The richest place on Earth
They’re building 12 stadiums and 17 museums, they’ll pay £3million for a falcon and their racing camels are ridden by robots – welcome to Qatar
AS A friend watched me pack my suitcase, he asked, somewhat dubiously, whether there were enough things to do in Qatar’s capital Doha to fill a weekend. And he isn’t even that embittered about the fact that this tiny Middle Eastern country will host the World Cup in 2022.
Qatar may not be big – it’s about half the size of Wales and needs a particularly circuitous route when it hosts the annual Tour of Qatar cycle race – but it does have a double whammy of wealth due to vast reserves of both oil and gas.
You get some idea of the all-persuasive wealth at the brand new Qatar Airways business lounge at Heathrow. Other airlines might have a buffet and a few bottles of wine; this one has – all free – a full restaurant with linen tablecloths, a glass-fronted wine cellar and a dedicated Martini bar. A very fitting introduction to Qatar.
There’s a Xanadu quality to Qatar. Rarely have I felt safer; the country is full of long, straight roads, spotless shopping malls, beaches meticulously cordoned off with special areas for children and pristine beach toys for them to play with.
It’s a liberal part of the Middle East, too. Women have the vote and can serve in government. The Emir’s wife is a powerhouse of arts and education, spearheading new museums and universities.
It’s less Mammon-minded than Dubai and I like it all the more for it. In the Pearl, a new development of beach villas and apartments, there are designer-name shops on every corner, but delve past Doha’s skyscrapers and you come to the souk.
It’s a joy to explore – a labyrinth of small shops, many selling herbs and spices. Prices are a surprise: a good-size bag of lemon-scented pistachio nuts costs under £2 and a meal at Al Tawash – hung with Bedouin rugs and serving huge portions of Middle Eastern food – costs about £20.
We emerge to find live Arabic music in one of the squares and families cooking a meal outside.
Head to one side of the souk and you come across the falcon shops. Inside, there are perches full of birds, all with hoods covering their eyes to keep them quiet.
A couple of teenage Qatari boys, giddy with excitement, arrive to buy their first falcons and kneel to examine the birds on offer. It’s a rite of passage that’s akin to heading to Carphone Warehouse to get your first mobile – nearly 80 per cent of the male population will own a falcon.
Round another corner is the Falcon Hospital – an avian ER where taloned patients can be resuscitated and revamped, even having new feathers implanted when they break one.
Entry-level falcons cost about £2,000, rising to £3 million for the most expensive. Cheaper are the day-glo chickens on sale in the souk. They come in bright greens, yellows and pinks, and are ‘made’ by injecting eggs with a dye before they hatch (the colour wears off after four months or so). It’s an enjoyably anarchic touch in a country that feels like the Switzerland of the Middle East.
Away from Doha there’s excitement to be had in the dunes towards the border with Saudi Arabia.
Led by Shah, our driver from Pakistan, whose inner Jeremy Clarkson seeped out from his snowy-white, floor-length thobe (a long Arab robe), we plunged down dunes at nearly 90mph. It felt very slightly dangerous but in fact the tyre pressure had been safely low- ered and Shah clearly knew how to steer his way around any rocks. I’ve rarely felt so safe while squealing with alarm.
Then we arrived at the Inland Sea. It’s a popular place to camp for the night but – with an unexpectedly chilly wind whipping among the dunes – I was happy to head back to the car after watching the sunset. I rather failed my Lawrence of Arabia test, I’m afraid.
It might be cold at night, but day is a different story. In summer, temperatures can hit 113F (45C). It’s so hot that they’re even experimenting with air-conditioning open-air
stadiums. But in spring it’s usually a pleasing 70F (21C).
Sport is big – there seem to be stadiums all over the place, and 12 new ones are being built for the 2022 World Cup, most of them designed so they can be dismantled after the contest and given to developing nations.
Nothing, however, excites the average Qatari male as much as camel-racing. On the outskirts of Doha, we arrive to see a train of camels crossing the highway before racing starts. Our fabulously deadpan guide Jamal takes us through the intricacies of camel-racing. ‘They are like footballers except the best ones are female and they don’t dive,’ he says.
In 2007, child jockeys were replaced by robots fitted with walkie-talkie speakers, and now the owners career alongside the track in cars shouting encouragement to their steeds into radios.
When one of the races started, we gave chase in our minibus, and by the end we were level with the winning camel. The Qatari owners were also alongside and could see us cheering.
It’s as anarchic as Qatar seems to get. Crashes are common as owners are distracted while yelling into their walkie-talkies. But it doesn’t really matter – as well as cash prizes, there is a bank of brand-new four-wheel-drive cars waiting to be distributed to winners.
At the moment, the nation said by many experts to be the richest place on Earth is pumping much of its money into culture. The world’s most expensive painting, a Cezanne that sold earlier this year for £160million, is due to end up in one of the 17 museums currently being built in Doha. Already there’s the Museum of Islamic Art built by famed architect I. M. Pei – a staggeringly serene space that showcases carpets and simple ceramics, all beautifully presented. And there’s a new opera house that makes London’s Royal Opera House look like a village hall. Each seat has its number embroidered in gold thread, and the acoustics are out of this world.
Are the Qataris into opera? we ask. Not yet, comes the diplomatic answer, but now we’ve built an opera house, they might be.
Qatar is an unreal country – look out of the window as you fly home after an exhilarating weekend and it’s mildly surprising that the skyline hasn’t sprouted a couple of new skyscrapers during your stay.
The glitz unexpectedly won me over. When it comes to Mammon, I’ll take the culture of Qatar over the casinos of Las Vegas any day.