do!! There is 45°C outside. There are not interesting places to visit or to go, which will draw your attention straight away. Except kite, all activities I was used to were not possible here and all communities of people doing squash, board games, dancing, canoeing or any other free time activity are either non-existent or invisible. I had to start from scratch.

So my first steps led to the most obvious and accessible place of active relaxation, to a gym. Yes, to a gym. A place full of big biceps guys with tiny legs doing arm curls with ton free weights in front of the mirror. “But what…I’ve never done it, so I’ll try and if I don’t like, I quit…easy” I thought and went in. “Hmm I see your situation, but the minimum membership I can offer you is for four months!” told me the consultant. “So I have to be going for four moths?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t have to be coming, but you need to pay!!” was his straight answer. “Ehh…but once I’m here…” Now I’m going three times a week and you wouldn’t believe it, it is quite fun.

But the most important is that I clear my mind, tire my body and when I go to bed I feel that I’ve done something worth, that I live my life. And I feel peace J

But I cannot go training every day and having four blank days is just too much. Sometimes I go kiting, but the winds here are not very reliable, so I needed some more plans. Unfortunately I don’t have 4x4 so my exploration options are limited. Because I still feel that deep inside the enemy Qatari landscape there are a lot of hidden treasure places. Just you probably need to go far enough.

Anyway…one day I found on the internet the link to the highest Qatar point Qurayn Abu al Bawl with the impressive height of 103m above sea J It was not far from my home, so I took GPS coordinates and drove on a rarely used road to a point around 3 kilometers from the hill. I don’t need to tell you that I couldn’t see it yet!! I set azimuth and started walking. Around 1km from the spot I was still not sure which terrain unevenness might be my target. Only after I came down the last “ridge” I saw it another 1km further. A table shaped hill around 30m high J Found & Conquered!!!

On my back home I for my Lancer an alternative route I saw Google maps. I saw several sand dunes across the road, but I wanted to try. I had plenty of time anyway!! Soon I discovered that nobody had been using this road for years, because it was full of holes and I had to drive slowly. It was still ok until I saw the first dune in my way! It was a big obstruction and the bypass went straight off the road!

Fortunately Qatar has proper desert with sand only in one place and it was not here, so around the dune was a hard stony field which the Lancer could take easily J A quick decision I had take when coming back to the road and had to cross a rather small sand field. “There are enough stones around to build the road through if I get stuck!” I justified flooring the throttle and jumping through!!

It took me around 2.5 hours to get through 20km stretch of this half road track. I had to do couple of more trips off road and do some more identical justifications, but I reached the other end safely, without any damage and in a good mood.

Timing was perfect, because after a quick lunch I met Ovi, the Qatar kite guru and his students in Messaieed desert to go kiting into one inner lagoon created by tide between the dunes. I hopped into his Land Cruiser and after 15 minutes of easy desert driving we were on the spot. Super flat water I have never been riding on and a decent wind for the 15m provided an awesome session. It was a bit weird because I was the only one with kite big enough, so I felt sad for the others fighting to keep theirs in the air while I was jumping between them!!

Three hours till sunset were quickly gone and we moved to Ovi’s paragliding spot. Unfortunately there was not enough wind to fly, so we sat down to the warm sand, watched stars, enjoyed the desert silence and chat.

That was a weekend day how I like it and how it should be. “Hmmm…maybe it is possible to have fun here in Qatar” I thought.

And my feeling grew even stronger when next weekend we did the same trip, but with opposite results. From the beginning we saw that there is no wind for kites, so we went directly to try paragliding. And we were lucky!! Ovi launched his tandem glider and flew with each of us. Wind was not strong so we were flying only low, next to the dune which slope is turning the horizontal sea breeze up. I felt that the glider is like kite.

You need to feel the power of the wind in the handles and then you can do everything. We were flying close to the dune that you could touch it!! Like kiting in 10cm of water I felt…smooth turns, ups and downs, stalling, accelerating…amazing J

We finished after sunset again, stopped at the beach for a swim on the way back and the Qatar unexpected chillout continued…

Now I’m almost sure…Qatar is not that bad as it looked. All things are here…somewhere hidden and it takes a lot of time and effort to find them. Maybe they don’t have the quality as in other countries, but they have their own magic. With enough determination to go against the current and persistence in trying to find the way, this place can be as you want it to be…it will take time, but I believe it can be done…and this is an important discovery for me, because my departure is far far away and I will have the time!!

