It is not easy to find a good customer service from any bank in Qatar and it all about your luck. So far I have bank with IBQ and everything is OK except on incident that they forgot about my credit card application and keep giving me excuse that doesn't make sense.
Apart from that their system are quite good. Online banking is OK. What I like is when you use your credit card, the moment the transaction is approved and immediately you will get an SMS. As I know this service should be free due to the country is rich :) Anyway this help you if you credit card has be clone and used by unauthorized person.
Grocery Shopping.. Where and How much?
I will try to make this short and brief as possible a list of thing you can buy at certain grocery shop which are cheaper
The Philippines Store at Al Sadd
- Milo (cheapeast)
New Falcon Supermarket at Al Sadd (near Marmara Istanbul)
- Maggie
- Bread
- Peanut Butter (bit more expensive)
- Orange Juice (bit more expensive)
- Fruits
Food Palace at Al Sadd
- Maggie
- Bread
- Peanut Butter (bit more expensive)
- Orange Juice (bit more expensive)
- And a lot more, fruits, chicken, eggs etc etc.
Overall I would suggest Food Palace to buy most of your grocery stuff and only visit Philippines Store to get Milo as other than that place is only available at Hyatt Plaza Giant Store which is far away from Al Sadd
The Philippines Store at Al Sadd
- Milo (cheapeast)
New Falcon Supermarket at Al Sadd (near Marmara Istanbul)
- Maggie
- Bread
- Peanut Butter (bit more expensive)
- Orange Juice (bit more expensive)
- Fruits
Food Palace at Al Sadd
- Maggie
- Bread
- Peanut Butter (bit more expensive)
- Orange Juice (bit more expensive)
- And a lot more, fruits, chicken, eggs etc etc.
Overall I would suggest Food Palace to buy most of your grocery stuff and only visit Philippines Store to get Milo as other than that place is only available at Hyatt Plaza Giant Store which is far away from Al Sadd
Can't find a better time to go home
Tomorrow begin the first day of Ramadan where Muslim around the world start to fast for about 15 hours a day and for 30 days and coincidentally the last day of fasting is also the day I am going home and what is even better I am going back on Malaysia National Day 31st Aug... You see how patriotic I am.....
Haha actually I am not that patriotic la.... reason I choose the last day of fasting month because during fasting month my office only work 5 hours a day which is from 830AM to 130PM and minus of the slack time + summer heat we probably work 3 to 4 hours a day? Maybe? Thing move even slower when Ramadan and summer fall in the same time.
Well since I am in a pure 100% Muslim country I am pretty much got to fast as well because all shop are close during fasting hours. You simply can't find anyone selling food or drink even fast food are close. They only open around 4PM to probably 2AM as fasting time start 3AM here, that why our working hours change as mentioned. I might able to follow as it depends what time I head to the gym, if I go as when I normally does which is 3PM then I think is OK as that probably that's the time to break fast. But one thing for sure I ain't following them to have dinner or EARLY breakfast at 12AM and go to sleep. So I just stick to my normal schedule.
Luckily the grocery store still open, I guess I will stock up bread and peanut butter for my daily meal, I have Milo and Oat which I just got it today from Malaysia and fried egg. Then probably sometime I will go out with my friend to break fast at some restaurant
Till then.. Happy Ramadan to all Umat Islam Di Dunia. During this holy month I wish you all have a blessing of good health and learn to forgive and forget.
Peace be upon you.
Haha actually I am not that patriotic la.... reason I choose the last day of fasting month because during fasting month my office only work 5 hours a day which is from 830AM to 130PM and minus of the slack time + summer heat we probably work 3 to 4 hours a day? Maybe? Thing move even slower when Ramadan and summer fall in the same time.
Well since I am in a pure 100% Muslim country I am pretty much got to fast as well because all shop are close during fasting hours. You simply can't find anyone selling food or drink even fast food are close. They only open around 4PM to probably 2AM as fasting time start 3AM here, that why our working hours change as mentioned. I might able to follow as it depends what time I head to the gym, if I go as when I normally does which is 3PM then I think is OK as that probably that's the time to break fast. But one thing for sure I ain't following them to have dinner or EARLY breakfast at 12AM and go to sleep. So I just stick to my normal schedule.
