Getting a driving liscense!

I recently took my newly received Qatari residency and went to get a drivers licence.

Now...keep in mind that I really have not driven much in the past 10 years and that driving here is like Mad Max style. Seems like a smart idea huh?

So the driving "laws" here are much more like "ideas" than actual laws. They did not even have a licence program until 1986...so things are still in the "being worked out phase".

Regardless, off 4 of us went.

Step 1: You stand in line to visit type writer guy, however he speaks no English. So..you go back outside to find somebody outside who speaks Arabic. We were prepared and had brought a local guy named Ahmet with us. After typewrite guy and Ahmet worked out the cost then typewriter guy wrote our Arabic names on his 1953 model typewriter and shoo'ed us out of the building. Step 2: you go to a non marked little building with the most disgusting bathrooms this side of Calcutta to get your eyes tested.

Step 3: Once they determine that it makes no difference if you can see or not, they give you another form in Arabic

Step 4: You take all of your forms to yet another building that actually looks like a DMV. Common sense would say that you pick up a numbered ticket and wait for your turn. So the 4 of us Westerners did that but Ahmet decided that wasn't his plan and pushed his way through the line. 20 minutes later the 4 of us had Qatari driving license in our hand.

Now if they would just make a road map of the city...