So I better get something from it and don’t make it the quickest year in my life J

Addicted!!

Where this actually came from? It was long time ago when we saw with my brother a guy, desperately swimming in the windy day in the middle of Lipno dam, playing with some kind of strange thing, which was supposed to be flying and not floating in the water. I didn’t pay much attention, but Jan did so I was hearing time to time after that about some cool sport where you are riding on the water and that flying thing is pulling you. That you can jump high, do crazy tricks in the air and that it is definitely a lot of fun. That thing is called kite, the sport kitesurfing and from many videos you can see that it is really COOL J

So when I came to Dubai, to the land of sea & sun, it was not very difficult to convince myself that this sport would be great and that I want to learn those tricks and fly high!!

Now it is a year and a half I’m riding. It’s a year and half I’m going to the beach to try if there is wind and if I would have a go. Sometimes I’m lucky sometimes not. But I still go. I try, I fail. Sometimes I manage to do a good jump, sometimes I don’t. But I still keep trying. I think, I analyze. Sometimes I figure out where was the problem, sometimes I don’t. But I’m still willing to improve. I watch, I observe. Whenever I see moving palm leaves, I start to think about going to the beach and I check wind forecast every hour. Crazy huh? J

When I was going to Qatar for the first month, I had three kites at that time 15m, 12m and 9m and of course I took one kite and board with me, the 15 RRD Obsession. I didn’t want to miss a single windy day. The wind was good for couple of days, but also too strong some days. So the next month I brought 12m RRD Hypertype II for windier days also. And my wish came true when the forecast showed one whole week of superior wind around 20 knots. Paradise!!

I disappeared from work half an hour earlier to maximize the riding time, pumped up the 12, which was a bit overpowered but nothing serious and launched in. One ride back and forth to check handling and if I can go upwind, followed by the first jump. I managed it nicely. It was probably the highest and longest jump I have ever done. I shouted with enjoyment while hanging in the air, landed smoothly but I forgot about the kite so in the strong wind it took a fast turn and smashed to the water. Not an especially hard crash I thought when re-launching, but…it didn’t want to fly again. After a quick look I found out why…there was a huge tear through the whole canopy L So after five minutes in the water I was already packing up and going home. But the worst thing was that I lost the kite for the rest of the week!!

The next day I skipped, but I really had to hold myself back and drown the urge in beer. But the day after I just couldn’t stay home, so I pumped and completely depowered my 15m Obsession and went in.

And the history continued. After 15 minutes of OK rough riding in meter high waves and 20 knots gusts I jumped. I jumped high and flew far, but unfortunately faster than the kite, so when I landed it stayed behind me, stalled and started falling straight to the ground. I saw it falling and thought “It will get hit by a gust just before the water and will yank me hard!!” And exactly that happened, with only difference that I stayed in place and it was the bar, that didn’t survive the impact and broke, which flew away!! Later I discovered that also one line snapped.

Nice performance again and I was for the second time in three days waking with kite and board on my back that 300 meters to the shore. That was my “Paradise” kite week!!

But I didn’t give up and as it was always I was thinking how recover and learn from it. I went to Dubai to get the 12 fixed and…by chance there was very good offer for a brand new 12m RRD Addiction. I fell in love immediatelyJ The 1000 horsepower kite with endless lift and hang time was exactly what a lately discovered that I want to be doing. Flying…and flying long!!

My kite collection grew to four, but I’m still waiting for a good day to really prove that it does what the sellers say. The one day I had, I blew my chance because I changed the settings as I was used to, but it unfortunately completely destroyed the trimming and it performed like an old-timer!!

But instead we had another couple of super windy days, so I went for some serious action equipped with the 9m I also brought from Dubai.

