Dust, Dirt, Doha and More Dust

---

Doha: a hazy mix of dust and concrete settled on the edge of the desert by the sea. Whether you look at it from the sky or the ground, it's a gradient mesh of pastel blues and browns with the occasional colour pops from tourist buses and taxis. And it is so very hot, a muggy heat where the sun is constantly battling with the thick dust clouds and both are winning as the humans sweat over burning concrete underneath. We weren't even meant to be there.

Our flight was cancelled in Manchester and the following one was due five hours later. Because of the incompetence of the staff who waited until the flight was due to take off before they started to process some of us through, this flight was over three hours late. I've never experienced such rude and unhelpful staff and the police were called in, causing an angry crowd to get rowdy. Once most of us were on the flight, it was decided that now was a good time to start fuelling the plane, as there was no way they could have done this hours ago. We were promised that whilst we were on our way to Doha, the staff there would be processing us through to connecting flights. But when we arrived, the staff knew nothing of our frustrations and delays, and we spent a further fours hours at the airport, with no food and occasional rudeness and lies from the staff. I think the lies were meant to shut us up, not wind us up - fail. Not a good start. I will never fly with Qatar Airlines again, not because I was delayed by at least 22 hours, but because of the absence of a back up plan, the staff rudeness, the lack of information and various lies we were told about what was happening.

So we were put in hotels throughout Doha. Glyn and I were sent to one that was half an hour's drive away from the airport, I guess the hotel at the airport was deemed to expensive for us. Finally at the hotel we got fed a buffet lunch and the humous was awesome. Surprisingly, the sockets in the hotel room were British so I was able to charge up my phone. I was discovered that the contents of my bag were covered in dust despite having not opened it outside and only being in the dust for a few minutes.

Despite being very tired, we decided to see a bit of Doha in the few short hours we had. The area of Doha we were in is very much still a work in progress with loads of construction work. Did I mention it was roasting hot? We walked down dusty streets, past plenty of building sites where I saw my first cat slinking through the workmen on it's way to a shady spot. We couldn't buy any water as we had no local currency.

I noticed that a lot of the POS and adverts in shops were in English and used photos of white people, it's very westernised. Dusty westernised. The sky never cleared, always a pale blue fuzz... of dust. We walked toward the sea, crossing many super busy roads where car horns are used excessively. There were few trees for shade, but any public seating was in full dusty sunshine.

At the sea front were many empty tourist boats and a few lads fishing; everywhere was very quiet, maybe that's because it's Sunday or maybe it was down to the time of day. We walked back down through the Souk that was closed and we saw plenty of petshops with stacks of overcrowded birdcages full of miserable birds. I saw my second cat of the day chillin' by the shops until an Aussie turned up with cat food.

Back at the hotel, Glyn had a small nap and then we both showered, putting back on the clothes we've lived in for 36 hou. There hadn't been all that much to see, but I'm glad we got out to look. Glyn and I are avid amateur photographers, so we used the time to take photos. Because my camera gear and books fill my hand luggage, I have no deodorant, toothbrush or hairbrush. I may not be very clean or tidy, but I've got two cameras, five lenses, a flash and a gorilla pod with me, so time was still well spent. BTW, the photos on this blog are taken on my ipod, the proper photos will be edited and added to Flickr after I get back.

The colour of Doha at night transforms from dusty pale blue to dusty dark blue with an orange hue of light pollution, reflecting on the dust. Have I mentioned the dust enough? Plenty of neon signs cut their way through the night haze, but they too, are covered in dust.

So the first day has been a rather disappointing and my first blog not full of the things I'd hoped. We should be in Ho Chi Minh by now, but we are in Doha airport, waiting to fly to Kuala Lumpa (don't ask!!) Tomorrow will be good though.

---

Photos

Giant Clam
Seafront, Doha

Doha
The part of it across the water appears to be finished.

Arab sail
Doha

Empty tourist boats
Doha

Souq cat
Just before his tea time.

Rare bit of bright pink
Doha

Road cones for sale
Doha

Doha airport
It is pretty fancy, but I'd rather be in Ho Chi Minh

Comments

[Jayne]

better late than never
Sorry you got off to a bad start guys. I can cross Doha off my bucket list then.... Onwards and Upwards x