Spending $100 in Most Touristic Places of Doha Qatar S06 EP.82 | MIDDLE EAST MOTORCYCLE TOUR
The one that I bought still has a ticket on it. He's removing that now. Are you from Qatar? Yes.
As you can see, this area was known for making boats. Assalam Alekum Everyone and Welcome Back to the Channel from Doha, Qatar. I'm feeling quite excited today...
Because I'm planning to make a unique sort of video today. I've been getting a lot of requests from you all to share how expensive Doha is. Today we are going to do a 100 Dollar Challenge.
Here are the 100 dollars that we are gonna exchange. Let me begin by telling you that in Doha you can find not only very expensive but also very cheap places. You can find a range of places here; you just need to find them. I don't plan to show you just the expensive or just the cheap place; but a mix of two.
As a tourist, you only visit the places mentioned in the tourist guides. Or to the places recommended by people. The 4 places that I've shortlisted include Musherib Downtown... Souq Waqif which is my favorite place...
Then there are two more places that I haven't mentioned in my vlogs before. One of them is Katara with its beach and shopping mall. Quite a nice place. I've been there before. And then there's Pearl area which is really hi-fi and expensive area. Today we'll see how far a 100 dollar note can get us in these 4 areas.
Let's start from the Musherib area. I'm quite hungry because I haven't eaten anything. Since I have to spend 100 dollars, I thought it will cover my meal as well. Firstly we need to go to the money changer to get local currency. After that, we'll go on with our plan. This is such a nice area with a number of cafes and food trucks on roadsides.
It gives you the vibes of a very modern city. Seems like a fun area. The navigation is telling us that there is a money changing place nearby. As a matter of fact, we are in Souq Waqif now.
The money changer guy has to be here somewhere. We can ask the guys near the entrance of Souq Waqif. They are here to give you any information you need. Assalam Alekum. Is there any money exchanger here?
All the way to the left hand... there you'll find the Doha Exchange. There's no one here in Musherib town? I have no idea. Okay. Thank you very much. Actually I didn't want to come all the way to Souq Waqif just to exchange the money.
The second option is to get money from ATM, use that and forget the money exchanger. I was wondering that I haven't yet tried coffee or anything in any cafe in Musherib town. So, I don't have any idea about prices in that area. That's why I wanted to check the prices there before coming to Souq Waqif. I do have an idea about Souq Waqif though, because I come here almost daily. So, let's find an ATM and take some money out.
Here's the ATM vestibule. But I'm not gonna show as I don't want you to see my password. I expected to get notes of smaller denomination that I wanted to show you. But they have just given me one 500 riyal note. It will be a little more than 100 dollars.
Let's go and sit in some cafe. Then we'll discuss the exchange rate and more... Well I'm hungry. Need to eat something soon. Morocco... Doesn't look like a food truck... It's a coffee stall with bakery items.
Let's order something here so that we can at least have our breakfast. Excuse me. Can I have a cappuccino? Yes. And... One croissant please. You have with chocolate and ? Almond.
Which one is the best? Chocolate. Okay then. Give me the chocolate one. I just checked it using xe.com
They have a website as well as an app. I use it to find the exchange rate. According to them, 1 dollar will give you 3.64 Qatari riyals. So, our budget for the day is 364 Qatari riyals. We don't have to waste them stupidly.
But can only buy stuff that you need as a tourist. Here's our breakfast. One croissant. That's our coffee.. Let me show you from inside. Don't want it spilled. Take a look. It's such a nice coffee. Doesn't look like that though.
We also bought a water bottle. For these items, we paid... 10 for water... 10 for croissant... And 20 for coffee... So we have spent almost 40 riyals. Or about 12 dollars. And we have got some changes as well.
Let's put them in the purse. Bismillah... In the name of Allah... Some Moroccan fans here. Here's a Mexican fan with his hat.
