12th October: Doha, Qatar
As we stepped out into the early afternoon sun, we tried to remain relaxed in the stifling heat. Back into the souq, all was quiet as the afternoon ‘siesta’ was in full swing. The only sounds came from the poor brightly plumaged caged birds. I’d decided that it was about time I tried some proper food again and, thankfully, the restaurant we were aiming for was open. Another one of Sayyed’s recommendations, this time Jordanian falafel. On the way, we spotted an interesting piece of art which had to be today’s thumbnail!
I got a bit carried away ordering and we ended up with something as a little richer than I’d envisioned, but it was absolutely delicious. The falafels were perfectly crunchy and the bread fluffy but the real stars were fatta houmous – this is houmous, tahini, chickpeas, toasted then soaked bread, lemon juice, and olive oil, all topped with pine nuts, sumac, and parsley – and mutabal – aubergine, tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. The mutabal in particular had an intense smokiness from the char-grilled aubergine and when combined with the tahini and lemon juice led to an almost smoked cheese flavour. Pickles and freshly made orange cut through and balanced it perfectly. We took our leftovers, with a few extra falafels for later!
A few stops to the metro line, north up the coast is Katara. Kaja’s Tbilisi metro card strangely wouldn’t work at the gate, but luckily a day pass in Doha is only just over £1!
Katara is a place where we could immediately feel the wealth oozing from every person. It seems to have been built for rich people to spend their money. We popped in to a shop to get water and every item was aligned one by one on special displays. As if someone had seen Harrod’s and decided that was how all convenience stores looked. The streets also had cooling vents every few metres, blasting cold air from the floor. From the beachfront, the tourist pearl and financial west bay areas were visible in each direction. However, it was impossible to get within 30 metres of the water due to fencing. The noise of jet skis reverberated, even within the hugely impressive amphitheatre.
The wealth on show is explained by Qatar having one of the highest GDPs on earth. However, statistics here often do not include migrant workers. Incredibly, this is 90% of the population. There are only 300,000 Qatari nationals. The conditions endured by some workers, especially manual labourers in the sun, is a vast contrast to the wealthy and has been the subject of much criticism (especially by European nations, who then changed their tunes when they were desperate for gas after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). Given that a lot of these people are men, this has also led to the interesting situation of Qatar having a ratio of 3.17 men to every women.
Back through the water lined streets, we came across the mosque and, right beside it, three traditional pigeon-rearing towers. The mosque was spectacular with blue-green tiling. One difference here was that despite wearing conservative dress and the headscarf she’s worn to all other mosques, Kaja was still asked to cover herself with a black abaya and shayla before entering. It felt a welcoming environment and, despite people praying (although outside of a prayer time), we were both individually given explanations about the mosque and offered tips for the area by locals. Hearing the call to prayer again here has been lovely and we’ll miss it.
After watching the deep red sunset over the city and the desert beyond, from the top of a man-made green hilltop park, we popped back along the metro to West Bay. This is the area where the skyline is and was worth a little look for the futuristic vibes!
