UGANDA 2025: DOHA, QATAR

 July 17, 2025

Qatar is a tiny country in the Middle East that pokes out like a thumb from the Arabian Peninsula into the Persian Gulf. It comprises 4,471 square miles (slightly smaller than Connecticut) and has a population of about 3.2 million (slightly less than Connecticut).  Unlike Connecticut, 80% of its population is centered in one place, the capital city of Doha.

We arrived ini Doha at around 6:00 p.m., and by the time we got through immigration, it was beginning to get dark, which means the city was beginning to come alive. Our guide, Dharma, was a man in his early 40s from Nepal, of all places. He was friendly but very difficult for us to understand and misinterpreted many of our questions.

Doha is a visual paradise, and it quickly became apparent that the city is all about architecture. One of the first things we saw was Stadium 974, built in 2022 for the FIFA World Cup. Its name comes from the fact that it was built with 974 shipping containers.

Our first stop where we actually got out of the vehicle and stepped into the sweltering heat was the National Museum of Qatar, opened to the public in 2019. 

This temporary blow-up balloon piece is called "Sculpture of Dreams" and was part of a Latin American exhibition at the museum.

Our guide really liked to take pictures of us, as you will see.

The interlocking disc structure of the building creates a thermal buffer zone.

Pretty cool flagpole if you ask me.

This is the Museum of Islamic Art, one of the most comprehensive collections of Islamic art in the world. Although the city is supposedly the busiest at night because of the intense heat during the day, the museums are only open during the day. I guess if you are in an air-conditioned building, it doesn't matter how hot it is outside. The fountain feature in front of the museum at least gave us an illusion of coolness.

From the walkway in front of the museum, we had a great view of downtown Doha across the water.

Two more views of us and the city and museum:

Next we drove to the Souq Waqif Market, originally built in the late 19th century but renovated in 2006 after most of it was destroyed in a fire in 2003. A little corral of horses had a great view of the Abdulla Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Center, aka Bin Zaid, aka the Spiral Mosque. The spiral minaret was inspired by the one on the Great Mosque of Samarra in Iraq. Both a civic center and a mosque, it was completed in 2008.

The souq is a labyrinth of shady, narrow, winding paths, and if I hadn't been so exhausted, it would have provided lots of fun shopping. 

The architecture is designed to keep buildings cool.  I can't remember the details, but it has something to do with mud-brick walls, bamboo roofs, wind towers

This looks fun:

The Bird Market was full of caged birds for sale, some meant to be pets . . . 

. . . and others meant to be dinner. 

There was everything from parakeets to cockatiels to turkeys to guinea fowl to young ducks.

Even more unusual, there is a Falcon Souq/Market, which is located right next to the Souq Waqif Falcon Hospital, a state-of-the-art medical facility dedicated to treating sick and wounded hawks. They treat up to 150 falcons a day during the peak season.

Introduced to the Arabian peninsula by nomadic Bedouin tribes who used birds of prey for hunting, falconry is a popular sport in Qatar

Six to eight different falcons were on display in the shop that made up the Falcon Souq, some wearing a chic eye mask and tethered to a post.

Others chewing on some meat, but always tethered.

We spent quite a bit of time with this falcon (left). I zoomed in and used AI to remove the background so you could get a better look at him.

We each had the opportunity to put on a heavily padded sleeve and hold him. I love the second photo of Ella with the photo of the Arabs behind her, as if they are actually looking at Ella holding the falcon.

Bob and I are not nearly as photogenic and perky as Ella is.

Falcons sell in this shop for anywhere between $5,000 to $20,000 and more. The price varies by color and markings. The most expensive one the shop ever sold, according to their employee, was a white one that sold for $2 million! 

The Falcon Souq also sells everything a falconer might need for this big investment, including the special hoods.

Need a camel? The Souq Waqif is your place. They have a camel market. These are not tourist camels for riding.

These camels are used for meat and milk and for agricultural purposes.

Need a trunk? The souq has you covered for that too. And of course, there are plenty of clothes and household items for sale.

Time to eat. Dinner? Breakfast? No idea. Our guide led us into the Damasca One Restaurant. We used the QR code to acces the menu and order.

We invited our guide to eat with us, which was great because otherwise we would not have known what to order. We began with a couple of these for appetizers:

QAR 83 = about $23.00 USD. Not cheap for an appetizer. The entire meal cost around $135 for the four of us.

We really liked the puffy bread that came with the appetizers--like a pita full of air. We used it to scoop up the appetizers.

The rest of the meal included lamb and chicken cooked in various ways (all good) and lamb shank that was chunks of lamb with potatoes and onions in broth and oil. The lamb shank was especially good. Ella loved the food and tried everything. We were impressed by her sophisticated palate!

On our way back to the car we passed this ginormous golden thumb, a sculpture by French artist César Baldaccini (1921-1998) commissioned to mark the greatest sporting event in Qatari history--the Qatar soccer team's defeat of four-times champ Japan in February 2019 to win their first-ever Asian Cup crown. Supposedly this sculpture was based on a cast of the artist's own thumb.

Note, by the way, how many people are out and about in the pictures above and below. It was after midnight on a Friday morning--not even the weekend yet.

We checked into the Hotel Hampton by Hilton to get cleaned up and try to get a few hours sleep. I could not sleep, but Bob did better and Ella totally zonked out. We were up at 6:15 a.m. and downstairs for what turned out to be an excellent breakfast buffet that included hummus, pita bread, yogurt, fresh fruit like grapefruit wheels and melon, fresh veggies like beets and cucumbers, roasted caulifower, chickpea curry, and rice. It was delicious. 

We Ubered to the airport and got there at least two hours before our 9:50 a.m. flight. This enormous falcon by Dutch artist Tom Classen sits on the ledge facing the airport, looking like it might pounce on one of the puny cars driving past it. The falcon, I learned, is Qatar's national bird. Makes sense.

We did wait in a long line (30 minutes +) to have our passports reviewed yet again (after security, etc.). Qatar Airlines really failed us in efficiency. On the other hand, Doha's Hamad International Airport was a lot of fun. For example, check out the 23-foot-tall yellow "Lamp Bear" by Swiss artist Urs Fischer, a symbol of childhood, innocence, and wonder.

Or how about this children's playground featuring an art installation called "Other Worlds" by American sculptor Tom Otterness. It is meant to be climbed on and explored by little people.

But the thing that was the most fun in the airport was people watching. I wish had had more pictures of the people.

We had one more flight of 5 hours and 40 minutes that would take us from all of this glamor and glitz to one of the poorer nations of the world--Uganda.