10th October: Tbilisi Georgia to Doha, Qatar

It’s time to leave the Caucasus! Unfortunately, my body seemed to disagree with the concept, and I spent the morning bent double over the toilet. Continuing the same theme, we caught the bus out of the city on George W. Bush Street. I find it bizarre how streets and squares end up named after neoliberal American leaders in former Soviet states. It’s almost as if they’re trying to overcompensate and it always provokes a chuckle from me.

Anyway, into the relatively small airport. Kaja had bought an ‘air tag’ for her bag to ease her mind about it getting lost again. I’m of the opinion that it would just stress me out more and that knowing where it was wouldn’t really help. However, she was very relieved when the dot appeared next to us on the plane. I really hope we never have to find out how it would work if it didn’t.

After doing the usual bag security checks and passport – I find this incredibly stressful, way more so than I would be over the risk of the things they’re trying to prevent – I was pulled over by two security guards. I looked suspicious on CCTV. I guess they had a point, as I was shuffling so as not to encourage further bowel movements! After doing the whole security procedure again, to a fair bit of laughter all round, I was let back through into the transient space of the departure area. I like Marc Augé’s definition of these as archetypal ‘non-places’, vital within the super modern world but simultaneously devoid of place, where people are anonymous.

The airspace through Iran (our flight’s usual route) and Iraq (where we travelled today) has been intermittently closed recently due to the threat of missiles to and from Israel. An Air France jet flew over Iraq through the most recent Iranian missile barrage, seemingly against the advice of air traffic controllers. European airlines have since re-routed and, without wishing to exaggerate our plight in the context of huge actual suffering, it feels a little like running the gauntlet to cross this airspace right now. Additionally, Iran mistakenly shot down a passenger plane in 2020 and certain elements within the US/UK are clearly looking for a manufactured reason to justify further involvement on Israel’s behalf, so this made me a tiny bit nervous.

This was Kaja’s first flight on a non-budget airline! She found it amusing that we had moveable headrests and were provided with pillows and blankets. The in-flight meal was unexpected on a 3-hour flight but was predictably disappointing. We’re still none the wiser as to whether the baked good was terrible bread or dreadful cake!

We flew over the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. I tried unsuccessfully to spot the hilltop town of Amedi, that I’d visited more than a decade ago, where the southern gate is sometimes known as the gateway to Mesopotamia. Eventually, the folds of the mountains gave way to the plain and those two rivers which gave the ancient region its name could intermittently be seen winding their way towards their confluence. The combined forces of the Tigris and Euphrates – the Shatt Al Arab – could be seen to our left, acting as the Iraq-Iran border before emptying into the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Oil infrastructure and vast numbers of tankers sat offshore.

From above, on the approach into Qatar, it was as if someone had tried to design the perfect futuristic American-style city in Cities Skylines but gone overboard with the oil element of the Industries DLC! Over-specced road networks showed both a car-dependency and an attempt to future-proof for industrial expansion. Gas extraction dominated, especially in the north, but desalination plants along the coast were also interesting to see from above. I also spotted three of the stadiums from the 2022 World Cup, including the Zaha Hadid-designed Al Jounab ground.

As we disembarked, the 38C heat enveloped us and the red orb of the sun hung just above the horizon. A proper desert sunset! Getting out of the airport wasn’t as straightforward as we’d hoped for such a seemingly universally recommended hub. We were late in and then it was over two hours from landing until leaving, so I had to abandon my plan to go to the Qatar v Kyrgyzstan World Cup Qualifier that evening.  The metro into the city had three separate areas – a fancy pants ‘Gold’ area, standard class, and a family section where single men were not allowed.

Out hotel in Doha is a stopover special, as part of our travel from Tbilisi to Beijing, which we maxed out for the limit of 4 nights. The 4-star hotel is a lot, lot fancier than our usual mixture of guesthouses, homestays, and hostels, but still only £15 per person per night. I think this is one of the only cheapish ways to stay in Qatar. Most of the souq and attraction are within east walking distance, although how easy in high 30s heat I’m not sure! We found a south Indian restaurant nearby serving our favourite masala dosa. It was almost empty when we arrived but filled up rapidly with exclusively south Asian families. The service was incredibly rapid, with dosas being dished out all around the place within a couple of minutes of ordering. The dosa, samba, and chutneys were all fantastic, of course.

Nearby was the old city centre of Souq Waqif, which as well as being a tourist hub, was full of families enjoying walking in the slightly cooler evening air and eating. Some of the buildings might’ve been modern but you could seemingly still purchase anything here. We were close to a Palestinian sweet place recommended by my friend Sayyed, so decided to see what they had. Once we’d got our head around the pay first, choose later system, we took a swathe of baklava. Of course, we were given some extras! We’ll be tucking into those tomorrow.

We wanted to get to the shorefront and descended into what we thought was an underpass. Soon, this became the biggest (air-conditioned) underground car park I’ve set eyes upon. According to the map, this was also the smallest of three areas! My criticisms of car culture in the Caucasus might’ve been a little overblown in hindsight. They have nothing on Doha! I assume fuel here is cheap as many vehicles are big and heavy pick-up trucks or land cruiser type things. Crossing any of the major roads takes many minutes as you wait for the traffic lights to deem you important enough for a few seconds of calm. The pedestrian crossings also make a sound like an 80s video game, which does disconcertingly make you feel like a character in a first-person game of frogger. Eventually, we did find a lift which popped us out along the bay. We were immediately confronted by dozens of men trying to sell us dhow rides. The view across the shallow bay was quite spectacular. Dhows filled the foreground, in the old harbour, with the modern skyline glittering over the water.