Sand and shoppingmalls: a stopover in Qatar

On my way from Frankfurt to Hong Kong, I planned a three day stopover in Qatar. I was flying with a really nice airline company, Qatar Airways, so far the best company I flew with. They call themselves 'the world's five star airline company', which I can pretty much confirm, because the flight was really comfortable.

It is 6am when I landed on Doha International Airport. Stepping out of the airplane, the hot air was blowing in my face like a hairdryer. It was early in the morning, but already well over 35 Celsius. I passed immigrations, waited for my bags, searched for a coffee and went outside the airport building to take a taxi. I told the taxi driver to take me to a small supermarket not so far from the airport. This is the place where I met my hospitalityclub contact Alp. Alp took me to his nice apartment and showed me the room where I could stay. The rest of the morning I slept. When I woke up, I talked a bit with Alp, who is a Turkish expat living in Doha. He told me some interesting things about Qatar and that he actually didn't like the country that much. We had a lunch and afterwards Alp drove me a bit around the city.

It was really nice to have met Alp, because there is virtually no public transport in Doha at all and even taxis can be very hard to find. Basically everyone in Qatar has its own car. In the nice air-conditioned Toyota, Alp drove me around the low rise city. We drove past the 'Aspire tower' of the 2006 Asian games and stopped for some food at a fancy shopping mall. The mall had a remake of Venice inside and looks really like an American style shopping palace. In a country like Qatar, there is nothing much to do besides shopping. Because of the incredible heat, outdoor activities are not popular, so people tend to look for air-conditioned entertainment, like shopping. We walked a bit around the mall, drunk a coffee and continued the city tour.

We drove along Corniche, a wide boulevard along the Persian Gulf, and continued to the heart of the city: the souk. Doha's souk is a really interesting place, although the souk is rebuild and doesn't look authentic, the atmosphere is quite nice. I found it very pleasant to walk through the small alleyways, past all the small shops with spices, antiques and clothes. Later on, we had a diner in a traditional Arab restaurant, where I met two of Alp's friends, a Turkish guy and a Hungarian girl. We had some coffees afterwards and drove back to the apartment. I watched a bit of the Olympic games and went to sleep.

Next day, Alp was working, which meant I was kind of stuck in the apartment. I didn't want to pay a taxi for the whole day and as there is no public transport, I couldn't really go to the city. I just stayed in the apartment, where I talked a bit with two Nepalese guys who were fixing Alp's air conditioner. As in other Gulf states like the Emirates or Bahrein, the ethnic composition of Qatar is really weird. It is weird because Qataris only make up about 20% of the total population. Most of the country's population consists of workers from South Asia (mostly Pakistan), Southeast Asia (especially Philippines) and expats from the West. Essentially, the Western expats are leading the oil companies, the workers from South and Southeast Asia are doing all the low-education jobs and the Qataris are shopping. It might be a bit simplistic, but this is what the division of labour seemed to me. The Nepalese guys I met were really friendly however and the rest of the day I just relaxed, watching the Olympics and using the computer.

The day after I was able to explore some more of Qatar, because the Hungarian girl (I forgot her name) had a day off and offered to take me to the desert. She picked me up from the apartment and she drove me past some chemical factories southwards. We drove around a town just south of Doha, which is besides a nice mosque, not so interesting. The way further south was quite nice, we drove along a dry and sandy area and I spotted some camels. At the end of the road, we stopped and walked a bit on the sand dunes.

With a day temperature of 46 Celsius, climbing dunes is not exactly easy. I really like hot weather, but together with high humidity, everything above 40 Celcius is a bit too much. The view from the dunes was rewarding though and after climbing down we continued to the Persian Gulf. We stopped at a beach for a while and drove back to the city. In Doha, we walked a bit around the souk and afterwards I went back to Alp's apartment. I had a Turkish dinner with Alp and he brought me to the airport a bit later. I checked in for my connection flight to Hong Kong, where I landed 8 hours later.

Planned route 2008 - 2009

General map
Southeast AsiaChina and Korea
Pakistan (KKH)Middle East Click the map for a larger version

Reminders of home

Back from my journey through the Baltics, Russia and Belarus, I stayed for 6 days in the Netherlands before catching my flight to Hong Kong. In the short period I stayed at home, I was busy visiting family and friends and preparing myself for the following 15 months abroad. The reason I start my journey in Hong Kong is because I am participation in a one semester exchange programme at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. After the four months in Hong Kong I plan to continue travelling around Asia, with Tashkent (Uzbekistan) as my final destination. I booked a flight to Hong Kong with Qatar Airways, with a scheduled stopover of 3 days in Doha, Qatar.