Luckily the grocery store still open, I guess I will stock up bread and peanut butter for my daily meal, I have Milo and Oat which I just got it today from Malaysia and fried egg. Then probably sometime I will go out with my friend to break fast at some restaurant
Till then.. Happy Ramadan to all Umat Islam Di Dunia. During this holy month I wish you all have a blessing of good health and learn to forgive and forget.
Peace be upon you.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Coffee Beanery
This is another coffee chain store I get to know. This is a US brand that never reach Malaysia.. but it should as another competitor to the existing that we had, like Starbucks, Coffee Beans, Pacific Coffee, Dome, Gloria Jeans, San Fran Coffee.
Over at Qatar we had Coffee Beans, Starbucks, Gloria Jeans but somehow Coffee Beanery seems to be the famous and popular one where a lot of youngster and especially Qatar Airways air stewardess hang out. Yesterday was the first time I was there as just to try out, well the coffee is comparable with Coffee Bean and Starbucks but the different is their design in their store.. is more edgy and similar to Pacific Coffee.
Over at Qatar we had Coffee Beans, Starbucks, Gloria Jeans but somehow Coffee Beanery seems to be the famous and popular one where a lot of youngster and especially Qatar Airways air stewardess hang out. Yesterday was the first time I was there as just to try out, well the coffee is comparable with Coffee Bean and Starbucks but the different is their design in their store.. is more edgy and similar to Pacific Coffee.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Office Beach Club
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| Mushroom with feta... not sure what is feta.. but it taste nice. like Chinese cooking |
Only in Qatar - Lamborghini
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| Lamborghini at Office |
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| Read the second paragraph... ... you might need to enlarge it ( i need to stop jogging to have your profound respect? WTF wei? |
Great News Popeyes at Doha, Salwa Road is open
From previous post, on the way heading back I saw Popeyes has opened. I feel so happy .. wanted to try but was very full with the food I had at Turkey Central and that place is jam pack with people. Will try it out next week or tomorrow.
I think I ate too much today, no food on the weekend and 3 hours of gym again..
I think I ate too much today, no food on the weekend and 3 hours of gym again..
Makan Makan In Qatar - Turkey Central
Had a some gathering with my colleague just for fun... eat out just before Ramadhan...... as usual we went to our fav restaurant... Turkey Central and as usual we always can't finish our food. Since my last meal there I have learn to cut down the order and we did some how we are all sucker to their appetizer which is superbly good.
We ordered
1) 1 x QR20 of Mixed appetizer come with free flow of bread to dip with
2) 2 Garlic sause (pure garlic with yogurt)
3) Fragrance rice
4) 2 x Half grill chicken
5) 3 x Soft drink
A total of QR67 which is dirt cheap. After that we plan to head out for movie but we were late and end up went to a cafe which I will put it in another post
We ordered
1) 1 x QR20 of Mixed appetizer come with free flow of bread to dip with
2) 2 Garlic sause (pure garlic with yogurt)
3) Fragrance rice
4) 2 x Half grill chicken
5) 3 x Soft drink
A total of QR67 which is dirt cheap. After that we plan to head out for movie but we were late and end up went to a cafe which I will put it in another post
Makan Makan in Qatar - Self cook
This is tell you that I can cook a perfect egg and how fucking bored I am.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Chow King
Went to Chow King the other day to try out other food in their menu so here it is.
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| Ice Lemon Tea, not bad. QR8 - expensive :( |
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| Yong Chow fried rice, it is good. QR16 - expensive. |
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| Kangkung with shrimp paste, this is good but what the hell QR6 for few leafs of vegetable? |
Visa to Qatar
Just found out it is not that easy to get a visa to Qatar for several reason.
For work
For work visa, you pretty much won't have a problem as the company that employ you will settle for you.
For visiting visa or tourist visa
1) Relative
This shouldn't be a problem as long the person you visit is son / daughter (or in law), parents + in law and father or mother. Your company will probably able to help you to do this as well
2) BF/GF
This is a hard part, somehow Qatar doesn't really allow you to travel alone due to the Islamic law because you can't stay together with your BF or GF if you are not married.
