As a start, let me explain procedure and process we have to comply here in order of getting our Civil ID ( something like Q8 I/C). En Muddy came under commercial visa while me and kids under social visa or also known as visiting Visa. His Visa was applied via company his attached to here which is Al-Ghanim while us, applied on arrival at their Visa issuing counter. His visa valid for 3 months so every 3 months, Al-Ghanim will arranged for them to go Bahrain for 24 hours and come back to Q8 the next day, with Visa renewed for another 3 months length. Our Visa on another hand, also need to be renew every 3 months but on our own expenses because the rules is, as long as Civil ID is not issued, staff are entitled for single package only. No matter how long it will take. If staff insisted to bring family, they have to absorb all cost incurred related to flight fees and visa renewal matters for the family.

This " 3 months need to go out to renew visa" thing will go on until En Muddy receive instruction from Al-Ghanim to go Bahrain to do medical checkup. This means that his Civil ID file already in process and he won't be allowed to go out from Q8 anymore till the Civil ID is issued to him. So far, no news and mind you he have been working here since February. Based from friends who had been thru this painfull process, safe to say that at least it will take a year for Civil ID process to be completed for only Allah knows the reason. So .... Qatar was my 1st trip made to renew Visa. We chosed Qatar easily coz I have an uncle stays there and I'm travelling with only kids, without him. It just 1 hour travel after all so i think it's bearable. My next plan for next visa renewal trip will be Bahrain or Dubai. Whichever my pocket permits heh heh.

Our flight was at 7:40 am, which means we have to make a move from house latest by 5.30 am. Urghhh I hate morning flight ! Kids were excited so I made them promise not to give any tantrum that morning, in the flight and upon arrival which I think they succeeded keep to their promises. They've been good girl through out our 4 days trip.

[ Arrival Day ]

Our chartered taxi arrived late, say about 5.45 am. We reached airport at 6.30 am and was practically running to check in counter. Ain't pretty okay. We still haven't had breakfast coz I planned to have breakfast at airport. Well, I'm also plan to draw money and get it converted to Qatar Riyal. None of my plan is happening.


{ They're so excited. Too excited actually. No kids this happy at wee hours.}

While I was queuing to check in, there's one ground crew was shouting, DOHA ! DOHA ! ... so I nodded that I'm going to Doha. He said it was time to board, so he cut the Q and ask me to check in 1st. Things went fast after that. We got our boarding pass, run to En Muddy, salam, kiss kiss then ran to boarding gate and into plane.

We used Jazeera Airways by the way. It's like Air Asia version Q8. The flight left on time and arrived on time at Qatar. Kids were asleep before the flight even took off. Sure enough, there's cabin crew pushing trolley selling hot tea, hot coffee, juices, bun and sandwiches. I didn't buy any though. Too sleepy even too eat. Arrived at Doha 10 minutes before 0900 hrs. There's bus waiting to bring us to arrival terminal. Very convinient and passenger friendly. I must give 4.5 out of 5 star to Qatar immigration for their efficiency. Their custom process was easy and not tedious specially for passenger with minor flyers like me. Everything was done at the immigration counter. Your pasport got stamped, your visa processed, payment made via credit card only, also there. All 3 processes at the same counter. Very hassle-free. The visa cost QR 100 ( RM 100) so we were charged QR 300 for 3 person. After that, we can straight go collect our luggage, and headed out to arrival hall where we were greeted by thousand giant flash cards with people's name on it. I dun have any card waiting for me though, only a longtime no see uncle.


{ My uncle known as Ucu amongst nieces and nephews. He looked just like my father, only fatter with longer hair's version}

My uncle working that day, so he took time off to pick us up, sent us to his home, having breakfast together then off he went to work. We need rest after all. My auntie cooked pancake and baked beans with toast for breakfast. For lunch, Nasik Ayam awaiting us... hmmm it is rather nice once in a while not having to cook hahahaha.. After lunch, we can't bare our puppy eyes anymore, so all dozed off till 5 pm..