On the 21st of August, my mother brought me to Utrecht's trainstation, where I said goodbye to her and boarded the quick ICE train to Frankfurt-am-Main. I waited for a couple of hours in Frankfurt before taking my flight to Doha. In order not to forget about my homecountry, here a couple of pictures of the Netherlands (copied from google and wikipedia, I haven't made this pictures myself).

Cothen, the village where I grew up

Utrecht, my birthplace and city where I study

Amsterdam, the Dutch capital and my favourite city in the Netherlands

Traveling in 'the last dictatorship of Europe'

Halfway on the four hour train ride from Vilnius to Minsk I crossed the Belorussian border. As a point separating the European Union from one of Europe's poorest and authoritarian ruled states, the Lithuanian border with Belarus is heavily fortified. From the train I watched at least ten kilometers of fences, cameras, checkpoints and soldiers passing by the window. The Belorussian border guards stamped my passport and I officially entered the republic of Belarus, or one of the 'outposts of tyranny' as Mr Bush calls it. The landscape on the way revealed the welfare difference between Belarus and Lithuania, the villages and towns made a sad impression and I spotted almost no cars on the roads. My stay in Belarus' capital Minsk, however changed this first impression.

Like in Russia, I also organised free accommodation in Minsk. I met my couchsurfing contact Elena soon after I arrived that night on the central station. Elena took me to her father's apartment, where I stayed for the following three days. Elena and her father, who trades in toys, were really nice to me and showed me warm Belorussian hospitality. I drunk some vodka with Elena's father the first night and we talked a bit about our countries. Next day, I walked around the remarkably clean streets of Minsk, stopping by the main square, the parliament and the former KGB building. When I ate a cheap pizza in an Italian restaurant called 'Il patio', I met a commander of the Serbian army named Dragan. We started talking and he shared his impressive war stories with me. As a student in Political Geography, I listened with much interest to Dragan's anecdotes about his career in the Serbian army. He fought in Bosnia, Kosovo, Congo, Angola and Iraq and was waiting for his next assignment in the just started conflict in South Ossetia. Later on we walked together along Independence Square and the former apartment of Lee Harvey Oswald (although both the CIA and the KGB never admitted Oswald lived there).

Next day I visited the Belorussian national museum with Elena and we had lunch in a good restaurant afterwards. A bit later I met Dragan again, with whom I drunk a couple of beers and walked for a couple of hours in some of Minsk's nice parks. From my conversations with Elena and Dragan, I got the impression that Belorussian people are quite reserved and shy. Interestingly, Belarus doesn't really have its own national identity, because it was strongly suppressed throughout its whole history (first by the Polish-Lithuanians, after by the Soviets). Although Belorussians have their own language, nobody really uses it. Russian practically is the main spoken language in Belarus and Belorussians identify themselves mostly as Russian.

Walking along the wide boulevards of Minsk, I saw numerous slogans saying 'I love you Belarus' as well as lots of pictures of president Lukashenko. And although Minsk is a very safe city, I felt some kind of tension, because I realised that people are a bit afraid to speak openly and everyone basically stayed at home during the night (only prostitutes and mafia guys go to the ridiculously expensive bars). For example, Elena got really scared when I tried to make a picture of the parliament. Also I found it very hard to approach people.

After my stay in Minsk, I moved on westwards by night train to Grodno, a midsized city next to the Polish border. I dropped my bags in the apartment of a young couple, Oleg and Irinka, and walked around town after. In three hours, I basically saw all the churches, castles and parks of Grodno, which really is a quiet and clean town. I had a dinner in a cheap restaurant, where surprisingly I heard a song in Dutch language on their radio. During the evening I stayed in the apartment, figuring out how to travel to my next destination Brest.

