Qatar

April 2010

Since this was my 8th visit to Oman in five years to take advantage, with my father, of the excellent scuba diving, I thought I should try and knock off another neighbouring country. We were flying Qatar Airways and had to change planes in Doha both ways, so I found a connection that would allow us sufficient time to take in Qatar, my 107th country. I had also changed planes here last year en route to Johannesburg as well. One important thing to note is that you cannot take duty free alcohol to Qatar, even as a transit passenger. It will be confiscated at security. This is a scam because you can buy alcohol when you get there even in the transit area.

The only problem was the early start. Our flight from Muscat to Doha left at 5.50am on Easter Sunday, which meant getting to Muscat airport by 3.45am to drop off the car and check in. Fortunately, our bags were checked all the way through to London Gatwick.

We arrived at Doha airport at 6.10am. It was already 22’C. The ‘Experience Qatar’ website said “As your aircraft descends into Qatar, you are welcomed by a spectacular view of the capital city, Doha. The completely landscaped, crescent-shaped Corniche, the sparkling blue waters of the Arabian Gulf and the sandy desert backdrop provide the first glimpse of what experiences await you”. What they failed to mention was the abysmal driving.

You can pay for a tourist visa by credit card at passport control (£18 – 100 Riyals) which is a painless experience. The arrivals hall was small but there were a line of locals holding cars with people’s names. We found our pre-booked car rental booth and were given a bright yellow Nissan Sunny. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the thick early morning rush hour traffic. There was no ATM at the arrivals hall but plenty of them in town.

When you try and research Qatar, there is very little on the internet or in printed guide books. What I did find was that Qatar was originally one of the poorest Gulf States (really just a pearl fishing centre) but is now one of the richest in the region, thanks to the discovery and exploitation of large oil and gas fields discovered in the 1940s. Currently, it processes 15% of the world’s proven gas reserves and has ambitions to become a global energy giant.

The mainly barren country, dominated by the Al-Thani family for 150 years was a British protectorate until 1971, when it declared its independence and refused to join the United Arab Emirates next door. It is a tiny place, only 180km long and 85km wide – about 11400 sq kms. It was a very traditional country (women didn’t get the vote until 1999), but since 1995 Crown Prince Hamad bin Khalifa muscled his way to become Emir, some liberal reforms have taken place (a constitution providing for democratic reform in 2005, less central censorship etc – the Al Jazeera satellite TV station is based here – claiming an Arabic-speaking audience of 40 million). Oil money funds an all embracing welfare state with many free or heavily subsidised services. The small population of 1.4 million is outnumbered by foreign workers attracted by the construction boom.

Leaving the International airport, we found the six lane highways awash with cars, dominated by huge four wheel drives with drivers on mobile phones. There was an arrogance about the driving – lots of blaring horns if you changed lane or waited a nano-second after a traffic light turned green, or if you didn’t run a red light or even while waiting for the lights. Numpties with too much power would come hurtling by you, oblivious to the 120km speed cameras as if they had seconds to live and hopefully they did. Drivers would cut you up, refuse to let you in when you needed to change lanes because you couldn’t see the traffic sign until it was too late.

They would undercut you on roundabouts so when you were going round in the middle lane to turn left, someone would pass you on your left and cut you off because they were going straight on. These were serious numpties and I hated the traffic in Doha and Qatar generally. It was the biggest reason why I would never want to work or live here. They can shove their turbo charged penis extensions up their dish-dashes. The problem was that the women drove this way as well! Outside their vehicles, we found the Qatari people very friendly and helpful.

Our first target was the Live Animal Market in Mushereib. We had a basic map of Doha and tried to find the ring roads. There were B,C and D rings roads and they all ran within the centre, except that they were not ring roads. They would only go so far before disappearing. We eventually found the market on the outskirts of town which covers a huge area selling camels, goats, sheep and chickens.