That doesn't you can't visit Qatar at all, you still can get a tourist visa but with certain condition, the visa must be apply by hotel manager from a listed of approved hotel (is only 4 and 5 star hotel) so expect to pay a large sum of money. Another way is via Qatar Airways but it only allow you to visit relative. So as a tourist or visiting your GF or BF you pretty much don't have a lot of choice and it pretty difficult that is probably why tourism doesn't really take place here but anyhow they do not depend on tourism to survive.
More info can be obtained here
For work
For work visa, you pretty much won't have a problem as the company that employ you will settle for you.
For visiting visa or tourist visa
1) Relative
This shouldn't be a problem as long the person you visit is son / daughter (or in law), parents + in law and father or mother. Your company will probably able to help you to do this as well
2) BF/GF
This is a hard part, somehow Qatar doesn't really allow you to travel alone due to the Islamic law because you can't stay together with your BF or GF if you are not married.
That doesn't you can't visit Qatar at all, you still can get a tourist visa but with certain condition, the visa must be apply by hotel manager from a listed of approved hotel (is only 4 and 5 star hotel) so expect to pay a large sum of money. Another way is via Qatar Airways but it only allow you to visit relative. So as a tourist or visiting your GF or BF you pretty much don't have a lot of choice and it pretty difficult that is probably why tourism doesn't really take place here but anyhow they do not depend on tourism to survive.
More info can be obtained here
Makan Makan in Qatar - Asiana Xpress
Just came back from dinner at Asiana Xpress. Actually I have no intention to have dinner as I am on diet and pretty much broke for month of July. Left 50 bucks to survive until next salary release. Anyway, since I am here I have the thought to try out all the food based on curiosity and got a itchy taste bud.
And here they are.......
Verdict : OK to try once, I found is nothing fancy, nothing special and overpriced. With that price I would have walk a block further to have Nandos or something else.
And here they are.......
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| Garlic chicken. but so call garlic chicken just tomato sauce with garlic. QR18 |
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| Steam rice QR8 ( can refill) |
Souq Waqif - Bird Market
Went to Souq Waqif to walk around after breakfast in order to kill time. There is a bird market at the souq where they sell birds as pets. There is a lot of birds which I don't any of them other than parrot and pigeon. :) Didn't hang out too long as is not my kind of thing and you know the smell .. pet store smell .. bird's dropping... ehewww
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| Look at them, they dye the chicks... no animal rights here...! |
Makan Makan in Qatar - Popeyes Louisiana Fried Chicken
This is not a review buy just a information and a reminded for myself to try out Popeyes and yes it is opening in Qatar. I was driving around as I got lost and out of sudden at the corner of my eye I saw the Popeyes. The outlet is still under renovation and I think is should be open in couple of weeks just in time to for Ramadhan where people can breakfast.
Well the outlet is located at Ramada signal (C Ring Road) and to be more exact at the Ramada signal there is a QNB depends which direction you are if you coming from Al Sadd QNB is on your right, turn right to Salwa road and just behind QNB you will see Popeyes.
Will try it out when it is open and will do a comparison against Malaysia version.
Well the outlet is located at Ramada signal (C Ring Road) and to be more exact at the Ramada signal there is a QNB depends which direction you are if you coming from Al Sadd QNB is on your right, turn right to Salwa road and just behind QNB you will see Popeyes.
Will try it out when it is open and will do a comparison against Malaysia version.
Only in Qatar - Buying a car
Buying a car in Qatar is like anywhere else, if you have cash just pay and the dealer will do the rest else if you lack of cash then you just submit the necessary document to the bank for bank loan approval. This post will guide you how to get buy a car with Qatar Petroleum car loan scheme therefore the accuracy of this post may change as company policy change all the time.
1) the amount of loan you are entitled is min 55K up to 5 times your salary
2) go hunt for your car and once you found it....
3) ask the dealer to give you a scanned PDF copy of the car current road permit, insurance and dealer quotation
4) submit those PDF to the HR e car loan application and wait for HR to generate a letter (more like a bank guaranteed letter of credit), HR will also provide you a letter to hypothetication the registration to QP just like normal bank does in Malaysia. This will cancel once you pay off your loan.
