When Beth and I were looking for flights out of India to Africa, we found that the most affordable way was through the Middle East, and that most of these flights had a layover of 12 hours or more. Having just told Beth a few stories about Matt, an Australian ex-pat living in Qatar who Abby and I had met in Cambodia (See “Bada Bing!”), I instantly thought of emailing him to see if he’d be up for some tour guiding. A prompt reply included an enthusiastic “yes”, so we booked our tickets with a 12-hour stop over in Qatar.

We arrived at noon to find Matt waiting for us with his white Jeep Cherokee ready to go. We jumped in, and took off for the city… a long 5-minute drive from the airport. Matt showed us around the coast by driving us past the new museum set out on the water and bringing us to a lookout point where we could see the tall skyscrapers a few miles away rising out of the crystal blue sea.

Matt was a great tour guide for a number of reasons. One was that he was able to describe to us in detail how the city was being built up as a major tourist destination for the Middle East, since his occupation is Urban Planning. Not long ago, there wasn’t that much going on in Qatar, but in the last few years, Doha has been building and building, hoping that “if you build it, they will come”. The city skyline includes just as many buildings as it does cranes building them up, and they are already starting on another “city” just a few miles away. Matt brought us out to see the site where it will be built, since it has been his primary focus since he’s been in the country.

We drove out of the city to view the site, and were immediately surrounded by a vast, flat desert on both sides, with camels walking slowly by to boot. This was the scene that I imagined the Middle East to be, and it was a fantastical view to behold. When Matt showed us where the new “city” was to be built, we were shocked to learn that the land hadn’t always been there. They actually brought large boats out to the ocean, sucked sand up from the bottom, and created a new platform of land on which to build the new city.

“But why would they do this, when they have all this land here?” we asked.

Matt shrugged his shoulders. “Because they don’t know what to do with all their money, I guess,” he offered.

Reason number two that Matt is an excellent tour guide is that he somehow managed to get us up to one of the highest points in the old city at the top of a mosque to get a 360 degree view of our surroundings. Having seen the picturesque mosque while we were at an ATM, Matt thought we should go check it out. When we got there to ask if we could see the tall spire sticking out of the middle of the building, we were met with confused looks by the door men. However, Matt sweet-talked his way in, and we ended up climbing about 13 flights of stairs to the top.

Thing was, these stairs were not meant for tourists… they were steep maintenance stairs for the staff. Apparently, the spire was to be admired from afar, not mounted. However, we had the rare honor of climbing up and getting one of the best views I’m sure Doha has to offer.

Reason number three why Matt is an incredible tour guide: he knows all the great places to eat. Beth and I were treated to afternoon tea and (for me) the highly coveted avocado shake (previously found by me only in Hanoi, Vietnam). We then had a delicious lunch of chicken and lamb shwarma, and a bready-garlicy-spinachy concoction that I forgot the name of (hey, Matt, what was that stuff?). (Beth: I think they called it “pie.”)

And finally, for dinner, we went to a restaurant under a large tent, where we smoked a hooka and tasted a million different dishes, including a large mixed meat grill, grilled vegetables, babaganoush, hummus, a garlic yogurt dip, grape leaves, olives, grilled white cheese, freshly squeezed lime juice and so on and so forth. Beth and I commented on that meal for days afterwards… particularly because the taste of garlic would not leave our mouths no matter how many times we brushed. 

The other thing we did during our short stay in Doha, was to check out the central market place. We strolled around peeping in the stores and watching the people walk around. The vast majority of the women wore burqas and most of the men were dressed in traditional white robes and long white cloth hats. A group of men had gathered around a TV to watch a late night soccer game.

Matt dropped us off an hour and a half before our flight to Kenya, and we had to say goodbye there. We had an incredible stay in Qatar and were so psyched to have had the opportunity to go. However, there is no way we would have been able to do it on our own, so we owe the whole experience to our tour guide. Thank you, thank you, thank you Matt, for everything! If ever you make your way out to the U.S., you know you have a place to stay and two willing tour guides to take you around to all the sites, and the best food NYC (or Boston?) has to offer.