And history continued again. My super strong Hypertype couldn’t handle a 25 knot gust and I instantly and uncontrollably slid downwind, fell, lost control of the kite which immediately looped, threw me to the air…no need to continue or express how I felt flying without control 3 meters high and just waiting to crash back to the sea…

After second leap I managed to release, so I was once again walking the loser’s 300m back to the beach. This time also with a hole in my hand which needed stitching!!

I was really pissed. On the kite, on me...but as it always was, I calmed down, analyzed the situation and came to a conclusion that it was my fault. I shouldn’t ride when I felt so overpowered...So I went to Dubai seeking solution once again and it came in form of even more amazing offer for RRD Obsession 7mJ My quiver didn’t grow thought, because the canopy damage on the 12m was too serious, that I’ve been advised to leave it…but I have 5 kite bags anyway J

You know…a lot of bad things happened lately to my kite mind, but somehow I feel that it just made me stronger, wiser, more experienced, more deliberate and most importantly that it didn’t touch my passion for kiting.

So with a great enthusiasm and better equipment I’m waiting for the next windy day to unleash everything what I’ve learned and become a better kiter…that’s my addiction!!

Escape to the mountains

It is surprisingly (actually not at all :) almost three months in Qatar. The first month was fine, because I was thinking that after that I could go back to Dubai, so I didn’t care that much about what to do and about finding some friends. But when I realized that I’m not going home soon and that I have to mentally prepare for at least couple of months here, I started to look around.

And one of the first things I found out was that there are no mountains, no rocks and no boulders to hike or climb. And a life without some high points to conquer, look from or just see them on the horizon is simply…different!! I have never lived in such a flat country (Qatari highest point is 103m high limestone hill in the middle of the peninsula) and soon I started to feel a bit desperate.

So similarly to temptations of Magic tournaments in UAE I succumbed to an allurement of a weekend Oman trip organized by my Dubai friends. Idea of camping in 2000m above sea level in nice 25°C under the stars again and with an opportunity to drive my Tiguan to some off-road again was revitalizing and I didn’t spend even a minute with buying a ticket to Dubai.

Everything started on Friday at 7am when I loaded Kaupo, Kamil and Monika and we rushed to catch up with the others at Al Ain borderpost. All six car crews united almost exactly on agreed time and place under the mountains in Tanuf and after a short break at drowned up dam, we headed up to the mountain tops following a winding dirt track.

That was exactly what I needed. Entertaining driving, beautiful mountain sceneries, Pilsner beer and good friends to have a chat and fun with. Flawless J

After two hours of climbing uphill we finally arrived to the top village. To our surprise there was a group of brand new houses for the local shepherds built by the government. Good for them, but bad for us, because we lost the best campground which was now under the foundation!!

Never mind…there was plenty of space for everybody, so we made a typical Dubai style camp with camping chairs, tables, charcoal grills, cool boxes, music…and started enjoying the perfect temperature. Somebody stayed and relaxed and somebody, including me, we choose a short hike to nearby peak around 200m above us. Easy and refreshing trek gave me even more taste for beef sausage, covered with beef ham and filled with cheese…aaaahhh...delicious J

But on the way back we passed by a small dirt football pitch, so we had to have a game with the few locals. For them it was a match of the year and because for them there is nothing else to do, they were decent opponents and we deservedly lost after tough fight with them, bumpy pitch and our physical J All the more we enjoyed cold beers and camp fire later!!

Next day we packed up around 9am and started driving the same off-road way to the other side of the mountains towards Snake Canyon. All those narrow dirt tracks were super scenic, winding between deep gorges, stunning slopes and dry wadi beds. Real pleasure to drive through and breathe the atmosphere.

Only small problem that what looks 10 kilometers on the map is in reality 30 and with average speed of 20 kilometers per hour, our transition took much longer than expected, so we didn’t have time for the main attraction of the Big Snake canyon, where you jump and swim down through a cascade of pool and waterfalls in a deep valley…pity, but next time we will be prepared better. I will be prepared better, because I naively thought the others would know, but they of course we interested more in sitting comfortably in the car or a water pool next to the road, so they knew nothing.

But at least we stopped at the Small Snake Canyon and walked through and back. Only three of us made it to the far end though, where was a thin deep pass with chilling clear water and cliffs to jump of…paradise and nice point after chilled out weekend J

After that only another 1.5 hour back to the road though the wadi, crossing several time the river flowing inside. And with splashing water on the windshield we said good bye to Omani mountains and floored it for last 400 kilometers back to Dubai.