As public transport to Brest is quite inconvenient, I decided to hitchhike. Oleg brought me to the main road early in the morning and directly after I pulled out my thumb. After waiting for over 40 minutes, a rusty GAZ truck stopped for me and offered to take me to a town 30km further. The guys were delivering groceries to some small shops in the area and were really friendly. They brought me to the junction towards Brest, where I tried to stop another car. Again I waited for quite some time, before a man stopped for me and brought me about 50km further. He dropped me off at a junction, 6km from a town called Voltovysk. This junction was in the middle of a forest and the continuing road to Brest didn't had a lot of travel. It caused that after waving my arm for 2 hours already, I gave up hitchhiking and decided to walk to Voltovysk to continue by public transport. However, as all the buses already left and the next train was only late at night, I was kind of stuck in this town. I decided to wait for the train and I spent my time eating some bread and salad.

I took the train to a town called Baranaviki, from where I hopped on a terribly slow night train (9 hours) to Brest. To conclude my hitchhiking attempt: Belarus definitely is one of the most difficult places I tried. But yeah, I arrived in Brest after all. My intention was not to spend the night in Brest, but to buy a train ticket back to Netherlands. The train to Amsterdam however is very expensive, so I decided to take the night train to Berlin first. But before taking the train, I still had a full day in Brest to spend.

Brest is one of the Soviet Union's 'Hero cities', because it was heavily attacked during the second World War. As the city is only 6km from the border with Poland (along the road to Warsaw), it was the first Soviet city to be attacked by the Nazi's as part of Operation Barbarossa in 1941. The city therefore is famous for its red bricked fortress, which was the main site of the fighting. I visited the fortress after a long walk from the train station. The entrance gate directly is very impressive, with a huge star carved out of concrete and I heard war music being played. Inside the fortress, I went into the small history museum and walked a bit around the red walls full of bullet holes. On the main square inside the fortress was a group of young soldiers marching (see the video), which I watched for quite some time. On the very hot day, I felt a bit sorry for the guys who were constantly marching around under the fierce sun.

With over three hours already spent in the fortress, I walked back to the city for some food. A couple of hot dogs and beers later, I made my way back to the station, where I passed immigrations and entered the train to Berlin. The ride to Berlin was very comfortable, although I desperately wanted to take a shower, since I didn't had that possibility for the past 2 days. Upon arrival in Berlin, I bought another ticket back to my hometown Utrecht, where I arrived that evening.

Tatarstan and the Golden Ring

7.30 am Kazan', Tatarstan, Russia

The provodnitsa (conductor) wakes me up. Still half sleeping I look out the window of the night train I took from Nizhny Novgorod. The train rides over the long Volga bridge, I can see a white walled kremlin with both a huge blue mosque and an Orthodox cathedral inside. I see two flags waving on top of a government building. One Russian flag and one green-white-red Tatar flag. I just arrived in the capital of Tatarstan Republic: Kazan'.

After getting of the train, I walked to the city center, where I found a place to have a breakfast. I continued my way around town to the post office, to use the internet. I called my two contacts in Kazan', Timur from couchsurfing and Danil, through hospitalityclub. At noon, I met Timur, a Korean traveller Joshua and Timur's friend Aleksander. Together we drove around the city and Timur told us a lot about the turbulent history of Kazan' and showed us the kremlin and other interesting landmarks. Driving around Kazan', I noticed that the city is remarkably clean (unlike other Russian cities) and it seemed very prosperous. Actually, Tatarstan is one of the richest regions in Russia, mostly because of the large oil reserves under it's soil. There is a lot of construction going on in the city and the wealth of Tatarstan is shown in its buildings and streets. A very clean city, with expensive cars driving the streets and people wearing expensive clothes. Kazan' is one of Russia's success stories, both economically, but also in sports. Kazan's ice hockey team is one of the best in Russia, Timur was very proud of the Tatarstan basketball team and Rubin Kazan', the local football club was leading the Russian premier league at the time I was there.

Besides Kazan's wealth, the city very much is a meeting point between eastern and western cultures and it definitely is the most exotic place I visited in Russia. Half of the population is ethnically Tatar, who are descendants of Genghis Khan's Golden Horde and religiously Islamic. The main street is blessed with Turkish kebab restaurants and Turkish Efes beer is the main drink here. I saw some restaurants called 'Fata morgana' or 'Fatima' and Kazan's skyline is dominated by a big mosque.