I had never seen so many camels – hundreds of them in sandy pens. Three were huge bull camels, herds of female camels and huddles of baby camels. The owners/caretakers slept in make do shelters by the pens. We walked around to have a look. Apparently most were to be used for breeding or used as wedding presents (though usually eaten by the wedding party), though we initially thought they were for the slaughter house. There were hundreds of sheep in other covered pens and goats with long floppy ears in a separate area. There were also large storerooms stacked with animal food stuffs for sale, bales of hay etc. Nearby was the massive Wholesale Market with fruit and vegetable and meat and fish sections. It seemed as if the whole of Doha was supplied from here and many traders seemed to think we were there as buyers to hotels or restaurants. Recommended.

The most attractive area in Doha is its Corniche or seafront. We drove back into the centre to find a walk way which stretches in a horseshoe shaped curve along the startling blue water of Doha’s bay and is decorated with statues, flower beds and fountains. Most tourists never get beyond this area. The Museum of Islamic Art dominated the Corniche. It would open at 10.30am. We found an ATM and managed to find somewhere to park (a real problem in downtown Doha).

I discovered a small but popular local drink/snack stall down an alleyway. They were making large thick sandwiches for the workers. I settled for half a dozen samosas and two freshly made mango milkshakes. Delicious.

Any traditional evidence of downtown Doha has pretty much been destroyed by the construction of new air conditioned buildings but in pre-air conditioned times, some buildings were cleverly designed to circulate cooling air. The Wind Tower, located in Souq Ahmed off Grand Hamed Street is the last one left in Doha. Doha Fort, a square white fort, on the outskirts of Souq Waqif was built in the 1890s. I may have got the wrong place, but it seemed to have been converted to a pleasant pedestrianised shopping area for tourists selling the usual tat – carpets etc.

The highlight of Doha for me was the Islamic Museum of Art which opened its doors in December 2008. It was designed by I.M Pei who built the ‘pyramid’ at the Louvre Museum in Paris and has become the architectural icon for the city. The blurb said “The galleries are an inspiring setting for a collection that is second to none in the world in terms of importance, quality and visual impact. Nowhere will you see a better range of art – from some of the earliest pages of the Qur’an to survive, to spectacular illustrated manuscripts; from enamelled glass to silver-inlaid metalwork; from highly decorated tile work to sumptuous carpets and textiles” which was pretty accurate. The exhibits were stylishly set out – quality over quantity, a less is more approach.

But it was the building itself which was the highlight. The exterior looked like a bunch of tan coloured building blocks which had been erratically piled up. A long, narrow set of small waterfalls which were lined on either side with palm trees swept you up to the entrance. We entered to find a huge air conditioned atrium stretching up above all five levels. In front of us was a huge window with a panorama of the new city centre skyline across the bay. The galleries were arranged on the first three levels (five in total) into separate sections. A wide flat orange ring floated around the first level. Walkways took you around the levels. On the first floor there was an exterior level out into the sunshine with more views across the bay and of moored traditional wooden dhows nearby. It was a fabulous building and must have cost a fortune. Unmissable (and free).

We drove further around the Corniche past the line of new architectural wonders or bizarre office blocks. Unlike Dubai, most of these were finished and in a concentrated area. When you land at the airport, they provide an impressive urban horizon across the bay. One was shaped like a large inflated silver condom. I also noticed that Qatar had a bid on the 2022 Olympic Games. I suspect there is no way they would get them – the heat alone would kill the athletes – it was 37’c by 10.30am. They had just hosted the Indoor World Athletic Championships a fortnight previously and had a large goat as a mascot. There were lots of ‘No Photography’ signs around the Ministry of Interior buildings.

Having seen what we wanted of Doha, we headed north up through the sandy wastelands. There was nothing to see except sand and occasional small towns. Al Khor, 57km north of Doha was the first real decent place. It had a harbour, holiday resorts, sleeping policemen so high our car scrapped over them and a proper high street. It was a pleasant relaxed town. The dust seemed to leave us parched all the time so we were always looking for drinks.

One of the problems with Qatar is that their road signs are not exactly numerous – especially at junctions. From Al Khor, I thought we were heading to the far north to Medina ash Shamai. We drove across more barren desert dotted with occasional green bushes and a few herds of camels and it was a surprise to come across a modest four cornered fort. I guessed that this was either Marroub Fort or Al-Thughb fort which was on the west coast. Since there was no sign, I don’t know which. It was set inland for no good reason, which suggests that the coastline was much closer a couple of hundred years ago.