Woke up and getting ready as my uncle wanted to bring us out. We headed to Villagio, the big shopping mall with Paris theme. There's man made river with actual boat/gondola where you can ride, of course with some price. There's cloud mural on the ceiling. It's awesome. Villagio from what I can see, was separated into 2 wings. Executive wings with most high end designer brands. U name it, they have it. Then there's non executive wing contained less high end outlet heheh.. Carrefour, Giordano.. to name a few. I dun really know if they had names for the wings. I just made out myself. I am too busy wiping my saliva that keep on drooling from shop to shop we passed by.


{ Nice or not? }

We had dinner at TGI Friday, on Thursday hehehe. Then uncle decided to bring the girls to have some fun at Play Arcade named Gondolania. Spent almost an hour there then we headed to Carrefour to get some groceries for tomorrow feast.


{ I so like the cloud mural. It gave me peaceful feeling }

[ Friday ]

My uncle invented a tradition where he will play host to almost 12 permanent guests every Friday. All 12 guests are his colleagues from works. Mostly Malaysian and Singaporean who came work in Qatar on single package. My uncle thinks since they dun have their wives here, they are not well fed hahaha.. It's good tradition since it can strengthen the bond between colleagues, plus we're practically family here. Good relaxing gathering with nice food, why not ! Since we had guests till late afternoon, my uncle plan to bring us out to dinner at Souq Waqif after Maghrib to let my auntie rest after hard-core cooking. Why I said hard-core? Well she cooked Lontong with nasi impit, Gulai Udang, Ayam goreng rempah, Ketam goreng, Tauhu goreng, Sambal tempe with ikan bilis, Sambal belacan, all between 8 am to 12 noon since guests starts arriving around 1230. I rest my case.

There's famous Malaysian based restaurant called Sri Kebaya, where we had our dinner on Friday night.



It's served Malaysian food but the cook is Philipino or so I heard. They have varieties of malay food from Seri Muka to even Nasik goreng kampung.. They even have soto Madura. How Soto Madura became Malaysian food, I have no idea. Anyway, we ordered Nasi Lemak with chicken rendang, kuey teow, kueh seri muka, Soto Madura and few more. My 2 cents opinion, the foods doesn't do justice to malaysian food and the price makes it more not worth money. It's quite full house though, with Malaysian of course, coz I guess, this is the closest we can get to the taste of home.





After dinner, we strolled along the Souq, but almost all shops are closed or about to closing so I didn't buy anything here. Weather also quite challenging so we go back to our car and decided to have a night view of Qatar, from inside car. My uncle drove along the Corniche ( seaside) and into Doha city. Compared to Q8, Qatar was filled with sky crappers we tend to forget we're in the middle of desert. It reminds me of my hometown, Singapore. Betcha in 10 years, Qatar will become next Singapore, only grander and fancier. Q8 on another side, still in re-building their country from post war experience. It's growing in promising phase. For modenization sake, of course there's thing had to be sacrificed, there's price to pay. Jam is all over Qatar, it's getting congested. Everybody owned car here as their taxi service was poor. U can't survive without a car here in Qatar, at least that's what they said to me. The road getting smaller to give way to all the risen up sky crappers. My uncle told me, most of the consultant or perancang bandar here are Singaporean, so what did they do best? They charged everything, everywhere. In Q8, all mall are parking free basis and entrance free. Only airport got parking fee. In Qatar, they started to charge on everything. Even Souq Waqif started to charge entrance fee nowadays.



Anyway, since it's too hot out there, we came home to this :



[ Saturday ]

We left quite early today to had breakfast at another famous Malaysian restaurant called the Taste of Asia. Only the difference, this place famous for it's roti canai, or called Parata here. They also served pretty decent Nasi lemak and Nasi ayam. Upon entering the restaurant, I got puzzled because all the signage are in Malay. Am i in Qatar or Mamak stall in Puchong Utama, i dun see any different. There's few mamat mamat bujang having their breakfast. Owhh there's also one signage in malay that caught my attention read : Kalau sedap beritahu kawan, kalau tak sedap beritahu kami. CUTENESS !

As expected, all customer are Malays, enjoying their bite of roti canai and sipping teh tarik. We climbed up to family section and there you are, 4 malaysian families are having their breakfast. Just like a view we used to see back home in some random mamak shop. Their roti canai taste exactly like malaysian version of roti canai. Got roti telur somemore. My father wouldn't mind staying here in Qatar, confirmed ! My uncle went to say Hi to other Malaysian and changed name cards while us, what else to do with crispy-steaming roti canai we had in front of us ? Still need to ask?

