Doha: 12 o’clock past midnight on Monday. A Malayali stepped into the soil of the World Cup as the first Haya card passenger after crossing the gate of Abu Samra, which is bordered by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Faiz Ashraf Ali, a native of Thalakulathur, Kozhikode, who left Thiruvananthapuram for London on a bicycle, was lucky enough to be the first to reach the World Cup city with a Haya card.
After a few minutes of formalities, the passport was stamped with ‘entry’ and the security officials at the border greeted Faiz as ‘Awwal Nafar’ (the first one) and welcomed him to the holy land of the game.
Passport with Haya seal
Thus, the record of being the first foreign spectator in the World Cup, which is set to be a Malayalee star in organizing, volunteering and galleries, has become a rarity for Malayalam. Although watching the game is not the main agenda, Faiz arrived in Qatar having already bought match tickets for the World Cup.
In the next seven days, we have to travel to the eight stadiums and venues of the World Cup. Faiz’s plan is to reach his destination by traveling to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran before the games kick off. Meanwhile, Faiz told ‘Gulf Madhyamya’ from Doha that he has plans to come and watch the World Cup match if there is an opportunity.
Last August 15, Faiz started his journey from Thiruvananthapuram to London with his bicycle. After reaching Mumbai, fly straight to Muscat, Oman. Arrived in UAE after traveling for 10 days in Oman.
After spending more than a month there, he crossed the border two days ago and moved to Qatar via Saudi Arabia. Abu Samra reached the border around 8.30 pm on Monday. If the entry is through Hayya card, the authorities have advised to wait till 12 noon.
After three hours, Faiz and his bicycle started running to the soil of Qatar as the first World Cup entry. Fais says that they were also intrigued when a world traveler on a bicycle arrived as the first passenger in front of the officials who were waiting with arrangements for travelers by car and bus.
The plan is to reach London in 450 days after crossing 35 countries on two continents for Faiz, who set out with the goal of world peace, zero carbon and awareness against drugs. After resigning from Wipro, Faiz’s first trip was from Kozhikode to Singapore in 2019. His wife is Azmin Faiz. Children: Fahsin Umar, Aisin Naheel.