Hot days in Qatar
7 hours in Qatar
To be honest, I knew about the existence of this country relatively recently. When we bought tickets with long transfers in Qatar for a two-time exit to the city, and even so that we could get a hotel for the second time at the expense of the airline, my idea was strongly criticized at one of the forums. Members of the forum, as well as the Qatari staff of Boryspil, assured me that we would not be allowed into the city despite the recently launched visa-free regime. Qatar phone support offered me a hotel for $125 per person. I was surprised, because I have the right to a free one, because I flawlessly fulfill absolutely the entire list of conditions, not a small one. They answered me, well, if you don’t want a paid one, then of course, go to the Qatar + website and order a free one for yourself, we just have two options, paid and free : ) I went, entered the ticket data on the site and voila! A confirmation came in the mail that a four-star Holiday inn with a pool and transfers was waiting for us for $0. As of June 2019, hotel conditions have changed.
We had two transfers in Qatar. Roundtrip. The first transfer was less than eight hours. In this case, no buns from the airline are supposed to, we did not get on a free tour in time. (Now in Qatar all excursions are paid)
Almost 6 hours of flying in comfortable chairs, and we are in the capital - Doha. With a confident face, we went to passport control.
How many days do you plan to spend in Qatar?
– Approximately 8 hours! I replied with a calm face.
And bam, in our passports a multivisa for a month! Just what we needed for a big transfer on the way back. Although, when the officer asked exactly about the days, I really tensed up. It was about 19:00, the next plane will be after two in the morning. We took a bus straight from the airport to the city. Luminous skyscrapers seemed to be competing with each other for which one would attract more attention. It was difficult to figure out where to start acquaintance with a new country. But the glow of skyscrapers was so attractive that we decided to start with the business part.
It was worth getting out of the air-conditioned bus, as the total heat made its way into every cell of the body. It is of course very happy. What temperature will be during the day on the return transfer? Only one thought was terrifying. Life begins in the city after sunset. Tourists and locals walk along the endlessly long promenade. We followed suit and also took the route towards the old market along the sea. A very large number of boats tried to lure us to sail, but we did not give up. There were obviously more boats than walking tourists. Since the embankment has a curved shape, the skyscrapers open from different angles. I always want to stop and stare at them one more time. Then we made a couple of attempts to get into the park, but it turned out that it had not yet been built. But we got the experience of crossing a multi-lane highway. The button to turn on the pedestrian green light launched a complex scheme for stopping all lanes on the main highway and the same one adjacent to it. You have to wait a long time, but on the other hand, a huge flow of cars stops for you personally) It would be more convenient if there was a simple underground passage. The very heart of Doha was waiting for us in the Souq Waqif area.
The area is famous for its market. It didn't sound very attractive. The market operates twice a day. We arrived just in time for its closing at 22:00. But what is the atmosphere there? This area is so cozy, it envelops you with its atmosphere so much that you immediately start to like the country very much. The market is part of this area, everything else is old streets with many cafes. Wandering aimlessly through the streets is boundless pleasure. We were absolutely delighted.
This feeling was familiar to us. It's like we are for the first time in Istanbul. This is the moment when an unknown city turns out to be a real find. Exactly the same feeling we experienced a year ago when we flew to Gdansk. We had other plans besides the market area. But nothing else was needed, we postponed all plans for a return transplant. And now we are trying hard to get lost in the bustling nightlife.
One guy gave us good advice to turn into an inconspicuous dark street. She led us to the night camp of camels.
About fifteen camels rested peacefully. The nearest ones were actively interested in us. True, the memory of a scene from the film "Gentlemen of Fortune" kept me on my guard. It was also a joy to look into luxurious restaurants.
One thought did not let me go the whole walk. Somewhere in the city is hidden a bottle with a hundred dollars from the program "Eagle and Tails". But the program will be released only after 4 days. I paid attention to all the strange loopholes and doors. We paid special attention to the fountain in the form of a large pearl.
From the outside it might seem that we truly admire the creation of the author. I think that no one has paid so much attention to all the details of the fountain. We also made an approximate picture of what exactly should be the place in which it is rational to hide the bottle. But the attempts were unsuccessful. Let's hope that in 9 days, when we are back, the bottle has not yet been found.
When we walked along one of the houses, through the open door we noticed a couple of dozen men smoking a hookah. I came back again to take pictures. At that moment, it seemed to me that I was in the lair of a fire-breathing dragon, each head of which is trying to incinerate me with a look)
Looking through another window, we saw a rather unusual picture. About three dozen live eagles sat on the bars and waited.
We just waited. In general, it is interesting to look everywhere. One of the best introductions to a new country is the cuisine. In addition to expensive luxury restaurants, there are a couple of restaurants for locals. The tables are shared. You order kebabs on skewers for yourself and after 15 minutes they bring you to the table.
