What an interesting night I had last night!

Bec and I went out to a friends place for some drinks. At about 12 we decided to head off to a party one our friends was having on the roof of their villa. While waiting on the road for taxis two cars stopped and asked us if they could drive us somewhere. Now I have to explain what it’s like in this country before you start going, you got into a car with random strangers???!!! The locals genuinely want to help and have nothing else to do on a Thursday night so the thought of driving some foreigners around in their car and talking to them about their life and where they come from is appealing to them. There was 10 of us, 4 went of into one car and 6 of us piled into the back seat of the other and off we went in search of this party with Britney and Beyonce busting out a tune on the stereo. Our driver and co driver were, surprise surprise, Mohammed and Mohammed. They are all called Mohammed or Ali!! He was great and didn’t go over 80km the whole time, which trust me is something pretty unusual for the local drivers of this country.
After driving around with little idea of where to go and trying to get directions of people who didn’t even know where they were in the first place, it was getting stuffy, squishy and hot in the back seat and we were over driving around not knowing where to go. The other car in the convoy had already dropped our friends of at a nightclub in the Intercontinental Hotel and had come back to join their friends. We were stopped trying to make a decision as to where to go next and I simply suggested two of us get out into the other car to make it roomier and one of the guys packed a stink got out and walked off into the desert with a bottle of tequila under his arm. We spent the next 45mins trying to look for him and driving all over the large desert patch between the villas and the road. He had left his phone in the car so there was no way to reach him, what a dumb ass!

After scouring the whole area like a search party and calling out for him with little luck we decided that he must have got a taxi back so we bailed on the going out idea and Mohammed and Mohammed drove us back to our friends place, teaching us a little Arabic on the way. They were concerned about our friend and gave us their number incase we needed to go back if he wasn’t home.

Bec and I then found a taxi to take us back to the guest house and tried to stop and get something to eat. We left the cab and walked around to where a couple of fast food outlets are to find that they were all closed. By now it was 4am and we were hanging out for some food. We walked down the road towards a place called turkey central which is our local favorite, and found one food outlet open, shining like a beacon in the darkish dusty morning. We went in an ordered chicken burgers and fries and tried to avoid the stares from two local guys that came in, which the guy working there told us were gay! Ha, that is totally illegal here, imagine that. While we were eating we were talking to the guy who worked there and telling him all the Arabic words we know, crazy, hello, how are you, go. He was getting a little into the conversation so we thought that’s our cue to go. We asked how much and he said, you no pay, no, no you no pay. Bec tried to give him money a number of times and he wouldn’t take it. He followed us out and was asking us our names and where we were going. We said, thank you we bring our friends next time, we come back. He said you give me your number… no we come back tomorrow we bring our friends, and we waved good bye thinking, note to self, one place we are never allowed to go again!!!

Worked out to be a pretty cheap night, drove 3 times around Doha and chowed down on local fast food and only paid for a $2 taxi. Bec and I just had to laugh as we wandered home trough the dusty, lightning morning and listened to the roosters crowing. That’s right roosters, this place never ceases to amaze me and gets stranger everyday. By the time we walked from where we ate to the guest house it was 5am and the sun was up!
What a night.