Doha, Qatar

I hope that Qatar is the most difficult travel experience of our lives. It couldn't get worse ... could it?

As an American, I have naively taken the power of my USA passport for granted. Before moving to the Middle East, I hadn’t traveled anywhere that required a visa to be obtained prior to arrival. Welp. Qatar requires you to have your visa in hand to board the plane. I found the visa process for Qatar to be so confusing, so frustrating, so close-to-smashing-my-computer infuriating that I didn’t even pack the night before our 7am flight – I was sure we weren’t going. I had gotten the visas for Travis and myself approved, but the system would not issue a visa for Hudson. Every representative had assured me “God Willing” that I would have his when I woke up … and amazingly it came through at 3 am.

Through the airport, visa shown, PCRs printed, bags checked, we were off and actually going to Qatar. The flight is only a little over an hour, but 20 minutes in, I knew we had a problem. Hudson had turned into a furnace. I could feel his little body literally humming with heat … like it was making me sweat stuffed into the seat next to him. Dang, still unsure if we are actually getting into this country and with a sick kid to boot.

Thankfully, I’m a paranoid nut about getting sick when we travel so I bring a small pharmacy with me and knew it wasn’t COVID (he had to be tested to enter Qatar) … so not much to be done but monitor.

*I knew medical care is easily accessible and fantastic in the GCC countries so we would have gone to a doctor in Qatar if necessary. Our health insurance in the UAE covers us fully anywhere in the world – except for the USA. I’m sure you can figure out the reasons why that is … ridiculously expensive health care system. We carry a separate policy for any return trips to the US.

We did enter the country and at the last checkpoint to exit the airport, I realized on approach that I had accidentally thrown out of PCR test results. As a began to panic, our kid somehow rose to the occasion, charmed the female security guard and with a candy bar in hand (like when did she even give him this candy bar?), we found our Uber.

Can I just quickly paint the picture of the Uber for you? Imagine a pink fluffy sheepskin thrown across the backseat, like so fluffy you don’t know what’s hiding in it. Picture those tacky pink dangly beads that covered a doorway at your middle school dance – check. The inside of the cab is actually wallpapered in a sassy leopard print (like the ceiling too). And to top it off, the floor boards were covered in artificial turf – the cheap kind. This was an Uber that dreams were made of. The cherry on the top was the Baha Men, Who Let the Dogs Out blasting from the speakers. Yes, Doha, yes.

Day 1 and 2 at the gorgeous Kempinski were spent with in an out of the pool with Hudson, just monitoring a fever, letting him rest and eat ice creams for every meal. I couldn’t have been in a better place with a sick kid … plus the hotel was nearly deserted … probably because no one could figure out how to get a visa to enter the country. Ha.

But fevers break, and when they do, it’s like your cheerful kid is returned to you. We were able to spend the last day exploring a bit of Doha, mainly exploring the enchanting falcon souk. GCC countries take their falcons seriously. Falcons are the only animal permitted to ride in the cabins on Emirates flights. If you get lucky, you will see a falcon sitting comfortably in his 1st class seat. Wild. The care shown to the birds was just awesome and the falcon hospital was nicer than any medical center I have seen in the US.

We tried to go to the National Museum of Qatar but there was a ticketing issue … oh well. Another museum was closed due to COVID … oh well. We were able to explore a few souks and walk the corniche through a gorgeous park. Doha was striking with its futuristic architecture but felt empty, quiet, reflective, and a little too perfect. No stray leaf, crying kid, couple embracing … just a bit sterile. It could have been COVID, it could have been the heat, it could have been my exhaustion.

In summary, Qatar didn’t get a fair shot. With a sick kid, COVID in full force and my underlying annoyance (at my own incompetence). Doha deserves a second try. So we are booked to return next month … if … I can get our visas figured out.