"A Day or Two in Doha" a Doha Travel Page by travelmad478

I spent a few short days in Qatar in Feb-Mar 2005, attending the Doha Natural Gas Conference and visiting the natural gas terminal and plant facilities in Ras Laffan. This trip was very short, but in the half-day I had to spare I had a great tour of Doha from VTer BraveCat (Anna), who's been living in this city for several years. We had a whirlwind driving tour of the city, seeing the little that's left of Doha's older areas and a lot of the brand-new districts that are popping up in every square inch of the Qatari capital.

The money sloshing around this country--courtesy of the world's third-largest natural gas reserves just offshore--is astonishing. The city is growing extremely rapidly, much faster than the small native population can keep up with. Almost everything new is imported from outside--it's a little freaky to see so many foreign retail and restaurant chains, seemingly outnumbering any indigenous shops or eateries. Everyone's driving a shiny new imported car (SUVs, mostly) and zooming along brand-new roads, spinning past impossibly manicured and spotless pathways and gardens. I wasn't sure what in Doha, if anything, was any more than ten years old!

In fall 2007, I spent another two days in Doha, this time at the new Four Seasons (to whom I will be eternally grateful for upgrading me to a massive suite even though I got a cut-price Internet deal on the room!) In the 2.5 years between my visits, a huge number of new buildings had gone up in the city. I have an photo on this page of the before-and-after comparison. It's pretty stunning.