When I was flying back my usual 2:20am flight to Doha, I was already planning to come back in August and organize an expedition to the Big Snake Canyon for adventurous souls, because that place is just asking to be visited and explored much much more!!

Closer I was getting to Doha airport, my mood was getting lower again. There is a quality difference between those two lives. I know it. I feel it. But I still haven’t found exactly where it lies and what to do to improve it. Not yet…so until I find the way, I’ll be going to UAE to have the real fun J

Qatari style bar hopping

This short story happened in three hours on Thursday evening here in Doha, city which stabs you to the back whenever it can.

After 6 weeks I’m here I still haven’t found anybody who would be even close to what I like to do or how I want to spend time. Everybody just comes from work, starts watching TV, orders delivery dinner and sits at home. “Tough day man!! I need to rest” they say. Something which I just can’t understand!! I was into this alone. But better alone than never!!

So with a good mood I called for a private taxi at 9pm on Thursday and went for a beer outside. Next on my list of places was Sheraton Hotel with Irish Harp pub. When I got into the hotel I was welcomed by nice lobby and pyramid-like interior with around 15 floors of rooms. Bar was in the lower floor so I took elevator and confidently walked to the entrance smelling beer already.

“Ladies or couples only tonight” dryly said a bored security guard. I tried to ask him some questions willing to understand the situation, but the guard didn’t even bother to answer and only put his face into “You are not welcome here dude!! And it’s full anyway” expression. Still shocked a bit I went back to the elevator and went to mezzanine floor to Waterhole bar.

I’ve read some bad things about this place, but I just wanted to have a pint so I gave it a chance. “Membership card or Qatar ID Sir?” asked me the security. “What? Membership I don’t have. I have only Emirates ID. It’s not enough?” “No. You need Qatar ID or original passport with visa page to get in” “But I’ll do one exception when you are here for the first time” he smiled and let me pay the entrance fee and get in.

But after I got in I quickly realized why he did it, because the place was just horrible. OK, the interiors were fine. It was the people who were inside. I took a beer and was amused watching potbellied white guys around 40 shyly attacking Asian prostitutes of the same age and beauty under incredibly loud oldies sounds from a Filipino band. There was practically nobody else so I really felt like Alice in Wonderland. So I quickly finished second pint and went to Irish Harp again to see if the situation haven’t changed.

“Ooo two single girls coming in” I felt my chance. “Hi, do you think…” they even didn’t let me finished my sentence. “You wanna get in? Ok come with us” the English girls answered themselves and I was standing in front of the same security guard again. “Where is your membership card?” asked me with the same bored arrogant tone the guard. “Get the membership and we let you in” he told me and the girls disappeared inside. So I went to the desk where they were giving memberships. “We cannot give a membership to a single guy. You need to have the girl standing next to you” said another security with the same cold annoying tone. In that point I was really losing my temper under the pressure of all those unbelievable things.

“I have a friend over there. She can help you get the membership” said a girl doing hers just next to me. I felt the last chance, but just to be sure I’ve asked “Is this UAE ID card enough to get it?” “You need to have original passport with visa. This is the rule” replied that security and I exploded.

“Screw all this and you too” I almost shouted when I strode out with blood boiling and ire in the eyes. Outside the hotel, blinded with wrath, I pushed aside one poor businessman and stole his taxi. “Ramada Plaza” I ordered.

After five minutes of a calming drive I asked the driver “Do you know if I can get to QUBE without passport?” “I don’t think so Sir” he replied pretty confidently. And he was true. To get in you need a membership and for a membership you need, according to the big board next to entrance, a Residence permit. In that point I was not even sure if you can get in with passport, which I didn’t have anyway, so I just looked at a long queue for memberships and conceded to having one more cold pint today.

At midnight I was at home again. I paid three times more for taxis and fees that for the beer itself. But at the end I had to laugh. Country which has that few bars that they can refuse customers in big is just sad.

