Introduction
Delivery Dinner
Seattle to Doha
Exploring Doha Day 1
Exploring Doha Day 2 & 3
Doha to Seattle
Conclusion
Friday 16th November 2012
There wasn’t much at all planned for me over the next couple of days. I had some time free on both mornings in the original plans but this changed once I got to Qatar as I had an opportunity come my way. In the end it was pretty relaxed couple of days. After a morning run in the Qatar morning warmth (first time worn my sunglasses running in months) around the airport perimeter for a bit, I got to spend the first part of my day doing some stuff for work. I was on assignment to investigate Qatar as a stopover destination for our clients travelling to Africa. So my job was to go and check out a few hotels, get a quick idea of what is here what isn’t.
I negotiated a taxi for the morning and spent some time exploring a list of hotels I had managed to put together after chatting to a number of people (including the taxi driver). Some pretty decent hotels out there, I was seriously impressed and if I get a chance to go back, I know a couple of hotels I wouldn’t mind staying in (New Intercon comes to mind).
After visiting the last hotel, I got the Taxi driver to take me out to the Katara Cultural Village where I was due to have lunch and attend some events for the Dhow Festival. Things didn’t go quite as planned but it was still a good afternoon. Katara has a pretty nice location, right on the water with its own beach but it was the surroundings that got me. Also playing “Spot the Commodore” was a bit of fun.
The amphitheatre, the Golden Mosque and a whole heap of other buildings just made it seem like something out of Lawrence of Arabia. It was pretty good to explore and to make the afternoon better the Qatar Defence Forces Band was performing along with the Belarusian Honor Guard. There was a heap of events underway for the Dhow Festival including some rowing events (think Dragon Boat/Outrigger) but I was pretty beat and the sun was setting so I left early and headed back to the hotel to do a bit of work.
After a couple of hours working I was pretty hungry and decided to head to the Souq for dinner. I had a desire to have some indian food as with a good population of Indians in Qatar, I figured there had to be some good indian food. Sadly the one and only place around the Souq was a solid hour wait to get in, even for 1 person. So I broke one of my rules and headed back to the hotel for dinner. BUT this turned out to be pretty great. I knew they were having a special Indian buffet for the Diwali festival and the food was REALLY good. I really enjoyed it and I tried so much stuff I had never had before. What made it definitely the right decision was that they mistook me for someone who worked for Qatar Airways so gave me their discount which was 20% of the normal rate. Not 20% off, 80% off! Dinner cost me about $15! For a hotel buffet that’s pretty damn good pricing! By the time I finished dinner, I was full and ready for bed!
Saturday 17th November 2012
A Saturday morning run around the airport, in the sun but this time I remembered to take a sticker with me for a fun little game I play with a mate 😉
My morning was to be spent pretty relaxed actually. After breakfast I was being picked up by someone from Qatar Executive Jet to go and be introduced to a few people and also see one of their aircraft (only 1 aircraft was free and even that was only for 30 mins). We cleared the airport security as I wore my shiny new Airport pass (which I couldn’t keep unfortunately), and headed out around the Tarmac on a mini tarmac tour of sorts.
Getting down low with all the aircraft is always fun for an Avgeek but this was even better. As at the other end, I was getting out on the tarmac in front of the hangar where a Challenger 605 was being prepped for departure. When we arrived they offered us something truly awesome. We didn’t need a lift back to the terminal, as we were getting a ride onboard the aircraft as it was being positioned over to the other side of the airfield (to the same bay we arrived at on the 787 actually). What an opportunity!!
The ride around was good, watching the ground crews do their setup of the aircraft and tow it around to the bay. Onboard the Challenger is truly the best way to fly. You have enough space for 8 or so people comfortably, 4 of the seats turn to two HUGE single beds, the couches turn into a double bed and you still have another Divan. Add onto this that you can come and go when and where you want, eat what you want, drink what you want, stay connected in the air & Smoke if you desire. It has to be the best way to fly!
After that I had a couple of hours free before I was scheduled to head over to Katara again for more stuff on the Dhow festival, so I ended up sitting by the pool, catching up on life and doing some plane spotting as the pool had a truly awesome view of the aircraft as they rotated off the runway. I managed to get a couple of decent shots and the sun was just awesome to be out sitting in. Did I really have to head home to Seattle? Please can I stay?.
While I was spotting I got a message telling me I was free for the afternoon If I didn’t feel like going to the stuff that was planned, so I took that opportunity to explore the city some more. I jumped in a cab and headed out to the Qatar Grand Mosque. I had never visited a Mosque before so wasn’t sure what to expect. I made sure I wasn’t there during call to prayer as I didn’t want to be disrespectful. I made sure I kept my sleeves down as well.
The taxi ride over was eventful after the driver took me in the total wrong direction (he thought I said “Green Mosque” not “Grand Mosque” and we fought a little till I told him to drop me off and ill walk the rest of the way, gave him less money than he wanted and I left. Not the best thing to do, but I wasn’t sure if he was trying to rip me off or truly didn’t know where he was going. After a 10 minute walk from where I was dropped off (I could see the mosque) the sheer size of the place just stuns you.
When I turned up a security guard showed me around, answering my questions (first time that has happened) about how big, how old, etc He told me that on a Friday at Midday prayer, they get over 15,000 people there. That was a huge shock and he explained (in his limited English) that they spread everywhere even outside above the car park (which had escalators to mind you, a thing you don’t expect to see).
I took a mountain of photos, some panoramas and just soaked in the sight of this massive building before heading off in search of a taxi to take me downtown. I was aiming for city centre mall, which I could kind of see in the distance (I could see the buildings near by it, so figured if kept walking that way and was careful I would be ok). Pretty soon I had been walking for half an hour and no sign of empty cabs. So I gave up on the cab and kept on walking.
I walked for a solid hour and a half all the way from the mosque to downtown (About 4-5 miles) all the while trying not to die. I did manage to get some directions from a lovely expat couple at a gas station who showed me which way to keep going. Heaps of weird sights but I eventually found one mall which had a Breitling store in it, so I quickly fled out before I wasted all of my money 😉
After that mall I headed over to City Center Mall which was my intended destination to check out a few things, see what passes for a mall here in Doha and get some lunch from the supermarket. It wasn’t all that bad the mall but it wasn’t all that good either. They had some of the usual stores you would expect to see, a whole random weird range of other stores but the main draw card to me was Carrefour. I am a big fan of just wandering through local supermarkets in new countries/areas and seeing what the locals eat. This was an eclectic mix of Arabic, American, British and European stuff all rolled into one crazy mix. Pretty mind blowing to be honest.
After City Centre I decided I had more time to kill till my intended destination (the post office) opened at 5pm, so why not keep walking. It hadn’t failed me yet. So I did. Walked for another hour or more all the way to the Sheraton, to the Corniche and along the Corniche (did I mention yet that I didn’t have a map and was navigating by guessing and kind of remembering things I had checked online before leaving the hotel). It was good to be walking again, I was feeling bad being cooped up in a taxi.
By the time I got to the post office, got some stamps for my mum and one to post a letter to someone (I never did get any postcards sadly) it was dark so time to head back to the hotel for dinner cause I was being lazy and it was meant to be an early morning tomorrow for my flight home. Dinner that night was a Japanese themed buffet and it was pretty damn good even if it was in the middle east 😉 Hit the sack early ready to prepare for a LONG LONG day.