5) send all the document to the dealer and about 2 days you can collect your car. don't bother how dealer going to collect the money from QP as they will sort it out themselves
6) when you collect your car make sure the car are it is as how you see it and collect all the document from the dealer such as new road permit (make sure is under your name, insurance policy)
7) now you may need or may not need to get legal stamp for power of attorney (POA)letter. this letter is basically a guaranteed letter for QP that you cannot sell your car if you have not settle of your loan and if you didn't pay your loan QP have the rights to sell you car (if you leave the country without telling.)
8) now to do the POA, you need go to the Ministry of Justice at west bay (near to Al Faddan tower BMW showroom)
9) once you reach go to the ground floor there should be few guys sitting at the lobby with computer, if you cant find them go around the building you could be at the wrong side. Go to them show them the car registration card and they will type the POA letter for you in Arabic, (make sure you get 3 copies at QR5 each)
10) Go to 1st floor and there is a counter on your right, back at the counter there is a door go in and knock on the door to see lawyer or admin to approve your letter, you may encounter some people trying to harass you by offering their service to help you for a small fee. with this blog you can ignore them. there is a guy standing just at the door and i think he work there so far he is OK as helped me.
11) Once the lawyer or admin approve you need to pay and they only accept debit or credit card. NO CASH.
12) Once paid just walk to a counter in the middle of the hall and submit your document and get it stamp. 1 copy to the Ministry, 1 for you and 1 for QP
13) Scanned the POA, new road permit and insurance and submit it back via the e car loan application.
Khalas!
*
Have someone drive you there as no parking at West Bay.
1) the amount of loan you are entitled is min 55K up to 5 times your salary
2) go hunt for your car and once you found it....
3) ask the dealer to give you a scanned PDF copy of the car current road permit, insurance and dealer quotation
4) submit those PDF to the HR e car loan application and wait for HR to generate a letter (more like a bank guaranteed letter of credit), HR will also provide you a letter to hypothetication the registration to QP just like normal bank does in Malaysia. This will cancel once you pay off your loan.
5) send all the document to the dealer and about 2 days you can collect your car. don't bother how dealer going to collect the money from QP as they will sort it out themselves
6) when you collect your car make sure the car are it is as how you see it and collect all the document from the dealer such as new road permit (make sure is under your name, insurance policy)
7) now you may need or may not need to get legal stamp for power of attorney (POA)letter. this letter is basically a guaranteed letter for QP that you cannot sell your car if you have not settle of your loan and if you didn't pay your loan QP have the rights to sell you car (if you leave the country without telling.)
8) now to do the POA, you need go to the Ministry of Justice at west bay (near to Al Faddan tower BMW showroom)
9) once you reach go to the ground floor there should be few guys sitting at the lobby with computer, if you cant find them go around the building you could be at the wrong side. Go to them show them the car registration card and they will type the POA letter for you in Arabic, (make sure you get 3 copies at QR5 each)
10) Go to 1st floor and there is a counter on your right, back at the counter there is a door go in and knock on the door to see lawyer or admin to approve your letter, you may encounter some people trying to harass you by offering their service to help you for a small fee. with this blog you can ignore them. there is a guy standing just at the door and i think he work there so far he is OK as helped me.
11) Once the lawyer or admin approve you need to pay and they only accept debit or credit card. NO CASH.
12) Once paid just walk to a counter in the middle of the hall and submit your document and get it stamp. 1 copy to the Ministry, 1 for you and 1 for QP
13) Scanned the POA, new road permit and insurance and submit it back via the e car loan application.
Khalas!
*
Have someone drive you there as no parking at West Bay.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Marmara Istanbul Restaurant
This is the second time I eating here, well first time eating at the restaurant and now is the second time I ask for take away. There is pro and con with this restaurant and I will tell you why. The food is good and price is reasonable, at night there is a lot of people and mainly most their customer ask for take away due to lack of parking and police will give you a ticket before you know it if you park illegally. This restaurant is located at Al Sadd street and is not hard to find. I order half grilled chicken and it cost QR17 which about RM14.