Assalam Alekum Wa Alekum Salam I've come from Dubai to see you. To see me? People came here to watch the FIFA World Cup but you are here to see me. I was just waiting here because you showed this bazaar in your last video. What's your name? Muneeb. Muhammad Muneeb. Thanks very much Muneeb. Let me turn the camera off and then we can talk.
Souq is really crowded at the moment. And I was expecting it to be less crowded during the day. I visit the place in the evening mostly. I sleep through most of the day because I stay up at night.
I'm sure you must be waiting for my feedback about the coffee. Well, the coffee that I got here for 7 dollars had the quality of 1 dollar coffee. I mean it wasn't too good. Not getting a good cup of coffee despite spending this amount made me a little sad.
You know I really love coffee. Getting a nice cup of coffee in the morning gets you through the day nicely. Hope to get better things as the day passes.
So, Musherib town is a little over priced. Let's see how the prices are here in the souq so that we have a clearer idea. As per my previous experience, this is somewhat a better area.
But we'll focus on how things go today. I'm thinking about taking a round through the souq. We'll give you an overview of the atmosphere before sitting in some cafe or restaurant. We might eat something if we feel like it. Or drink something... We'll choose a place according to the mood.
The statue of King's thumb is the weirdest thing in the whole souq for me. Rather odd. Don't see a reason to place it here. It's sort of ruining the whole atmosphere of this souq. The view of mosque from here is remarkable.
Being a tourist, it would be nice if we buy some tourist souvenirs. It's football season and people here wear the Arabic headgear, so I want to get something like that. Excuse me Do you have the Arabic headgear? No? Okay. Let's go and ask someone else.
They don't have it.... But I think we'll get it here. Let's ask them. Excuse me. Do you have the Arabic headgear? Do you need the white one? Sure. Whatever the Qatari locals wear.
Can you open this for me? Do you want it in your size? Yes. Well... It's for 40 riyals. 40 riyals? Won't you give me some discount? For a fellow South Asian...? Well, for them it's 65. OI see... Okay give it for 40, then.
Please open it. You wear it with the long dress. Okay. Please give me one.
Thank you very much. Nice to meet you. Good luck to Morocco for today. What's your name? Muhammad. Muhammad, where are you from? Kerala. Oh nice.
Most of people here in this market are from Kerala? No. From many different areas. There are Pakistanis as well? Yeah. It won't fall down. Right?
Don't worry. That's just how it is. Well... Feel like a Qatari now...
Thanks Muhammad. And I still haven't paid you. Muhammad ... Thanks very much. I have been wanting to buy something like this for some days now. And thanks to our 100 dollar challenge, we have bought it.
We have paid about 12 dollars for this. Looks like our 100 dollars are gradually depleting. Back in the bazaar now. Let's walk all the way to the end of the souq and see what's going on there. Assalam Alekum Abrar Wa Alekum Salam Are you recording right now? Yes, I am. If you'd like to be in the video, I can keep going. Otherwise we can turn it off.
We watch your videos regularly. Thank you. The best thing about this souq is the lively atmosphere regardless of the time of the day. Not just that but the people are also very friendly. These are Belgian fans.
Looks like that. Actually I looked at them through my camera. Tourists from around the world greet each other very passionately. And then the atmosphere also plays its role. There are some Moroccan fans here. At this point, it is very important to discuss hotel prices.
I haven't included that in this video. Before the World Cup, I was paying about 75 - 80 dollars per night. It was a great hotel and it was quite close to the souq.
During the World Cup, the prices for the same hotel shot to 2000 dollars at first. As the tournament is progressing, the prices have gradually increased to 2500 - 3500 dollars. You can say that during normal days, you can get a nice room for 80 dollars. So if you are planning to visit after the World Cup, it's better to get a room near the souq. Let's look for some place to have a light meal.
While I was walking around... I'm told that... The one that I bought still has a ticket on it. He's removing it now.
Are you from Qatar? Yes. He's trying to help me out. It's perfect now.
Thank you very much. Nice meeting you. Well... I was not expecting the locals to help me like that.
