Lay Over in Qatar.... city tour

After an 11 and a half hour flight from Boston to Qatar, we found ourselves with an 8 hour lay over at Hamad International Airport. While talking with some airline employees we hooked up with a city tour that took us on a 3 hour ride through Doha, the capital city of Qatar. This tour gave us a glimpse of this fascinating city and a lot of information. Qatar is an Islamic nation on the Arabian Gulf. Because of the many miles of coastline fishing and pearling were early economic industries of this region before petroleum natural liquid gas. There are many dhow (wooden boats) that operate on the gulf for tours, fishing and other activities. The city of Doha has a beautiful skyline that is all lit up at night: green, red, blue and white lights. But in 1979, one of the only buildings in Doha was a Sheraton hotel which was surrounded by desert. Now the city is booming and Qatar boasts the highest per capital income in the world. They are busily preparing for the FIFA World Cup in 2024, and they will be the first Arab nation to host the World Cup. There are many expatriates that live in Qatar, and only 12% of the population are native people.

Some of the sites we took in and stopped at were:

The Museum of Islamic Arts -this building was designed by the same architect who built the Louve in Paris, I.M Pei. It is notable by the top tier and the eyes that represent a Muslim women.

The Blue Mosque and Pigeon tower at Karata Cultural Center

Souq Waqif - the vibrant market place that reminded me of Morocco's Marrakech market.

The city was very clean and people extremely friendly. The temperature in the summer gets overwhelmingly hot and humid, 50 degrees Celsius and 70% humidity. On this evening it was 38 degrees Celsius which is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit!

This was a wonderful way to pass the layover in Qatar and we enjoyed the city very much.

Upon our return to the airport, we grabbed a quick bite and are now about to board our plane to Kathmandu at 2:30 in the morning Qatar time.

Below is a quick video of a vendor in Souq Waqif