Sultanad

Hey Peeps - Where is the best place to reside in Doha for westerner? It was to be near the new City Hospital as I will be working there.

Is it better to be in a compound or private?

How much does it cost to live in either?

Any recommendations would be great.

gottheTshirt

Decide how much you have to spend QR 8,000 will get you an apartment in a mixed community, QR 18,000 will get you an upmarket villa. +QR 14,000 will get you a two be apartment on the Pearl or West Bay. add QR 1,500 - 2,000 for utilities. if you have children then a villa on a compound, if not then an apartment.

Alexa

where is the New City hospital?
Never heard of it.
Other than that, what Got the t shirt said.

abbey08

If its the new hospital due to open shortly, come back in four or five years when its eventually finished.

co durham boy

Between 10,000 and 14,000 will get you a decent standard compound villa with all facilities in a half decent area .
Can't say decent because it's all mediocre to be honest , take your work route into consideration as traffic here is obscene and will only get worse.

Also apartments are shit here , very poor or very expensive , you get much more better value with a compound villa at the moment.

Check the classifieds in the http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topic...2&temp_type=44

You'll get a feel for the prices and areas although it maybe a nauseous one !

Debowing

Main thing is to be near your work...Commuting takes hours in Doha.

abbey08

If I was working in West Bay and I had a family it would be a compound near Madinat Khalifa or Gharrafa. This puts you right next to Landmark, one of the three decent malls, next door to Lulu Hypermarket and within a five to ten minute drive of Compass and ACS schools, Sherborne is also close by. Your drive down into West Bay would be around 20 minutes.

co durham boy

Looking at the proposed road projects over the next 5 years i'd say most of it will be pot luck.

Nothing is interfaced correctly here so one day you drive out of the villa and the next day you can't drive in for the next 3 months as they've dug the road up but delayed the works as the design hasn't been approved.

All in all though , get an Apache Helicopter Gunship , it will get you where you need to go and it's got a cracking weapons system and believe me you'll definitely get your money's worth here .

abbey08

This is exactly what happened to me over in Maamoura - road outside has been closed for three months - of course when we came to view the place it was "excellent access for schools and work" now its a 20 minute wait just to negotiate your way onto the nearest main route.

co durham boy

You want to live where i live mate in Al Waab , it's like fu**ing Kandahar...You need a no fly zone round there just to get to work !

Joined up thinking doesn't apply here , it doesn't matter if the local population are late because they're always late and it doesn't matter if there's traffic as they'll just make a 4th , 5th or 6th lane or jump a red light .

Debowing

When I was in Doha (06-07) I used to live near Safari supermarket, which is on salwa road towards the outskirts of Doha, near the infamous industrial area. I lived in one of those run-down compounds but it was an okay house. My work was on the Pearl. Commuting took me 1 and a half hour. I developed a work around to the problem by taking samples to a lab in the industrial area in the morning at around 8 - 8.30 am, then after a friendly chat with the lab master, we used to 'fix' any non-complying sample results and I used to offer him (the boss - indian christian) a bottle of johnie walker once in a while. I would finish at around 9.30 - 10.00 and then drive on to the Pearl. After 9.30 traffic is much less than at 8-8.30. I would eventually reach the Pearl at 10 or so (sometimes I would drop by a supermarekt to get some groceries)

On my way back at 5-6 pm it would be congested so I would just visit my friends in c-ring road and we would go for lunch near the ramada hotel restaurants and tehn go back to salwa...At nights, sometimes we would go for beers to that pyramid shape hotel....Watch the 3 filipinas 'do their thing' and get quite wasted...

Despite the overall dullness of Doha, I would say it is livable, but one must lower their standards...Qataris like to refer to their country as the Switzerland of Arabia....

Well, Doha is no Geneva....

co durham boy

More like the fu**ing Grimsby of Arabia.....Well i've had a few decent nights out in Grimsby , that's more than can be said of Doha !

littlejimmy

I think you need a break from Doha, CDB...

Debowing

You could have a once-a-month trip to Dubai, that would liven things up a bit...

co durham boy

Ive been in the Gulf getting on for 15 years so i'm well versed on trips away mate . I'm out of this place every month or so , sometimes business and sometimes pleasure . It's the only thing that keeps me sane , that and a game of Golf and the local football league .

Doha is crap , you can live here and do your business and live your life easily but it's crap , boring , mundane and dull .

The main thing about Qatar that pisses me off is that it doesn't have to be so shite . It could be a cracking little city with many things going on but they just do not want any expat influence into their society .

That's fine , it's their country , their rules and their way of life and i'll live within the parameters set by them . Qatar is just a P.R exercise and a bit like the bottom of a babies pram , all shit and broken biscuits....

I'll just keep on taking the Riyals , it helps me sleep knowing that i can relieve this nation of a few sheckles of their hard earned wealth