Carpets, haircuts & other adventures

It’s a very foggy day in Doha & traffic is slow but mostly cautious. It’s also only 13 C. so not a day for spending much time outside, although the sun will come through & we’ll be back to 20+ degrees by noon. Life seems to have got busier over the past few weeks & we’ve fallen behind with our blogging. So this will be a bit of a hodgepodge of some recent happenings. I have to start with my first visit to a barber’s shop in Qatar (“hair-qatar” only works as a joke if you are pronouncing the name of the country correctly).

My barber’s shop would be easy to overlook, sandwiched as it is between the “Al-Markhiya Modern Laundry” & the “Nile Café” on Khalifa Street, just a few steps from “Television Roundabout”. Parking is a challenge, with a continuous stream of cars pulling up outside the Nile Café (for a quick “karak” – strong sweet tea with milk) or the nearby barbecue chicken shop. Each driver simply stops, honks his horn, & waits for someone to come out & serve him. This works well & to everybody’s satisfaction but means that actually parking one’s car is somewhat at odds with the general pattern of events at this busy little corner.

It was around 11 o’clock on a typical Tuesday morning. Little did I imagine that an hour later I would step out of the barber’s shop, renewed in body & soul, although much too relaxed to drive in the traffic chaos. There was only one other customer who was already having his hair cut, but it almost seemed as though I was expected. “Mr. Gordon told me I should come here”, I said. “He says you give the best haircuts”, I continued, waiting for some recognition & hoping that this would guarantee good service. Blank stares but warm smiles. After settling into the chair, I was surprised to see my barber (whose name turned out to be Osha, from Bangladesh), disappear out the door. He returned a few minutes later, followed soon afterwards by a server from another nearby café carrying glasses of delicious banana/mango fruit smoothie for the customers.

It would take too long to detail the hair-cutting itself, except to say that it involved a straight-edge razor & was (luckily) extremely careful. There were several pauses during which Osha (whose English is minimal) gestured that it was a suitable time for me to take a sip of juice. The beard trim followed with a touch of humour from Osha who asked “all off?” & then laughed at my dismay. Just when I thought that the whole thing was over, Osha covered my face with a variety of oils & pomades, letting each sit a while & then wiping it off with a steaming hot towel. This was followed by a scalp massage & thai-type massage of arms & hands (with appropriate knuckle-cracking & bending). The “haircut” concluded with a brief back massage. As I bent forward, I looked down at my metal footrest & was delighted to read the word “utopia”. It seemed to sum up the entire wonderful experience. All for 40 Qatari Rihals (about $12). The only problem is that it will take a good two months before my hair is long enough for another haircut.

Last week we returned to our favourite carpet store, the “Kashmir Handicrafts Emporium” on Al Mergab Street, owned by Riyaz Bhat. It was time for us to find another carpet for ourselves. In fact we had decided before Christmas that we would look for one new carpet ever school term. In the end we bought two, including this amazing Turkmen (Sulaimani) carpet from Afghanistan. It is a hand-made tribal rug with something like 500 knots per square inch. The motifs include turtles & crabs (depending on which side you look from) & the tree of life. The colours are all natural dyes & the effect is stunning. Here is just a glimpse:

The other big adventure (for me) was learning how to drive a 4-wheel drive vehicle through the sand dunes (mostly found about an hour south of Doha). The whole point of the excursion was to travel into the desert & hide camping material (tents, sleeping bags, food, & shovels) to help out in a future hiking trip. I have agreed to act as "back-up" for emergencies & so needed to learn (1) how to drive & (2) how to use a GPS. Here's a shot of Jeff (on the right) & Chris as we were on our way:

The first "trick" is to let about 25% of the air out of all the tyres. After that, it is mostly a matter of snap judgments as to when to throw the "4-wheel drive" switch & gun the engine (usually in second gear) enough to plough through the very soft & yielding sand. If things begin to bog down (literally), then you change down into first, quickly enough to not lose momentum & accelerate even more (over 5,000 RPM at this point). If you get stuck (happened twice) then you hope you have enough hands to push & that the vehicle is light enough to be pushed. The other huge challenge is to guess which "road" to take. There are no real tracks to follow &, in any case, the path taken by previous drivers may now lie over insurmountable hills of sand. If the wind has been blowing, the chances are that the whole terrain has changed shape. A GPS has little use except to ensure that you're headed roughly in the right direction. At one moment, I looked to my left & realized that we were only a few yards from the edge of the dune, with a drop of well over fifty feet staring back at me. The whole process is one of continual alertness, instant decison-making, & luck. It's all very exhilarating & a lesson for living. At the end, all that remains is to haul out the portable compressor, hook it to the car battery, & inflate the tyres.

I'm finishing this a couple of days later & we have moved out of fog into severe sand & dust storms. It all depends on the direction of the wind. South-easterly winds bring humidity & a good chance of fog, particularly in the "winter" months (December to March). North-westerly winds carry huge clouds of sand & dust across the Arabian Peninsula. Here's a photo that I saw in the newspaper (Peninsula) this morning. We were to go & visit one of Pat's student's "farm" this afternoon but that may have to be postponed. People take these storms very seriously, wear face masks, & cancel activities. School ended early yesterday & the forecast is for the wind to pick up more strength later today. It'll make for an interesting weekend!