About 5.5 dollars costs five small skewers with kebabs with herbs and pita bread. We also really enjoyed the hummus. A delicious meal for two here will cost $10-15. Delicious here means VERY delicious. I don’t know what can surprise you in expensive restaurants, but a restaurant for locals is a gastronomic galaxy. In general, if you plan to get off in Doha, then you must here to the meal.
Doha also pleased us with the fact that, as a true city, it did not leave us without an adventure. We missed the last bus back to the airport. Uber is very cheap here, but all Wi-Fi is under lock and key. We spent a lot of time looking for the bus station. There were still a couple of hours before the plane, it was not critical for us, but still we had to run around the city. At the bus station, we finally learned that there would be no more buses. Taxi drivers attacked us like kites, calling terrible prices. We barely escaped from that area. Attempts to bargain with taxi drivers up to the price of Uber were a failure. And in general, I don’t really want to get involved with taxi drivers. But there was no way out. Let's count! The way back cost us about 10 dollars against six ubers. The two-time bus pass was limited per day. In general, it turned out to be a small hit on the money. But by and large, without it in any way. To be honest, the whole problem with the bus was due to the fact that Google showed a non-existent stop. Or maybe there was a stop there, but not ours.
In general, Qatar, you pass. We'll be back soon, wait for us!
Qatar airport is in the top of the world. True, we did not figure out which rating, but the airport is really interesting. I liked riding in an unmanned train.
Here he was the most unusual of all that we have already seen. Like the implementation of the Hyperloop project, but without the vacuum tunnel. The playground was just amazing. It's a pity Mishka didn't fly with us through this airport. By the way, Misha began to express a desire to fly not only on package tours.
It will be necessary for him to arrange a test flight as a savage. And now to one of the most exotic corners of the world, to Seychelles.
17 hours in Qatar
It was one of our last sunsets on the Seychelles island of La Digue. Two issues had to be resolved. Where is the $100 bottle hidden in Doha. Call the hotel and arrange a transfer. It's good that I have money on my skype account. True, the problem with calls abroad is that, not seeing the facial expressions of the interlocutor, you must quickly accept the accent of the English language of a new country for yourself. This is quite a difficult task. On the other side of the wire, there was a large call center that redirected us to the hotel itself. Our plane will have to land at 22:55, and the transfer at 23:00, and then at 01:00. What to do? Okay, let's go to 01:00. If we happen to arrive earlier, I will call you back somehow. I really don't know how. OK? OK! Super. Now what's with the bottle. “Congratulations on finding a bottle of two girls! “I didn’t like the beginning of the news right away. During the first exit, the bottle was at a distance of 500 meters from us, at the moment when we got off the bus near the skyscrapers. Oh, but there were real chances! (c) Yes Olya? ). But these are still trifles, here my mom and dad in Macau had an even more spectacular situation. Mom was sitting on a bench, staring at the wall with strange steps. Behind the first step at that time lay a bottle that had not yet been found. But we learned about this only a couple of weeks later, during the premiere of the issue. But now I am calm that I don’t need to rush from the airport at full speed in search of a bottle. As I wrote earlier, Qatar has a good tradition of opening check-in for a flight many hours in advance and launching the plane itself an hour before departure. No queues and a full plane. We boarded the plane forty minutes before departure. Cabin is complete! ”, “Okay, we are ready to take off! ". For this Qatar, a huge thank you, we took off 40 minutes earlier.
This evening was overcast, but for those on the ground. We also had a beautiful sunset from above.
Regarding Qatari Airlines, what they are well remembered for:
1. Lots of legroom
2. Staff at airports, even in Boryspil
3. No queues for registration
4. Early departures
5.15 minutes of free internet on board and reasonable prices for those who need more
6. Variety of films with Russian dubbing on personal screens
7. Variety of alcoholic drinks
8. Everything on the menu was available
9. Helpfulness of the staff in the Seychelles segment. I'm just really excited.
What could be better:
1. Nutrition. It could have been bigger and especially tastier
2. The staff on the Kiev route is much inferior in courtesy to the staff on the Seychelles route
3. The design of the aircraft inside could be more spectacular. Like the starry sky at Emirates.
In general, it was good to fly, the company, in principle, kept its brand. But if we compare them with Emirates, then I would write out much more points for Emirates Airlines in pluses. I think that the Qatari ones are somewhere on the same level with Lufthansa.
