Hi everyone. Welcome back to our channel The World n Us. If you're new here my name is
Elisa and today we bring you to the second largest city in Qatar which is Al-Wakra.
Now Al-Wakra is just south of doha and this city is going through a huge transformation in
preparation for the FIFA 2022 World cup which is really, really exciting. Now, accordingly,
we're actually standing in front of the Al Janoub stadium which was built for the event.
We'll tell you more about it on a following video but for now we actually want you to
stick around because we want to take you to the Souq Al Wakra. And we also want to show
you what other things you can get up to in the surroundings, and within Al Wakra. So let's go!
So we just arrived and it took us about 10 minutes from the stadium
and we're going to go explore. There are actually about 10 different zones and they
have so many different things that you can buy in the market. So let's go check it out.
So I'm just walking through the souq now and as you can see the souq is a
combination of old and new and it is meant to resemble old Qatari homes or a village.
It's really, really cool. It has all these different alleyways that will take you to
different parts and zones of the market and they sell a huge variety of things. They have
accessories women's and men's clothes. They sell pets, animals. They have a honey market,
a date market; really, there's a huge variety of things. We'll zoom in into the entry board
from the front so you can actually have a thorough look. And the way that I'm walking
now is actually going to take me towards some of the restaurants and also the beachfront.
I'm currently walking through the waterfront where you're going to find a huge variety of restaurants
to suit all kind of tastes and also there is a beach here but it is for families only which
means that if you're a bachelor or a single person you can't actually come to swim here.
And also you do have to adhere to a few rules and regulations. I'll show you the board just
behind me. You're also going to find change room facilities which with having the beach right up
front it's really really helpful. Now as you can see there's barely any people here right now.
And that's because it is the middle of the day. The best time to come I would say is probably
in the evenings when it's not so hot anymore and all the restaurants are open and bustling.
However, at the moment we do have new restrictions which means that the children are not allowed.
Children under 12 are not allowed to join us here so it's probably the best time to come for
adults if they wanted it to be nice and quiet. Other things that you are going to find here
is a museum ,that we haven't actually been to yet. We find it really hard to find information
online but it is within the souq. And also there is a children's playground right at the end.
And the other thing that you are going to find here is the pearl monument. It actually used to
be part of a roundabout and it has actually been moved down to the end of the souq roundabout.
Another interesting thing about the old Souk in Al Wakra is that it actually has
a mosque which is called Abu Monatarain. Monatarain actually means two marinettes.
Interestingly it only has one. Some people think that perhaps the shape of the actual mosque
changed throughout the years. The opening hours of the souq are between 10 a.m
till noon and from 4 p.m until 10 p.m. That is for the majority of the shops,
not all of them. The restaurants are actually open all day long. So here i just met Hameed.
He's from India, Kerala
Would you like to say hello and you've got a youtube channel as
well. hello yeah what's the name of your youtube channel?
Fantastic and what do you blog about? Yeah. What stuff do you blog about? I make the uh
palm of uh dates uh you see from in India oh wow oh very cool my friends have too much palm trees.
Yeah. And so you sell them. Wow that sounds really very delicious uh you can go
you come to visit in June July. Okay. You will get the fruits from there all right
on the spot only 200 indian rupees for one kilo. Oh that's not bad. Yeah, very delicious,
tasty, big one. So very nice to meet you. Okay. Have a nice day and see you later.
Bye. So I'm now making my way to the other end of the Wakra Old Souq. I'm heading towards the
playground. Also towards us you're going to find the hotel and unfortunately i haven't
been successful in finding the museum. I've asked directions and they weren't able to give
me very concise details. If i do find out where it is and when it opens i'll put the information below.
So we've just driven away a few meters from the old Souq and we're now at the public garden in Wakra.
This is actually our first time visiting here but it is another thing that you can do in Al Wakra.
We're going to show you around. Ready, Eva?
Another thing that you cannot miss out on when you come to Al Wakra are its beaches.
Al Wakra has so many beaches to pick from. There're beaches for families only, if you're a bachelor and
also there's the dog beach which is where we are right now. This one is a very popular one because
people can actually drive up to the water's edge and the water's nice and shallow which is
perfect for young families. And just make sure you don't actually get stuck out there like this guy did.
Check out google, you're going to find the beaches all scattered throughout the coast.
Now I've got one more place to take you to. Let's go.
We have finally reached our last destination which is the Al Wakra fort.
My understanding is that this fort was built in the 20th century on top of an older fort.
Also apparently the building has actually changed a fair bit in recent times. The towers that you see
behind me used to be a lot taller and you can't actually access the inside. So you can't go in
and check it out unfortunately. But what you can do is you can walk around the whole building.
There's a very nice path to follow around and if you can actually make it at night time
that will be fantastic as well because the place is fully lit up.
Now this is located very close to the Souq, of the Souq Al Wakra which we have recently been to directly
opposite and on the other side you also have the most popular mosque in Al-Wakra. So I hope that you
enjoyed the journey with us through Al Wakra today and we hope to see you in the next video.