My avatar - explanation for PMcD;

[dave penn]

Hi PMcD;
 Not from the polish site you mention, although I've seen some of the stuff on there and a lot of it is pretty frightening, my avatar is from the documentary "Destination Doha 1976". If you look on YouTube half of the docu is on there.
 As you know in a past life I used to spend my days, night's and weeks driving and living in a steel box going wherever I was sent and for some reason was given the handle(nickname)"Juggernaut Junkie"  even had it sign written on one outfit I drove for a couple of years . I wasn't the only one though who needed that little something extra there were a few "Billy Whizzes" and more than a few "Bottle Top Tommys"

 In 1976 to drive to the Middle East was seen as getting to the top of the HGV driving tree and every man and his dog was trying to do it, we complain about congestion on our UK roads now, but back then this type of journey could take between 6 to 8 weeks there and back, if you were lucky, and once you got through Austria you were in the old commie-block countries then into Turkey/Instanbul and across the Bosphorus the Western way of life was a distant memory If you were going to places like Doha in Qatar you weren't even halfway there and only Saudi Arabia and the desert beckoned No mobile phones, no AA or RAC to come and help you out, no real maps/sat-nav, no Tesco or Lidl! or ATM machines You had to take everything with you and just hope it lasted.
   
 Anyway enough of my past life check out YouTube if you have time, I'm sure you won't complain about congestion, bad roads or having to change a tyre again

Regards
Dave Penn;

[mcdermott]

I started watching that, and now I'm gonna wait and watch the whole thing. It looks really interesting.

[dave penn]

Just changed my avatar, do you recognise it ? 
 Because of the OSA I'm not allowed to tell you who my last employer was
Regards & Respect
Dave Penn;
 

[MotherSuperior]

I've been to Doha. I lived in the Middle East for in the late 70's/early 80's s before all this chit started. I really liked it... great quality of living for surprisingly little money. Where I mainly stayed, الرياض‎ / ar-Riyāḍ(Riyadh) it was really quite Western in many respects but then at the age I was then I was fascinated by the eastern culture and had lots of Arabic friends who were/are GREAT people... really hospitable and genuine.

Not many DDU's there as I remember the مطوعين or هيئة would have something to say about that.... scary people(basically the 'religious police', assholes who were thugs.... a good few are ex-convicts who studied the Quran and memorised it) I also saw a fair few public floggings and worse these scum were behind.

Though with the purity of H and availability if you knew the right people, they don't have a big issue AFAIK with H though with the kind of penalty's involved if caught in possession or dealing(death over a small amount) understandable. In contrast with a few other middle eastern countries, notably Pakistan and India who, as I understand it, have pretty large amounts of H/opium addicts.

I'm not sure I would go back now as a Westerner, well I couldn't for obvious reasons, but I mean with reference to the troubles I'm not sure it would be safe.