With Timur and Joshua, I ate a Tatar national dish, called Chak-Chak in a local restaurant. Afterwards we continued our tour and I got to know Timur and Joshua a bit better. Timur showed us the impressive kremlin, which is unique in the world, because it has both a mosque and a cathedral inside. Not counting Turkey, the mosque in Kazan' is the largest in Europe and also one of the newest as it was completed just 5 years ago. Furthermore, the kremlin is filled with nice parks and some government buildings, including the palace of Tatarstan's governor. After the kremlin we visited the university, where Lenin studied in his younger years. A statue of 7 year old Lenin is standing in front of main university building.

In the evening we met Danil, my hospitalityclub contact, in who's apartment Joshua and I stayed for the night. Danil also took us around the city, where we met a lot of his friends. We drunk some beers together and I had good opportunities to practise my Russian, as none of them really spoke English. Danil and his friends are really cool people and I was very glad that I met them.

Next day, Joshua left by train. I decided to stay a couple of days more and I walked around the market with Danil's father Isdyl. Later on, I visited the Tatarstan national museum and went with Danil a bit out of town to have a swim in 'Sinnoe Ozero' (Blue Lake). The lake is very special, because the water temperature never changes during the year. It always stays at 4 degrees Celsius. People dip in the lake, because they believe it is very healthy. With 4 degrees, the water is very very cold in summer, but as it the lake never freezes, it is relatively warm in winter. I took a quick dip in the lake, but I got out as fast as possible. After Danil's third swim, we left the lake. A group of fat drunk man came and they were pushing each other in the water.

My last day in Kazan', I just walked around a bit by myself, stopping on the way for a great Adana kebab and a beer on a terrace. Quite remarkably, the waitresses in the cafe where I sipped my Efes, were carrying guns with them. When I asked them about the pistol, they told me it was for protection.... Back in Danil's apartment, I relaxed a bit and went to the train station for a train back to Nizhny Novgorod. Arriving in Nizhny, I hopped on another train further west, to the Golden Ring city of Vladimir.

Also in Vladimir I had a couchsurfing contact, a friendly girl named Yulya. She made some 'pelmeni' (Russian dumplings) for me and we walked around town together. Although is was bit of a rainy day, I enjoyed the sightseeing tour. Vladimir is a provincial town not far from Moscow and it is filled with churches. I visited some churches and went to a viewing point for a view over the countryside. Yulya and I ate in a traditional Russian restaurant and shopped for classical Russian DVDs afterwards.

Next day, I hopped on a bus to a fairytale village called Suzdal. On the bus I met an old woman who gave me some advise on where to go and she showed me the way. The whole day I walked around the town, which is famous for its amount of churches. Suzdal is a village with not more than 12.000 inhabitants, but it has over 30 churches and even its own kremlin. The town is very colorful, because of all the onion domed churches and its colorful wooden houses. It really felt like I was walking in the setting of a fairytale child movie, except for the rainy weather. After eating a 'stolichniy' salad and some bread, I bussed back to Vladimir, where I hopped on another bus to Russia's capital Moscow.

Arriving in Europe's largest city, I got a bit lost the first hour. Luckily I found my way and took a metro to 'Oktyabrskaya Ploshad' (October square), where I met my couchsurfing contact Deric. I just stayed one night in Moscow, because my Russian visa was expiring. Deric made my stay very pleasant however, as his apartment is very nice (Deric is a diplomat working for the Philippines embassy) and I met some other couchsurfers there. I really enjoyed discussing Russian politics with Deric. Like I said he is a diplomat and has so much knowledge about what is going on in the world. It was just for one night though, because I left Moscow the night after.

During the next day, I just stayed in the apartment. As I have been to Moscow before, I didn't feel like walking in the rain that day. In the evening I went to the trainstation, for my train to Rezekne, Latvia. Actually my intention was to travel to Belarus, but because I had to get a visa first, I decided to go to Belarus through Latvia and Lithuania. In the small town of Rezekne, I took a very slow bus to Latvia's second city, Daugavpils, from where I searched for transport to Vilnius (Lithuania). However, there were no busses nor trains going from Daugavpils to Vilnius, which ment I had to hitchhike. It was surprisingly easy to hitchhike in Lithuania (later I found out that it officially is one of the easiest hitchhiking countries in Europe) and with two different rides I arrived in Vilnius.

