Doha, Qatar
As soon as we landed in Doha, we could feel that we were out of Asia, and it came with an immediate sense of calm and relief. Our experience at Male airport was one of absolute bedlam. The gates had no organization and were all lining up at the same time, so we had no idea where to go, and we waited in line for two different gates before finding the right one. Once we made it through customs into Qatar, we could feel the space, the organization, and the quiet that came along with it. We could also feel the midday desert sun beaming down on us, and we were very happy to be here in Autumn when it’s only thirty two degrees. Summer here would not be as pleasant.
We had no expectations for Doha, it was a mandatory stop on our way up to Europe, and we decided when planning this trip that we should leave the airport and spend a day and a half seeing what the city has to offer. We had not researched anything to do after booking the flights and hotel, and didn’t start looking into it until after we arrived. Our plan for the first afternoon was focused on food, and we decided to take the metro to a shopping mall where they would surely have something to eat.
Everything about the metro was brand new, the trains were frequent, and it was the smoothest metro ride we have ever experienced. When we arrived at the station, we bought a day pass for $3 each and hurried down the escalator to the train that had just arrived. We boarded the first carriage that didn’t say ‘first class’ and took a seat. After a few more stops and a few more people boarded the carriage, I started to notice they were majority women. There were a couple of other men in the carriage, so my initial thought was just that women use the metro more than the men here. But after a few more stops, and a few more women boarded, I started feeling some weird looks, and I was feeling less welcome. By the time I brought all of this to Millie’s attention, we had two more stops to go. Although I didn’t know what was happening, I was pretty sure we weren’t on a woman only carriage, so we stayed there until we arrived at the stop for the mall. After getting off, we saw the sign for the ‘family carriage’ where we had just exited the train, and it made sense why I was getting looks. We learned quickly that we should not take that carriage again.
The mall that we decided to visit is called the Vellagio and it gave me serious déjà vu. The inside of the building had a blue sky with clouds painted on the ceiling and the storefronts were modeled after an old European street. It was an exact replica of the Venetian hotel in Vegas, complete with a canal and gondola rides. Our priority when we walked in was food, but with no signage and no phone service, we just had to choose right or left. We chose left and came to a Cheesecake Factory at the end of the mall. It wasn’t what we had in mind, but we were too hungry to keep searching on the other side of the mall. It turned out to be surprisingly good, and we weren’t too upset when we made it over to the other side of the mall and found fifteen restaurants, each serving a different cuisine.
After lunch, we walked around the mall for a bit and quickly found ourselves walking through the luxury goods section. The mall was huge, with every luxury clothing, watch and jewelry brand I could think of and every store was empty. Then we walked past the indoor amusement park and ice skating rink before turning around to head back to the front. We had planned to buy some snacks from the grocery store for dinner and entered the biggest Carrefour store we had ever seen. It was a full K-mart and grocery store combined into one, equivalent to a Walmart in the US and far bigger than anything we have in Australia. We walked through with endless rows of different fruits, meat, cheese, bread and biccies, filling our basket with more food than we needed for a small snack dinner.
When we finished filling our bag with snacks at the store, we paid and went out to the premium dates shop outside. This part of the world is renowned for their dates, and I wanted to try a couple while we were there. I only intended to get three or four, but when I made it to the front to order, the minimum quantity was ten. I was committed to this now and kept picking different variations of fillings and chocolate coverings until I had filled a box. I didn’t intend to buy a full box of dates, but I wasn’t mad about it either. I don’t have a lot of references for how good they are compared to dates from the shops or other countries, but they were a great little treat that I carted around Europe for a week before I finished the box.
Box of Dates in Qatar
Pistachio, Dark chocolate orange, Peanut butter, Salted Caramel, Hazelnut, Peanut, plain with a dried fig, and three different varieties of plain dates.
When we made it back from the Vellagio, the sun had set, and we were getting tired after a long travel day. We had some of our snacks and a couple of dates before we called it a night early.
