A dozen things to do in Doha

This article recently appeared in the Montreal Gazette--a product of the new QA direct flights to Montreal.  As the foreign press does not write much light stuff about visiting Doha, I thought QLers would find its impressions interesting.

Source:  http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/dozen+things+Doha/5046768/story.html

When it comes to excess, the independent statelet of Qatar is no match for its neighbours on the Persian Gulf - or what's known in Qatar as the Arabian Gulf.

The place is rich enough to be extravagant. It probably has enough natural gas to heat Antarctica. But it has nothing to match Dubai's indoor ski hill or Abu Dhabi's Ferrari World theme park. Still, it can manage a few reality-warping scenes - like a woman in full black abaya and face veil gliding down a chlorinated canal in an electric-powered gondola. That's one way to get to the local Gap store.

The emir - Sheik Hamid bin Khalifa Al Thani, to give him his full title - appears to be aiming for something more sedate, more cultured, more restrained. He's also aiming to make his capital, Doha, into a regional travel hub with connections to cities all over Asia and Africa. And that's why Qatar Airlines has started non-stop service to Montreal. So if you could very well end up here for a day or two on your way somewhere else. If you do, here are a dozen things to do in (or near) Doha before you depart.

Get cultured: Don't miss the Museum of Islamic Art. Even if you have no interest in the world's finest collection of Persian rugs, Turkish mosaics and damascene wood carvings, the place is worth a visit just to stroll through the grand halls and courtyards of architect I.M. Pei's cubist take on the Muslim minaret.

Listen to a symphony: The Qatari Philharmonic plays on the waterfront in a tiny perfect concert hall with admirable acoustics, 500 comfy seats and great sight lines (eat your heart out, MSO). It also has just enough gilt and crystal to give it a dash of 19th-century decadence. It's part of the Katara Cultural Village - a half-finished beachside complex that also includes restaurants, galleries, cinemas and a 1,000-seat amphitheatre. This is excess with class.

Visit the unicorn reserve: OK, they're really Arabian Oryx - Mahas in Arabic. And they have two long, tapering horns - not one. But in profile, they might be mistaken for unicorns, and some think that's how the whole myth started. They're Qatar's national symbol, and the country's Al Maha Sanctuary - an hour's drive out of Doha - helped to snatch them from the brink of extinction.

Take a hike: Walking anywhere here is a little like walking on the Ville Marie Expressway - the traffic's that bad and the drivers that uncaring. But the city's corniche is safe and one of the most beautiful in the Middle East. It's seven kilometres long and stretches in a gentle arc around the harbour. In the evening, families picnic on the grass under the date palms and pairs of women in abayas and Adidas take power walks along the promenade.

Sip a coffee in the souq: You can still buy sacks of rice and barrels of olives from tiny shops in the Souq Waqif. You can even buy a canary or a falcon. But it's a bit of a sham. The original souq was demolished a decade ago and replaced with this Disneylike reconstruction. Still, it's a major gathering place for everyone from Qatari nationals and Western expats to Pakistani labourers and Filipina nannies. So grab an outside table at a café on the main drag, order a Turkish coffee medium sweet and a wad of apple-scented tobacco for your shisha and watch the passing parade.

Go the mall: I know, this sounds terrible. But in a country where summer temperatures get painfully close to 50C and the relative humidity hovers around 85 per cent and the water in the pool is too hot to swim in, the airc-onditioned mall plays a special social role. At the Villagio, for example, you can go to a movie, ride a roller coaster, race a go-kart and, of course, glide down a canal in a gondola. That's excess minus the class.

Buy jewelry: The Gold Souq is housed in a collection of shabby 1960s-style buildings clustered around the noisy bus terminal, but what it lacks in charm it makes up in glitter and aggressive merchants. Just try to get out without buying a string of cheap freshwater pearls. If the wonderfully ornate Arabic style gold on display isn't to your taste, worry not. The jewellers boast they can imitate just about any style you want. Just bring a picture from your favourite fashion magazine.

Eat brunch: Friday buffet brunch at a five-star hotel is the social event of the week here for Qatari nationals and Western expats alike. In fact, it's one of the rare occasions when the two mix, or at least share the same social space. Service starts at noon and ends about 4 p.m., and some families stay for the whole thing, eating their way through life-threatening quantities of roast meats, grilled fish, salads, pastas, cheeses, curries, ice cream and Arab sweets, all washed down with copious amounts of wine. Yes wine. This is a Muslim country and liquor is tightly controlled. But the rules appear to vanish for Friday brunch. Reservations are a must.

Get dressed: Their shops don't look anything like the ones on London's Savile Row, but the Indian tailors who toil away in the cramped shops of the Filipino Souq can whip you up a creditable made-tomeasure linen suit for $150 ($130 if you haggle) and an Egyptian cotton shirt for less than $30.

Get outta town: If you're here for a week, you've got to get to the desert. The dunes along the coast are mountainous slabs of sand as much as 200 metres high. Roaring up them in an SUV or on an all-terrain vehicle is the local sport. The more sedately inclined can park by the sea, have a picnic and watch the lunatics in SUVs challenge the sands.

A day at the (camel) races: Watching a pack of half-tonne dromedaries race across the sand at 40 km/h should make you think of Lawrence of Arabia and the Revolt in the Desert. But the jockeys kind of spoil the image. They're 26-kilogram robots that cost about $5,500 -twice what unscrupulous owners used to pay for child-jockeys. Now owners follow their beasts in SUVs and control the robot's "whip hand" by remote control. Still it's exciting. The season runs from October to May.

Have a spa day: Barber shops in strip malls at gas stations in this country offer the "full Gulfie" - haircut, pedicure, manicure, facial and massage all delivered by a multi-racial crew from all over the Third World. Here, it's a manly tradition - like wearing perfume. Of course, if gas stations aren't your thing, you can get the same thing in more luxurious surroundings at most of the major hotels - at suitable luxurious prices, of course.

A word on getting around: Forget walking or cycling. Unfortunately, British expat engineers foisted the roundabout (a traffic system designed to endanger pedestrians and make body-shop owners wealthy) on this kingdom. The Carawa public buses are comfortable and air-conditioned, but the system is primitive. The transit company also operates the city's fleet of aquamarine metered cabs. They're cheap and you can hail them on the street, but if you phone for one, expect to wait four or five hours. Also their neatly uniformed drivers (white shirt, aquamarine tie and epaulettes) often don't know where anything is and in a city without proper addresses that can be a distinct disadvantage. Best to call one of the licensed private companies. They're efficient, dependable and still pretty cheap. A half-hour ride to the edge of the city, for example, will cost you about 50 riyals or $14. Try Niyas (my favourite) at 55-16-38-20