In the night, I went to a club with some Belgian guys I met in the hostel. Next day I arranged my Belorussian visa through a friendly agency called Viliota. It was really easy to obtain the visa at this agency and the day after I was ready to travel to Belarus. While waiting for my train to Minsk, I walked a bit around Vilnius with an Australian guy, Denis. We played some pool and sipped a cold beer on a terrace. Later on I hopped on a rusty train to the Belorussian capital Minsk.

Towards the Russian heartland

From the Solovetskiy Islands, I planned my journey southwards, to the cities Vologda, Yaroslavl' and Nizhny Novgorod. However, I first had to get of the island. And on the boat from Solovetskiy back to Kem', I got a bit seasick again. The White Sea was very wild that day and with a cold northern wind, I wasn't feeling that good. On the boat I met a German guy, Florian, who studies in Moscow and I met two girls from Vologda, Alina and Lyuda. The two girls from Vologda were on their way home, and as Vologda was my next destination as well, we went to the trainstation together. We bought tickets for the next morning (6am) and we slept on the trainstation, waiting for the train. As soon as I boarded the train and got my bed sheets, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until the late afternoon. I really started to like Russian train journeys, as it is a great way to meet people and to enjoy the landscape. The journey from Kem' to Vologda takes over 24 hours and I spent it mostly with a couple of guys who I met in the restaurant wagon. Most of the guys I met came from Murmansk, were they served the Russian navy on a submarine. We spended our time drinking, Russian style (which means a lot), and talking about life in the Netherlands and Russia.

Arriving the next morning in Vologda, I said goodbye to the submarine guys and together with Alina and Lyuda, I searched for a cheap place to stay. However, all the places we went to were either too expensive or full. Alina called one of her friends who was not in town and arranged a place in his apartment. Later that day we walked around Vologda and both girls showed me the nice spots of the city. We went to St Sofia cathedral and the nice kremlin. We visited a history museum and spent some time in a park.

The city of Vologda is a provincial town and it is famous for its religious importance. The St Sofia cathedral especially, but also the Spaso-Prilutsky monastery make Vologda the religious center of the region. Besides the religious buildings, the city has a historical town centre with colourful wooden houses and cozy streets. On my second day in Vologda we had lunch in a really nice restaurant and we visited the monastery. Later on, I hopped on a train further south, to Yaroslavl'.

My arrival in Yaroslavl' wasn't that pleasant actually. I arrived late in the evening and I couldn't find a suitable place to stay. Also I ended up walking in a huge crowd of local football supporters who just lost a match against Rubin Kazan'. Around midnight I finally found an affordable place to stay, called Kotorosl' hotel, where I met two guys, Roman and Dima. They invited me for a couple of beers in the lobby with their friends.

The next day I wandered around Yaroslavl', which is quite a large city on the Volga river. Famous for its large amount of Orthodox churches and its relaxed atmosphere along the river banks, I was happy to stay in Yaroslavl' for a couple of days. I went to the river side kremlin, visiting the city's most important church and I saw a bear called Masha. I visited some more churches, strolled along the Volga and I used the internet in a fancy hotel. In the evening I met Roman and Dima again, with whom I drunk some beers again before taking a rusty tram to the trainstation. I booked a ticket on a nighttrain to Russia's third city: Nizhny Novgorod.

Arriving in Nizhny the next day, I called Lena, another person I contacted through hospitalityclub. We met later that day and strolled a bit around in Russia's third largest city. Nizhny Novgorod lays on the intersection between the Oka and Volga rivers and it is famous for its car factories. The 'GAZ' car factory (Gorkovskiy Avto Zavod) is situated in Nizhny and produces high quality car brands like Lada, Volga and Oka. The city is nicknamed as the 'third' capital of Russia; Moscow being the political capital, St Petersburg the cultural capital and Nizhny Novgorod Russia's economical capital. Historically Nizhny is a trading post, but during Soviet times it became heavily industrialized.

During my stroll around the city center, Lena showed me the nice kremlin and told me about Nizhny's history. We took a tram over the beautiful Oka bridge to Lena's apartment, where we made ourselves some diner. The next day, I walked a bit in Nizhny's center by myself and in the evening I said Lena goodbye and hopped on the next night train to Kazan', capital of Tatarstan republic. On the train I met a lot of nice people again, who made me really exited about the historical city Kazan'.

Extra photos from Northern Russia

KIZHI ISLAND

MURMANSK

APATITY

BOAT KEM' - SOLOVETSKY

SOLOVETSKY ISLANDS