Other than being jarred awake at 4 am by the call to prayer from the mosque across the street, we had a good long sleep followed by a slow morning. We had coffee and breakfast at the hotel while we planned our day. The best thing to do that wasn’t a museum or a gimmicky tour was to walk around Katara cultural village. We took the metro here, and we were greeted with was a Galleries Lafayette – a Parisian department store filled with luxury brands as soon as we exited the station. After walking past this, we came on into a small square that was noticeably cooler than the surrounding streets. It felt like we were getting the air conditioning out of an open shop door nearby, but when we looked around, there weren’t any obvious places where this could be coming from. We walked along in confusion for a minute until we passed over a rush of cool air coming from grates in the ground and we realised this outdoor street had air conditioning.
Without any specific reason, I was expecting the area to have some historical relevance to the city. but it was a little village of shops, artist residences and restaurants with a big amphitheatre in the middle. Although it didn’t have much significance, it was a very photographable area with the different alleyways, the bright midday sun filtering into the hallways of the amphitheatre, and the city standing up across the harbour. It turned into a bit of a photography day, and some of the photos from this outing are below.
Since there wasn’t a lot to do here other than take photos and shop for luxury goods along the air conditioned street, we made it back to the hotel earlier than expected and we had some time to enjoy the rooftop pool before getting ready for dinner. We ended up sitting at the pool through until sunset where we had some great panoramic views of Doha under the orange light of the sunset.
This day was the one year anniversary of when we eloped. We aren’t counting this as our real anniversary, but it was a good opportunity to book a nice restaurant for dinner. Like the rest of our Doha planning, we only started looking at where to go that morning, but we were able to get a reservation at Bayt El Talleh, a Middle Eastern restaurant up on a hill above the Katara cultural village, with outdoor terraces, great views, and highly regarded food. So, we got ready and took an Uber back out to the Katara area, this time getting dropped off up the hill at the restaurant. When we made the reservation, they said only indoor seating was available, but when we arrived, they took us out to a table for two on the outdoor terrace. It was a perfect night with a clear sky, perfect temperature, and clear views out towards the downtown Doha area.
The restaurant only served a set menu, so when we told them we were ready for food, they started bringing out starters of fresh pita, hummus and a few other dishes that filled our small table for two. The food was great, and we were caught up trying a little bit of everything when they brought out another round of dips and small appetisers. After this round, every inch of the table was occupied, and they would have to remove a few plates before the next round of food. This is when we started to understand that we were going to get far more food than we could possibly eat. We had a few last bites of the dishes from the first round before moving on to the second course. When they came again with a third round of food, we sent a few barely eaten dishes back to make room for the new food. We were now three rounds of fresh middle eastern food into our dinner, and completely full. That’s when they brought out the main dish, the meat plate with beef and chicken kabobs. Somehow, we managed to eat a little over half of this dish, but that was it. We were both more full than we had ever been before, and were not going to be moving quickly. After sitting a while to let the food digest, we flagged down a waiter to pay the bill. Well, they responded that they would bring dessert out now, and we found room for the final course of ice cream and cakes. The terrace had been empty when we sat down, but it was now filled with what looked like large corporate groups, and the waiters had their hands full catering to everyone. It took us another fifteen minutes to get the bill, and after we paid, we started walking down the hill to take the metro home.
We took the metro a few stops but got off at a station on the corniche along the water. Walking the corniche was one of the other activities that we looked up but we were too tired to do it earlier in the day. When we exited the station, we had to walk through a park, and a tunnel lined with dead plants and old torn umbrellas. It looked like a lot of the things around Doha, built up for the World Cup in 2020, and slightly disregarded after that. Some things like the metro were well maintained and held up well, but others, like this park, had clearly been forgotten after the world cup finished. We walked down along the water for about one km before we called another uber to get back to the hotel and go to bed.
Doha was surprising to us. We had no expectations, but we ended up really enjoying our time there. It was clean, quiet and safe, and we had fun exploring and taking photos. It was a great extended stopover on our way up to Europe, and I am glad we decided not to just use this as a layover, as we have done on previous trips to Europe. I think 36 hours was the perfect amount of time to spend there, and we don’t feel like we missed anything that would push us to return.
