It should come as no surprise that while away from home, Irish people will eventually go looking for alcohol. Let’s not get jumpy; this might be a stereotype, and while not all Irish people drink, stereotypes don’t come from nowhere. Anyway, the Irish people I am with place alcohol as a high priority. The availability of booze somewhere is a critical consideration. On my first day in Doha, my friends Colin, Claire, their friend Tommy and I went on a journey to find some wiggly pops.
The business of sourcing alcohol and the culture of drinking here is interesting. While it is officially legal to drink in Qatar, one walks a fine line of balancing personal freedom and respecting the local culture and customs when these adult beverages come into play. Hotels with a proper license are allowed to serve alcohol, but it is illegal to serve alcohol to Muslims. It is also illegal to be drunk in public, so even if one enjoys a few legal beverages at a hotel with friends, getting home and acting sober can be an adventure on its own.
Further to this, the whispers within the expat community in Qatar about what’s allowed and what’s not allowed open doors to misinformation. Because alcohol is not a topic widely discussed, there isn’t one source for obtaining official information. It’s like a game of telephone: one person passes on a piece of information, and when it finally reaches you, it’s hard to know where the truth really lies. My friends told me that they’d heard of expats who had caught a cab home one night after drinking in a hotel, and because they were drunk, the cab driver took them to the police station instead of home. We don’t actually know if this story is true, but it illustrates the balance of drinking and respecting the culture and also the fear when trying to live life as one normally would. To my Irish friends and me, alcohol is not a means to get drunk; it is an experience that brings people together, something that is fun, something that is meant to be enjoyed and helps one relax, and it is a part of our culture. None of us see it as a vehicle for abuse. Having a glass of wine or two with dinner takes on new meaning in a place like Qatar.
So besides hotels, where can I get alcohol in Qatar?
Welcome to the wonderful world of the QDC, the Qatar Distribution Company, the sole company allowed to import alcohol into the country. To be allowed into the QDC, one has to have an appropriate license. On the website linked above, the strict rules for obtaining such a license are outlined, and while there is no mention of women in these rules, my friends told me that women are not allowed to have one. They are only allowed in with their husbands. Claire was able to go into the store under the guise of being their friend Tommy’s wife. Colin doesn’t have a license yet, so he and I sat in the car and chatted while Claire and Tommy wandered the aisles of sin and fun.
It took us over an hour to find the store. There is only one in the entire country, though some sources may suggest two. There is definitely only one. At one stage of our journey to the QDC, we got lost and thought to pull over to see if we could buy a map. No one in the store where Tommy inquired about a map knew what this strange word meant… “What is this thing, this map you speak of?” was the general response.
Thankfully, our navigator, Colin, got his phone sorted and we were back on track, and once we were close, Tommy recognized the area (as he had been once before with his dad), and I felt his foot get a little heavier. We took turns with a little more speed and confidence and before I knew it, we were making a turn into a gated parking lot, a security guard present to make sure only expats were visiting the store.
Claire and Tommy probably spent a half hour in the store, though the time flew while Colin and I were talking. When they finally emerged triumphant, they were pushing a cart with 5 boxes of beer, two 5L boxes of wine, 13 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of rum, and a bottle of vodka. Also in the QDC store was an elaborate pork section, even including things like bacon flavoured chips (which, let’s be real here, probably don’t even contain real pork product or flavour), so this shows how thorough the country is in protecting its citizens.
So there we were, out in the desert, in the parking lot of a store selling alcohol and pork. Apparently this is where the church is too, out in the middle of nowhere with the rest of the sin.
We drove home. Another piece of potential misinformation my friends were aware of was a time limit in getting the alcohol home. After purchasing alcohol, it has to go directly home in less than 30 minutes. They’d heard the police could stop someone and ask to see the receipt (which would show the time of purchase). With 400 euros worth of booze stacked carefully in Tommy’s car, we hightailed it out of there.
The sun was beginning to set, a dramatic orange ball of fire dangling over the desert, setting the world afire. The radio program we were listening to was interrupted, and the call to prayer began. We listened, the bottles between us on the seat clinking quietly.
How do I find the QDC?
If you look it up, you will quickly realize this place is elusive. On the first website I linked above, the address is Nr Qatar Technical College, Street 668, Al Maamoura, Doha. On other websites like the store’s Facebook page, there is no address included. The phone number on the Facebook page is 4429 9777, while the phone number on the other website is 4469 9412. There are websites that have satellite screen shots to help you get to the store but whose address is PO Box 9483 (which isn’t very helpful). Websites like this one will echo much of the information you will find elsewhere, but if you are really serious about finding the place, it is best to keep your ear to the ground and near the whispers of the other expats and hope you find someone with a license to get into the store. That’s your ticket.
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