Doha (it's a place in Qatar, which is a country on the Arabic peninsula)

"Why the hell do you wanna go to Doha? I don't even know where that is." Such was the common response when I revealed to friends my plans to go to the mid-east. I have to admit, if I had been asked to pinpoint Qatar on a map, I'd have had difficulties, too—not because I am geographically challenged but because this country, located on a minuscule outcropping of the Arabian peninsula, is so tiny that one has a hard time placing one's finger on the precise spot.

The maps are courtesy of the National Library of Qatar,
housed in this stunning building

So, you ask, how small is Qatar? Try about 59 times smaller than Texas. Qatar has a population of around 325,000 Qataris (out of a population of more than 2.7 million total). That's about 15% or so; the others are legal residents coming from surrounding Gulf states (few) and other nations such as Pakistan, India, and the Philippines, to name some of the major ones. Generally speaking, Qataris hold what we might call "white collar" jobs (often in government) while most menial employment is covered by foreigners. Thanks to Qatar's wealth in oil, Doha is an extremely modern city that does not have slums in the traditional way but has housing areas for migrant workers that are considerably less glitzy than the fancy high-rise apartments that are mostly occupied by the local residents.

I had decided several months ago to visit Qatar when I came across an amazingly good mileage redemption deal on aa.com. Once I have published this blogpost I will go into more detail concerning the logistic of my short 8-day trip, but to give you an idea: I spent less than $1,000 in total for my business class trip, five nights in the Hilton Doha (plus another two nights in a hotel in Barcelona during my stopover on the return), all transportation (including airport transfers), three privately guided excursions in Qatar, as well as all food, drink, and entry fee expenses.

Thanks to an early-season snow storm delay, my flight on Finnair from Helsinki to Doha was delayed by more than six hours so that I didn't make it to the Hilton Doha until about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday, after having left Lubbock before noon on Tuesday. The best way to combat travel fatigue is to not panic or think about time zones (Qatar is nine hours ahead of Texas) but rather—right off!—adopt the new routine of the rising and setting sun. As a matter of fact, I was rather surprised that during the entire trip I really didn't feel fatigued at all; that didn't hit until Thanksgiving, the day after my return just shortly before midnight the following Wednesday. Thankfully, my friends never really noticed...

Before the trip I had fleshed out a skeletal timetable of what I wanted to do, and when. I was going to have just four full days on the ground, Thursday through Sunday. Whether it was just sheer luck or maybe the result of a little bit of research, I somehow came up with what in hindsight I consider the perfect itinerary. I had booked three different guided tours, which formed the cornerstone for my other activities: a walking tour of the Souq Waqif on Thursday afternoon, an all-day tour of the area north and north-west of Doha with a private driver on Saturday, and a two-hour sunset boat cruise along the Doha skyline on Sunday evening, as a farewell to the city.

That left quite a bit of time to fill with other activities, but thanks to Google (as well as the suggestions of my guides) I ended up seeing so much more than I could have ever anticipated. For some reason I had kept Friday as a "light" day, not realizing that the Muslim Friday is similar to our Sunday as essentially everything is shuttered until after the noon prayer, the second prayer time of the day. Even the metro is closed, and the streets are empty. I spent that time on our private beach at the Hilton, enjoying a swim and a nap right there on the Persian Gulf.

I just mentioned the metro. Even though Uber operates in Doha, I preferred to take the 20-minute stroll from the hotel to the closest station on the Red Line, the DCEE. Doha's metro is state-of-the-art (like so much in this country!), having been designed and built with an eye on the 2022 FIFA Soccer World Championships that Qatar had secured 12 years earlier, in 2010. That event (which cost Qatar an estimated $220 billion to put on—compare that to South Africa in 2011 at a "mere" $3.6 billion and Brazil in 2014 at $15 billion) spurred a building frenzy that continues to keep the country humming. It is interesting to Google a few statistics and data and find out that leading up to and during the World Cup the total population of the country was about 800,000 more than today, simply because of all the foreign workers who were needed. Despite other big and recurring events (Asia Games, F1 races, etc.) there has been somewhat of a slowdown, yet Qatar very actively promotes itself as the center for any type of global event.

The Doha metro (with currently 34 stations on three lines that will be expanded to about 60 stations in the next two years) puts the subways of any capital that I have ever visited to shame. It all starts out with the architecture of the absolutely beautiful stations, which are spacious and bright, easy to navigate, and visually appealing. Forget about metro cars where you are afraid that the crowd may push you onto the tracks: Similar to what you find with DFW's automated Skylink, electronic portals stay closed until the train has stopped and double doors (mirrored and spotlessly clean!) open up. There are three different types of cars: One is the Gold Class (which costs $2.75 for a single ride, or $12.35 for a day pass), and then there are two separate Standard Class sections, one for women only and one for men only, at $0.55 per ride or $1.65 for the day pass. Married couples are allowed to travel together in the women's car, yet I did not see even one woman in the men's compartment (which accounts for most of the train's length). Also, I never saw anyone in the cushy-looking Gold Class. I suppose most Qatari men of means prefer their own chauffeur.

