When I first moved to the armpit of Arabia known as Qatar there were only two things I was worried about not being able to have; ladies, because I thought all of the women were kept on “lock down” and had to wear burkas, and no booze. I could pretty much deal with the no ladies thing because I figured whenever I got “anxious” I would just sweet talk an Army gal or hop over to Bahrain or Dubai.
Much to my relief, when I first arrived I saw a plethora of beautiful off-duty stewardess (from the local airline) hanging out at Starbucks I felt a wave of relief that at least one of my “needs” would be fulfilled. But not having booze would have killed me, I was positive that I would have had a “coming off of heroin” like experience if I couldn’t drink.
I quickly learned as far as Booze goes in Qatar there were only 3 options as a for me to get my medicine…
4 Star Hotels
The first place is in night clubs or restaurants in 4 star hotels, the international 4 star hotels are the only places in the entire country where you can openly drink booze (not in the crappy local motels), period. And it is friggin expensive, 6 bucks for a Budweiser and 8 to 15 bucks for liquor and over 100 bucks for a fifth. These bars are mostly patronized by stewardess from the local airline and Middle Eastern Expats like myself.
I would easily run up a 100+ dollar tab by myself just on a light night and whenever I would go out with my stewardess lady friends I was easily looking at a 250 dollar tab. Probably 70% of all the money I spent in Qatar went to booze.
Liquor Store
The second way to buy booze is at the state run liquor store (only one in the entire country) but you have to jump through a bunch of hoops first. I had to get my employer to write a letter giving me permission to buy liquor that I than took to the “Booze Police” and (in typical Middle Eastern fashion) wait in line all dang day long. Then in a month I was able to pick up a little ID that looks like a driver’s license that I then had to show to the checkout clerk every time I bought booze.
Friggin pain in the ass, and the amount you could buy every month was set by your employer. My crap-bag employer (one of the lamest Private Military Company’s in the business) only gave me a lousy 200 dollar a month booze limit. I would burn that up the first week every month. We only got that silly low limit because some of the Nepalese guys that used to work for us were selling booze on the black market and got busted by the local cops.
Black Market
The third (and absolutely last resort) was to pick up booze on the “Black Market”. Usually some shady Indian or Egyptian guy had some sort of hook up with the booze smugglers that shoot across the wide open border every month. Most of the time I would pay around 20 bucks a fifth for some no-name Russian vodka that doubles for engine block degreaser that was guaranteed to give me a hangover and burn another hole in my barely working liver.
During Ramadan no booze is sold anywhere in the country for over a month so I would horde my supply from the liquor store a couple months before Ramadan. Around 2 weeks into it you start to see people at work getting the shakes, I always made sure that I had enough to throw a couple parties and keep the demons at bay.
All and all the booze restrictions weren’t too bad, friggin expensive, but at least I got to drink.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Pure. Hell. Wow.
Naa… Living in Doha wasn’t bad, I actually had a great time there (the article is a bit tongue in cheek).
Doha has a great Expat population, combined with the above mentioned stewardess made it an ok place to live and make some tax free cash for a few years.
The BIG negative about Qatar is the locals, they are the most horrible people on the entire planet – but if you try hard you can pretty much avoid them