DOHA 2006 - The games of your life - Part 2

Ah, 7th day of the games, that was fast.

As I said I was there at the event. Amazing turnout. Around 40 thousand souls were present.

The stadium was jam packed despite the rain. My ticket was for QR 650, still people of all races and Qatari's most importantly of all ages and genders were strongly represented.

If you notice the picture on the right, you will see a huge blue wall.

That turned out to be the screen.

Being a Naive Bahraini, I thought it would be some sort of a projector screen. Poor me.

This turned out to be a PLASMA TV WALL (courtesy of their sponsor Samsung). An honest to god wall of plasma TV's!

In a recent documentary, the show director commented that there is not a single similar screen in size in the world.

Khalifa stadium however, has three.

One in the centre, one to the left & another to the right. Everyone in the stadium can see them.

The show naturally was amazing, cables were flying, lights dancing, people parading. It was simply stunning.

Beneath each and every guest was a metal box shaped like a traditional embayat box (صندوق مبيت), in it there were audience participation tools. It had a lighted pearl, light sticks and bracelets, lighted fans, confetti cracker, an honest to god real Mirwas drum, and several flags and the like.

It is very clear that Qatar spared no expense and most importantly, spared no effort in holding this tournament.

The audience enjoyed great songs by Chinese, Indian, Arab & a Spanish performer (A double CD is out for QR 110).

The cauldron & the lightning of it was the main attraction. The cauldron, was shaped like an Astrolabe, and was beautifully done.

The torch itself was a huge neon lit tower besides the stadium.

The person who lit the Cauldron was non other than the Amir's son, who by the way, trained in secret. No one knew that he will be the one to light the cauldron, as he trained veiled lat at night.

He is of course the captain of the Equestrian Endurance team, a position that he proved his ability to hold when he surprised his own father, the Amir, and the entire Khalifa stadium by bolting on top of his trusty steed up the stairs and wet slopes.

The stadium gasped and were holding their nerves as the steed slipped on the wet slope nearly throwing the young Amir from its back. But he held on. and arrived to the top with great applause. You can see the video of that below.

More dancing ensued, everyone was happy, the torch was finally lit and everyone left Khalifa's stadium jolted, on edge, hyper and unable to bear the wait until the start of the games of our life.

DOHA 2006 - The games of your life - Part 1

I just came from a brief visit to Qatar, I attended the Opening ceremony for Doha 2006 Asian Games, and let me tell you, it really looks like Its going to be the Games of MY life!
Never did I imagine Qatar being able to host such an event. Turns out that I'm wrong, way wrong.
Qatar is not only hosting the event, Qatar is undergoing a huge metamorphosis. It is rapidly evolving into a modern age country in a very systematic style.
I know Dubai had a growth spurt, but look at it, its devoid of locals, where as Qatar is working hard to include locals in this changing process.
A sense of pride enveloped all of Qatar. You can easily see Qatari flags on cars, on a mast or tied to a side mirror or bearing stickers of Doha 2006 on the car bonnets, not to mention these giant buildings tall adverts stuck on hotels and banks.


Qatar revamped the cities, with new buildings, new roads and new everything.
To a poor Bahraini like me, I was shocked. The sidewalk they had, was as big as a 3 lane highway here in Bahrain. And you know what it was made of?
No, not bricks, no, not sand... no not that ugly fat plant that we try to pass off as grass in here.
It actually had GRASS!
Honest to god, real living GRASS! I know! I was shocked too, I though grass growing up in the gulf was a myth! if you recall, 11 Mumtaz (premier) league football (soccer if your a yank) games in Bahrain were postponed due to the rain which created puddles on the pitch. For shame...tsk tsk..

Qatar had the opening ceremony IN the rain. Heck, if you see the picture of the beautiful grassy sidewalk, you'll notice it was raining at the time. Poor us Bahrainis.



Not only that, they had roses on the street too! The kind that we see poor labourers planting hastily on the 14th or 15th of December., only to be removed two weeks later (are they on loan or something?).


anyway, back to the astonishing public involvement, everyone chipped in. Individuals, big businesses & small ones.




The inside of the hotel lobby of the Marriot.

A small restaurant advertising one of the Cultural events in Doha 2006








Big franchises got in on the act.











Qtel, one of the main sponsors had ads that state "We are all Qatar كلنا قطر", this slogan was widely seen on T-shirts, the Internet and on cars.

Behind it you can see Tissot's Asian Games Ad.

- End of Part 1 -