During busy times, the area to the right can accommodate a guard
to prevent men from entering the women's section

Standard Class should not be seen as meaning "inferior": The seats are comfortable, there are no graffiti, the stainless steel rails are polished, announcements are given in Arabic and English, and the displays allow easy navigation. Nobody appears to be loitering, there are no panhandlers or accordion players, and a guard makes sure that nobody crosses from the men's section into the women's compartment while the train is traveling. All the escalators and lifts worked to a fault, and there were only a few hiccups with the ticket vending machines—but there was always a friendly employee to help travelers. Incredible. Yet, despite the clear markings on the ground and the written admonishments to let passengers exit first before entering, Qataris display an utter disdain for following this common-sense advice, and even during light travel times the pushing and shoving around the Standard compartments is insane! It probably is a good thing that there are those automated doors!

Gold Class compartment

The metro is fully automated—no driver needed

Sometimes, when visiting a city and feeling the urge to use a bathroom, panic can set in when you can't find a McDonalds and you feel forced to go into a bar and order something for the right to pee. Well, no such worries in Doha. There are five prayer times per day, and Muslims are to obey the muezzin's call (piped into metro stations and malls alike), regardless of location. Before prayer, Muslims are expected to wash up, so you will find public restrooms and prayer areas in all metro stations as well as malls and other public places. A toilet is never far away, and they are always squeaky clean. Just like the metro cars, they are gender separated and located in distinct areas so that a man is not going to walk by the women's facilities, or vice versa. Baby changing rooms are provided with both men and women taken into consideration. I was surprised to see quite a number of men pushing strollers and apparently taking care of their kids.

For two days I thought that the white nun-like characters
were women—au contraire

In the previous paragraphs I mentioned malls. I'm certainly not a mall-goer, even if I live less than 10 minutes on foot from the South Plains' eponymously named mall. But during my time in Doha I visited, just out of curiosity, two of their flagship shopping centers, and I was floored by their sheer size, variety of stores, architecture, and cleanliness. Both the City Center Mall and the Mall of Qatar are highly ranked shopping avenues that feature international brands as well as smaller boutique stores. The Mall of Qatar has a "luxury" section that rivals New York's Fifth Avenue. The visitqatar.com website lists a whopping 20 malls worthy of your attention! Had I had more time, I would have loved to go to a few more because I have never seen that kind of opulence in a shopping center.

Entry from the metro into one of the malls

Doha has several areas of towering skyscrapers that will take your breath away. Wikipedia currently lists 59 named skyscrapers, 33 "high-rises," 10 more skyscrapers under construction, and at least another 14 proposed structures, one of which, Vertical City, will have 180 floors that reach a height of almost 2,500 feet! Among the existing buildings, I didn't see one ugly one—each differs from the next, inviting the eye and, really, your senses to become immersed in this futuristic display of what our cities may look like. Office buildings and apartments intermingle, and the reflections on windows of all colors are breathtaking.

Currently, these high-rises are mainly concentrated in the area of West Bay, where my hotel was located. (I had a stunning view from my 21st-floor panoramic window.) But other areas of the city are certainly not stepchildren, and what is happening in Lusail, just a quick metro ride north of West Bay, is almost incomprehensible for a country bumpkin from West Texas. Lusail is slated to take over as the new capital of Qatar in just a few years, and the building frenzy is evident everywhere. Quite possibly, the Lusail Katara Towers form the most beautiful building I have ever seen in person. 

The futuristic metro stations are already in place,
and the landscaping can't be far off in Lusail

There was no escaping these overwhelming visuals, day or night. What glitters in the sun during the day becomes an illuminated show of lights at night. As mentioned, on my last day I went on a sunset boat cruise, and I came away with the urge to see more cityscapes like this. I had seen Manhattan at nightfall, from the Staten Island ferry as well as from the Brooklyn side, and it is very impressive. But the sheer variety of futuristic shapes that the Doha skyline offers is on yet another level. I think I really want to travel to more places like this, such as Dubai and Singapore. 

