After a week of giddy packing up my life of 2 years plus in an apartment that was as close to home as anything had been in DC and handling a million other things that seemed to have fallen into my lap all at once, I was desperately looking forward to being with my family and enjoying my time off! Only this time, my family and me were meeting up in Qatar a tiny peninsula of a country dwarfed by Iran and Saudi Arabia in a part of the world I wasn’t too excited to be in! For starters until I got on the plane and looked at the maps I wasn’t even exactly sure where Qatar stood on a world map minus the vague knowledge and stories I had heard of it from my dad and my heightened sense of not flipping through articles in newspapers and the National Geographic on Qatar but actually reading them!
This tiny nation with a population of 500,000ish people run with the help of a million plus expats has fascinated and disturbed me simultaneously in a way that is hard to explain. Being in one of the richest countries on this planet truly had its bonuses. You don’t have any poverty staring you in your face but instead Fendi and Chopards are everywhere and people are driving around in a disproportionate number of SUVs and 8 cylinders (my disgust for gas guzzlers definitely multiplied by the minute this trip).
My first impression of Doha was that it was another city in the making quite in its own fascinating way. Having already read a lot about labor abuse in Gulf nations seeing active construction everywhere made me my mind instantly race to the darker side of things.
Driving into West Bay one of the most upscale spiffy hoods in Doha one sees a hotchpotch of skyscrapers all fighting to dazzle you with their changing lights and asymmetric shapes. The sufi Capped scraper was my instant favorite if I had to pick one. Driving through the road that necklaced the water and watching the Dhow’s parked for the night and women everywhere covered in headscarves confused my usual sense of assimilating a place on my first visit to it. One is constantly faced with oxymorons and contradictions everywhere. You feel like you simultaneously exist in a world that is racing a 100 years ahead despite being a 100 years behind. It is truly fascinating to see how religion and culture manifest in every aspect of life there, from the prayer calls at the crack of dawn to the last one in the evening.
This tiny nation with a population of 500,000ish people run with the help of a million plus expats has fascinated and disturbed me simultaneously in a way that is hard to explain. Being in one of the richest countries on this planet truly had its bonuses. You don’t have any poverty staring you in your face but instead Fendi and Chopards are everywhere and people are driving around in a disproportionate number of SUVs and 8 cylinders (my disgust for gas guzzlers definitely multiplied by the minute this trip).
My first impression of Doha was that it was another city in the making quite in its own fascinating way. Having already read a lot about labor abuse in Gulf nations seeing active construction everywhere made me my mind instantly race to the darker side of things.
Driving into West Bay one of the most upscale spiffy hoods in Doha one sees a hotchpotch of skyscrapers all fighting to dazzle you with their changing lights and asymmetric shapes. The sufi Capped scraper was my instant favorite if I had to pick one. Driving through the road that necklaced the water and watching the Dhow’s parked for the night and women everywhere covered in headscarves confused my usual sense of assimilating a place on my first visit to it. One is constantly faced with oxymorons and contradictions everywhere. You feel like you simultaneously exist in a world that is racing a 100 years ahead despite being a 100 years behind. It is truly fascinating to see how religion and culture manifest in every aspect of life there, from the prayer calls at the crack of dawn to the last one in the evening.
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| The Doha Skyline and West Bay neighborhood as seen from the Corniche. Spot the Sufi Cap.. |
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Dhow's littered across the BayMy fathers apartment had almost surreal views of the Corniche where my sister and me just sat glued to the big windows taking in the changing shades of the beautiful bay every hour of the day. Blue, azure and beautiful was how I would describe all its shades. My first real stop was the Islamic Art Museum, a beautiful building that almost looks medievally postmodern surrounded by beautiful gardens, water and a really nice cafe with a view. Seeing the sunset while sitting on sun chairs surrounded by white sand and water felt truly magical. The museum while not intense in its collection has beautiful artifacts and an amazing interior that would take a few hours to go through. In my 3 weeks there we covered a lot of ground. |
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| Sunset by the Islamic Art Museum |
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| Cafe with a view at the Islamic Museum, white sand to the left (not seen) and water ahead! Good times :) |
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| View from one of the windows at my fathers apartment! |
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| Central atrium of the Islamic Art Museum
The Souf Waqif was my absolute favorite place in Doha, walking into it instantly transported me back to Jerusalem minus the fact that the Knafeh was definitely not its selling point. The Souq definitely had a heart of its own reflecting the old and the new in all simultaneousness. From rabbits, exotic macaws and fancy cafe’s it had them all. Its alleyways had a hundred different smells and small shops all selling everything from perfumes, spices, beautiful turkish lamps and carpets to dolls that amused me to no end. Having roasted chestnuts was the next best thing to sitting with my family on a nice terrace having tagines over long conversations all of us sitting in the same time zone and across from each other separated by a table not 3 different computer screens. Sitting there made me realize the deep happiness in small things, laughing at old jokes, making fun of each other and just talking to the 3 people you love the most on this planet. Definitely a priceless feeling and the best way to enjoy a beautiful souq on a nice windy evening.
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| Seeing these birds and other animals at the Souq was very disturbing, they looked sad and tired for the most part! |
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| These dolls everywhere amused me so much..
The ‘karak’ chai at Katara, a heritage village sitting by the water was another very hearty experience. Katara has a beautiful coliseum which almost makes you want to hear Yanni while walking through it and a beautiful mosque, cafes and some really beautiful art galleries one of which had an on-going National Geographic photo exhibit. That definitely stole my heart instantly apart from its beautiful performing arts theatre.
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| Coliseum at Katara the heritage village in Doha |
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| Women strolling by the water at Katara with a view of Pearl Qatar an upscale neighborhood with designer stores, car showrooms, yacht parkings and cafes.
Any trip to a Gulf country would be incomplete without a trip to the dunes and yes off course dune bashing, the most amazing thing ever. Doing reverses and going up and down steep dune’s gives a different kind of adrenaline rush and at the edge of the dunes and amongst them were surprisingly beautiful beaches quite untouched by people and very very pristine. Jelly fish were washing up to our feet at one of the beaches and that experience will quite stay with me.
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| One of the only 2 camels I spotted on my trip! Mandatory pseudo desert picture! |
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| One fish, two fish ..... The hill across the water is Saudi Arabia! |
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| A small waterbody between the dunes!
As my three weeks came to an end, I was still learning to balance my likes and dislikes for this tiny nation. While a lot of things still remain to be said leaving the country made me want to continue making memories around the world more than ever.
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