Experience of a small country that has grown from a land of simple fishermen and pearl gatherers to a small superpower in just a few decades, best known for hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup and for the spectacular views of the many skyscrapers that adorn Qatar's capital Doha.
It all started with an email from my older sister, a successful world traveller (and the face behind the blog Lahkih nog naokrog), in which she provided me with the information that Hostelling International Slovenia is organising a trip to Qatar for young people between the ages of 18 and 30 in December. At first, I skimmed through the email and told myself that I definitely didn't have time then and that it was too far away and too dangerous and simply forgot about it for a few days. However, after re-reading the email and giving the situation some more thought, I decided that it still sounded like a unique opportunity, so I forwarded the email and presented the contents to my boyfriend, and with a bit of trepidation, we both signed up for the Qatar in 144 Hours trip in the next few hours.
By the time of departure, the travel date had moved from December to January, directly to the week before my exam period at University, and from week to week we got more and more information, plans, lists of all participants, etc. The realisation that I really am going to Qatar in the near future has set in. My boyfriend and I bought airline tickets a few months in advance, from Vienna to Doha, with a layover in Istanbul. On the way to Qatar, the entire journey from home to Doha or specifically, to the final destination of our hostel took about 19 hours, which took a toll on all of us. Upon arrival in Doha, all the participants, who arrived with different flights, gathered at the airport, where delegates from the Qatar Hostelling Organization were already waiting to greet us and escorted us to our small bus for 20 people and its driver, who then accompanied us throughout the week.
On arrival at the Qatar Youth Hostel, which by our standards qualified as a four-star hotel, we were divided into pairs, separated by gender, of course, and before we could go to our rooms we had to sign a declaration agreeing to their rules, expectations and requirements. To name but a few: visiting each other in the rooms is not allowed, our clothes must cover our knees and shoulders, we must respect their Islamic culture of behaviour and life, we will put our clothes in the wardrobes and not leave them lying around the room. When we were done with all this, it was already past three o'clock in the morning, and we had breakfast at eight, so we went to bed as quickly as possible (to the hardest mattresses I've ever seen in my life).
In the morning, we learned that we have the first day off and can spend it doing whatever we wanted. So we decided to rest for a while and then went to see an interesting new part of the city called The Pearl, which is a peninsula built in the shape of a diamond. We witnessed for the first time the beginnings of Qatari culture, the people, the atmosphere, and realised that the streets in this part of the city are mostly empty, the cafés and bars very quiet, the buildings inspired by Venice, and every part of the city is constantly under surveillance by cameras on every corner. This first impression of Qatar, even now that I look back, was right on point and did not change too much during the week.
The next day, we had a really fun experience waiting for us. We were picked up in front of the hostel by four off-road Toyota Land Cruised cars, with which we then drove to Sealine Sand Dunes, where we were offered the option of riding camels or just a short walk in the desert. When the camel riders returned, we settled back into the cars, with their tyres half deflated in the meantime, which makes for better driving on the desert terrain. After that, the race over the dunes began. Drivers had fun overtaking each other, up and down the dunes, along the edge of a hill or even in reverse. We stopped several times to take photos, admire the surroundings, or soak our feet in the sea. For most of us, it was really a completely new experience and a unique adventure, certainly one of the best memories from this trip.
After lunch back at the hostel, we set off again for a new part of the city, to me personally the most beautiful part of Qatar we have seen. Named after the port, Old Port is best known for its beautiful colorful houses and streets that decorate the long promenade along the sea, at the end of which a wide view opens across the sea to the centre of Doha, full of towers and skyscrapers. In this part, we were given some free time to walk, take photos and enjoy the beautiful views, before heading to Lusail for the end of an extremely interesting day. Lusail is close to Doha, and is best known for Lusail Boulevard (a long street where commercials are often filmed and where the celebrations for Argentina's World Cup victory took place) and Lusail Stadium, the venue for the 2022 FIFA World Cup final, which Qataris are generally very proud to have hosted and organised.
Since we were in Qatar during the Asian Football Championship, the long street was closed to traffic and intended only for the ''fair of nations'', which meant that each country whose team was a participant in the Asian Championship got its own piece of the street where it could present itself. So, over a few kilometres of very wide street, different Asian countries presented themselves with their dances, singing, traditional fragrances and football tricks. We were not allowed to enter the stadiums due to the Championships, so we only got to see the stadium from a distance before heading back to the hostel.
The next morning, after breakfast, we took our small bus a little way out of Doha to the Camel Festival, where there are camel races, exhibitions and a small museum about camels and their importance to the local people. On arrival, we were seated and of course offered their traditional tea or coffee, introduced by the owner of the festival, who has more than 150 camels himself and guided through the museum, showing us all the objects and paintings in it. After that we went to see the grandstands and the lodges from which the camel races are watched; the most interesting was the VIP lodge for the very rich sheikhs, who just watch the camels from their comfortable seats and buy the most beautiful or fastest ones. What struck us about all this was the fact that they use Botox and real make-up to ''beautify'' the camels. After the tour, we headed to the food stalls where we could have a snack before heading on to Qatar's largest shopping mall. There, we had some free time to see the shops and events before having lunch in one of the local restaurants.
In the afternoon, the path led us on to another part of the outskirts of Doha, where we visited the rich collection of the private Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum. More than 40,000 objects are collected in this museum - from swords, carpets, books, vases, fossils, to cars, airplanes, a house from Syria, fountains, etc. We only saw a fraction of all the objects, because if we wanted to look at everything, we would have to spend a whole day or two here. In addition to the museum, there is also a minaret, modelled on the tower of Pisa, which is considerably out of place, and a large stable stretching across the estate, where we were able to see exceptionally beautiful horses and part of a very well-kept building dedicated to their care.
We concluded the day with a visit to Katara Cultural Village, which is a part of the city built as an indicator of all the different stories and cultures of Qatar, from art, religion and food. Here, I mostly saw many shops of very expensive brands, the largest bouquet of flowers in the world and an interesting mosque that we could see, provided that the women dressed up in their traditional clothes. One of the main attractions of this part of the city is that the streets are air-conditioned, making it a pleasant place to walk even in summer, when other parts of the city and the country can reach temperatures of almost 50 degrees Celsius.
You can read more about the continuation of 144 hours in Qatar in the next part of the article, where Tilen, a volunteer of Hostelling International Slovenia, will take you through the new sights and attractions of this country.
Marjeta Lucija Korenčan
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