After a long week of work, I have taken the opportunity to walk around and explore this beautiful place.
The two names above, ‘Souq Waqif’ and ‘Msheireb’, are two areas of Doha that are minutes walking distance from one another, and paint completely different portraits of Qatar.
Souq Waqif is everything traditional and everything past. The lovely weather this time of year has the many cafes filled with guests sitting in the sun, maybe enjoying a shisha or lunch or coffee with friends. There are many tourists and visitors hoping to get a taste of the charm that once existed in this region. The narrow passages leave you feeling that you are in another time and place. This beloved Souq is well-known throughout the Gulf as a place where tradition lives on.
Literally two minutes away you can visit the ultra-modern district of Msheireb. Unlike Souq Wagif, where very few locals can be seen, crisp white thobes and black abayas seem to fit with minimalistic, concrete architecture of the area. Msheireb is everything now and future. You can see people dressed in their finest, the finest cars, the trendiest cafes and you can hear clacking of stilettos along the streets. This was the most recommend area for me to visit by Qataris. And locals are everywhere. Msheireb represents where Qatar and the whole Gulf is going. This region can feel very futuristic at times. It is a complex mix because I would not consider the people to be exactly non-traditional. Nevertheless, society is changing rapidly and powerfully.
musafira 