Dusk in the Desert

Over the years, I have learned to love flight itineraries that involve long layovers.  An overnight layover offers the opportunity to rest and recoup between long flights, and it also provides a chance to visit a new city that I may never get a chance to see otherwise.  So, when I was planning our recent trip to Nepal, I was quick to book flights through Qatar Airways that included long layovers in Doha heading both to and from Kathmandu.  These flights were the best price, and I was thrilled at the idea of getting to actually sleep in a bed between flights after recently taking a grueling, eighteen hour flight home from Mozambique.

So after months of training for our upcoming trek in Nepal (more on that in future posts), Vince, our friend Thaddeus, and I set off for Kathmandu via Doha.  The first leg of our flight landed at Hamad International Airport in the early evening, and we went straight to the Qatar Airways transfer desk, where they set us up with hotel rooms and meal vouchers for the night.  Then a Qatar Airways employee helped us through customs and immigration and paid for our forty-eight hour transfer visas.

It was dark by the time we emerged from the terminal to meet our hotel shuttle, and we decided at the last minute to book a city tour through the airline.  Our shuttle driver whisked us off to the Safir Hotel, and we were able to drop off our luggage and freshen up a bit before another driver came to pick us up for an evening tour of Doha. 

Most notable attractions were already closed by this time of night, so the main thing to see was the city skyline all lit up and twinkling on the horizon.  But we did get to stop for photo ops outside of some museums, starting with the National Museum of Qatar. This architectural marvel was designed by Jean Nouvel, whose realized vision is a beautiful interpretation of a desert rose crystal.

Next we stopped at the Old Doha Port and Mina District Corniche, where we wandered through a nearly empty street underneath the glow of festive string lights.  One thing that stood out to me about Doha was that every bit of architecture we encountered was intentional and highly artistic, even down to the street lamps.  The streets were clean, orderly, and peaceful.  But the Doha skyline loomed in the distance, a major distraction from the sleepy street of the old port.  We all eagerly anticipated stopping at a viewpoint to get a better look at the skyline.

But we would have to wait just a little longer because our next stop was outside of the Mwani Qatar Aquarium, which was another example of Doha’s stunning architecture.  I would have loved to go in for a visit had it been open, but we had to settle for admiring it from the outside.

After leaving the aquarium, we visited one more museum, the Museum of Islamic Art.  Our driver dropped us off at the end of a sprawling walkway lined with palm trees whose fronds swayed gently in the night air.  The three of us wandered along the path, following alongside a long pool of water that ran through its middle.  When we reached the closed museum, we stayed for a bit to watch an impressive fountain that stood in front of its door. 

Soon, it was finally time to get a good look at the sparkling Doha skyline. We regrouped with our guide and he drove us a short distance to a viewpoint where we could see a line of skyscrapers on the other side of Doha Bay.  The city lights’ dancing colors were reflected across the surface of the bay in a mesmerizing display.

Dhow boats, decked out in their own twinkling lights, lines the water’s edge, as their captains beckoned us to come take a scenic boat ride.  Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a cruise, but I did thoroughly enjoy the sight of the festive looking boats.

When we returned to the car after this stop, the driver was bent over one of the wheels, which had gone completely flat.  He must have run over something sharp in the parking lot.  Since his vehicle couldn’t continue our tour, he called a colleague to come pick us up, and our new guide brought us over to the last attraction of the night, Souq Waqif.

Souq Waqif is an historic market that was founded at least a hundred years ago.  The market was rebuilt in 2006 after a fire destroyed most of it a few years prior.  But its maze-like stalls retain the traditional mud-daubed style of the original market.

Our new guide led us into the heart of Souq Waqif, where we passed by clothing stores, grocery shops, and even a handful of pet shops.  Much like the rest of Doha, the Souq was clean and peaceful, especially in comparison to other markets I’ve visited on my travels.  I did have one goal for our time in the Souq, and that was to find a spice store. It took a bit of time, but our guide finally found one, and I was able to buy some saffron to bring home at a much cheaper price than I can find it in the US.

When we were done shopping for the evening, we stopped at a nearby Lebanese restaurant for a late dinner, and then returned to our hotel for a full night of sleep.

An airport shuttle arrived for us in the morning, and we were checked in for our flight in no time, leaving us plenty of spare time to explore the airport and grab some refreshments in the lounge.  Hamad Airport is a destination in its own right, and we made our way over to see its main attraction: The Orchard.

The Orchard is basically a jungle in the middle of the airport.  This greenhouse has an impressive, architectural glass roof that lets in plenty of sunlight for all of the tropical plants that thrive amidst the bustle of luxury stores, escalators, and luggage-toting travelers.  Hidden within the forest is a waterfall, fun sculptures of safari animals, and an elevated walkway where you can get a birds-eye view of the conservatory.

When we finished exploring The Orchard, it was finally time to catch our flight to Kathmandu, but our time in Doha wasn’t over just yet.  After embarking on our attempt to trek to Everest Base Camp (stay tuned for all of the details on that), we had yet another long layover in Qatar’s capital city.  This time the airline arranged for us to stay at the Oryx Garden Hotel right inside of the airport.  The hotel has comfortable and spacious rooms, and our room had a view overlooking the first class lounge.

While it was convenient to stay right inside of the airport, this did complicate matters when it came to embarking on the desert tour I’d booked for us.  We couldn’t get free transfer visas this time, and instead had to wait in line at immigration to buy tourist visas. This made us a bit late to meet up with our guide, but now our visas are valid for two years, so if we happen to pass through Qatar again soon, we’ll already be set.

