Stories and photos from my time living in the Middle East

[BehindBlueI's]

Blue Gardens was it! Nice little apts. Made it to the Lu LUs once but mainly just to the little strip right by the villa. Do you remember a young guy that got drunk, wrecked a car on a round about and went to the local jail? I left right after that. Wasn't there long as an opportunity opened for Iraq so I took it.

Bob

Yeah, it happened more than once. Most of the guys who ran afoul of the locals did so via alcohol. We had one guy hurt himself pretty bad in a DUI wreck. The guy I think you're talking about didn't get hurt, but did get fired after spending a little time in the jail. The Qataris pulled his visa, IIRC. He said the jail wasn't as bad as he was afraid it would be, but everyone ate off one big plate per each cell and hygiene seemed to be in short supply among his cell mates.

For those who are curious, you could get alcohol in Qatar. The hotels could have bars, but you had to have an ID to show you were foreign to drink there. There was a brisk market for foreign passports among the Qataris who wanted a drink. There was a package liquor store, but you had to buy a permit to shop there. You basically paid your fines up front, and if you didn't get in trouble, you got refunded at the airport when you left and turned in your alcohol permit. There was a limit to how much you could buy each month, and it was by dollar amount. Guys who drank would agonize over if it was better to buy a little American whisky or a lot of Chinese beer. Companies didn't have quotas, so if DynCorp wanted to host a party they could buy as much as they wanted.

 

[Litebow]

Thumbs up on this thread. Very interesting!

 

[DoggyDaddy]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BehindBlueI's again.

Excellent thread BBI!

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Interesting stuff.

I can speak for my wife when I say that 130F/100% humidity weather would keep her from ever wanting to set foot there.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BehindBlueI's again.

Excellent thread BBI!

Me too and I agree.

 

[mammynun]

"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BehindBlueI's again."

 

[DocIndy]

I will send some rep his way for the awesome thread........

 

[Cldedhnds]

No doubt best reads of the week. Thanks for sharing.

 

[KJQ6945]

Thanks for posting, it's nice to see a positive side to things.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I would have so been serving time in prison there....

"Why did you endanger lives by stealing that camel crossing sign?"

"Dude...How could I not try to get that sign??? It's a freaking camel crossing sign for Pete's sake...I got a man cave that needs that sign sir..."

I've got some pics of camels, but they are far away. I'll see if any are worth posting. When you got out in the desert there were still Bedouin camel herders.

 

[Alamo]

I've got some pics of camels, but they are far away. I'll see if any are worth posting. When you got out in the desert there were still Bedouin camel herders.

Did they carry them around in their pick up trucks? I saw a lot of that in Saudi Arabia. Also, camels were a real threat on highways outside the cities -- they just wandered around loose in the desert, and they were very hard to see at night, most of them being brown or black.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Did they carry them around in their pick up trucks? I saw a lot of that in Saudi Arabia. Also, camels were a real threat on highways outside the cities -- they just wandered around loose in the desert, and they were very hard to see at night, most of them being brown or black.

The camels were bigger then their trucks for the most part. They did herd them with the trucks, though.

 

[indiucky]

The camels were bigger then their trucks for the most part. They did herd them with the trucks, though.

Do you have a pic of those big ol spiders??????

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Do you have a pic of those big ol spiders??????

Eh...No. I didn't see any, and if I did I would have screamed like a 10 year old and ran.

 

[Alamo]

The camels were bigger then their trucks for the most part. They did herd them with the trucks, though.

How about their wives? I saw them being carried in the backs of pickups in KSA too.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

How about their wives? I saw them being carried in the backs of pickups in KSA too.

Nope. Qataris are wealthy. They drive upper end SUVs or the most part, and their wives have chauffeurs if they are out on their own. The only humans I saw in the backs of trucks were usually construction laborers. Convertible Mustangs were surprisingly popular, too. It always cracked me up to see their head scarf blowing around when the top was down, although I can't for the life of me tell you why it struck me as funny. Same for the ninjas who wore their glasses on the outside of their face coverings. Funny every time.

While we were still just dating, my wife was talking to me from her pharmacy one day and told me she had to go, three ninjas walked in. She paused briefly and then started to explain what a "ninja" was. I told her we also called them ninjas and that I was surprised she did as well. It was pretty funny for both of us.

Anyway, camel pic that's pretty clear:

All the little blurry bumps in the background are camels moving in a line. 2MB camera was maxed out, best I could do at the distance.

 

[GunSlinger]

One of the best threads ever on INGO!!

Someone please rep BBI for me as I 'must spread it around' before I can rep him again!

 

[KG1]

Interesting read. Thanks BBI.

 

[mom45]

Very enlightening....tagging for further posts.

 

[jamil]

Waiting for the next issue of "Stories and photos from my time living in Middle East."