Exploring Doha
A city where travelling by Uber is cheaper than public transport.
Doha is advertised as a top travel destination, boasting one of the highest GDP’s per capita through holdings in natural gas & oil reserves whilst also being one of the largest sovereign wealth funds globally. You would assume dam, everything must be expensive here. Well Ubers were not. I have evidence.
Everything else though, was expensive.
Tourism is one of Doha’s top investment priorities to ensure economic diversification, away from an over-reliance on oil and gas reserves. Which makes sense and when visiting I could definitely see this.
Tall skyscrapers dominating the skyline, a multitude of newly built, state of the art, islamic and historic museums and even a continuous 20 miles cycle path.
Which is crazy, who even cycles in a city wherein temperatures are on average 30 degrees plus year round.
Well, I did.
Extremely sweaty even at 10am, but the 15 minutes or so I cycled for it was worth it. Check out the video below.
Palm Trees
Boats by the Harbour
Skyscrapers
Clean Streets
Blue Skies
Persian Gulf
City Vibes
Couple of things I noticed whilst cycling - what did y’all notice?
Having just two days to explore all that Doha had to offer wasn’t going to be easy.
But I believe I hit all the core spots, which I give thanks to the Uber drivers for (IYKYK) Doha Ubers are extremely cheap, the city is pretty small and traffic is barely existent during the day. Which all contributed to me seeing roughly 11 major sites in the two days I was there.
Souk Waqif
Souq Waqif is a marketplace in Doha, the capital of Qatar. The souq sells traditional garments, spices, handicrafts, and souvenirs.
National Museum of Qatar
The building was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel who was inspired by the desert rose crystal, which is found in Qatar.
Museum of Islamic Art
Houses one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world, with masterpieces from every corner of the globe representing the diversity found in Islamic heritage. (Stick around until the bottom to see a quranic manuscript)
