My main plan for the day was a reservation for a 4.5 hour shared guided tour of Doha, which was due to start at 3p. That was later than I would have liked, but the other options with all the items that I wanted were for private tours (or way earlier than I wanted), and I didn't want to be 1-on-1 with a guide for that long.
Another lazy morning saw me skip breakfast at the hotel. I tried to make up for it a little by doing a brief treadmill run in the fitness center. Interestingly, I forgot that the hotel has it reserved for women on Monday morning until 12:30p; but this only cost me about 6 minutes of waiting. After the run I cleaned up, started some laundry (there was a combined washer/dryer in the room), then went down to the Indian restaurant in the hotel for a late lunch. I was only able to get through about half of the palak paneer - I also didn't enjoy it that much, probably because my stomach wasn't ready for it at the time - but I decided to box up the remainder anyway.
The tour driver, Ali, didn't roll up to the hotel until about 3:45p (I had a WhatsApp exchange with both the tour operator and him a little beforehand, so I knew to expect him to be late). He was in an SUV with 4 other clients already, so I had to pop in the third row with minimal leg room. Besides that, though, he was very friendly and knowledgeable about all things Doha/Qatar. The other 4 tour guests were also in town for the F1 race (2 from Manchester, 2 from Northern Ireland), and also friendly.
We first headed to Katara Cultural Village, where we got out and Ali led us on a brief walkabout. Next he drove us through a section of Pearl Island (a man-made island with swanky hotels and residences), and then back down to the Corniche just south of West Bay where we took a half hour cruise in the Doha Bay / Persian Gulf on a "traditional" dhow boat. Lastly, he took us to Souq Waqif, a large open marketplace that gave me vibes of a better version of a Moroccan medina. The two from Manchester stayed there to end their tour, and I was last to be dropped off around 8:30p.
I was pleased that I saved the palak paneer from lunch, as I didn't have to worry about dinner. The room had a microwave and flatware that made warming it up pretty easy. It also had a dishwasher to make for easy clean-up (of all 3 items 😅); though I had to buy the dishwasher soap (as I had the laundry soap) from the front desk. Speaking of the laundry, I was disappointed that the dryer didn't work very well (which I probably should have expected from a combo unit).
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Trip highlight photos can be found here.
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