Overnight in Qatar

I owe a big thank you to my parents for my awesome experience in Qatar! So for all you travelers out there, sometimes you get crappy luck with layovers – and I managed a 15 hour layover in Qatar (overnight, no less) on my return flight. Originally I was supposed to fly from Johannesburg but as that was cancelled due to my being sick, I ended up with a somewhat random flight out of Dar es Salaam. My parents got me a hotel room in Qatar – and at a 5 star Marriott, no less!

Arriving in Doha, Qatar was much like arriving save one detail: we arrived in the middle of a sandstorm! Qatar borders Oman and Saudi Arabia so you can imagine it is smack dab in the middle of the desert! The sandstorm didn’t bother me in the since that there was sand all about, it looked more like a permanent tan haze. I got off the plane and headed through immigration – but I had to buy an impromptu Visa! The bad news is I had to drop 30 bucks just to leave the airport, the silver lining was that I got a Qatar Visa stamp in my passport – both arriving and departing!

Leaving the airport was strange. It is one thing to read about things like burkas and turbans, even to see the occasional one in the United States. As I walked out of baggage claim and into the lobby in a fairly crowded room I felt all eyes stare at me. I stuck out like a sore thumb no doubt – jeans, faded tee shirt, and my WFP feed the world bag – and I was the only Westerner in sight. Seeing the women was conflicting – all I could see were pairs of eyes staring back at me through a slit in the top of the burka. Were they sad? Confused? Angry at my imposition? I don’t know – most just stared back blankly. The men I couldn’t read either, they didn’t laugh or point or appear angry, but they stared just the same. I felt more like a foreigner in that moment than I ever felt in Tanzania, but I also wasn’t prepared to acclimate!

Marriott arranged for me to get to the hotel via a taxi. The drive was short but I still got out of the airport and got to see Doha. It’s somewhat cosmopolitan, surprisingly. I felt tired and the haze made me feel like am I even seeing this clearly? Figures disappeared beneath clouds of sand thanks to the sandstorm. Buildings lit up, signs posted in both Arabic and English. Bright lights and shiny windows.

The hotel was lovely – one of the nicest I’ve ever been in. It was amazing to take a hot long shower with water pressure after 3 months of cold drip-drop showers! I enjoyed some Italian thanks to room service and free high speed internet too! I felt something like a princess strolling around my hotel room in a spa robe (provided by the hotel). It was a total treat – I never travel this way – and truthfully I think coincidence complemented me, as my parents only trust the Marriott hotels! Thanks Doha, for having a 5-star one!

Picture: the view from my balcony – no it’s not blurry, it’s the sand in the air!