By Azmat Haroon
Doha: At least one Rolls Royce and a fleet of Jaguars, Ferraris and Mustangs among other expensive cars can be seen in a daily evening parade of fancy vehicles on the Corniche Road during Ramadan in a show that also features monkeys, parrots and other pets.
While many families in Qatar prepare to break their fast, young Qataris occupy the entire stretch of the Corniche Road between 3.30pm and 6pm every day during Ramadan.
On some days, drivers from the UAE and Saudi Arabia also join their friends in Qatar in the parade. The trend became popular in 2005, and according to onlookers, participants become more creative with every passing year. Last Ramadan, a young Qatari surprised onlookers when he drove around with a monkey pair in his car. This year’s parade has so far featured monkeys, parrots and dogs.
The parade includes limited editions of Jaguar, Ducati and Lexus, besides Harley Davidson motorcycles. Some of the vehicles at the parade start with price tags of QR500,000 and go over QR3m.
Bringing young children to the parade is also a new trend.
Many of the kids are perched on the roof of the cars to pose for keen shutterbugs who gather every day to take pictures of their favourite wheels. These snapshots then go viral on social networking sites or the popular BlackBerry Messenger service. Abdul Rahman Al Rumaihi, a first year chemistry student at Qatar University, comes to the parade almost every day with his friends.
“Every Qatari man loves racing and motorsports. They buy expensive cars because that makes them feel special,” Al Rumaihi said. He said that every Qatari doesn’t necessarily own an expensive brand of car. “It really depends on their salary. Some people get QR20,000, others get anywhere between QR40,000 and QR60,000. Some people just own one car and others have more than three.”
Hassan Al Falahi, who also comes to click photos, said that apart from the cost of the vehicle, what’s more interesting is the amount Qataris spend on petrol.
“Some brands of cars such as Land Cruiser, Hummer and Mustangs take in a lot of fuel. I know people who spend as much as QR150 every day on petrol,” Hassan said.
Traffic rules are often violated during this show, where many are fined for driving slowly, faulty parking, driving without wearing seat-belts and using mobile phones at the wheel. Motorcycle riders are also handed out fines of up to QR500 for not wearing helmets. “Some of these drivers get fines of QR300 and three traffic violation points for wrong parking, some are fined QR500 for slow driving, but they don’t really care about the fine,” Al Falahi said.
The Peninsula
