ARABIAN NIGHTS DOHA DAZE
Weʼd been bouncing along in shuddery zig-zags, drifting on a sea of marshmallows. And now we were going over the edge, tipping into a vertical plunge. Caught on that zany tightrope between terror and elation, I let out a tiny, unexpected swearword and our Land Cruiser erupted with laughter muffling our screams of wide-eyed panic.
This wasnʼt the adrenaline spike of fear, though, but the dilly delight of a rollercoaster ride.
At the wheel was Zahidullah Muhammad, a strapping Pakistan-born 4×4 expert with a square jaw and rock star swagger. Man, can he drive.
ʻAll the ladies ask for pictures with him,ʼ piped up Saleh Abujundy from the back seat. Saleh, our tour guide, had “played the dunes” with Zahid countless times before, and didnʼt flinch as we nosedived into the abyss, our wheels staying magically attached to the earth.
With dunes up to 150m high, and Zahidʼs flair for making his Land Cruiser perform unspeakable tricks, at one point we were staring vertically down through the windscreen with nothing but caramelcoloured sand in every direction.
ʻOh, shit!ʼ indeed.
Zahid is one of 2.3 million non-Qataris living (and working) in a country of 2.8 million people. Only 15 percent of the population is considered “local”; in fact, people of at least 125 different nationalities live in the country, a nub on the eastern flank of the Arabian Peninsula that most people would be hard-pressed to identify on a map.
To reach these formidable sand dunes near Mesaieed Sealine Beach, weʼd followed a blatantly brand-new seven-lane highway. En route from the capital, we passed the new 40 000-seat Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah, constructed for Novemberʼs Fifa World Cup tournament and designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, with a glorious retractable roofing system inspired by the sails of
