A Taste of Doha ~ 40 Days in India, part 1
India's culture has facinated me for the last decade. Life arranged itself to provide me an opportunity to visit this land.
Thanks to Bulgarian friends from the International Krishna Consciousness Organization, I got familiar with their traditions, dieties and symbolism. This is me some years ago in Bulgaria, during a workshop of Hindu culture.
Working with henna is the other thing that connects me to India very often and I am grateful, as it is a tool of happyness and prosperity in my life. It is also a way to combine my culture with theris, by getting inspired by Bulgarian folklore and mixing it with henna designs. This is a good example.
On the 3th of January, along with my boyfriend (Ivan) we took on a journey, which will certanly change our lives.
After a 4h flight from Sofia to Doha (Qatar) we had to make a 9h stop before we transfer to a plane to New Delhi.
To be honest, I never heared of Doha and had zero expectations. It blew my mind! It is an advanced city with clean streets, friendly and helpful employees and organized infrastructure.
The airport is huge and it took us some time to get around the underground. Even though it is a modern city, there is an obvious structure in society, based on religious belif. The undergoud trains are classified in groups, such as "Family", "Regular" and such.
Regular class looks like what would be considered as first class in Bulgaria. I love the beautiful repeating patterns, decoarting the trains and stations.
It is tourist friendly and we got oriented easily. For about 20min. ride we were at Doha's center. It was maybe about 25°C in the evening and we headed to the Museum of Islamic Art.
What facinated me were the men holding hands. After a short google search it turned out it is common in this part of the world. It is a gesture of deep friendship and the classical western impression is that they are gay, but they are not.
We enjoyed the nice weather, the sea, the view and had to head back to the airport.
Because it is a place for many long transfers they were the so-called "Quiet rooms", providing a perfect atsosphere for a rest.
Another awesome thing about the airport was the art. The huge scluptures and art installations were impressive and had no religious propaganda at all.
Before we knew it, we were on our plane to India, knowing that all we experienced in Doha was the opposite of what is yet to come in our 40 days trip!
Right now I am on a 30h train from Agra to Goa, so I have plently of time to share my experience so far. Stay tooned!
