30 Hours in Doha

 

Here we go!

Going to Africa was a three-day journey for us.  The body clock got messed up pretty quickly. What day is it?  What time is it?

We left our home very early Thursday morning for a relatively short flight to Los Angeles and mid-afternoon boarded the 14 ½ hour flight to Doha, Qatar, arriving there late afternoon on Friday, some 24 hours after we’d left home!

Doha is an amazing city built along the Arabian Sea.  We stepped outside of the air-conditioned airport and were hit with a wall of heat and humidity.  48 degrees.  Could someone please turn off the furnace!

first impressions

In our jet-lagged state, we appreciated the wonderful hotel room and napped until dinner.  After a delicious meal, we were ready to finish that nap until morning.

view from our room

In the morning we felt refreshed and explored the city.  It was Saturday, the weekend, and all the museums and galleries were closed until the afternoon, but the mall was open.  This felt like a regular Canadian thing to do.

... a very Canadian thing to do

juice break at a restaurant in the mall

at the grocery store

In the afternoon we visited the National Museum of Qatar to learn about the country’s history.  It’s a huge museum and we only touched on a few highlights.  The presentation was incredible with lots of video projections, and interactive displays, all in English and Arabic.  

This area of the world has lots of archeological evidence of ancient civilizations.  In more recent history, the people lived in tents in the desert during the winter months, stocking up on feed and looking after the cattle.  In the summer they lived in their permanent homes by the sea.  The major income was international trade and the pearl industry.  When cultured pearls were created, the pearl diving stopped.  At about the same time, oil and natural gas was discovered and Qatar began building the rich nation we see today.

 The architecture of the museum is fascinating.

Just to get a glimpse of Doha, we took a nighttime driving tour around the downtown West Bank with its high rise buildings, the Pearl man-made islands and other major sites, some built for the FIFA 2022 games.  The driving tour ended at the airport where we boarded our night flight to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.  

Waiting at the airport isn't all bad!