After three days in Abu Dhabi, we board a cruise ship, the Oceania Riviera, which will take 30 days to get to Singapore. There are 900 passengers and almost all of them are unhappy. We were supposed to spend the first 7 days visiting 5 of the Arab Emirates, but Oceania has cut 3 of them for what they call “safety reasons”. Almost all of us had chosen to take this cruise because of those ports, places we were excited to see for the first time. Other cruise lines were still visiting these ports, but Oceania was not. It seemed a little strange, and became even stranger when two weeks before we set sail we all received a notice stating that the two day stay in Doha was now reduced to one day. No reason was given. If it was unsafe to visit for two days, surely it was just as unsafe to visit for one?

So now four days of the first week of the cruise are spent at sea, days when the ship actually goes slowly round in circles, insuring our safety but not our sanity and fueling the flames of discontent.

But enough of that.

Lets talk about Qatar, another country rapidly developing thanks to the discovery of oil. Doha, its capital, is well on the way to becoming a world class city. As the ship approaches the harbor, the city looks every bit the part.

The bold move of hosting the 2022 Football World cup put Doha and Qatar firmly on the map

We have rented a car with Hertz. After our experience at Dubai we are very nervous, especially as we have been warned that it is no simple task for a foreigner to rent a car. That turns out to be an understatement. We are greeted professionally by a team of three at the counter. We hand them our passports, my driving license and a credit card. They then invite us to sit in a very nicely equipped waiting room and offer us coffee. That should have been our first clue as to what lay ahead. We turn down the coffee assuming we won’t be there long enough to drink it. It turns out they should have fed us lunch!

All three employees start working feverishly on the job at hand. There is much discussion between them and several phone calls are made. Our passports are scrutinized carefully and more calls are made. The entire process takes exactly an hour, at which point we are invited to sign the rental agreement as if nothing out of the ordinary has occurred .

We are on our way. We have rented a car to explore the famous mangrove swamps of Al Khor, famous because they are a completely unexpected sight in the middle of a desert, and for being a haven for birds and fish.

The road to Al Khor follows the coast. Another huge freeway, this time of 12 lanes and this time completely deserted. Built to take the traffic from one Football World Cup stadium to another in 2022, it seems completely superfluous in 2024

On the outskirts of Al Khor there is a small sign to the Mangrove Swamps. The road is narrow and again completely deserted.

It seems strange that there is no traffic. But it is about to get stranger. A few miles further on there is another sign to our right. This time we turn onto sand.

We pass two sizeable compounds sporting expensive and very modern looking houses. Home sweet home??

At times, it is almost impossible to tell where the desert ends and the road begins, if indeed it is a road. It certainly doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. All we can do is follow the tracks of those cars that have been before us. We are finally getting the adventure of driving across a desert. An adventure that I had been excited about, but which is rapidly loosing its appeal.

We slowly continue on, until we see

They pay us absolutely no attention as we drive past. What could be more natural than a couple out for their morning walk pushing a stroller. We must be in the middle of a Fellini film.Where have they come from and where are they going.?

Eventually we reach the mangrove swamps, which are a little underwhelming.

They are I admit a rather strange sight in the middle of the desert, but nowhere near as strange as the sights we have just seen.

We get back in the car and return to Doha. It is, like Abu Dhabi, a city that has invested in museums . Two in particular have caught the attention of the rest of the world because of their striking designs. These are what we had planned to explore on our second day in Doha. As it is we just have time to drive by, take some photos and enjoy the spectacular architecture.

The Museum of Islamic Art designed by I.M.Pei

and the National Museum of Qatar, designed by Jean Nouvel

That evening we sail away, leaving behind a city that is impressive in daytime, but even more so at night