Souq Waqif is the market everyone tells you to visit in Doha. I went in expecting a tourist trap dressed up as tradition. What I found was more complicated and more interesting than that.

I took the Doha metro to get there, which cost 6 Qatari Riyals for a day pass. Around 2 euros. The metro is clean, modern, and air-conditioned to a temperature that feels like a refrigerator after the outside heat. On the way there, a ticket controller politely informed me I had accidentally sat in the women and families only car. I moved without drama.

The souq itself is a network of alleys with spice shops, textile stalls, perfume sellers, and handicraft vendors. I stopped at a sweet shop and bought a box of assorted pastries including kunafa and baklava for less than 5 euros. I ate them standing up in the market and they were excellent.

Then I bought a traditional Qatari outfit. A white thobe and a red-and-white shemagh with a black agal. The vendor helped me put it on correctly in the shop and I wore it for the rest of the afternoon. A local man named Joe saw me wearing it and stopped to show me how the headwear is properly maintained and adjusted. That kind of interaction does not happen in most markets.

Later I found a small outdoor restaurant in the souq and had a grilled fish called Amur with oriental rice. Fresh, simple, and significantly better than anything I found in the tourist restaurants near my hotel.

Allow three hours minimum for Souq Waqif. Go in the late afternoon when the light is better and the temperature drops slightly. Buy something from a vendor that has nothing to do with the Eiffel Tower.