But as it is always, when there is no other chance, you just accept it. You have to. Especially here in Qatar. So next time I will bring the passport and I will give it another chance…Why? Because I want to survive here until I could go back. Because if I had a feeling that I don’t belong to UAE, here it is not a feeling anymore…it’s a fact!!

Qatar forever - First steps

First week was fast. I arrived Sunday midday form where my colleague Kutty took me to my new place, but had to take me immediately out to one of the three shopping malls in the country! To his astonishment I refused to stay for the rest of the day in the villa and do nothing, what would every Indian do, because they would need to rest, especially after travelling (my flight was 45 minutesJ)

So after I returned there was nothing more than couple of beers with the head of Qatar Envac office Alan in his villa just few building next to mine at the evening. There I’ve learned one thing. Instead of building luxurious villa districts and 40 floor apartment towers, here in Qatar they build villa compounds.

These “villages” are square areas full of squeezed identical two floor buildings, with no common facilities except for tiny children pool and tiny tennis court, where you cannot play tennis anyway because you have fence on your back line and it is full of screaming kids. That’s fine, but the worst is that there is no central AC so you have to choose if you want to boil or become deaf from roaring AC ventilators next to your ear!! And that the compound lies 15 kilometers south of Doha and getting a taxi out of there is impossible is just another black point on already black image.

Fortunately I got my personal Lancer the second day, so I could start exploring and try to put some white dots. I found two climbing walls, but one was not for public and another was too small. No white points. I found very nice kiting beach just 5 minutes from my house. First white point. I found out that you can go to Dubai from Doha for quite cheap money. 10 white points J So instead of trying my luck here, I took off to Dubai the first weekend for sure fun of two day Magic gaming J

The second week went equally fast, basically because two days I fell asleep for 12 hours directly after I came from work, one day was disappointment with “Release the Kraken” and on Thursday my friend Kaupo came from Dubai and we went to see some night life J

After tough search in the list of 15 bars and clubs in Doha I found on the internet, I picked up Intercontinental Hotel with one of the three most famous and most real “clubs” in Qatar, La Paloma.

We started easily around 8 outside the hotel in a beach/pool bar. “Don’t worry!! At the weekend it is packed with people here. Wait until around 10pm” said in a good mood the barman. We took another beer and around 11, when still sitting there almost alone, we left for Paloma inside.

How do you imagine one of the most visited discos in Qatar? Definitely not as a rather small hall with kitchen in one corner, tables all around the round bar in the middle and tiny dance floor with even tinier podium in the other corner. And on the top of that a chaotic DJ changing genders like if playing roulette. All full of guys and if there is a lady shyly standing next to a table and obviously willing to dance, there always is a lounged black Mr. Muscle drinking beer behind, who instantly jumps up when you try something and with a superior and angry grin “She is mine!!!” sends you packing crying. Not a place where you want to return to J

And when you are full of all that, you cannot even get a taxi home, because nobody wants to drive that far up to Al Wakrah. No escape from here!! But OK…we got home at the end, when literally bribing one the driver J

Saturday was supposed to be easy hangover day, but the best cure for handover is to go to the desert in 35°C and ride quads for two hours. In Qatar there is only one area where there is a proper desert with sand dunes.

It is in the south close to Saudi border and it is just next the sea line that water gets between the dunes and creates lakes and lagoons. Have you been ever riding quad in the sea? J

I took it for two hours and tried how it is when you drive one hour one direction and the other back. It was how I imagine Rally Dakar. Driving 50km/h on a desert track winding between yellow sand dunes, through black salt plains and between green bushes. With every kilometer I was getting further from noisy Hummers cruising around and deeper into the loneliness of the desert I was enjoying it more and more. Only me, quiet dunes, rustling sand under the wheels and 700cc under the hood J I was enjoying it that much that I almost forgot to turn back!! Then I discovered the dark side of Rally Dakar, when my hands were barely holding the handlebars at the end!!

Evening program consisted of why Kaupo actually came to Doha, athletic competition Diamond League. Qatar wants to be a sport capital of Middle East so they are hosting all kinds of sport events. Asian games, Handball championship or they are voting for Soccer World Cup in 2022 and Olimpic games. So Diamond League with many famous names attending was not a surprise.