Now the CON side of this, service is awful if you are not a Qatari, they will serve them first and they will even take your take away if the Qatari asked for the same thing as yours. You can't question them as they will just ask you to take it or leave it. Cashier is most rude person there and have a face like a bulldog and you just feel like smack at his face. Unless you are Qatari for you have a 34c 24 32 you will get a better treatment.
Now the CON side of this, service is awful if you are not a Qatari, they will serve them first and they will even take your take away if the Qatari asked for the same thing as yours. You can't question them as they will just ask you to take it or leave it. Cashier is most rude person there and have a face like a bulldog and you just feel like smack at his face. Unless you are Qatari for you have a 34c 24 32 you will get a better treatment.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Self cook
Second attempt of indomee goreng. this time I play safe. Cooking the indonmee goreng like usual via boiling water and friend 2 eggs. Itu sahaja pak......
Best Timing to Come to Qatar for Work
Coming to work at Middle East.. ironically you need to have a good timing to come to work over here. Weird.. well I try my best to explain here.. it some sort of feng shui thing.... OK. there are several season in Middle East.... slow, normal and peak... well I am just joking there is no peak season...in middle east for now.. maybe got tension season due to the riot and war to be....
Anyway back to the topic, throughout the year you can consider Middle East having normal season as everything running as normal pace except middle of year which is summer time and Ramadhan a.k.a slow season. So typically is start from June to September and also depend on when is the Ramadhan month. During the summer and Ramadhan people normal don't much work everything seem to be a standstill. Due to the heat many people took off and travel oversea for holidays and for Ramadhan most office work only half day so productivity is slow and it is very hard for you to get thing on hand when you need it really urgently.
OK there is pro and cons during this slow season. Let me start with the cons so you be more alert
CONS
- Like I said earlier productivity is slow so if you need some urgent things like approval, document you got to wait for you need to pre plan so it get approve such example is your annual leave.
- Getting government document is a pain during this time as many is away, so document like your working permit, driving license may take longer time and even difficult to obtain and this will make you frustrated.
- Conclusion is, it just make your life more difficult
PROS
- Due to the heat and due to a lot of people leaving the country for holiday, business is slow for the owner and so there come all the crazy sales. Sales in Qatar is different from Malaysia. Sales here is really SALES, unlike Malaysia most retail store mark up the price before they put up for sale.
- With the point I mentioned above, it is a good time to look for your accommodation, car, and shopping.
So timing is important, and also depends on your guts, because you need to serve 3 months notice period when you join a company so during probation you may have worries whether to commit to rent a house or buying a car as it is sometime unpredictable here. :) So I would suggest IF possible coming here during March and by that time your probation is over is the start of summer. If you came during summer it is advisable you look for apartment or house that accept monthly payment therefore you free yourself from a yearly contract and for the car you probably can get a rental one during your probation but then you need to go through the hassle of getting the license.
Anyway back to the topic, throughout the year you can consider Middle East having normal season as everything running as normal pace except middle of year which is summer time and Ramadhan a.k.a slow season. So typically is start from June to September and also depend on when is the Ramadhan month. During the summer and Ramadhan people normal don't much work everything seem to be a standstill. Due to the heat many people took off and travel oversea for holidays and for Ramadhan most office work only half day so productivity is slow and it is very hard for you to get thing on hand when you need it really urgently.
OK there is pro and cons during this slow season. Let me start with the cons so you be more alert
CONS
- Like I said earlier productivity is slow so if you need some urgent things like approval, document you got to wait for you need to pre plan so it get approve such example is your annual leave.
- Getting government document is a pain during this time as many is away, so document like your working permit, driving license may take longer time and even difficult to obtain and this will make you frustrated.
- Conclusion is, it just make your life more difficult
PROS
- Due to the heat and due to a lot of people leaving the country for holiday, business is slow for the owner and so there come all the crazy sales. Sales in Qatar is different from Malaysia. Sales here is really SALES, unlike Malaysia most retail store mark up the price before they put up for sale.
- With the point I mentioned above, it is a good time to look for your accommodation, car, and shopping.
