What am I doing here, travel diary, day 5: your orders are orders and they travel by motorbike and at full speed

In Doha, you already know, We are almost on the other side of the world. Not just for cartographic reasons, but also for a totally different culture which, without having to be very smart, can be perceived walking through the streets of the city. They speak a language that would be impossible to understand unless there is one – at least among those I have crossed paths with so far – who does not know English and a predominant religion, the Muslim one, which ticks the pulse of a society through the use and uses very far from ours. However, not everything is different. Also there are points in common with Argentina. And one of these are the delivery service apps and their very strong presence in the streets of the commercial centers of the Qatari capital.

“What did you think, salamín, that they only existed in Argentina”, Some outraged with these travelogues can tell me. And I respond quickly, but with great respect. No, I already know what exists in most of the planet. And there’s more: since I’m very knowledgeable just by being a journalist, I know this too Our country was one of the last to be conquered by this type of door-to-door service company which flourished and expanded in times of pandemic.

“So? What is it that attracts attention?”, the same indignant can rush me. The first thing is the amount deliveries what happens. Are many. Lot of. Much. If one stops on the street or in an avenue and begins to see how many pass in the space of a minute, counting is mission impossible.

The biker population, like vampires, multiplies exponentially once it starts to get dark, just before five in the afternoon. It is then that the sun and heat take a break and when a rush hour begins which lasts until after 12 at night. Motion time. There’s a detail here, in Doha, that I haven’t told you yet: businesses close late. Very late.

Want to guess? Shall we play for a couple of paragraphs?

I give it time.

And I ask those who know to let others play.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

We are? you know? They do not know? Are you sure?

Well, let me tell you: businesses like malls and restaurants are open until three in the morning. Yes, you read that correctly. Until three in the morning! Do they start late? No, generally by 8, five hours later, everyone is up and running. It’s not just hot days in Doha. They are also very long.

MotoGP pigeons

But let’s go back to deliveries. Another substantial difference, compared to ours, is how the employees of these companies dress, such as Tabalat, Deliveroo, Foodal or Snoonu, among others. They seem, exaggerating a bit, why lie, the MotoGP riders, the F1 of motorcycling. They wear a helmet and clothing with their “sponsorship” branding, which is seen everywhere. The only difference, with Marc Márquez or Valentino Rossi, the axes of the two wheels, is the thermal backpack in which they carry the orders and a few extra kilos. But who am I to judge them!

It is said that the only difference is why the guys don’t have shaking wrists and go full throttle in the streets. And, when you’re driving, they pop up in your rearview mirror by surprise and throw some footage at you. They come and go everywhere. Where they come from? From India, the Philippines, Kenya… They are foreigners, with a residence permit linked to the duration of the employment contract. If they have a job they stay. If they don’t have, they leave.

There are about ten delivery service apps working in Doha. One, Snoonu, bears an uncanny resemblance in its interface to that of one of the Uruguayan capital cities that we often use in Buenos Aires. However, what wins for the majority of color in Qatar – as happens in the visual impulse of the World Cup team jerseys which for now has Argentina as the absolute winner – is the one who identifies with the colors orange and yellow.

How to say request in Arabic

The company in question is called Talabat and is the largest of its kind in the Middle East. It was founded in 2004, in Kuwait, by Abdulaziz Al Loughani Y Khaled Al Otaibitwo successful entrepreneurs, who eleven years later sold their creation to a German company that paid them 170 million dollars.

By then, the company had expanded throughout the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa. In addition to Kuwait, it has operated in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and, of course, Qatar. Today it has more than 16,000 employees.

What does Tabalat mean? It is an Arabic word meaning “orders”. Yes, they weren’t very creative, but from what you see on the streets of Doha – and from the bank accounts of the two founders – the idea caught on.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.