A Layover in Doha

A whole day spent in Doha on the occasion of a Qatar Airways connecting flight to India. The airport is modern and functional, offering interesting services for its users, such as free use of the computers made available and a camp bed complete with blankets where you can rest for a few hours. What's more, while waiting for your flight, vouchers are provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Self Service. The dishes aren't anything special but they fill you up. Having to spend time in Doha from 5 in the morning until 9 in the evening, my travelling companion and I decided to take a little trip into the city. The interesting idea isn't the easiest to carry out: first of all we have to move from the Terminal reserved for Transfers to the one dedicated to arrivals in Qatar.

We reach the arrivals Terminal with a modern shuttle bus, then at the Customs Office we buy the visas, payable only by credit card (they cost the equivalent of 21 Euros). Once outside the airport we agree with a taxi driver for a short tour of the city for 26 USD. The driver, a Sudanese man who has been working in Qatar for a few months, takes us to the Corniche, the seafront avenue that looks out over the Arabian Sea right in front of the centre of the capital. This is the best view of the futuristic skyscrapers that try to compete with nearby Dubai. We reach the Downtown passing among the skyscrapers; the city looks deserted to us, without a soul, and I wonder where all the people are. We make a stop at the tourist harbour where the yachts are moored, then head back to the airport directly from the Transfer Terminal, from which after a few hours we take our flight to India.