There is an attitude here that I cannot put my finger on. Of course there is the very male dominated structure of society, but there is also a feeling of distain for foreigners. In fairness, I may be confusing the women thing for the foreigners thing, but I understand now why NZ is considered to be such a friendly place, because eye contact and making way for others on the footpath is kind of a given at home.
We were in the hotel, going down in the lift from the 7th floor and the lift stopped on the 5th floor. Three men waited. One hoped in and in a very English accent said 'they probably won't ride the lift with women'.
Too bad! Let them wait!!! I guess they didn't want to catch 'girl germs'.
Check out this pic, you may have to zoom in, but it is a wedding reception that was in the hotel where we are staying and in different rooms at the reception are.......... the 'Ladies' and the 'Gents'.
The majority of the taxi drivers, however, have been awesome. First we got a taxi from the airport to the hotel 150 Rial, then we took one to town 135 Rial, then we grabbed a cab back to the hotel 11 Rial, now we are catching the free shuttle to the airport! They ripped us early, but we found out!!!!! (eventually) . Once we got to the 11 Rial, we discovered that the special coloured taxis were the state run taxis and everything else was just an unregulated rip, perpetrated by the hotels!
The state drivers are all imports from overseas and they take a contract with the King for two years and all cars, accommodation, airfares etc are supplied. The contract is for 2 years and these guys leave their families to come here for work. We had drivers from India, Uganda, Kenya etc. most had passable English and there was no requirement to speak Arabic, to come and drive taxis in Doha. The also didn't have to be Muslim, which I found interesting, they are allowed to practice any religion here, although I didn't see any other churches.
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