Smoking/non-smoking
By Serendipity •
I just read the 'You know you've been in the Middle East too long...' thing and it mentioned smoking on planes.
I'm guessing that text has been doing the rounds for a while and the reference may be out of date, but can you clarify?
Is smoking allowed on any planes going into and out of Qatar? I would have thought they were banned on all flights nowadays; is that incorrect?
What about other public places? I'm vaguely aware restaurants and places have smoking/non smoking sections. Are they pretty well segregated? What about wandering around shopping malls or in cinemas? Is smoking permitted or banned?
Smoking is banned in all public places in Qatar. This is the law. Unfortunately it is not enforced and lots of people in cafes, etc carry on smoking. Many people who smoke will not follow the instructions of the staff or security who ask them to stop. I personally do not wish to breath in someone else's smoke and tell people all the time to put their cigarettes out and point to the no smoking sign. I've never had someone refuse me but that's usually after I have mentioned it to staff/secirity and they have not been listened to. I think Qatar won some kind of award for introducing this law. It's such a pity it's not properly enforced.
Smoking on a long flight? That's pretty foul in such a confined space.
It is pretty usual with QA. You enter the toilett in the plane only to find that it has been used as a smoking room. Whatever happened to the smoke detectors.
We had an amusing incident on a Malev (Hungarian) flight when an American commplained that she had asked for a no-smoking seat and we were smoking over the isle.
The stewardess replied that she did have a no-smoking seat.
Apparently no smoking was on the left of the isle and smoking on the right. That was in "comfort" class. The smoking/no smoking seats reversed in the next class. A novel way of doing it I thought.
Go to the cottage cafe near the cinema in city center. That place was closed before because they should not allowed people to smoke in that place but remain open now and people still smoking although there is a bid sign everywhere on the wall that smoking in that place is not allowed and againts the law. I would like to take the picture and post it here but I am afraid somebody might get affended and shout at me. So just go there and see yourself.
I think you will see no-smoking signs in most if not all Malls.
Cinemas, it's a no no I am pretty sure. I don't think smoking was allowed even when there was only the Gulf Cinema operating.