I did see that in some videos and I thought that it might be fake. But you saw that they noticed me randomly and came to me. I liked it. It can get quite difficult to find a place in any restaurant in the souq. Saudi? Let's see if we can find some place to sit and relax.
Otherwise we can go some place else. We have Muhammad here with us who is from Faisalabad. He has especially come here to support Morocco. He's also Muhammad... And he's from Morocco.
Good luck for today's match. In Sha Allah Morocco will win. This is our lunch. You can see that I have an orange juice with a sandwich. For both these items, I paid 25 Qatari riyals. You can say that the price is almost half as compared to Musherib.
There are all kinds of restaurants here; some expensive ... others not so much. For instance coffee cost 25 riyals back there but here it's for 15 riyals only. Water bottle cost 10 riyals there but here it's just for 3 riyals. You can feel that there is a clear difference.
Prices here are quite decent. Let's just enjoy our orange juice and sandwich. It's really good. The food that I got in the souq was always great.
I mean before the World Cup when it was not too crowded... Any restaurant I visited... served me really good food. Due to World Cup, every place is crowded now and focus on quality is not the same anymore. But despite that you can still get comparatively better items.
The sandwich was really good and so was the orange juice. Prices were also okay. In my opinion, it's a better place for tourists. You can't call it cheap to be exact...but it's still much better. Let's go to Katara now and then we'll go to Pearl. Katara is the beach area. More about that when we get there.
We'll take the metro from here to get to Katara. Metro is free as it is included in Hayya card. Therefore, taking a metro won't dent our 100 dollars budget.
Unless we use a taxi. We will take a taxi when the need comes so that we may have an idea about their prices too. Musherib is the hub for all metros.
I think there are two metro lines which merge at this point. That's why it's usually quite crowded. Let's see what's happening here. Katara Thank you very much. There are Moroccan fans here because it's their match today. This is Katara station.
Quite similar to the other ones. Not too different. It's really tidy and well maintained, like every other place. Despite the large number of tourists here, they make sure to keep it clean.
Here we have Palestinians, Moroccans and Saudis. We are in Katara and it has a very traditional vibe because of these buildings. There are many shows here at night so the night atmosphere is quite different. It's not nearly as crowded during the day as it is during the night. Over all it looks really beautiful.
We are gonna visit a couple of places here. We are going to a very iconic and expensive mall, Lafayette. An interesting thing about this place is that it's open air conditioned. It's about 27 degrees back there but here they have maintained it at 22 degrees.
I have seen many unique places before.. But this is a first for me that you are in an open street and it's air conditioned. I think it happens only in Qatar. I think Lafayette is a French name so it may have been built by the French. Or some architect used the French style of construction here. Over all, I liked it a lot.
It's really close to the metro station. In case you noticed, the shopping mall is on both sides of the street with the street in the middle. And the street must be around 200 meters in length... or may be 250 meters... but not more. The domes on the buildings look rather beautiful. It's rather different from other shopping malls here.
Inside the mall now... You can see luxury brands here. Also the way items are put on display give a luxurious vibe. And if you talk about prices, they appear to me as long serial numbers. That's how expensive it is.
I don't think we can get anything here in our 100 dollars. So we'll just take a tour without buying anything from here. We want our 100 dollars to last some more. Well, if we are able to save something, we might come back to get some expensive perfume.
As a tourist, I try to avoid expensive looking restaurants and cafes. Because expensive doesn't necessarily mean good quality. And.... I do try to visit and eat at nice places.
But luxury is not important. However, I know my audience wants me to sit at a place like this and have a meal. Why don't we get a drink from here. At least we'll get an idea about the prices. There's a cafe in front of me. Let's go there and see.
The atmosphere looks nice but I'm not sure if we'll be able to get in. Because it's jam packed at the moment. Where are you from? From Pakistan.
Yeah, you are doing it very well. Thank you so much. Finally after waiting for about 15 minutes, we have found a spot. This cafe is called Joe's Cafe and I think it's from London. My table is right at the end ... as you can see that there is no one behind me. And the whole cafe is full of people. I've got the menu card. Let's take a look.
