Desert Rose

I arrived at Istanbul Airport at around 9 a.m. on October 7, but my flight to Doha was still about five hours away. I had planned in advance to try out an airport lounge, so at first I bought a lounge pass on Xianyu. I had agreed with the seller that they would issue the ticket when I arrived at the lounge entrance. However, after I got there, the ticket still did not come. The link they sent me could not be opened either. Once I asked for a refund, the seller’s attitude became nasty, so I could only block them and buy another lounge pass on Ctrip. The ticket I had bought on Xianyu was basically a sunk cost.

The lounge I entered was called ITA Lounge. I had originally thought I could use it to solve the problem of lunch, but it turned out that they did not really serve proper meals. This made me think of the lounge I had used at Bangkok Airport, which was much better — I ate until I was stuffed and boarded only when the final call was announced. Here, even if I wanted a little grilled meat, I had to queue for a long time, so I did not manage to rest well either. Of course, I think a large part of the reason was that I was traveling alone. In a lounge, you can help yourself to quite a lot of snacks, but whenever I went to get food, there was no one to watch my backpack and suitcase for me. I had to stay tense the whole time to make sure no one took my bags. This was probably the least smooth experience of the entire trip.

For the flight from Istanbul to Doha, I had deliberately chosen the famous Qatar Airways, wanting to experience the service of what is said to be the world’s best airline. Later, however, I found that my expectations had still been too high. First of all, Istanbul is not Qatar Airways’ home base, so as an away-airport carrier, Qatar Airways could only open check-in around three hours before departure. This meant that after landing in Istanbul, I could only wait around in the departure hall. Also, compared with Etihad, I did not feel that its service had any particular advantage. Of course, its price was also similar to, or even cheaper than, domestic airlines in China. For a flight of just over four hours, a ticket price of around 1,500 RMB seemed to me like the normal price for a full-service airline, rather than a premium fare for a luxury carrier. Maybe it is also because I currently do not have the money to experience business class. Its meal quality was actually about the same as Etihad’s, but Etihad had served a cream pudding that I still remember vividly to this day. I do not actually know what it was called; I can only describe it roughly. The in-flight entertainment system was also just average. Based on my experience, Turkish Airlines had the best entertainment equipment, at least more like a modern tablet.

After landing in Doha, there was a small incident at immigration. There were probably a dozen immigration counters with queues, but a man in front of me, whose appearance somewhat resembled a terrorist leader from TV footage, was denied entry. He kept arguing with various customs officers, so both I and the people behind me had to wait an extra ten-plus minutes. After that, I took the metro directly to my hotel in the city center. The metro carriages here are divided even more finely than in Dubai: first class, family/lady, and men. The men’s carriage seemed to account for less than a third of the train. After I entered, it was full of Indians and Pakistanis staring back at me. The proportion of foreign workers in Qatar seems even higher than in the UAE.

Then I checked into the hotel. This time, taking advantage of the low travel season, I had specifically chosen the Park Hyatt, which cost only around 900 RMB per night. I wanted to try it out, but after staying there, I found that it was not fundamentally different from other five-star hotels I had stayed in before, apart from experiencing hotel security screening for the first time and the restrained design of the public areas and front desk under the idea that “luxury is private.” Its large bathroom, gym, and other facilities did not have many highlights. The biggest highlight was breakfast: the pastries were especially good, and you could also order dishes separately. I estimate that each pastry they served could sell for 40 RMB or more in a high-end bakery in Beijing. But this also raised my threshold for bread and pastries, which may not necessarily be a good thing, haha.

That evening, after leaving the hotel, I first took the metro to visit Souq Waqif. In truth, it did not seem to have that many distinctive features. I suddenly realized that these places, along with the various Middle Eastern-style towns and markets I had encountered in the UAE, actually occupy the same ecological niche as the many “artificial ancient towns” in China. From the food and drinks to the goods being sold, they are all more or less the same. All I can say is that one really should not examine them too closely. There are not many things in the world that can withstand deconstruction; thinking too much about them only creates trouble for oneself.

