I'm a female student travelling to Qatar this week from Canada, for 4 days. I have a few questions for the locals. Sorry if they're answered elsewhere, but it's my first time travelling overseas and I'm not sure if I'm entirely prepared.

1) I heard something about needing to purchase a Tourist Visa once I arrive in Qatar. Do I get this in the airport on arrival, or what? Can I pay with US cash?

I was wondering what types of insects live in Doha. I figured that mosquitoes would not be problem because of the desert. True? Also are scorpions a problem in the city or only in rural areas? What about roaches and mice/rats? Fireants?

What about at the beaches? I read in a book that the marine animals in Qatari waters are so dangerous that a lot of people don't go in the water. It mentioned dragonfish, stonefish, sea snakes, and jellyfish. It said that stonefish are found in shallow waters and if you step one, the poison is strong enough to kill you. This worries me especially since our little grandchild will want to play at the beach.

Result: Germany 4-2 Costa Rica

Any Prediction for the next Match ? Poland Vs Ecuador 09/06/2006, 2200 hrs.

How is the summer in Doha? How do you beat that heat?

Hi Guys

I'm considering opening a bank account in Qatar and I have few questions. I would appreciate it if you can share with me your bad/good experiences with the banks in Qatar.

1. In your opinion which is the best bank in Qatar? and Why?
2. In your opinion which is the worst bank in Qatar ? and why?
3. What do you think of Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ)?

Thanks

Any good quake 3 players around?

Its an online game.

Q3dm6 , tourney2 anything. just post a comment here and we'll see if we can arrange a few matches.

Hi,

Thanks again everyone for the help so far. I'd like to know from anyone already there how much the cost of calling UK from Qatar. Please don't tell me about SkyPe, helpful though it is. I want to call my parents often who are elderly and not really happy (at all) about computers. There are deals I can set up here so I will pay less when calling UK from Qatar, but these would be pointless if calls are already cheap from there.

Hi all! I'm a newbie here- a Malaysian guy in aviation and SERIOUSLY considering a career with Qatar Airways. I am an experienced cabin crew. Are there any Qatar Airways expat crew out there willing to share sum tips or experiences about working with Qatar Airways?

Has anybody else on this site having trouble with SKYPE.Since last Wednesday Ihave not been able to use same,difficulty in connecting,also unable to SKYPE OUT.Since last week internet very slow taking ages to load a page.Ihave been told there is nothing wrong with my buildings servers and this is a QTel problem.Is it only me or is anybody else experiencing the same problems.Does QTel slow down there servers speed every weekend.

FIVE times a day, the Muslim call to prayer echoes through the mazelike passageways of Souk Waqif in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Projected from slender minarets that dot Doha, a low-lying white city along the Persian Gulf, the warbling, ages-old Arabic incantation reverberates through stalls selling everything from traditional khanjar daggers to baby strollers. When it arrives, merchants in long, white gutras and checkered headdresses kneel toward Mecca and pray.

Lately, however, the call to prayer has been competing with a much more modern sound, one that heralds a bold new direction for this languid city of 400,000: the sound of construction. Lots of it.

According to the Qatar Tourism Authority, more than 100 buildings and towers are going up in Doha, whose modest skyline is currently punctuated by about two dozen high-rises. Cranes fill the hot sky. Skeletal hotels, resorts and financial centers ring Doha Bay. And from every corner, a symphony of earth-moving equipment and power tools hums the theme of one of the world's richest countries (as measured by gross domestic product per capita) striving to become a world-class business and leisure center.

"Qatar is rapidly changing," said Nick Bashkiroff, development director for the country's leading construction firm, United Development Company, from an office building overlooking Souk Waqif. On the wall of the conference room, two floors above a Ferrari dealership, hangs a satellite photo of a megaproject embodying Qatar's bold new dreams for international recognition: the Pearl, a $2.5 billion, 985-acre artificial island loaded with five-star hotels, two million square feet of high-end shopping and "beach clubs like you would find in the South of France," Mr. Bashkiroff said.

The Pearl, whose first phase will debut next year, is just one of the Xanadu-like attractions suddenly appearing as if from a rubbed Aladdin's lamp. Poof! A luxury resort resembling an ancient Arabian city, the Sharq Village & Spa, rises along the beachfront. Poof! The modernist Museum of Islamic Arts, designed by I. M. Pei, sprouts along the bay. Poof! The nation's largest shopping center, a monument of Italian Renaissance details traversed by Venetian canals, begins its ascent.