We came to Villagio mall where was a booth with tickets. That was the only information Kaupo had about the event. Ticket booth location. “Tickets are sold out” told us a Filipino girl inside. “What?!!” we almost shouted. When we started to think again we asked “OK…so where is the stadium where the competition is held?”, “I don’t know” she replied as nothing would be happening. “What?!!” we stared in surprise again. After couple of more questions we got that the place was called Doha Sports Club, but where was it, we had still no idea. “Sir can you show us on the map where is Doha Sports club?” we asked and random Lebanese guy. “Sure” he replied and I pulled out my GPS mobile phone. “Damn…display is broken!! I have no idea how this happened” I was staring at a rainbow across he display. So no map, no tickets and the competition has already started!!

The guy explained us more or less where it is and we started driving. Fortunately four huge light posts shining to the night are pretty good guide so we found it easily. “Why there are so many busses blocking the parking lot” I wondered when we came there…

Ticket office at the stadium was closed…there was nobody checking tickets when we walked through open gate up to the tribune. And than we saw it…stadium was almost full. Except of VIP seats and that all spectators were Indian. Guess why? Organizer brought 100 busses of laborers and left tickets for free to fill up the tribunes J

Kaupo, former decathlonist, pulled out Estonian flag and we started watching. There was also few Czech athletes…javelin thrower Spotakova who came second and one pole jumper. Sometimes we cheered for somebody passing by, but basically anybody out of the Ethiopian / Kenyan sector had no chance to be heard!! There were enjoying the event so much, with flags, drums and songs. And because almost in every discipline they had somebody, they were heard all the time. Awesome…

Unfortunately Kaupo’s only Estonian athlete, a discus thrower who was supposed to attend, didn’t come and anyway…because we were late we missed the discus at the beginning J

Saturday we drove to the north to check some limestone rock formations, with possible climbing potential, but it was way too eroded for trying anything. I would need a 4x4 to get deeper into the area to maybe discover some more solid place. Next time…

On the way back we did a detour just to see that Qatar landscape is really just a flat dry wasteland full of loose stones. So after three hours of driving through this monotonous scenery we better went to the beach for some kiting…nice point after active weekend. When I told my Filipino colleagues what I had been doing, they could only say “Hmmmm…”. We’ve done in one weekend more than them in one year!!

Next two weeks went even faster. Three days kiting after office, some food shopping and basically playing Magic everyday to prepare for UAE Magic National championship. I even went for another weekend to visit Rune in Dubai and do some play testing.

And then my last week in Qatar came and I was looking forward to return home. “Jiri can you call me” I found email from Jacqueline, Envac business and manpower controller, on Tuesday. “Jiri, you know that there is still no work in UAE and Babu told me that he could use you in Pearl of Qatar. Would you be able to stay?”

And again…I was somehow anticipating this to happen and I was somehow prepared for it. I had even ready some conditions. “OK…that is no problem. But I want to keep UAE residence visa and as soon as there is work in UAE I’m the first guy coming back!” I calmly relied. “Of course Jiri. That’s how we want this to be. We want you to be ready for coming back” she ensured me.

When flying back to Qatar after another short weekend at home, with a tear in the eye and new return ticket for 29 of July in hand, I imagined my Tiguan sadly standing in the garage of my unoccupied apartment and thought “This probably will not end just there L”

Btw: I didn’t defend the title of “Magic the Gathering UAE champion”

Qatar forever - Choose your destiny!!

Everything started one and half year ago……

I was told that I had been hired for Al Raha Beach project. This huge development in Abu Dhabi was “just about to be signed” for at least half a year before I came and all the time after I came, until Envac’s chances died completely with leaving old Al Raha management only few months after I arrived.

But that didn’t look like a problem. We had still Yas Island and many other “promising” project were around. Until the world financial crisis came only few months after I arrived.

UAE’s happy spending finished and everything stalled. The biggest Dubai developer Nakheel bankrupt and with him disappeared many “happy times promising” projects like Waterfront (city twice the size of Hong Kong), one mile high Harbor tower or canal network going 50km deep inland. Rents dropped to half because people were losing jobs and going home in hundreds (180 Al Raha engineers got sacked on hour one sunny morning). Car loans and car prices dropped, because all cars have been left at the airport by leaving people, abandoning everything…even their loans.