We seemed to have crossed the country to the west instead of north. Other tourists rolled up for a brief look. We followed the road on to discover that it was restricted – forbidden to everyone and no photography allowed. Eh? So we backtracked, took another unsigned road to see where it lead, thinking it was south. It turned out to head north. One of the problems was that there were few settlements (and were usually unsigned), or points or reference – just endless flat, monotonous sand. Eventually, we reached Medinat ash Shamai which was a sizeable town up near the furthest point north.

From here, there was a sign saying Doha, so at least we knew how to head back. As soon as we turned south, we came across the new motorway that was being built across the country to link the north to the capital. One half of it had been completed – it would eventually be 8 lanes wide. What we couldn’t work out was why there were lines of tall street lights most of the way along, when there was virtually no settlements anywhere in sight. We also wondered how they could justify such a big road when there was not enough traffic to justify it.

There were road crews, fleets of concrete mixer trucks, cranes, flyovers with no connecting roads and lines of trucks carting rocks, gravel and sand. If you imagined yourself as a giant it was like looking at a large kids play area in a sandpit where they were playing with lots of toy vehicles. These road works went on for over fifty miles.

One strange but pleasant sight was of a 4 wheel drive landcruiser that had managed to crash (on a completely straight road) into a streetlight (and these were 200m apart). I have no idea how they managed to write off their vehicle, but it was a strange sight. How we laughed. This new road was running parallel to the one we had taken north to Al Khor. 20km north of Doha we came across Umm Salal Mohammed Fort.

Entering Doha’s outskirts before 6pm, the roads were full of manic rush hour traffic with more selfish bastards cutting us up. We assumed we would see signs for the airport. Wrong! We tried to find the ring roads which would give us a fighting chance but even when we did, there were no signs and we seemed to go round in circles. I am usually good at finding my way around a new city, but this one was unbelievable.

We managed to pick up an airport sign and then at a roundabout there was nothing – so which way do you go? Straight on would make sense wouldn’t it? Wrong! On top of this we had the ‘I have never heard of an indicator, but I do know where the horn and accelerator is” method of local driving in vehicles you could go hunting on safari with. I have never seen so many Hummers and Toyota Hi-Luxes anywhere else.

Eventually, in darkness around 7.30pm and worn out by the traffic, we found a garage to fill up. Garages seemed to be few and far between. We had been driving for hours and we were still half full. It cost £4 to fill up. I asked for directions. ‘Turn left out of the garage, go across two roundabouts and take the first left”. OK. We decided to stop and have some dinner, since our flight was at 1.30am and they probably wouldn’t be serving a full scale meal. We had Indian garlic/ginger chicken, veg and pilau rice. We asked the owner for directions to the airport just in case. He said ‘Turn left out of the garage, go across two roundabouts and take the first left”. OK.

So we turned left out of the garage, joined three lanes of traffic to cross two roundabouts very slowly. Traffic lights in Doha seemed to be completely un-synchronised. We would wait ages at red lights while no traffic was apparent on the road we were waiting at. After the second roundabout, we could see stationary traffic backed up in front. So I thought, why not take a left at this roundabout, and then take a right further down to rejoin the road we should be on if we had taken the next left. Wrong! So we found ourselves lost again and started to get déjà-vu moments of ‘haven’t we been down this road before?’

In the end, I followed my nose and ignored all the basic rules and came across an airport sign. Great. So we followed it and a little bit on, there was a sign to turn right at a junction. So we turned right but no longer saw airport signs. I turned around and we took a right at the junction to get back on the original road and then we saw another airport sign to turn right which was correct. So where else would you see a traffic sign to turn right but you turn right after the junction that it told you to turn right at? Numpties. We finally reached the airport around 9pm. It was a horrendous finish to our day in Qatar. It was probably not helped that by now (Sunday evening), I had been up since early Saturday morning with just a couple of cat-naps.

There is a joke we came up with that goes “What is the difference between a tourist and a racist?” Answer – “About 20 minutes after leaving Doha airport in a rented car.”