The next morning, I first went to the National Museum of Qatar, the famous “Desert Rose” building. The architectural form of the museum is excellent, but the national history of Qatar displayed inside does not feel as weighty as the histories of China, Europe, or the United States. Even so, there were still some pleasant surprises. One was that when I had just entered the museum and was about to buy a ticket, the ticket seller asked if I was a student. I said yes and showed my student ID, so she gave me a free ticket marked “Foreign Student.” My previous travel companion had reminded me that in Qatar I should buy a museum pass to save money, but this turned out even better. Another surprise was that the souvenir shop was quite thoughtfully designed. For example, they sold playing cards where the J, Q, and K cards featured portraits of princes, queens, and kings. In the end, I could not resist spending 80 RMB on a fridge magnet as a souvenir. It showed Doha’s skyline, but redrawn by an artist in a different style.

After that, I went to Place Vendôme, another shopping mall that blends elements from different parts of the world. In terms of detail, I felt it was not as good as malls like The Londoner or The Venetian in Macau. It happened to be lunchtime, so at a food-court-style place similar to Food Republic, I found a “Chinese cuisine” counter and bought a bowl of beef noodles. The result was completely different from what I had imagined. The noodles appeared only as a side element, while the main part of the dish was the beef in the soup and various non-leafy vegetables. It was quite a rare experience. Writing this reminds me that throughout the whole trip, I ate quite a few things labeled as “Chinese cuisine,” but not once did I see any Chinese people among the staff.

After that, I took a taxi to Katara Cultural Village. It could be described as a place filled with all kinds of small architectural spectacles, including a modern amphitheater by the sea, various large-scale murals that looked relatively open in style, British-style buildings, and so on. While I was there, I wore a bucket hat the entire time. The temperature was 35°C. I had a backpack on, and I was also carrying a 1.5-kilogram camera. Still, the photos I took made me feel that all the exhaustion from the experience was completely worth it.

After leaving, I continued by taxi to Mina District. After the taxi driver asked whether I was Chinese, he said he was Pakistani, said that we were “good friends,” and added that his son worked in China. Mina District is also a newly developed “internet-famous” district, with small houses in various macaron colors. From there, you can photograph Doha’s iconic skyline and also see several of the landmark venues from the 2022 World Cup. That night, I wandered around the city center near the hotel and eventually went to a ramen shop for dinner, where I had beef chashu ramen. The menu also offered chicken chashu ramen.

I saved the final day for the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I. M. Pei. I again received student ticket treatment, though this time only half price, haha. The exhibits inside were not especially outstanding. Perhaps the more distinctive pieces were Qurans written in Arabic calligraphy, which felt like a distant echo of the Confucian classics often written in various forms of Chinese calligraphy. But the building itself is indeed beautifully and powerfully designed. It seems to make use of the fact that it rarely rains in the Arab region: there is an opening at the top that allows sunlight to enter, after which the light reflects across matte metal surfaces at different angles. It has a square, masculine beauty, and it also fits very well with I. M. Pei’s design style in his other buildings, such as the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, the Bank of China Headquarters in Beijing, and the Suzhou Museum. Squares and diagonal lines running through them remain consistent signature elements throughout.

Finally, I took the metro back to Hamad International Airport, bringing this two-week journey to an end. Shenzhen Airlines’ check-in counters were placed in a corner of the airport’s check-in hall. Only there could one see rows of uniformly Chinese faces. By then, the National Day holiday had long ended. A solo tourist like me, standing in the zigzag queue, seemed somewhat out of place among the business travelers in polo shirts carrying black laptop bags. Although I could still feel the ease and comfort of travel, I knew that before long I would become one of them again.

At that moment, the sun was setting. The fiery red sun was reflected on the glass curtain wall of the terminal. Outside the terminal stood row after row of airplanes printed with different logos, about to fly to destinations all over the world. In that instant, I wanted to rush over, pick up my camera, and record the scene. But seeing that I was about to reach the front of the queue, and that nearly a hundred people were already lined up behind me, I could only give up. Five minutes later, I successfully got my boarding pass. I raised my camera and moved close to the glass window, ready to take a photo, but the sun was no longer as crimson as before, and one corner of it had already sunk behind the outline of the building.

I felt a little regret, but also an immense sense of gratitude. I do not necessarily have to seize the perfect timing. Even with its imperfections, a sincere feeling, accompanied by the warm Doha sunlight of October 9, 2025, can still illuminate the road ahead.