The Route to Qatar
This is a couple days ago so hopefully my memory serves me well so here we go …. We were still in Oman in the lap of luxury in our lovely hotel on the seaside and we had not yet got into the sea yet . I’m not a fan of open water unless it’s frozen but I did my obligatory get into the water and get a pic and get out pose . It was nice but that’s about as far as I’m going in . After that we hit the pool and chilled poolside until we had to check out which our hotel allowed us a late check out so I grabbed a couple swift pints before I went upstairs to get my stuff together then we checked out .
Went to the desk and requested a taxi to get to the airport and of course the taxi that pulls up is the same douche that ripped me off . I looked at the hotel attendant and said we don’t want to go with him ! The driver looked over at us and said what is the problem and I basically ignored him …. I’m not gonna kick up a fuss but he was persistent and I stood firm and waited for the other driver . Before we got into the taxi I asked if it would be 12 Rials and he said yes and we jumped in …. When we arrived at airport we got out and I handed him exact payment and the guy counted it and looked at me with a side eye as if I should have tipped him or something . Tipping is not customary in Oman and there is a tourist tax on everything . If he wanted more money he could ask his buddy for the money he ripped me off for …. I’ve had it with these taxi driver scumbags !
Checking into the airport was a breeze , they have extra weight for baggage here ( 32 kilos) and it’s not per piece but for total checked baggage which should be the way it is world wide . My gear and sticks were just under so happy times :) clearing customs was no issue also and next thing you know we had some time to kill so we hit up the McDonald’s to get rid of some of the Omani rials I had on me … I had this piri piri chicken wrap which was pretty spicy and then we boarded our plane which was Oman Air . They actually served us food on a flight that was under 2 hours , that was a bonus !
When we arrived in Qatar it was madness ! People running around everywhere trying to get out to catch games im assuming . Not sure why anyone would fly in before kickoff and put themselves through all of that but hey , each to their own right ? We got our free SIM cards from Ooredoo which comes with our Hayya which is the holy grail of things you need to get to the World Cup ! It holds your tickets , accommodations and visa not only for Qatar but for other GCC members such as Oman and Bahrain . Got into a taxi and started to make our way to the fan village we are staying at in Rawdat Al Jahanniya…. then the taxi driver asks me how to get there ???? Wtf 😳 here we go .
When we finally arrived you could sense the excitement and the global atmosphere and we got to our rooms after checking in which took no time . Our room is in a shipping container and has air conditioning, a bathroom and a fridge but no tv or anything . Dropped our stuff and wandered over to the big screens in our little village and watched a couple games and met a few Canadians and hung out . It was pretty cool but I wish there was beer . Who doesn’t want a cold one ?
As we were watching the game it got quite chilly out . Guess I’m used to the heat since 16c is now cold so I grabbed my hoodie . We had this guy behind us sitting by himself at the screen where we were all watching the match and he decided he needed to watch videos on full blast which annoyed the heck out of everyone . I wanted to give him my two cents but I kept my cool again …. Not like me but I guess it’s better to keep cool then to let people know what they are doing . I gave him the side eye just like the taxi gave me 😝
Before we called it a night Kathleen found our room was flooding and went to get us a change of rooms . Apparently there was a lineup of fans complaining and angry as they didn’t have rooms set up yet , one of the workers told her that people are not showing up for their shifts and lots of people had quit ! That’s not a good sign . She got us another room and shifted our stuff over with the help of one of the staff while I was watching the game . We found out later that a lot of stuff promised to be here was not set up like the convenience store and that they will never be set up and a lot of rooms were also not set up including ours as I had to sort out our fridge on my own , our bed is hard as a rock and the drainage in the shower is slow so if you take a longer shower it will flood . All in all it is what it is but there are a lot of things not very prepared here …. But the experience is still amazing and I’m gonna put all that aside . I’m here to cheer on Canada in their first World Cup in 36 years and I’m proud to be doing that .
That rock hard bed does suck though 😩