When we finally emerged from the airport, our guide, Anwar, was waiting for us in his SUV. We all hopped inside, and Anwar drove us out of the city, pointing out significant buildings and landmarks as we went. Eventually the ultra-modern architecture of Doha disappeared, seemingly engulfed by a landscape of endless sand. Anwar pointed out a couple of areas that were filled with trailers and explained that families from Doha come out to desert during the winter months for luxury camping, and the season for that was just beginning. Shortly after that, Anwar pulled over into a large parking lot. We’d arrived at the first stop of the tour, a quad bike track, where we were all outfitted with helmets before an employee led us over to a trio of quads.

We sped off across the sand as the low-hanging sun cast a golden glow over the tracks. There were about six different loops we could ride on, complete with tight curves and hills to fly over. Vince and Thadd had a blast, ripping across the tracks, while I tagged along a bit more hesitantly.

As we raced over the sand, Anwar was busy back at the SUV.  We returned to the parking lot to find him letting the air out of his tires.  This would be crucial for the next leg of our journey.  Once the tires’ pressure was low enough, we all got back in the vehicle, and Anwar drove us off-road into an endless field of dunes that rose up above the Persian Gulf.  The SUV bounced gently as he maneuvered us along sandy ridges and into valleys.  There were a couple of moments where we rode headlong down steep dunes, our view limited to the flat ground below us.

It was a thrilling ride, and it eventually culminated in a stop to watch the sun set over the desert.  We stepped out of the SUV onto the ridge of a tall dune.  On one side of us was a large pool of water, and on the other, the sun was inching towards the horizon in a fiery display.

We settled down into the soft sand of the dune to watch the rest of the sunset.  As it neared the horizon, bright oranges and yellows melted into soft pinks and purples, until the sun finally dipped behind a far-off dune.

Dusk fell quietly over the desert, but this was only the halfway point of our tour.  Our remaining activities would be done in the growing darkness.

I made a lame attempt at shaking all of the grains of sand off of my clothes before getting back into the SUV, but this futile effort was rendered even more meaningless when Anwar announced that our next stop would be sandboarding.

Vince and I tried our hand at sandboarding several years ago at Silver Lake State park, which is a popular spot for dune bashing in Michigan.  At the time, I was still suffering under the delusion that I enjoyed snowboarding, so I figured sandboarding would be a good summer alternative.  It turned out that the sand created so much friction on our rented boards that Vince and I had to basically hop our way downhill.  The boards moved so slowly that I ended up leaving with the notion that sandboarding is easy and not adrenaline inducing.

Now I know that the rental shop in Michigan probably wasn’t doing a diligent job of waxing their boards, because when we drove up to the sandboarding dune, we immediately saw other tourists zipping downhill on their boards.  The boards were going so fast that people were sitting on them rather than standing. 

Of course that wouldn’t do for Vince, who is still suffering under the delusion that snowboarding is an enjoyable sport.  He volunteered to go first, and managed to stay on his feet the entire way down.  He shot down the hill so fast in fact, that I was beginning to question whether I even wanted to try it seated.

When Vince returned to the top of the dune with the board, Thadd graciously volunteered me to go next.  Reluctantly, I sat down on the board, gripping the front binding for dear life.  Before I had the chance to back down, Anwar gave me an unceremonious push on the back, and I was flying.  Wind whipped through my hair, and sand caught in my mouth as I screamed my way down the dune.  When I hit the bottom, I shut my eyes tight to evade the dust cloud that exploded at my impact.

I had survived, and as far as I could tell, I hadn’t incurred any grievous injuries.  As I trudged back up the dune, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Shouldn’t trudging up a dune feel easier than this after trekking in the Himalayas for a week and a half?”

But no. Trudging up a dune will apparently never feel easy.

When I reached the top, I passed the board off to Thadd, who also opted to sit down.  He tore off down the hill, stopping in a spectacular crash-landing.  Thankfully, he was uninjured too.  Vince took one more run after that, but Thadd and I were not interested in trying our luck any further. When Vince rejoined the group at the top of the dune, we set off for the final stop of the tour.

Anwar retraced our path over the dunes until we reached a large pen full of saddled camels. By now, it was completely dark out, but there was still time for us to take a quick camel ride. A camel driver led us each over to a camel. I swung myself onto my camel, and clung tightly to the saddle as the tall animal heaved itself up from the ground. Once all three of our camels were standing, the camel driver led us a short distance away from the pen for a photo op. Then he led us back to the pen, where I once again clung to the saddle as my camel sat back down. And just like that the camel ride was over.

This was definitely the shortest camel ride I’ve done on my travels, but that was okay because after a long flight and then a tour, I was more than ready to get some sleep. Anwar returned us to the airport where we went back through immigration and security. We got a quick dinner at the airport’s Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza with our airline food vouchers. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.

The next morning we said goodbye to Doha, and then we flew home after nearly three weeks of travel. We’d really only gotten a small sample of what Doha has to offer during our two layovers, and was a lot of fun to get to see a bit of a country I would probably never get to visit otherwise. We only had the opportunity because of our flight itinerary to Kathmandu, and sandwiched in between these two nights in Doha was one of the most incredible adventures I’ve ever undertaken. I can’t wait to write about our journey into Nepal’s Khumbu region, which was as rewarding as it was challenging!

You can see more details of this amazing destination on my YouTube channel!