Martin spent a working week in the capital of Qatar, Doha. The purpose of the trip was to do some design work with the national telecommunications company, Q-Tel (Qatar Telecom). Most evenings were spent working back at the Intercontinental Hotel, 10 minutes from the QTel office, but one day Martin managed to find a couple of hours spare to head into the older part of Doha and do some exploring.
Qatar is a small country that was ruled by the British until as recently as 1971. It is, however, one of the richest countries in the world, largely thanks to its huge gas and oil resources. For everything you ever wanted to know about Qatar, the excellent Wikipedia Article about Qatar is the place to go.
So what did Martin think of Qatar? Inevitably, comparisons must be made with Dubai, given that's the part of the middle east that Martin has spent most time in. It's easy to imagine that Dubai was probably like Doha twenty years ago. It's much smaller than Dubai, but you can see that much development is taking place, and the usual architecturally impressive and marvellously shiny buildings are springing up everywhere. Apart from that.... Doha is... not that exciting. Dubai has charisma where Doha has none. Dubai buzzes with life whereas Doha was barely alive :-) Not high on the list of places to visit as a tourist, but nice enough as a place to work. Hey, at least the sun shines there. Martin touched down at Heathrow to heavy frost and freezing fog. Lovely!
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| 12th Nov: On the beach behind the hotel with a view of the West Bay area of Doha |
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| 12th Nov: The Intercontinental Hotel |
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| 12th Nov: The beach, looking away from Doha |
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| 12th Nov: Herons(?) landing on a boat, with Doha in the background again |
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| 13th Nov: Shiny buildings opposite the QTel HQ building. Reminiscent of Dubai but on a much smaller scale. |
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| 14th Nov: Some lucky guest at the hotel had a Campagna T-Rex. 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds! |
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| 14th Nov: Martin took a taxi to the older part of Doha, around the bay. Here we can see the West Bay area from the opposite side to the hotel. The pyramid shaped building on the right is the Sheraton hotel and the tall building sticking up behind it is the QTel head office where Martin worked. |
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| 14th Nov: The main point of interest in this part of Doha was the Souq Waqif. Souq means "market" in Arabic. |
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| 14th Nov: The souq is a place to shop and hang out with friends and drink coffee and maybe smoke some sheesha. Check out the awesome looking cameras carried by these Qatari ladies btw |
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| 14th Nov: Not sure if this was on sale or just for show |
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| 14th Nov: See? Sheesha is smoked in a traditional water pipe called a Hookah. |
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| 14th Nov: The clock tower is also deemed to be a tourist highlight. Hmmm. And so is Starbucks according to the guide book! |
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| 14th Nov: Back on the Corniche, the long sweeping road that follows the edge of the bay. The Cornice has pedestrian areas and grass verges between the main road and the sea and is popular with locals as a place to walk, talk and play in the cooler parts of the day. And the big oyster? Before oil and gas changed *everything*, Qatar, along with other countries in the region like the UAE, was one of the world's big producers of pearls.... until those darned Japanese invented a process which allowed them to be artificially manufactured that is. |
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| 14th Nov: The sun setting behind one of the cities many mosques. |