In drinks, the coffee is for 35 riyals... That's almost 10 dollars. Similarly, soft drinks are for 5 dollars etc... I mean it is a bit expensive.
Let's order some salad because we are not too hungry. That way we'll have an idea about the quality. You can say that it's about 20% - 25% more expensive than even Musherib. Looking at the number of people sitting here, I can assume that the food here is good.
Let's order something. After waiting for almost 25 minutes, our order has been served. This is prawn salad. So let me greet you in French.. Bon Jour.. And this is our expensive bottle of water from Evian; almost 5 to 6 dollars for this.
So this is our salad which actually looks good. It has prawns.. and let me check what's down there... Rice... On top of that, they have added some... What sort of leaves are these... Don't look like mint...
We 'll figure it out once we eat it. It's salad anyway. And of course there are prawns... Looks yummy though. Lets try it. Even when it was served, I was wondering that it doesn't look like a salad.
It was like Risotto... Because it had rice. But then I thought who knows... May be that's how they make their salads. So I ate it anyway.
When I got the bill, I realized it was actually risotto. The item I ordered was for light eating and it was cheaper as well. I wanted to save some money for dinner. But... let me give you a glimpse of the bill.
I have eaten the food nevertheless. But the bills says... Prawns Risotto 99... Still Water 60...
That's our total bill. We are going out of the mall now and the beach is right in front. It's also a very lively area because of the public screening of the football matches. Many people come here to watch the game. Since I've already been here before, I do have an idea about the ambiance. I did come to Katara before but it was during night.
It didn't impress me much, then. However, it looks much more beautiful during the day. Firstly, it's not too crowded during the day. They have developed this area in a way similar to Souq Waqif but it's a bit more modern. Some buildings are very similar but there's a slight difference for sure. It has a modern air to it and it is beautiful for sure.
Nice atmosphere. A bit more relaxed because of wide roads. It can adjust a large number of people without any issue. Probably that's why it feels like an upscale area. But you can still enjoy the Arab culture here. Contrary to my expectations, Katara is in fact a very beautiful place.
I always preferred Souq Waqif because of the cultural aspect. But they are putting a lot of effort here. In fact, there is a cultural village here. Let me show you around...
As you can see and they told us as well that this area was known for making boats. A gentleman is still busy making a boat. If you look back there in the sea...
They have made a boat for every participating country with their flags on the boat. Looks really wonderful. You can see Qatari locals in their cultural dresses. No Indian or Pakistani is wearing the Qatari dress here. They are mingling nicely with the tourists.
Welcome to Doha . Thank you very much. This is the only place here where I can see the Qatari culture and locals in such great numbers. Great atmosphere here... I highly recommend you to visit this place. Let's see what they are doing here. I think it's some sort of boat racing. This beach is amazing.
Just look at the sand... I don't think you can swim here. That's on the other side. Locals are just sitting here... I think they are sitting here for the race.
People just go there and race on the boats. A very lively atmosphere... Over here, there are small shops with craftsman making hand made items. I think they are making wooden boats...or may be some wooden souvenirs as well. Some steel and brass items are here as well.
I think it's a good place to visit. This place has really impressed me. I used to be a big fan of Souq Waqif... or maybe I still am... But now I consider this place to be in the same category.
There's a rather awesome looking beach here as well. There are many activities here for tourists. Besides, there's a much larger walking area here so it can accommodate many more people. I mean Souq Waqif can get congested...
But you won't get that feeling here even if twice or thrice the number of people come here. We've almost reached the end... To get to Pearl, I need to take a Careem. Because metro doesn't go there. Let's get to that side where we can find some taxi.
We can safely say that Pearl is among the most expensive areas here. Since I have already visited the place, I know the place a little. It's constructed in the same style as Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Small islands are created in the sea... The accommodation here is more expensive than other places. I can see some really expensive yachts here, with tall buildings around.
Most of them contain luxury apartments with some really beautiful cafes. The ambience is too good. There are screens to see football matches. I have visited another place right next to this one. You feel like you are in Venice when you go there.
