I was looking forward to coming to Qatar as the World Cup was here fairly recently and it was a place that I wanted to check out having heard lots about here during that time.  I wasn’t exactly sure what sort of country I would find, and was concerned that it would be like Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.

I needn’t have worried,  Doha in Qatar is a much more authentic experience than the plastic tourist destination of Dubai.  It does purely come down to personal choice, but I would choose Qatar every day of the week.  Actually, I arrive late on a Saturday and have all day Sunday to explore Doha.  For a mere $2 I got an all-zones Metro pass and was able to go everywhere around the city where I wanted to go.

I headed to the Corniche.  If I were painting a picture picture-perfect Sunday stroll I could not choose anywhere better than the Doha Corniche.  It was a beautiful walk. 

During my walk I wandered into meeting Hussain, he was an older man from Islamabad, Pakistan who had driven to Qatar via Saudi Arabia. which is over 2500 miles, but he wanted some local knowledge advice from me, which I thought was quite amusing.  I explained that I had only just landed myself.  That said, it led to a great 10-minute conversation as we chatted about his work as an anesthetist, Southampton in England where his son worked, cricket, and our travel journeys.  It was one of those organic real travel meeting experiences that bring a smile to your day.  I’ve found lots of those on this trip and it’s been a joy.

Venturing on, I head via the Metro to the Lusail Soccer Stadium.  It’s a futuristic designed 80.000 seater stadium that was built to host the World Cup, and where the final was played  Visiting here is like a pilgrimage, and it was clear I was not the only one as there was a small flow of soccer fans heading the same way as I arrived, and as I left.  You can come and take pictures, but there are no inside stadium tours like in many other countries.  Not sure why, but they have lots of security, so there was no chance of getting inside for a peek.

After the short visit to Lusail, I went off to the city center of Doha, making full use of that $2 Metro pass.  Doha is incredibly clean, their Metro is beautiful, and I’m sure partly so as a result of the recent World Cup, but moving around the city was easy and a pleasure.

Qatar is an independent nation with an abundance of money from oil and gas reserves

Things are pristine, I don’t believe there are any laws around the color of cars, but here, as I have seen in other Middle Eastern countries, the vast majority of cars are white or silver.  As bizarre as it is, I like it.  The main reason for it here is the heat with temperatures well over 100 degrees in summer.  Today, the weather is a pleasant sunny 75 and the breeze just radiates like a personal fan as I walk, truly enjoying a relaxing day.

As the sunset came down around 6pm I headed to Al Bidda where I knew I would get great views of the Doha skyline from the Corniche.  I’m only here for the day with a layover to check out this place, but it could not have worked out better.  A lazy day at my own pace checking out this immaculate city.

As with many Middle Eastern countries, they have their local rules and customs, but as long as you are aware of them and respect them there is no issue being here.  I was only here for the day, but I would certainly come back and explore more.  As a fun layover stop off for me it is a break from the trip going from Nepal to Egypt.