Fifa World Cup Notebook - Day 4
Inside the working area of the main media centre at QNCC.
What you need to know:
- Seemingly, the most popular car here is the massive Land Cruiser V8 and their range of versions – VXR, VR, GXR etc.
- Dudus, as we Kenyans call them – Vitz, Yaris etc are extremely rare. Vehicles are dominantly white in colour with the occasional black and grey. A red car is even rarer to spot.
Oh my God, petrol is cheaper than water!
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When I left Nairobi five days ago, a litre of petrol was going for Sh179 at the pump with all the signs showing the price will climb.
My eyes almost popped when I was told the price of petrol in oil-rich, tiny Qatar. Wait for this, a litre costs only Qatar Riyals 1.5 (about Sh56).
Yes, one can fill a saloon car tank with slightly over Sh2,000. Now, buying a litre of bottled water here will set you back QR 3 (Sh100), almost double the price of the purified carbon fuel.
In fact, selling bottled water to households in residential areas is a lucrative business here. No water browsers though, but that is a story for another day.
Qatar Convention Centre media hub
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For the benefit and comfort of accredited journalists, Fifa and local organisers have made the best of this unique set-up and are offering centralised, state-of-the-art infrastructure and services to accredited media.
The Main Media Centre is co-located with the International Broadcasting Centre and serves as a transportation hub to Team Base Camps on the day before the matches and to the eight astonishing stadiums — the closest being Education City Stadium, only four kilometres from the MMC, and the furthest, Al Bayt Stadium, 45 kilometres away.
The branded, brand new buses are conspicuous when parked together at ground level where passengers are picked.
Qatar is my country, Toyota is my car
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Kenyans born before the 1990s will be familiar with the then popular car advertisement “Kenya is my country and Toyota is my!” Well, well, the truth would very much apply now to Qataris here.
Almost everywhere you turn on the road, you will not miss to see a Toyota. From Corolla, Crown, Camry, Rav4 to the road hogging Land Cruiser.
Seemingly, the most popular car here is the massive Land Cruiser V8 and their range of versions – VXR, VR, GXR etc.
Dudus, as we Kenyans call them – Vitz, Yaris etc are extremely rare. Vehicles are dominantly white in colour with the occasional black and grey. A red car is even rarer to spot.