That whole area is said to be a replica of Venice. There's a canal with buildings and apartments on its side built in Italian style. They have experimented here by bringing the architecture of different countries. It's meant to give foreigners a different experience, similar to what they have in their own countries. People who work here have high salaries and can afford these rents. We are gonna take a round of this area.
Then there's a very beautiful square that I'm definitely gonna visit. Because the match is about to start... And we still have 100 or 110 riyals left. One thing that I haven't told you yet that my Careem ride was 10-15 minutes long. We paid about 10 dollars for that. The ride may be a little less expensive during the day when it's not too crowded.
But it can be expensive in the evening. At times, the same ride is offered for 25 dollars. This place definitely gives you European vibes. That's because it is in fact made in that style... with a plaza in the middle..
And there are numerous cafes along the sides. I feel like I'm walking through the streets of Europe. Not just the style but the atmosphere is also very similar. Since there's not too much traffic, one can easily roam around. But the music is a little loud. It's slightly irritating.
Let's go and sit in some cafe and get some coffee. And enjoy the game. I don't feel like eating otherwise we could have done that somewhere.
But we'll have coffee for sure. I mean it is a good excuse to sit and watch the game. I'm out in the streets since morning and it can be tiring.
There are so many cafes here so we can easily get a place. Some place with a TV because not everyone has it. When the game starts... all the restaurants and cafes with a TV screen get filled.
I have spent half an hour looking for that. Now I'm at a place called Karaki that serves tea. Their tea is similar to ours and it's not expensive. They have branches everywhere. I have a Saudi guy with me. He's from Medina and his name is Badar. I requested that if I could bring my table, I can sit with him.
Not table. Chair, I mean. To which he agreed. O... That guy almost tipped off from my chair. My host has ordered Arabic Qahwa and has requested me to join him.
We still have the 100 riyals left from 100 dollars. So we are gonna sit here, sip tea and watch the game. Since the game is over, we were finally able to get a place at a restaurant. It's an Italian restaurant right next to the cafes, by the name of Paella.
That's what it is called, I think. I have ordered a pizza for myself. I think it's been a while since I had a good pizza. Getting a chance to eat a Hilal Italian pizza...
What else do you need? You can get Hilal food everywhere in Qatar. In Europe, I only get to eat tuna fish pizza and that's okay. We have ordered a bottle of water as well. And these... It's a bit odd to get plastic glasses in a restaurant. Let's eat this pizza. I hope it's delicious. It's called Tandoori pizza because it is somewhat spicy.
I guess that's because of the large desi community here. And before I forget, this meal almost costs 90 riyals. That means we still have 10 riyals.
We can do something about that. I haven't tried a more spicy pizza before. The owner must be some Pakistani or Indian. We are finishing our day with karak from Karaki.
To my surprise, I got it for 12 riyals. We can get it from Tea Time in Souq Waqif for 2 riyals. You can also get it for 1 riyal from some places. You see the variation in prices as we go from one place to another. Overall, we don't remember what became of our 100 dollars. I decided that we'll have some kunafah for dessert from Al Aker..
But since our 100 dollars are already spent, no dessert for us today. Just kidding. My feeling is that Doha is quite expensive.
But you can also go to budget places. You don't have to go to an expensive place to eat. Overall, the best location for a tourist is Souq Waqif. They have good prices and a great atmosphere.
And you can say that you get value for money there. Currently there's a slight decline in quality because of the heavy tourist load. Anyways, Pearl is super expensive. I mean I will never pay 10 dollars for coffee. Unless that coffee can make me fly.
But that's a totally separate topic. Otherwise... not gonna happen. You can enjoy as much as you can. Time for us to go watch the game.
Hopefully you must have enjoyed this vlog. Let's now go over the 100 dollar budget and take a Careem. And head towards the stadium.
Don't forget to Like, Subscribe and Share. See you soon. Allah Hafiz
2022-12-07 06:38