So timing is important, and also depends on your guts, because you need to serve 3 months notice period when you join a company so during probation you may have worries whether to commit to rent a house or buying a car as it is sometime unpredictable here. :) So I would suggest IF possible coming here during March and by that time your probation is over is the start of summer. If you came during summer it is advisable you look for apartment or house that accept monthly payment therefore you free yourself from a yearly contract and for the car you probably can get a rental one during your probation but then you need to go through the hassle of getting the license.
New Crib - Villa Moda Hotel, Al Sadd, Qatar
Today I have move to a hotel to stay since I am already confirmed and my company will be chasing me out soon. Being searching for quite sometime before I found this one and it is just located exactly behind where I was staying previously. It is a 3 star hotel with pretty good service so far, need to stay a bit longer to give better judgement. Depending on which room that to you want, the room price ranging from QR4700 to QR13000 and with the option including breakfast or not. My suggestion go for without breakfast as it is a lot cheaper and if you are single and working in Qatar most probably you don't have time eating the breakfast as you be heading to work. Best part of this is they accept yearly or monthly payment and of course if you pay yearly it is even cheaper, although it is very tempting but I don't want to commit myself to such stressful contract as I believe there are many other good accommodation you can find. Currently I am still trying to negotiate the price as I feel it can be cheaper and by the way the price I quote is for summer promotion, normal price it should be additional QR500 to QR1000 and this kind of promotion is applied to all hotel and apartment.
So far they pretty much provide me the things I asked for, iron, iron board, hangers bowl, fridge and so on. So I am pretty happy with the setup. In the hotel got restaurant, gym with personal trainer, sauna and jacuzzi which I don't plan to use as it doesn't look clean..anyway is not my favorite thing to do. TV channel is pretty OK, free to air satellite (FTA) TV. Over here is pretty much like Indonesia, you can see satellite dish everywhere. There are few hundreds channel including about 10 porn channel but too bad it is locked. Internet is pretty fast so that offset the locked porn channel.. hahaha... just joking...They also provide soap, shampoo, towel, coffee and tea and will be replenish when they do housekeeping. There also a small kitchen for me to cook maggie mee.
The restaurant food seems OK but kinda pricey than usual. I have not tried but will do one day.... as right now I have been walking to the town nearby to feed and buy grocery. Well here some pic of the hotel.
Anyway if you need more info or to get a good rate, drop me a message.
So far they pretty much provide me the things I asked for, iron, iron board, hangers bowl, fridge and so on. So I am pretty happy with the setup. In the hotel got restaurant, gym with personal trainer, sauna and jacuzzi which I don't plan to use as it doesn't look clean..anyway is not my favorite thing to do. TV channel is pretty OK, free to air satellite (FTA) TV. Over here is pretty much like Indonesia, you can see satellite dish everywhere. There are few hundreds channel including about 10 porn channel but too bad it is locked. Internet is pretty fast so that offset the locked porn channel.. hahaha... just joking...They also provide soap, shampoo, towel, coffee and tea and will be replenish when they do housekeeping. There also a small kitchen for me to cook maggie mee.
The restaurant food seems OK but kinda pricey than usual. I have not tried but will do one day.... as right now I have been walking to the town nearby to feed and buy grocery. Well here some pic of the hotel.
Anyway if you need more info or to get a good rate, drop me a message.
Makan Makan in Qatar - Self cook
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| Indon Mee goreng... don't have the look but got the taste... |
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| Home cook nasi lemak from a Malaysian who do part time.. verdict.. hmm so so only |
New Camry 2012
At first I was kinda hard to let go my Camry for only 7 months used but somehow I think it is a good idea to sell it because 2012 Camry is much more superb from what I have saw on the spy shot but there isn't much details yet. It going to release Q3 2011. I can't wait.. even I am not buying it since I am Qatar.
Toyota used to have old and dull design (for daily used passenger car) yet a super reliable car but they have remarkably changed since ACV40 the current Camry which look good, sporty, powerful and comfort. I miss my Camry actually and I think my next car would probably another Camry as well. Maybe unless I have enough money to upgrade to something even better.
Toyota used to have old and dull design (for daily used passenger car) yet a super reliable car but they have remarkably changed since ACV40 the current Camry which look good, sporty, powerful and comfort. I miss my Camry actually and I think my next car would probably another Camry as well. Maybe unless I have enough money to upgrade to something even better.
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