Needless to say that I had everything already secured for the peak price and that Envac haven’t got any bigger project for our “cutting edge” waste collection system by now.

UAE was not hit by the crisis that hard as USA or EU, but it was. Who apparently was not hit were Saudi Arabia and Qatar and our salesmen, were more and more often starting to travel to those countries trying to secure our asses.

So one day, I think it was around March 2010, happened the inevitable. “As you probably see, there is not or soon won’t be any work for us here in Yas” begun my project manager our face to face conversation. “But there is a boat going to Qatar. Are you on the boat? Or you stay here on this sinking Island?” was his question he should have asked some people to report to our boss Mike.

I was suspecting that something is happening long time before this day. Longer we stayed on Yas, with more of our work being finished and more time without hearing any news about some future projects, more I was playing with thought, what I would say when this question comes? “I’m on board” I replied immediately.

I was not happy to say that. I had everything in Dubai. A lot of good friends, my apartment, car, my routines and activities I liked, I worked position I felt finally comfortable with…I had there my happy living. I didn’t want to leave all this, especially when traveling to a country where everything was supposed to be way worse than in UAE. But on the other hand it is better to lose it temporarily and have possibility to come to get it back when situation change, than sink with the Island and lose it all forever.

So on sunny Sunday morning 2.5.2010, I was sitting in the airport waiting for my flight to Doha. It was not my first flight to Doha, but this one was different in that it was the first, last and only one that day. No transfer, no continuation, no other destination, no way back…

Actually there was the way back in form of return ticket one month later, which was giving me something to look forward to, because I hadn’t heard a single positive thing about Qatar!!

Qatar is a flat, dry wasteland on peninsula of the size of Cyprus with one real city and capital Doha. There are no mountains, no proper sandy desert, just plains full of loose rocks and stones going across whole country. And where are no villages, there are oil and gas rafineries. In Qatar lives out of 1.5 million people in total only 1/3 of expats, which majority is from Asia and other Arab countries, so there are relatively few westerners. Also ratio of 3.5 men on 1 most probably veiled woman is not very pleasant environment.

Doha as a capital is more decent, traditional and Arabic with lower average road lane count, with much lower average building altitude, insignificant bar number and only one liquor store in whole country. Don’t need to mention that there is no climbing wall or Magic community. So what is there?

This was what I knew about Qatar so don't be surprised that I was worried. But I was comforting myself that it is only for one month and that I’ll survive and then go back, because we were supposed to get small Yas Island project extension. So I took it as easy as possible and tried to get my own picture about the country, because in the corner of my mind I thought that it couldn’t be that bad J

Stairway to Heaven: The thirsty ballad

It has been already two months since we’ve returned from Kenya. But for some strange reason there was not much action. Probably because we were tired, lazy or had many other things to catch up. From my side it was clear. Project was ending so I had to work six days a week and the only free day I spent with kitesurfing, because UAE windy season was coming.

And suddenly the long time expected turn of events came and I was going to Qatar for one month. So I wanted to use my last weekend for one of the long time planned trips in UAE we had, because when I would come back in June it would be too late for any outdoor stuff for summer heat.

We had basically two things we wanted to do. Climb 300m high Ainee wall in Wadi Bih or do UAE’s most famous hike Stairway to Heaven. Ainee wall is for two days because of its distance and because Milan wanted at least one day for learning with his new kite, 10 hour Stairway trek was a perfect choice.

“We leave today after office to Ras al Khaimah, camp there, Friday Stairway with camping afterwards and Saturday directly to the beach kiting. Who’s in?” I sent short email on Thursday morning. “I can’t leave UAE without doing this trip. I’m in!” responded Jaro, Milan got caught on Saturday kiting so we were three.

Stairway to heaven is a quite short but very steep hike to the top of deep wadi, where you in the uppermost portion use stairs made of stones on very exposed walls and ledges. It’s around 7km long, 1000m up and the book says 8-11 hours for going up and back the same way.

