Thursday 22nd February 2024 and we set off for the Sheraton Heathrow Hotel in West Drayton for an overnight stop before travelling to Qatar the next day. This is not strictly a photographic trip but Mrs. M's daughter and her family live there and we are visiting them. All photographs were taken on my i-phone 14-pro.We are collected from the hotel at 4:30 am and progress smoothly through Heathrow Terminal 4. The flight goes smoothly and progress through Doha Airport is much quicker than on our previous visit.
Saturday 24th and our first visit in Qatar is to The B12 beach for breakfast but it is closed to the public so we divert to the Boho Social followed by a trip to Samaisa Desert Beach which was deserted and, where, although the tide was out, we spent a pleasant couple of hours. In the evening we had a trip to The Pearl and dinner at Fabio's in Porto Arabia Tower 9. The Pearl, like most parts of Doha, is spotlessly clean and very impressive, There are some images in the Qatar Gallery.
Monday 26th and myself and Mrs.M make our maiden Uber trip and return to the canal area of the Pearl. A fine piece of driving by the Uber driver to avoid a car which pulled out of a car park straight in front of us and then audaciously claimed to have the right of way...you really do need eyes in the back of your head when driving in Doha! Coffee in the Artists Cafe followed by a stroll around the canal area and then, eventually after numerous wrong turns and the assistance of Google Maps back to the Marina for a return visit to Fabio's for lunch. Annoyingly we had to wait a full minute tor a Uber to arrive to take us back to base and it cost about £7 for a 15 minute ride, much cheaper than in the UK but then again petrol is 43p a litre in Qatar compared with £1.43 here! Again the are some i-phone images in the Qatar Gallery.
Tuesday 27th and we travel solo on the Metro heading for the Souq Waqif, a fascinating market in an old part of Doha. We purchase our day passes
for the princely sum of £2.69 for 2 tickets and wait for the train which soon appears. Unfortunately we are stood in the wrong place and the train doesn't reach us so we dash along the platform and jump into the first carriage....it's luxurious and even has 2 seats where you would expect the driver to be, there is a (poor) image of the view from here in the Qatar Gallery. At the next stop an inspector boards our carriage and asks for our tickets, it turns out that we are in the VIP section so we have to retreat a bit further down the train,,,but at least we travelled one stop in VIP class. We spend a couple of hours wandering round the market and purchase a couple of fridge magnets as souvenirs. We also visit the Souq Waqif Art Centre where there are artists in residence and a collection of animals made out of various pieces of primarily scrap metal, there is an image in the Qatar Gallery. We have lunch in the 24/7, one of many semi-open-air cafes, and return to base on the Metro, this time avoiding the VIP carriage.
Thursday 29th and we're off to the desert for some "dune bashing". We are collected by our driver in a Toyota Landcruiser and head off into the desert, a journey of approximately 40 minutes. On the way we stop to deflate the tyres on the Landcruiser to 15psi and also a quick camel ride, There is an image in the Qatar Gallery which doesn't do justice to just how uncomfortable it was (not a view shared by Mrs. M) We then have a ride of about an hour over the sand dunes including a stop at the "inland sea" before being returned to base; a very enjoyable experience.
1st March is a "beach day" at the Sharq Village and Spa. Unfortunately it is a bit too windy to sunbathe on the beach but it is pleasant inland. Not as good as the Public House where we had spent a "beach day" on a previous visit.
2nd March and we have a visit to Torba Farm at Al Khor, a sustainable enterprise producing "local and international lifestyle products". We almost purchased some honey but at over £100 for a jar we decided that it was just slightly too expensive.
3rd March is our last day and we retrace our steps to the Souq Waqif via the Metro where I get my hands on a miniature World Cup for about £5, apparently a 60% discount on the 2022 price; I assume that stocks of 2022 merchandise will soon be exhausted. We return to the 24/7 for lunch and then back to base on the Metro.
4th March and we are picked up at 5:00am and, given an almost complete absence of traffic, arrive at Hamad International Airport about 15 minutes later. A Costa coffee and it’s soon time to board our Qatar Airways flight and 7 hours later we’re back at Heathrow where a taxi takes us back to the Sheraton and, around 17 hours after leaving Doha, we arrive home.