I arrived to Doha less than 24 hours ago
I arrived on a late night flight from Istanbul
so I've been here less than 24
hours and I've spent one day in Doha
I've spent 24 hours here. Now... I've been to
Middle East before but Doha is really
really impressive
I mean I'm gonna start from the
beginning and talk 
about the airport, right?
now I've never seen an airport like it it's
absolutely stunning no exaggeration it's
stunning it's like it's like it's not
going like 200 years into the future but
it's like going maybe 20 years into the
future the architecture is really
gorgeous attractive and it's so
futuristic there's like monorails going
around it's like wow you know you go to
the drinking fountain and you push it...
... what's that sound that's
just clunking up of course it's the
sound of the electronic chiller, it
can't give you like room-temperature
water it's gonna give you nice ice-cold
chilled water. The airport is amazing
it's so modern, everything is spotless
there's about a hundred guys and girls
just dressed in suits
just like... 'arrivals this way sir, yes this way'...
and you feel like... well like am i all
of a sudden become like have I just
become like some kind of Sheikh or Prince
or Amir or something, it's kind of
really it's a nice way to be welcomed in. 
Now, in terms of getting to your hotel
like first impressions of transport here
it wins prizes over places like Istanbul
and Kuwait and other countries which
don't really have like an easy taxi
service like uber or something, I mean
Istanbul does have 'bitaxi' but uber
here is really good so I got an uber to 
the hotel it was fine no problem at all
the city is is really nice... as
you come out and you drive down this
road there's all these brightly coloured
huge like I don't know 100 feet tall or
something lampposts I guess...  
they're bright and they're brightly
coloured you're like wow like I think
Qatar really works hard on creating
impressive and stunning first
impressions which are going to stay with
you for a long time
I arrived to my hotel, by now it's like 2/3am...
the room's fine it's like a hundred and
twenty seven quid for four nights I
think that's right from memory I'll just
write up there in case it's not 
but yeah *£137 for four nights. Upon
checking in they were very strict about
guests - now I've booked a room for one
person because I'm here by myself and
they were very clear like you must not
bring guests into the room I had to sign
something to say no guests allowed...
and that's something that I hadn't
noticed in other parts of the Middle
East it might just have been that
because I was you know had my own
apartment places and I didn't stay in
hotels that much although I definitely
have stayed in hotels in places like
Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait and a few other
places but that seemed quite... they 
seemed quite strict on that and there
was a lot of CCTV as well there was CCTV
all over the hotel inside, outside even
outside the room there's a camera
and it wouldn't surprise me if there was
a camera inside the room as well to be
honest. Now, the area that I'm staying in
is a little bit out of town it's like a
40-minute walk to where I am now
like the main kind of central area with
the water the sea and it reminds me a
lot of Kuwait now those of you who don't
know me I've lived in...
Doha is very similar to Kuwait - now what
do I mean by that? Well there's a lot of
work going on they're constantly
building, there's a lot of very very
hardworking people, there's a lot of Indian
guys working incredibly hard in the hot
sun covered up, digging, doing
work that that's something I saw a lot
of in Kuwait but I haven't seen for a
while so it kind of still struck me
I mean I like Doha already but this guys
this is like from the future...
mobile charging
Other first impressions are
like I mean I noticed it last night to
be fair when I got in the taxi but it's
just come to me now when you smell the
air the air smells like the Middle East
yeah it's that smell it's like that hot
deserty, slightly scented I don't know
why it's scented but it kind of smells
like you're opening what we in the UK
would call a tumble dryer Americans
would just call a dryer and it's like
it's hot it smells a bit stale but it's
got that kind of scent of the washing
powder that's what I could smell last
night in the taxi it might have been
because the uber driver had an air
freshener in there but there is a very
unique smell to the Middle East and if
you haven't been here you you'll think
I'm crazy but if you have been here then
please back me up and and write a
comment down below saying you know what
I'm talking about like the smell of
Middle Eastern countries is it's a good
smell... it's a nice smell... 
the climate's a mixture...
the dust just the incredibly
high temperatures and I don't know what else
there's lots of lots of staff here from
the Philippines lots of lots of workers
here from the UK from America from what
I've seen I've met I've met a few people
already and chatted to them, I've actually
met some Qatari police who were quite
friendly I was taking some pictures of
this just over by the docks and this cop
came up to me he was like 'are you taking
what are you taking pictures of' and I
said just me and I'm just taking
pictures of me and he's like just
buildings yes I'm like yeah just
buildings and we had a bit of a laugh
and he was like where are you from I was
like UK and I was like where are you from?
and he was like UK and 
then he had a laugh and he walked off
actually he drove off because he was in
a Toyota Land Cruiser of course he
drove away but yeah he seemed like a
pretty friendly guy. Other first impressions, 
there's a lot of Indian food
here there's a huge Indian population I
don't actually know the stats but I'll
write them up there but I would make a guess
that there are as many Indians living in
Qatar as there are Qataris I would be
almost certain and put a lot of money on
the fact that there are more 
non-Qataris living here than Qataris.
In Kuwait about 2/3 of the population are 
non-Kuwaiti, I imagine it's a similar kind of
buildup of numbers so I imagine the
breakdown is quite similar and that most
of the people living here are not
citizens of the country which is
something which if you're not used to
like you might find quite interesting
when you come, I've seen a lot of South
Indians lots of Filipinos and some
Western people as well so you get a real
mix of people and the good thing about
that, there are lots of good things but one
particularly good thing about that is
that you get a lot of Indian food and I
love Indian food so for breakfast I had
some samosas and some 
nice indian tea, chai
but the tea is delicious you get lots of
good Indian food and a story about my
Indian breakfast this morning I actually
ordered a very simple meal of a couple
of samosas and some tea and a smoothie
and the menu was quite clear it was like
smoothie five (riyals) samosa one, tea was...
wasn't there but tea is like what like
maybe even half a riyal or something so I
knew the bill was going to be about 9 or
10 riyals not that I was particularly
bothered - until he came up and was like
'22 altogether' I was like 'what' I was
in this restaurant and yes there was the
only white guy there and apparently that
means that you can get charged I don't
know well - double what it
should have cost which was just a little
interesting thing - I'm sure it's just a
one-off but anyway I found that kind of
weird because that hasn't happened to me
before in the Middle East normally
they're quite good so interesting... Qatar's
a very wealthy country you know there
are some things that money can't buy but
it can buy you a bloody nice airport I
will say that for sure now if you live
here I'd like you to let me know in the
comments what's it like living in Qatar
what good things / your favourite things
not so good things things that you miss
about home I'd love to hear from you
patreon.com/ArabicMike
