Kavin in Cape Town: The Layover

I judge airports by their bathrooms. They can hit me with late flights, uncomfortable seating, and bad coffee shops but most all will forgiven with a great Throne Room. So far, Doha International Airport is...well, I've seen better. Don't get me wrong: there's plenty of decent seating, free wifi, a phenomenal duty-free store (Figure 1)...the bathroom could just use a little work. Everything in there seems to be covered in water. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself...

Anyway, I've just arrived in Doha, Qatar via Qatar Airways and what a great flight it was! Roomy seats, great food, and free booze the entire time...did I mention a selection of 182 movies plus 30 shows to choose from? Yeah. Definitely flying with them again. Starting it off with a Heineken, I watched about half of Daybreakers before I got bored and switched to The Ghost Writer (not to be confused with Ghost Rider, the crappy Nick Cage movie). Since I couldn't understand the actors' English accents through the the terrible headphones, I switched once again to the less dialogue driven Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Whatever, it got me through till suppertime:
"Dinner, sir?" the air host asked.
"Yes. The chicken, please." I responded.
"Anything to drink?"
"Do you have wine?"
"Of course. Is the French ok?"
"Perfect."
I love this airline. Once in a while, it's perfectly healthy to release your inner snob.

After dinner, I got a good night's sleep and squeezed one last movie in before we landed. Which brings me to now, in Qatar waiting for the final leg of my flight due in 10 hours--just enough time to come up with a cure for a minor medical condition (premature baldness beware). My original plan was to take a loop around town, but due to a very recent change in rules I'm not allowed to leave the airport without a visa I can no longer request on the plane. But that's ok--I'll just grab a bite at the food court (which is less a "court" and more a burger joint/TCBY) and check out that sweet duty-free store: