Foreign First Impressions of Doha, Qatar (World Cup 2022)

Well today is our first full day here in Doha and over the next several weeks of

Course. We're gonna go to some World Cup games to watch Mexico play. We're also really excited to show you guys around Doha we're going to go to the desert the beach a market eat some food downtown all the above. Today we're just getting our feet wet and wandering around the city kind of getting our bearings for what we're going to call home for the next few weeks this place is interesting it's it has a very Doha a very particular smell about it. I don't know how to describe it I guess just like earthy I'm assuming it's just all the [Music] it's just the Earth just dust and desert and sand very particular smell to it. It's like the combination of the desert

and downtown Monahan Sand Hills in Texas where it's just nothing but desert

meets Manhattan with bright lights and skyscrapers so Monahans meets Manhattan that's Doha. This is the Corniche area this is the main FIFA Fan Festival area it's noon it's several days before the games actually start so this is definitely the Calm before the storm but it's cool to kind of get a behind the scene picture of what this is going to look like because right now it's very calm super decked out. I mean they have gone the decorations here are world-class the whole city is colorful Ready for the World Cup there are Flags everywhere and the energy right now is that.

 

I'm feeling anxious I am ready to get the World Cup party started. I know a lot of you are going to have a lot of questions about Doha Qatar for the World Cup.  Everything going on can you drink alcohol can you buy alcohol what can you wear what can you not wear how much are the tickets how much did you. we pay for tickets how much does everything cost where is everybody staying at we're going to cover all of that over the next two weeks we're pretty much going to be filming every single day so stay tuned. we're gonna cover all of that right now we don't know the answers to many of those questions can you film. Qatar we're finding out right now I don't know there are a lot of officials around us and no one said anything so far so good two days six hours and one minute but who's counting the water is beautiful.

This morning and Greg got us a little lost a little bit because all the streets look the same and we accidentally ended up running just over four and a half miles. So we earned 5.55 each we each got one bottle of water no it's not 5.55 each no we each got a bottle of water 555 for two drinks of water and coke actually that is much much cheaper than that. I expected to pay in The Fan Festival area when it's this hot outside and they could probably charge whatever. They want but you know wow I don't know if I've ever seen a camel maybe in a zoo but definitely not like 50 of them that's guys is it hump day. It's not it's actually like a Friday um they're very tall .wow that is so it's so like when I think of a desert I think of camels so since we're in the desert and there are camels that just feel so cliche [Music] so today is Friday the very first game is Sunday which means well the countdown was around two days six hours or something like that so the first game is in about 48 50 hours from now and I feel like there are really no other fans here there's seems like a lot of volunteers wandering around there's a fan here there's a bunch of TV Crews and then there's us but it really doesn't feel like anyone's here I don't know I'm really curious to come back in a few days once things get going and I don't know if it's. Because Qatar is so expensive so maybe fans didn't come too early or didn't want to come too early but it seems strangely quiet all through the town.

I could just hang out in here all day with my official World Cup predictions Metro stations are going to be packed just because they're nice and air-conditioned. It's not brutal outside but it's a big city and there's a lot of walking from point to point. I think the Metro stations are going to be packed [Music] we've ridden metros and Subways all over the world never have we ever had a front-seat view quite like that. This it's like where the conductor is there even a conductor our friend Justin said there's no driver driving this is all it's all up to us wow that was uh very nice train thought on Doha it is a lot of walking and not like everything's just very spread out it's. not built like a European city it's probably built more similarly to like We'll say Dallas there are train stations and metro stops seems like they built a pretty robust public transportation system but I don't know I mean you can see nothing around me right now. It just doesn't like it feels convenient enough but not quite convenient like New York City or cities that we have visited in Europe where it's like there are trains and metros and trams everywhere.

Mexico City it's just not it it's definitely a car city it's not a walking City and it's not really a public transportation City from my you know 12 hours of experience being here. [Music] We made a quick pit stop at a local mall. we got very hot and very hungry we didn't see food anywhere so we're at which witch, yes I know come to Qatar and go to an American chain restaurant. But I didn't see any food anywhere else. a few facts about Qatar and this world cup Qatar is the smallest country to ever host the World Cup this is the first time the World Cup has been held in the winter obviously this world cup has a lot of controversy surrounding it.

 One of which is how freaking hot it is here normally the World Cup is held

in the summertime but it is too hot to play football in the summertime. We're gonna go with football here because most of the world says football I know that in the United States we call it soccer. I don't know where you're watching from we're gonna call it football about uh only. I think this is the craziest fact only 12 of the population are Qatari only 12 10 to 12 percent actually hold a Qatari passport. The other 90 92 percent are all immigrants they're all ex-pats here working for one reason or another they might be uh here working at a mall. They might be uh construction workers laborers or teachers at a school like our friend is here Dustin so that's just crazy to think that most.

 Now we've made our way over to the Pearl a famous area in Qatar because it is a man-made Island it's really a series of islands that cost. I believe over 2 billion dollars to construct and it's one of the only areas in town. I believe that ex-pats can buy a house and there are a ton of condos skyscrapers and more specifically right now we're in this little. What do they call it the cannot quarter or the cannot quarter or Little Venice and wow Doha I don't know what to think of Doha [Music]. The interesting thing about the guitar is that if you only saw one area you would definitely get a very distinct impression of what the country but the city is like if you came here first you would think okay. Qatar is one way to juxtapose this with where we're staying out in the desert everywhere is just so just distinct and different and nice but weird because it's new I don't know like I said I don't know

what to think about this place yet.