Walking places

It appears my last post created a small flutter of activity as my comments regarding Doha becoming a city was noted on dohanews. One of the comments from the website caught my interest:

“Where do you live so you can walk places? I'm curious & envious.”

I live in the older parts of the city, in the labyrinths of apartment buildings where narrow roads are clogged with parked cars, faintly-lit cheap restaurants, corner stores, smoky shisha cafes and 15-riyal barbers. Neighborhoods like Mansoura, Najma, and Musherib. Where most Westerners don't live.

When I first arrived in Doha I, like other Westerners, lived in a nice walled compound with manicured lawns and a clubhouse with a pool, tennis court and other facilities. It was out near Salwa road and if I wanted to go out for a walk there was little to see. Strip malls full of furniture stores or neighborhoods of homes and compounds with high walls surrounding them. The only life was the constant traffic on the roads, resulting in long commutes to and from work. Living there certainly was not unpleasant but not very interesting.

Tired of the commute I moved to an apartment in West Bay, thinking that life amongst the skyscrapers would be better.

It wasn't much better. Aside from City Centre Mall there wasn’t much to see except tall skyscrapers surrounded by parking lots. With the exception of people walking in and out of the mall there were few people walking around and little to do in the neighborhood itself. It was sterile.

I decided to move away from glamorous towers and compounds to the older parts of the city. Here there are always people wandering around and while the area is a bit run-down and the stores are not fancy here at least there is life. When a friend helped me move from West Bay and remarked how, for the first time since he’d been in Doha, he saw children playing in the street I knew I had made the right decision to move. The old city is the area with soul.

Turn left and I can visit the tailor for a shirt or the barber for a shave; go straight and I’m at a park, turn right and there's one of many corner stores, or a cheap Indian restaurant where I get some dhosas. Go down an alleyway to get a karak, or maybe further down the street to get a fresh juice. Sit with a coffee and watch as dozens of men gather at the mosque when the call to prayer is announced, or mingle with the throngs of South Asian workers in the streets behind Souq Waqif. Go a little further and you're at the Corniche, or Souq Waqif, or the old souqs near FANAR. Go a bit further and you're at the Museum with its nice new park. No sterile skyscapers and parking lots, no deserted streets lined with walled compounds. Life. I go for a walk everyday around the neighborhood and every time see something different.

Westerners tend to gravitate to the walled compounds of Al Waab or the Lagoon, villas near Landmark or in Gharrafa, or apartments in West Bay or the Pearl. Those places are luxurious, clean, and exude safety, unlike the pockmarked streets, crowded shops, and shabby-looking buildings of the old city. But there's not much to walk around and see in those neighbourhoods. The Pearl is an exception but even then would you consider all the five-star stores and pristine walkways to be a city? More like a resort.

I don't begrudge people for wanting to live in the luxurious areas of town but I won't be moving back. I like it here.