After a decent sleep at the beginning of the trek at 10am we made our first step into the wadi. Temperature was quite nice around 30 degrees so we full of strength were progressing fast following an obvious path through boulder fields and traversing around steep walls. After one hour we were at the confluence and started to walk straight up towards the start of the Stairway. We were not alone there, because we met an older English man trying his luck also. We quickly overtook him and went for the first Stairway around 300 altitude meters below the top.

We had a detailed route description, but somehow the system of ledges and stairways was so obvious, that we didn’t need it. True, it was steep, high, exposed and the Stairways made loose stones just put together seem to fall apart under every step, but somebody doing climbing wouldn’t even notice that it is something unusual. Contrary to many holiday hikers being tempted by the fame of this hike J

After 3 hours we were at the top!! Looking a bit disappointed from expecting something more challenging we decided, after small lunch, to do the whole roundtrip and return to the confluence from the opposite side of the wadi, rather than retracing our steps back using the Stairway. The guide was saying that, even when it doesn’t look like, it is much tougher choice distance wise and also route finding wise. But we didn’t care. “Look, we have 6 hours of sunlight and from the map it is something around 8 kilometers back to the confluence. I have all the waypoints in the GPS” I said, “And we have headlamps” added Milan and we marched. Only one who didn’t say much was Jaro suffering diarrhea from very morning. But we marched!

Route finding up to the village on other side of the valley was simple. We had some delays and we lost half an hour when taking wrong ridge, but we arrived at 4:30pm, so just enough time to be at the confluence before dark. But shortly after we started descending through huge steep boulder field those last 900m elevation meters, it got screwed up!!!

It was not especially hot that day but we finished already all our water. Descending on loose and sliding stones went slower than we expected, especially for Jaro. He doesn’t see well in the dark normally, but today he took as his only dioptric glasses sunglasses, so he was practically blind when it got a bit darker. And also he was starting to be really exhausted and dehydrated from diarrhea and having not enough water. And with a couple of dry waterfalls which we had to bypass around, we reached spot above the last waterfall when was completely dark.

“Follow the riverbed until you reach the 6 meter high waterfall. Then turn back and find the way how to bypass it to the left” I read from the guide. Easy to say, but harder to do, when you when you are in unknown area, in the middle of dry canyon with 10m high walls above you and staring down from the waterfall. We didn’t even have three headlamps, because I lost mine in Kenya and haven’t bought new one yet and Jaro had to shine directly under his feet to be able to make a single move. With increasing time we spent there, we were getting thirstier and it was slowly getting a bit scary J

We luckily found the only way around the waterfall, but it cost us time. “Uff…finally we are at the confluence. Now it is easy. We have already been here” relieved Milan and we started walking back on the same path we came. We had around 3 kilometers and 250 meter down to the car. The trail was visible, but we needed to walk slowly and even then we lost it couple of times. And with every step Jaro was getting into worse and worse shape. Completely dehydrated, he was stomach sick and dizzy. In one moment we had to stop because he started vomiting. Vomiting nothing!! Me and Milan we were very thirsty but still focused. The way back seemed endless. Much longer than we remembered it when walking up.

“Hey Milan!! Are you sure that this is a correct way” I shouted. “The trail is not very clear, but it looks like this might be it” he responded with no confidence. So we got lost again. Even when we got back to the last point where we were sure that we were standing on the trail, we couldn’t figure out where does it lead next. Milan tried to traverse further, but it was not the way. The way down seemed way to steep, leading nowhere and above us was just a vertical wall. And it was dark. And we haven’t had a drop of water for 5 hours. And it was still around 35 degrees. And it started to look quite scary. We all played with a thought of being stuck here for the rest of the night!!

Fortunately after more than an hour of going around in one place, Milan found a way down. “Guys…that’s it!! I found the trail” he shouted from below. And from then it was finally easy and we got safely and alive to the car at 11pm!!!

And that was it. HAPPY END J We drunk everything liquid…hot water from bottles, cold water from melted ice, Pepsi, lime juice, beer. Everybody drunk around 3 liters, fell down and slept.

Lesson learned? Maybe only that the mountains, no matter how easy they are, they look completely different in the night under only torch light and that 4 liters of water per person for whole day UAE trek in not enough. Next time we’ll be smarter.

What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger J