Doha, Qatar
Blog: By Way of the World - 30 August 2009
By: Dan
Qatar is a small country next to Saudi Arabia on the Arabian Peninsula, not too far away from Dubai. Native Arabs only consist of about 20% of the current population; the rest consists of workers brought in from many other parts of the world (including Nepal which I think is why the flight was so cheap on this route). We'd decided to stop there for a few days since our flight had a 12-hour layover anyway. We hadn't made it to Dubai as originally planned, so we figured Qatar would be interesting.
Naturally, because we did last minute research (as we seem to do all too often), we realized too late that Qatar was ridiculously expensive and ridiculously hot at this time of year, hotter even than Luxor. We literally could not find a hotel room for under $100 a night. We began to think outside the box, and remembered about couchsurfing.com. Up until this point, we hadn't tried it. No need really, in Asia, since the rooms are so cheap and we never planned far enough in advance. So, even though it was really late notice, we thought we'd give it a shot and contacted a newly-married American couple who work in the university in Doha.
What a great experience! It was actually refreshing to be around other Americans. Dan and Melissa were not only kind enough to take us in on such short notice, but introduced us to their couchsurfing circle at the Souq Waqif (a trendy marketplace), where we met some other travelers and other foreigners living in Doha.
We learned all about what it was like living in a city of expats on the Persian Gulf and had some great conversation. We left having made some great new friends!
But Doha itself is a very strange place. Not much to do, as we found out. In fact, of the beautiful and impressive skyline, 80% of the skyscrapers are actually unoccupied.
It's like the oil-wealthy Qataris are building up for a future metropolis, when the actual population needed to fill the buildings won't catch up for another 300 years. Most of the people we met were expats, and as a result the whole city seems to be in transit, with no one really taking ownership or creating a home or putting down roots. There's apparently a rigid racial hierarchy, with Asians and South Asians at the bottom doing the service and construction work, Americans and Europeans doing work in universities and city planning, and the native Arabs at the top running things. One theory as to why they shy away from employing other Arabs (from Egypt, for example) is that the Qataris don't want any Muslims in the underclass which may create an environment for terrorism.
The whole vibe is very strange and almost eerie. The strangest thing was walking down the street at night. We saw loads of people, all of them men. Only one woman besides me - one! At first I thought perhaps Qatar is extremely fundamentalist, but even in the parts of Egypt where the women were wearing burkas, they were out and about in the evenings. No, apparently, most of the current population of Qatar is male, simply because they are the service workers who left their families in Nepal (or wherever). There simply aren't women there.
The one activity we managed to do was visit the Islamic Museum of Art, an impressive building right on the water.
The exhibits were a beautiful array of objects, jugs, rugs, lamps, jewelry, etc. from Iraq, India, Iran, Egypt, Arabia, and all over the Ottoman Empire during the 7th-17th centuries. There was even an actual knight in armour - this was Dan's favorite! My favorites were the astrolabes, which were instruments used before the compass was invented to find one's way using the stars.
The displays were modern and the lighting was impeccable. Best of all, the museum was free! Of course, Doha has no public transportation to speak of, so the taxi ride there and back was not free, but we had a good time anyway.
All in all, Doha was interesting stop, if only to see what life is like in one of these small oil-rich nations on the Arab peninsula, but the real highlight was our couchsurfing experience (thanks again, Dan and Melissa!). We will definitely be trying this again. Not only is it cheap, but it's great to make new friends and have an inside look at the place we're visiting.
Naturally, because we did last minute research (as we seem to do all too often), we realized too late that Qatar was ridiculously expensive and ridiculously hot at this time of year, hotter even than Luxor. We literally could not find a hotel room for under $100 a night. We began to think outside the box, and remembered about couchsurfing.com. Up until this point, we hadn't tried it. No need really, in Asia, since the rooms are so cheap and we never planned far enough in advance. So, even though it was really late notice, we thought we'd give it a shot and contacted a newly-married American couple who work in the university in Doha.
What a great experience! It was actually refreshing to be around other Americans. Dan and Melissa were not only kind enough to take us in on such short notice, but introduced us to their couchsurfing circle at the Souq Waqif (a trendy marketplace), where we met some other travelers and other foreigners living in Doha.
We learned all about what it was like living in a city of expats on the Persian Gulf and had some great conversation. We left having made some great new friends!
But Doha itself is a very strange place. Not much to do, as we found out. In fact, of the beautiful and impressive skyline, 80% of the skyscrapers are actually unoccupied.
It's like the oil-wealthy Qataris are building up for a future metropolis, when the actual population needed to fill the buildings won't catch up for another 300 years. Most of the people we met were expats, and as a result the whole city seems to be in transit, with no one really taking ownership or creating a home or putting down roots. There's apparently a rigid racial hierarchy, with Asians and South Asians at the bottom doing the service and construction work, Americans and Europeans doing work in universities and city planning, and the native Arabs at the top running things. One theory as to why they shy away from employing other Arabs (from Egypt, for example) is that the Qataris don't want any Muslims in the underclass which may create an environment for terrorism.
The whole vibe is very strange and almost eerie. The strangest thing was walking down the street at night. We saw loads of people, all of them men. Only one woman besides me - one! At first I thought perhaps Qatar is extremely fundamentalist, but even in the parts of Egypt where the women were wearing burkas, they were out and about in the evenings. No, apparently, most of the current population of Qatar is male, simply because they are the service workers who left their families in Nepal (or wherever). There simply aren't women there.
The one activity we managed to do was visit the Islamic Museum of Art, an impressive building right on the water.
The exhibits were a beautiful array of objects, jugs, rugs, lamps, jewelry, etc. from Iraq, India, Iran, Egypt, Arabia, and all over the Ottoman Empire during the 7th-17th centuries. There was even an actual knight in armour - this was Dan's favorite! My favorites were the astrolabes, which were instruments used before the compass was invented to find one's way using the stars.
The displays were modern and the lighting was impeccable. Best of all, the museum was free! Of course, Doha has no public transportation to speak of, so the taxi ride there and back was not free, but we had a good time anyway.
All in all, Doha was interesting stop, if only to see what life is like in one of these small oil-rich nations on the Arab peninsula, but the real highlight was our couchsurfing experience (thanks again, Dan and Melissa!). We will definitely be trying this again. Not only is it cheap, but it's great to make new friends and have an inside look at the place we're visiting.
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