Qatar, Doha

March 13^th 2013: Bangkok, Thailand – Doha, Qatar

Driven distance on March 13^th 2013: 0km (0 miles)

Driven distance total: 58’740km (36’500 miles)

Well well, after more than 4 months it was really time to leave Thailand ;-). Early in the morning our first part of the journey to Africa started with the flight to Doha, Qatar. Here we had a stopover of almost 20 hours, so we used the time to visit the desert city of Doha. Already out of the airplane it was visible, that there is nothing else then sand all around the city. But first we had to get out of the airport, which wasn’t actually that easy... :-). Nowhere was an exit sign, so we stumbled around the airport without any clue. Finally we had to ask several people how to get out of the airport! At the end they send us through some exit where we had to take a bus to another building. This immigration hall seemed very abandoned and we felt like on a ghost airport ;-). The reason for it is, that almost all the travellers use this airport only as a transfer airport. For 30 dollars we received a visa and were finally able to escape from the airport :-). Since it was quite warm we went first into a shopping mall to get some lunch. We were surprised how mixed the population is. It was somewhat similar to Dubai. The locals are the minority, the Indians, Pakistani and Philippines are there to do the labor work and the western expats are here to think and engineer. In the afternoon we checked out the impressive skyline with the many extravagant tall shiny buildings and later we strolled along the beautiful beach promenade. Towards the evening we visited the souks, which are constructed in the nice traditional style. We weren’t really in shopping mood because we were very tired from the jetlag and the time difference, so we simply went into a cozy restaurant, ate something and checked out the life on the streets. And again it was interesting to watch the mix of people. Many locals are visiting the souks, either to do some shopping, to eat something in a restaurant or to smoke a Shisha (water pipe) in one of the many restaurants. We went back to the airport after a delicious Moroccan tea.