All aboard for Doha’s underground – the Metro
Qatar’s Metro is a super-efficient light rail underground system, criss-crossing Doha with thousands of passengers daily. And I’m their number 1 cheerleader. Why? Because the Metro is economical (even in South African terms) reliable easy to use quick safe, and clean. It also means I can still move about this modern Middle Eastern city of […]
Arabic flavour for 2022 World Cup football feast
From a distance, Doha’s impressive city centre skyline is like a mini-Manhattan. Up close, however, it has a distinctive Arabic flavour, especially with the growing FIFA 2022 World Cup branding. A visual football feast awaits. The prolific presence of Arabic writing, calligraphy, decorative motifs, geometric shapes, rich Middle Eastern colours and design references to the […]
Doha takes art to the people
The giant yellow teddy at Doha’s Hamad International Airport is an apt introduction to the importance Qatar places on public art. Lumpy, old Lamp Bear sits there, larger than life, a photographic magnet for locals and visitors alike, offering just a hint of the many surprising art treats that await in Doha. From illuminated streetlights […]
Shopping pleasures in Doha
Shopping in Doha is akin to shopping on steroids. Everything is bigger-better-faster and more convenient in the many malls of Qatar’s capital. In fact, shopping here is pretty much a visual smorgasbord of the sumptuous first-world life on offer in Doha. Every nation (there are residents from least 115 different countries living here), every brand […]
Doha puts sport in the fast lane
For most countries, establishing a sporting culture is a marathon journey. For Qatar, it’s been a sprint. The impressive new sports museum – 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum – in Doha is a fitting example of the expense, drive and commitment the country is making to fast-track its plans to become an internationally recognised […]
Squeaky clean Doha awaits
Pristine, polished, spotless, sparkly, spic and span, ship-shape, shiny … There just aren’t enough superlatives to describe just how comprehensively clean Doha is. This Middle Eastern city is squeaky clean on the grandest of scales. For my sake, and for the benefit of reading this post, please imagine the shiny luxury of a five-star mirrored […]
Doing the Doha drift – driving in Qatar
Driving in Doha is not for the faint-hearted, as you adapt to right-hand driving, four-to-six lane highways, new traffic rules, foreign signage, endless detours, heavy volumes of traffic … oh, and the ubiquitous Doha drifters … Perhaps if I’d previously lived in a big city like Johannesburg or even Cape Town, I’d be less inclined […]
My new best friends in Doha
Mrs Waze, AC and Buftar … it’s okay if you don’t recognise them. I didn’t have a clue who they were either until soon after I arrived in Doha as a newbie South African. But now, four months on, I wouldn’t be without them. They are my new best friends. Ehteraz used to be my […]
Fruit and veggie heaven comes to Doha
Snake gourd, red bananas, Jack fruit, kohlrabi, yams, pak-choy … and the list goes on and on. Fruit and veggie shopping in Doha is both a visual feast and geography lesson. Well, it is if your fruit and vegetable fare has been confined to common old garden varieties of potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, apples, oranges, […]
HE, tea and dust in Doha
The small stuff can be a game changer in Doha. Every country has its own quirks or, at least, that’s how these so-called differences or peculiarities are perceived by outsiders. But they’re normal to those who have always lived there and therefore, hardly worth a mention. In Qatar, there’s a wealth of small things, that […]