A tribute to the pearl diving days

When I had started to think about this trip I was aware of the fact that architecture would be an important part of my overall experience. Skyscrapers are one thing; but buildings such as the National Library of Qatar, the Education City Mosque (Minaretein) with its two otherworldly minarets, the Museum of Islamic Art, or especially the National Museum of Qatar take your breath away. How can one even start wrapping one's mind around a building that truly resembles a desert rose crystal structure?

National Museum of Qatar

Museum of Islamic Art (MIA)

MIA

MIA

Education City Mosque

National Library of Qatar

Education City Mosque and Minarets

I could go on and on writing about Doha's architectural wonders. But of course, there was this other component that had attracted me: the people and their culture. I was looking forward to this intermingling of several different cultures, with an obvious predominance of the Arab world. Believe me, it is exhilarating to walk around and see men in their white thobes (the long-sleeved white shirts that reach down to the ankles, wearing a gutra, a loose headdress that is held in place by a black rope, or agal. Qatari men's gutra will be white, while a red-and-white-checkered one will signify that the wearer most likely is from Saudi Arabia. Women will wear a similar thobe, called abaya, but in black. There are a variety of different veils, called various names, that will only partially cover the face or provide complete facial cover. Incidentally, pictograms in Qatar reflect gender separation by means of dress (see photos above). 

On a first walk through the somewhat older parts of town (nothing is old—even the main bazaar, Souq Waqif, is relatively new as a fire destroyed the former market back in 2003; it was rebuilt according to historical records), as a Westerner one feels that this is indeed a different cultural milieu. Of course, not everybody is robed. Few, if any, of the migrant workers will wear traditional Qatari clothing. But go to the Souq Waqif during the busy evening hours and you will most likely feel that you are in the minority wearing your western garb. Just to bend your mind a little more, you suddenly realize that many of the men will also be connected to AirPods or simply press a cell phone to their ear while their shiny black loafers peek out from underneath their thobe. Indeed, it is an interesting mélange of various cultures with all their influences comingling.

A shop customizing agal. This headdress cord is a remnant
of the days when all Arabs had camels
that needed to be hobbled at night, with an agal cord.

On my first afternoon in Doha I joined a GuruWalk tour of Souq Waqif; a British couple and a young Hungarian woman were also part of our group. Our guide, Hussein, was actually Pakistani but had lived in Doha for many years and gave us an excellent introduction into customs, idiosyncrasies, and history of the Qataris. Quite likely one of the most interesting spots we visited was a small shop that specialized in falconry, not just a sport and hobby in Qatar but an important societal activity that showcases one's place on the ladder. The place was buzzing with customers evaluating not only live birds but anything that is part of falconry. In 2022, one bird was sold in Doha for a staggering $250,000!

Services are free to locals and their falcons

Happy Thanksgiving? I couldn't figure this one out.

Falcons ᴙ Us

Before I started to finally write this blogpost I was trying to wrap my head around how I would approach trying to cover my brief stay in Qatar without resorting to the way-too-familiar chronological trip account. The impressions came so fast and furious that any attempt at trying to piece them together had to fail. So, I have been jotting down thoughts and memories, in no apparent order. Yet, there was a certain structure to my time in Qatar. I spent my days (after outstanding buffet breakfasts overlooking the Persian Gulf from the garden of the Hilton) sightseeing and absorbing this different world around me before finding some tasty local dishes at dinner time. I usually think of myself as an experienced traveler who is not easily wowed, but I have to admit that Doha steamrollered me. For example, both of the aforementioned museums are world-class, in both their exhibits as well as the way that the exhibits are presented. It is mindboggling to read about how young this country is (independence was not gained until 1971!) yet how far its history reaches back (millennia—since 4,600 BC!!!— of pearl diving, an activity that was Qatar's main source of income until the first exports of oil in 1949). 

Of course I had heard the criticism that human rights violations are rampant in Qatar. I had a chance to discuss this topic in more detail with Syed, my young Pakistani-born driver, during my full-day excursion into the Qatari hinterlands. He affirmed in detail how the country has a class/caste system, with one group being the privileged locals, and the others being all of the immigrants. Many of the latter came to the country in the final run-up to the FIFA World Cup but then left once their labor was no longer needed; however, a much larger group has been living in Qatar since adulthood and intends to keep working until retirement age, which, for expats, is generally 60 years old. At this point these people will need to leave the country, unless they have a sponsor (for example a father who is being sponsored by an immigrant son who can prove that he earns enough to fully support his parent). What this really means is that most people have to leave the country after a lifetime of work without any safety net at home (say Malaysia or Pakistan). The retirement for birth-right Qataris was just recently raised from 40 to 50 years old, with the government paying generous pensions and pretty much everything else for them. Talk about Medicare and SS not just on steroids but on any other accelerant you can think of.

