{"id":2473,"date":"2013-02-19T04:18:31","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T12:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jett.in\/?p=2473"},"modified":"2013-02-19T04:18:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-19T12:18:31","slug":"instawalk-katara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/","title":{"rendered":"Instawalk: Katara"},"content":{"rendered":"

i’m not quite sure what to make of Katara<\/a>. it’s self-described as a “cultural village” but that term evokes tourist traps that attempt to showcase traditional culture from the area by means of fake towns and actors and dioramas and shit.<\/p>\n

but that’s not what Katara is like at all. i was hesitant to visit, despite the glowing (yet vague, and i can now understand why, reviews) since i really was not sure what to expect, but i was suitably impressed. still, i’m not sure how i would describe it. it has a grand amphitheater and more performance spaces, artist studios, boutique restaurants, a beach(!), two mosques, art galleries, headquarters of artsy organizations (e.g., the Doha Film Institute, the Doha Philharmonic, and so on), retail outlets, an opera house…O_o. how do you classify that?<\/p>\n

what was a little off to me was that there’s this very artificial feel to it because it is new and almost Disney-fied in its perfection. it has what i imagine to be a very Qatari vibe, yet is a bit too sanitized and overly grandiose.<\/p>\n

in any case, it’s definitely worth a visit if only to take pictures. (be sure to pop in to see all the exhibits that are going on, too! there’s currently a great, if small, Magnum Photos<\/a> retrospective, among others.) oh, and also to get some karak<\/a>!<\/p>\n

protip: if you’re tired of walking but know where you want to go, hail one of the golf carts. they will shuttle you around<\/a> for free! and if you need a cab, they can take you to the air-conditioned cab stand where they will call a one for you.<\/p>\n

\"#fisheye\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"upload\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"upload\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"upload\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"upload\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"upload\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Friday<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Three-story<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Bridge\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Beachfront<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

i’m not quite sure what to make of Katara. it’s self-described as a “cultural village” but that term evokes tourist traps that attempt to showcase…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"Instawalk: Katara #travel #travelblog","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[7],"tags":[259,1135,415,590],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nInstawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Instawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"i’m not quite sure what to make of Katara. it’s self-described as a “cultural village” but that term evokes tourist traps that attempt to showcase...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wanderlusty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8368\/8488811190_383324d4f9_z.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/\",\"name\":\"Instawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Instawalk: Katara\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/\",\"name\":\"Wanderlusty\",\"description\":\"A First2Board Blog\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Instawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Instawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty","og_description":"i’m not quite sure what to make of Katara. it’s self-described as a “cultural village” but that term evokes tourist traps that attempt to showcase...","og_url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/","og_site_name":"Wanderlusty","article_published_time":"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8368\/8488811190_383324d4f9_z.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/","name":"Instawalk: Katara - Wanderlusty","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-19T12:18:31+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/2013\/02\/instawalk-katara\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Instawalk: Katara"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/#website","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/","name":"Wanderlusty","description":"A First2Board Blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p436sZ-DT","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2473\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/wanderlusty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}