The Doha Bus and the Souk Waqif

An accident of birth...

My bus driver from Ghana.

The Doha City skyline.

Abdullah Bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Center.

Items in the souk

Interior alleyway

These towers were traditionally built to attract pigeons to nest in them so they could collect the droppings for fertilizer.

The falcon souk

The bird souk.

The camel souk

The beautiful Islamic Cultural Center by night.

The Tornado Tower

The Ezdan Hotel towers lit up blue.

Monday, February 2nd.

This morning I decided to take the DohaBus, a hop on hop off bus, for an overview of the city. I took a cab to the starting location and got there early. While sitting on the open second deck of the bus I watched a man sitting on the grass and using a small scythe to cut it. That really put things in perspective… an accident of birth, luck whatever it is, he is doing that while I am waiting for a tour of Doha. I’m not naive and I’ve been to many locations where poverty and the down trodden face you begging for handouts, but this made me think. On the first day of the tour I wrote about a taxi cab driver who is here to support his family who are back home in Pakistan and whose kids he sees infrequently. Since then I have met many men in the same situation, bus drivers, restaurant workers, hotel employees, tour guides…. It seems everyone I meet is from somewhere else. Today on the bus I heard why: there are 2.5 million people living in Doha and only 12% of them are Qatari citizens, there you go. So many people doing what they need to do to survive and support themselves and/or family. Me, I’m the ‘rich’ western tourist doing what they can’t comprehend. When we got under way I rode the bus the entire length of the journey which took about 2.5 hours. We drove past the National Museum and the Islamic Art Museum (both of which my next tour will visit), several mosques, the city skyline, the corniche and several large shopping malls selling high end goods. I got off at the second last stop, the Waqif Souk. This is the local market area consisting of small shops on narrow streets with many restaurants around the outside. I wandered around for a bit but many of the shops were closed because it was only noon. Then I stumbled upon the falcon souk and the Falcon Hospital, I kid you not. Falconry is a big thing in Qatar and there were many falcons, hooded or not, sitting on rails. There were several different species, including a kestrel. The hospital was a major hospital for birds, consisting of three floors with many labs and two operating rooms. I took the bus back to the hotel and hung out for a bit. 

Later I was going to take a taxi back to the market for dinner and a night time skyline bus tour that comes with the same ticket, but the doorman at the hotel told me to take the Metro and pointed the way. When I got there I met a young man from Uzbekistan who was going the same place as me so he accompanied me all the way. He was delighted that I’d been to his country and liked it. A day pass for the Metro was less than two dollars. It is new, clean and very efficient with glass sliding doors that prevent jumpers. After he left I grabbed a shawarma wrap and then took the night bus. The ride was an hour and took me past all the same sights as earlier but they were all lit up. When I got back to the souk I explored for another couple of hours. I found the camel stable, the bird market and the tropical fish market. I saw people buy baby ducklings for their kids (don’t they know they grow up to be big ducks), and little tiny tortoises. The bird market had all types of birds, pigeons, budgies, parrots, lovebirds, and chickens. Then I took the Metro back to the hotel for the night.