Immigrant Qataris enjoying the weekend on the beach

Porters at Souq Waqif transporting the goodies that locals
have bought and need to take to their chauffeur

The division goes much further. While the locals pay nothing for healthcare and many other state services, expats are on the hook for numerous costs. (It needs to be said that the state is rich enough to not levy any taxes on any services or goods for anybody, although I had to pay $20 for my entry visa at the airport.) Syed said that the police exercise two different standards when it comes to controls and suspected behavior; he was surprised that being a person of color in the US may have negative consequences as well. If the examples that he gave me are signs of "human rights violations," well, then large swaths of the world, including my home country, are guilty of the same crime. It is always easy to point fingers at inequalities, but often the realities are somewhat more nuanced.

My trip with Syed took us to a fishing port that is home to about 200 Bangladeshi fishermen who came to Qatar to earn more than at home and send money abroad. Sound familiar? They live a rather squalid life in and around the small harbor of Al Khor—human rights violations or simply a chosen fact of life? We visited the Purple Island natural reserve, a mangrove habitat that harbors local wildlife but that will certainly fall prey to rising sea levels before the century has ended. Qatar is not without its challenges.

A trip wouldn't be memorable if it didn't include at least one UNESCO World Heritage site (1,223 by the middle of this year, in 168 countries), and Al Zubara Fort fit the bill. Scenically located just off the north coast of the country and with a view of Bahrain just across the water it has an interesting history that spans many centuries, including battling invasions from—you guessed right—the rulers of Bahrain.

On our drive through the barren desert areas of north-western Qatar, Syed let me in on what doesn't seem to be much of a secret among young men who have come from abroad: If you want a bit of romance, look no further than the next Filipino maiden as they are experienced, able, and willing. According to Syed, the vast majority of his age group has (or has had) some sort of relationship with a Filipino woman, who have come to the country to find a better life that often entails behaviors and activities that Islam does not endorse, to phrase things euphemistically. He himself has had his girlfriends and enjoyed their "experience," not unimportant to a young Muslim who ignores several of the day's prayer times because, as he said, he "really prefers to sleep sometimes." It is the normal way of life of young expats, and unthinkable for traditional Qataris. So who's being hit by a human rights violation here?

The plastics on the beach were pretty much the only trash I saw in all of Qatar.

We visited the rock formations in Zekreet and took bunches of pics before we drove on to see the four 2001-A-Space-Odyssee-invoking monoliths that Richard Serra firmly implanted in the Brouq Nature Reserve, called East-West/West-East. Weird shit, but not without a certain allure. I really preferred the unadulterated badlands.

Later we saw the training track of Qatar's main camel racing facility in Al Shahaniyah; unfortunately, my visit fell outside of the racing season, but at least I got to see the camels with their dummy jockeys firmly attached so that they get used to the weight. The same dummies are used in actual racing (no humans sit on the camels), and the dromedaries are simply set free at the starting line and just take off. As I found out later, some races now use dummy jockeys that wield a whip that is remotely controlled from accompanying cars. That must be quite a spectacle. You may want to watch some YouTube videos.

One evening, while walking from Souq Waqif back to the metro station and passing though the swank Msherib neighborhood, I not only came across the hyper-hip outlets for The Arsenal and Mawater Warehouse but also an oud musician who was playing traditional songs. If you go to Qatar, be prepared for this amazing mix of cultures!

Four days in Qatar are certainly not long enough to get to see it all. But, compared to most visitors, I spent four times as much time in this tiny country as most people who just use a quick 24-hour stopover to visit. Yet, such stopovers are really what I carried with me as the essence of Qatar's place in the world: being smack-dab in the middle of the crossroad between East and West, nothing more, yet certainly nothing less. I guess Serra had that one right.

On the way back home I had my own two-night stopover in Barcelona. The culture shock was palpable: graffiti everywhere, lots of trash in the streets, homeless people, a general state of small-detail dilapidation that comes with the age of a city. But there were also some bright spots such as being able to sit in a street cafe and enjoy a beer while busy people hurried by, or being able to read all signs and understand what the locals were saying. 

Since I had visited Barcelona last year I did not feel the pressure of having to sightsee during my full day in the city before my last flights. Cooler weather had already settled in (a far cry from Qatar's mid-80s daytime temperatures), and I was quite content with just floating through the city and easing back into Western life.

On the eight day since my departure from Lubbock, I took the metro to the BCN airport with the prospect of three more flights to make it home before midnight. Everything clicked, the flights were on time, the flight attendants were not too surly, and the lounges hadn't run out of bubbly before I got to them. All good. What a memorable trip this was! 

(And please consider coming back in a week or so if you're interested in some of the logistics of this trip.)

Jürgen