In the meantime, 6 hours of flight are over, and we land again in Qatar. At 22:20 hours. We have 40 minutes for everything. Dasha and I split up. Dasha ran to get in line at customs control. I ran to look for the internal airline desk to contact the hotel. After a long explanation of what exactly I needed, the girl said that they did not physically have a phone. Then I ran to look for information. The info guy listened carefully to my story and agreed to contact the hotel. He said something to them for a long time, and then they began to discuss the island of Zanzibar. And judging by the intonation in the smallest details. The officer told me that the transfer would be ready to pick us up in 15 minutes. While walking to Dasha for customs inspection, I hooked a tape forming a snake and it flew off. One of the officers reacted so menacingly to this. It seemed that now we were not being taken to a hotel, but to a prison. Time was very pressing. We had to ask the passengers in line to let us through. Briefly explaining where we are in such a hurry. The passenger in front of us was passing control, could not pass the scan of the retina. And they began to question him intensely about something. The most interesting thing is that the transfer itself ended up being 15 minutes late and I had to ask for another information to call the hotel and find out where they had disappeared. A business class car drove up to the airport and this was the start of our relaxing holiday in Qatar. The car took two more tourists with us. I immediately thought to ask if they liked Zanzibar. They liked him. Due to the fact that the officer called the hotel at my request, the hotel also asked me to check whether the plane had arrived from Zanzibar before. Since that plane also arrived earlier, the transfer was immediately sent for the second tourists. Who were surprised how the hotel even knew that they had already arrived. We were driven in a luxury air-conditioned car to our four-star hotel, which, along with a transfer, was provided by Qatari Airways. One of the managers came up to the car and opened the door for us. We were warmly received and offered to join the VIP club of the hotel chain. Hotel, room, staff everything was top notch. Especially for us, who choose hotels clearly with simpler criteria. They called back to mom that the sleeping quarters had arrived. In the morning it was necessary to arrange a transfer to the airport and find out where to leave things after check-out. “Guys, you are members of the VIP club, for you check-out at our hotel until 15:00. ” That's lucky, I joined the club yesterday. We just.
We left the hotel. I cautiously extended my hand beyond the shadow line. The sun was not yet critical. But on the other hand, it's not even 9 am yet. Uber came for us and for $3 we went to our favorite Souq Waqif. First, we had to eat. We already knew where it was delicious and immediately went to that restaurant. It was still closed, but the next one was open. It prepared a local dish in the form of boats with various goodies. In appearance, the boats resembled Georgian khachapuri. We took 4 different boats for ourselves and ate very nobly. It is joyful to wander around the market, both during the day and in the evening.
Now you need to get out of the cozy district and go to the center of Islamic art. The center was a 20 minute walk. The sun in a clear sky was gaining its power and the complexity of the route grew noticeably.
It was, in principle, tolerably hot, because the climate is dry. But in places it seemed that the temperature reached the limit.
The museum is a large, spacious, air-conditioned building with five floors. Everything is free. Usually we do not pay attention to museums, but in this country this is one of the few opportunities to cool off. Either a taxi or a museum) You can still, probably, in an expensive restaurant, but this is not our method. In principle, 40 minutes on all floors was just right. Some of the installations were rather unusually presented.
We also wandered around the area, looking at various small sights. It was an unusual representative building. A tinted jeep was standing in the distance, when Dasha wanted to take a picture of me, the jeep honked. Since there were no cars in the area, it seemed as if he was signaling us. Then he began to go as if to us. And when he did drive up to us and a strict officer looked out from behind the tinted glass, we realized that it was impossible to take pictures here. The sun was already quite ferocious, we caught a taxi and went to our luxury hotel. The pool was waiting for us.
Dressed in a bathrobe and slippers, we went to the floor, and ran into a sign that the pool was being renovated. I went down to the reception, a nice girl was outraged that someone decided to fix the pool while the guests want to use it. She talked to someone on the phone, ending with the phrase in English “And our guests need it right now! ”, smiled at all 32 and said that she would take us to the pool of a neighboring hotel. Nearby was a hotel, probably several times more expensive than ours. With a towel in hand, slippers and a bathrobe, we proudly crossed the road to a nearby hotel where we were taken to the SPA center on the roof. In addition to the pool and jacuzzi, we also had saunas at our disposal. But at this temperature, saunas are only needed to cool off. It was a very noble and decorous part of our trip. Still, it is very pleasant and joyful to live in expensive hotels, if only it were like this on every trip. But when you realize that you can pay several times less, while receiving a completely sufficient set of amenities, then you book cheaper. And when, in order to visit another 160 countries, you understand that luxury hotels do not shine everywhere. But it was really joyful, very relaxed and nice that it was a gift from Qatar Airways.
Honestly, I feel infinite gratitude that despite a bunch of reviews on the Internet about how people cannot get a hotel, in our case, the Cathars kept their word and provided everything without any questions. It's time to go home, in a month to fly further??? ? A respectable car personally came for us and took us through a hot city to a cool airport. See you at the transplants!
The budget for two transfers is $33 for two. Three taxis, one bus and two meals)