After breakfast, we moved to Villagio coz my husband requested for a Guitar Hero version 5 CD and my uncle said Villagio had the best and biggest Virgin records shop. Sadly, they only have Band Hero. Called made to En Husband and he said it's ok. No need. He'll find the CD in Q8. So we went to next place, Hyatt Plaza. Specifically Daiso kah kah kah. Like in Q8 there's no Daiso. There is actually albeit smaller. We just grabbed few stuff from Daiso coz other shops are just too classy for my budget.

Next, City Centre. Quite a few catches here but unfortunately they' re just ended their summer sale the day I arrived so things are not as cheap as during sales. After few visits to ATM machines, I remember H&M at Villagio having massive sale, you can get blouse for QR 10 ( RM 10). I am crazy to miss this sale. The reason I didn't go inside earlier was because I thought City Centre are still having sales too. Bummer ! So I politely asked my Uncle if we can go back to Villagio later on since it's on our way back. Being awesome uncle as he always is, he said No problem. Tell you the truth, if it was my husband, he will just say, "Lenkali je laa Wa ! " huhuhuhu..

We headed for lunch 1st. Even crazy shoppers like me need to eat to survive. Stopped by at gas station. For info, fuel here was 65 fils ( RM 0.65 cent) per litre. In Q8, 70 fils per litre. My uncle drove 2.4 Land rover and it cost him only QR 60 ( RM 60) full tank. My Suzuki was 1.3 and cost us RM 90 full tank back home. Ujan minyak di negara orang, ujan air mata di negara sendiri. I just loveeeee being in oil country.

[ Mandy Lahm ]

I told my uncle the day I arrived, I wanted to taste the best Beriyani in Qatar so he said he'll bring me to one shop in Gharaffa that serve addictive Beriyani, Mandy and Bukhari. When we arrived there, around 5 pm, all rice except Mandy are sold out. So given no choice we took Mandy Lahm with grilled fish and grilled chicken. I was skeptical with grilled fish since I'm no fan of fish but my uncle insisted me to try a bite. Sufficed to say, I barely touch the chicken after that. It's soooo juicy and nice and nyum nyum nyum..


Talking about the shop, I so very like the interior coz it reminded me of Ali Baba's set , famous movie by late P.Ramlee. The wall has this uneven texture, soo zaman dulu dulu punye rumah Arab. They decorated it with hand woven rug, traditional dagger, old tea pot that I am so very much like to rub, in case there's genie still living in there so I can ask for LV bag I've been eye-ing at Villagio, if the food doesn't distracted me so much. Damn u grilled fish !



We done our lunch aka dinner ..with a bloated stomach I swear I look 3 months pregnant. Headed to Villagio again, and I do my part.



It's easier and faster to shop when there's someone trustful enough to take care of my girls and kept them distracted. Enough if I said that, H&M did quite a damage to my purse and draw big hole in my bank account :).



[ Go back Q8 day ]

Our flight scheduled at 1000 so we left home at 8.30 am. My uncle house located only 5 minutes driving from airport. Alhamdullilah Allah made it easy for me as the customs, be it at Qatar and Q8 airport doesn't gave me much trouble. One hiccup though at Qatar immigration when the lady officer claimed that Malaysian was not entitled for VOA and refused to check me in. Hellooo, if I am not entitled, how do i come to your country without being arrested? Tongkang isit? Even if it's true Malaysian not entitled for VOA, it's not my fault obviously. It's the custom officer who granted me VOA on my arrival day's fault.

My uncle argued and ask her to check with her colleague, when she was told by her smart colleague that Malaysian was among the 22 countries that eligible for VOA ( Visa On Arrival) she doesn't even say sorry or even look at my face. To cover her mistake, she told me she just came back from long holiday so she forgot. Yeah yeah, whatever. Very funny, woman !

Reached Q8 at 1100 am, greeted by a very familiar face waiting in the waiting hall. All in all, selamat sudah. So I am legally to stay in Q8 till 30th October, hence we planning to go back to Malaysia end October. Just nice. Insya allah..

The End.