Quick Stopover in Doha, Qatar
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January 3rd, 2010
On my way from Zürich to Bangkok (about a month ago), I managed to fit in a short stopover in Doha to visit my friend Josh Weiner and his wife, Stephanie. I wanted to stay longer but the best I could arrange was to arrive at 6:30pm and leave at 8:00am the next morning. When I booked the trip, I didn’t realize that Saturday night in Qatar is like our Sunday night since the weekend is Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday. Oops. Even though it was a very short visit, it was still great to get the chance to see a new country and catch up with old friends.
Josh and Stephanie picked me up at the airport and took me to the old Souk, where we got an amazing dinner of Lebanese food at Le Gourmet. Then they drove me through downtown Doha and past all of the Qatar foundation buildings, where Stephanie works. Afterwards, we went back to their villa and had a couple drinks on the balcony. The drinking laws are very strange in Qatar – as I understand it, only hotels are allowed to sell alcohol and only expats and tourists can buy it. And expats must get a special license to buy alcohol to drink at home too. They obviously have a very different attitude toward alcohol in Qatar than in the USA or Europe (or anywhere else I’ve ever been).
In many ways Doha reminded me of Dubai – lots of huge highrises, everything under construction, and surrounded by desert (plus both are Arabic speaking, Muslim countries). Like Dubai, Doha seems like a booming city with lots of money. Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but I was surprised to learn that they get most of their money from natural gas, not oil. I was also surprised to learn that there is no income tax in Qatar.
Although almost everything in Doha is new and modern, much of the city still feels rather temporary or unfinished. For example, the villa where Josh and Stephanie live is very nice but there is no paved road to get to it (and no plans to ever pave it). After turning off the main road, you have to drive offroad on the dirt to get to the building. Also, I heard that it is a common practice in Doha to tear down relatively new buildings (1-2 years old) to make room for new construction.
The traffic is crazy in Doha. They have the biggest, scariest roundabouts I have ever seen in my life. Seriously, we are talking about 4 to 8 lanes of cars, nobody paying any attention to lane markers, and people diving across all the lanes to exit from the innermost lane. Crazy.
Finally, I was surprised to see so many US and western companies in Doha. I saw far more international chain restaurants and retail stores in Doha than in Zürich. I even saw some smaller chains such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in addition to the bigger ones you may more likely expect like Dunkin Donuts.
