CosBeauty Magazine #83

A
Stopover
Hot
Spot
For many australians
travelling to Europe, the
traditional south-east Asian
stopover has been replaced
by a taste of the extravagant
futuristic skylines of the Middle
East – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and
more recently Doha
doha is the capital of Qatar, the gas-rich constitutional
monarchy perched on a peninsula jutting 160kms into
the Persian Gulf from the north-eastern border
of Saudi Arabia.
According to a series of 2017 international surveys,
Qatar now boasts both the ‘highest per capita income’
and ‘highest per capita Gross Domestic Product’ in the
world (overtaking Luxembourg) – thanks to its status as
the globe’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (it sits
atop the world’s third largest natural gas reserves, after Iran
and Russia).
And Doha is the glitzy modern capital attracting
international jet-setters in record numbers – especially
following the continuing expansion of Qatar Airways’
international networks, combined with Qatar’s rapid rise to
prominence as both surprise choice as host for the 2022
soccer World Cup and home of the mushrooming Al Jazeera
media network.
Downtown Doha offers an eclectic mix of modern in-yourface
‘glass and steel’ skyscraper architecture, overlooking a
traditional dhow harbor – the slow moving dhows are lateenrigged
wooden boats, almost from a bygone era, with one or
two masts and a triangular sail on a long yard (the spar from
which sails are set) at an angle of 45° to the mast.
In similar contrast, the historic ‘souqs’ (bustling outdoor
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