Out of the sand

It’s my last night in Doha. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving the desert. Mission completed. I’m flying back home, with Qatar Airways.

According to themselves, Qatar Airways is one of the world’s leading air lines. They’re not bad. I enjoyed flying with them. They had very cute stewardesses. It’s kind of strange, the young and sweet girls working in the cabin of the airplane, with short skirts and plenty of makeup. Once they get out in the street after work, they put their niqabs and hijabs on. God is great, but don’t worry above 30.000 feet.

I had a very pleasant stay at InterContinental Hotel, right by the beach, and with a nice view to the Persian Gulf. I must admit I liked this country. Qatar is a desert country. Doha, the capital, is apparently expanding rapidly into the desert. There are cranes and construction work everywhere.


There is no fresh surface water in the entire country. I don’t know where they get the water from, possibly drilling for ground water or desalting sea water. But they have plenty of oil and gas, which has made Qatar one of the richest countries in the world, and with the largest consumption of gasoline, and emission of carbon dioxide per capita.

The population is kind of special. 1.5 million people live in Qatar, but only 300.000 are citizens. The rest is cheap labor from other Asian countries (India, Pilippines, Indonesia, …). The Qatarians don’t treat their workers very well. Salaries are low, and unions is illegal. No good; shame on you.


Qatar is a liberal country, by Islamic standards at least. Women are allowed to drive, and foreigners can practice their own religion (or lack of religion). In Doha, there’s even a Catholic Church. Also, Doha is the hometown of Al Jazeera, the “Arabian CNN”.

In 2022, Qatar is hosting the Soccer World Cup. Nobody understands how this came about, but everything is possible for the gang that rules international football (I still mean soccer).

Maybe I’m coming back to the desert sand in 2022, but tomorrow I’m going home to the snow.

(I took the picture at the top last night. The low building, a little bit to the left, is my hotel. The other pictures were shot during my stay. I was amazed by the falconer and his bird. It was so calm and quiet as long as the cap covered it’s eyes.)