Our flight from Dubai to Doha was mostly uneventful, and we can say that we’ve enjoyed flying Qatar Airlines. One downside was that our Qatar Airlines flight deboarded to the tarmac instead of using a jetway due to overcrowding in the terminal. This meant a bunch of steps for Sharon to navigate on crutches. Also, the immigration lines were outrageously long. We were 2 hrs. clearing and we were lucky our prearranged driver waited for us to take us to our hotel, Hilton The Pearl. These are issues that must be dealt with to become a world-class airport, despite how fancy or beautiful it is.

First impressions of Doha were excellent. While this is a very modern city, with strikingly beautiful architecture everywhere you look, it does not seem to suffer the same traffic problems as Dubai. Our driver had us to our hotel in 25 minutes and we were able to get checked in and even managed a quick swim in the pool. This property is ½ hotel and ½ residences. So, the vibe is totally different than the hotels we’ve stayed at earlier. There are families, and children arriving home from school. It was nice!

Speaking of school, we learned that the public schools are very good. In fact, even the royals attend public school, and for expats, they pay a small fee to attend. For higher education, Qatar University is highly ranked, but there are also other American universities with campuses here; Texas A&M, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, Virginia, Northwestern and Cornell, to name a few. We learned that the young royals in Qatar are encouraged to get their higher education, and then go to work for the government. No sitting back on their trust fund! And unlike the UAE, Qatar provides free healthcare for everyone, regardless of residency or nationality.

Qatar has a population of 1.5 persons, with 225k of those as national Qataris, and the land mass is about the size of the state of Connecticut. The population of Doha is overwhelmingly composed of expatriates from mainly India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Philippines, and Bangladesh. Unlike the UAE, is seems the expat unskilled laborers are treated slightly better with wages 2 – 3 times higher and with free healthcare.

The political system of Qatar runs under an authoritarian semi-constitutional monarchy with the emir as head of state and chief executive. Founded in 1825, Doha is the capital of Qatar and has 90% of the Qatar population living here. Similar to Dubai, Doha has expanded its coastline by building man-made islands. Our hotel sits on one of the islands, The Pearl.

A quick note about how we managed to visit Doha in the first place. As we booked our flight from the US to Amman, and then back to the US, using Qatar Airlines, they have an amazing stopover program that allows you to spend 1 – 3 nights in Doha, and the airline subsidizes your hotel bill. So, the Hilton where we are staying is a 4-star property, yet we are paying less than $100/night. Similar to Dubai, this is an expensive town and food/drink costs double what it would cost in the US. Despite, we thought it worth a stopover and we are excited to explore and learn about this country.

Tomorrow: Souq Waqif, Doha Corniche, National Museum of Qatar, Katara Cultural Village