What am I doing here, travel diary, day 6: the mystery of the ghost mall in Qatar that opens its doors to the curious

Doha amazes why the scenery of the city changes in the blink of an eye. In less than 100 steps you can go from being dazzled by the ambitious architecture of an imposing building to being alerted by the fear of having entered a risky area. there is no middle ground. And this breaks any mental scheme. It takes getting used to these sudden changes.

In the midst of these contrasts, each neighborhood shows its peculiarities beyond the fact that the heat is the oppressive common denominator. It is striking, when walking the streets, to find a slew of completely derelict commercial premises with glass ‘tinted’ with washing up liquid to hide the inside. It seems, so you understand and without exaggeration, when you go on holiday in May to a city on the coast of Buenos Aires. There are more chances of finding a steppicursor than with an open business.

In the Al Sadd area, where we live during this World Cup, among many abandoned premises, it can be found at least six malls within a 10-block radius. Looks a lot like. Each has high-end brand franchises, food courts and supermarkets. But most importantly, they have full air conditioning. An ideal shelter to shelter from the extreme heat. So, looking for another option to fill the fridge and get some freshness, we decided to try our luck at Al Sadd Mall, located four blocks from our apartment.

The mechanical doors opened wide and as soon as we entered the room, the surprise arrived: it was totally abandoned. Not a business right. There is no deal left. It’s not an upstairs deal. pure darkness. But the doors weren’t the only thing that worked. The escalators leading to the first floor and the lift also worked. It was a strange situation. The place was perfect. It was distinguished by its cleanliness. And it was great because even though it was completely deserted, the air conditioning was on. A ghost mall, but with a welcoming atmosphere.

As we walked around the place, fearing that we were doing something forbidden (how much can you earn to trespass into Qatar?), we heard some noises. And we started to understand why everything was brilliant. Two janitors were working in the driveway that led to a large parking lot. Suddenly, we became restless again. All the lights came on and we saw that the place was full of security cameras. We were just waiting for the sirens to start blaring.

I thought: “Shit. We cut our own legs off. We escaped the World Cup because we were curious”. Suddenly the doors open and a man enters. Luckily he wasn’t a cop. He was just a building inspector.

The question was what happened to this abandoned giant. And asking questions inevitably leads to Doha and, of course, the answers we’ve been looking for. Especially with the comparative advantage that being Argentinian gives ussomething that thanks to Messi and company becomes almost as important as the Hayya Card, the mandatory visa to be able to set foot on these lands.

The inspector, who was from India, was almost as surprised as we were to see us walking into the abandoned building. But once he saw us harmless, friendly and Argentinian (“Oh, Messi”) he explained that the mall never functioned as such. Furthermore, it was built and completed between 2014 and 2015, and has not been inaugurated since then due to qualification problems.

When we walked out, surprised, when we realized that there was a good story here and we were taking pictures for this ticket, we noticed that there was a huge sign next to the front door that said “For Rent”. The place is for rent. We asked again.

Will it open one day?

-Yes, once FIFA passes.

We’ll have to go back to Doha in a couple of months to see if that’s really true or if it was just an expression of wish from the inspector. In the meantime, everyone stay tuned, this is a great place to stop sweating the drop of fatat least for a while, in the streets of Al Sadd.

PS: after our intrusion the next day, the mall doors were locked. Goodbye shelter for the heat.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.