Qatar diaries: “Wait, of all the places to visit, Doha???”

“Of all the places, Doha???” was what I got as a comment when I innocently posted, “What’s there to visit in Doha?” on a highly frequented travel website.

“Of all the places, Doha???”

Interesting question. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice. The CEO of my company wanted us interns to visit either Qatar, Oman, Bahrain or Kuwait.

I liked the name ‘Doha’. I reminded me of some Rahims and Kabirs. Some two weeks later, I was lying on a cushioned bed in a three star hotel in Ad-Dwahah, Qatar.

Names. Always deceive.

Now, as I was already in a place which was not supposed to be in the list “of all the places”, I decided to make the most of it. 10 days in the capital city of a country I would have never even dreamt of visiting.

I opened some travel sites. BBC travel and lonelyplanet came to rescue. I made an itinerary for the 10 days and went ahead. Thankfully I had brought my old faithful Sony H55.

That old bastard friend of mine which refuses to leave my hands. Here’s what both of us captured in Qatar:

  Restaurant Deja Vu: May be in some vague dreamy vision, I had been to this place before.

  Qatar Islamic Cultural center: It was all, Yellow.

  That, sir, is an ATM machine.

  For once, I thought it was frozen petroleum.

  I M Pei, and I designed the Museum of Islamic arts in Doha, Qatar.

  Reminds me of the The Royal chambers of the Prince of Persia games.

  A quiet evening by the Cornice.

  And suddenly a wild black Lamborghini appears!

  Doha or Venice?
The last pic kind of connects with the future posts on aS travel, as I would actually be travelling to Europe and posting the travel pics from there. And that will kind of connect to the first pic. Deja Vu, remember?
The loopy loops of travel. Am loving it!
Anyways, coming back to my Qatar exploration, it was certainly not as bad as I had imagined it to be. Doha is a nice place to visit.
Just make sure you don’t go to Doha searching for Rahims and Kabirs. You would find none. :)
Alok K.
P.S. Done with the Arabian nights, looking forward to the European days ahead!!!