Diversity pops up where you least expect it. For instance, Doha, Qatar and Toronto, Canada, two places I visited recently and which at first glance are complete opposites, then upon closer examination shockingly similar, before upon still further review become utterly dissimilar again. (I stopped comparing at this point – you’re welcome to dig deeper on your own time.) I had always pictured Qatar possessing an almost entirely Arab population and Toronto being filled with white folk in Maple Leafs gear. Both communities have more than their fair share of these demographics, but it’s only a small slice of the social fabric. Indeed, Qatar may be the most diverse place I’ve visited outside of Epcot Center, as I encountered Europeans, Asians, Africans, etc. There is a reason for this: Qatar has massive oil and gas reserves and as a result – follow me here – lots of money.

Qatar’s population is only 1.5 million, of whom only a quarter are actual citizens. (Doha is Qatar’s capital, largest city, and financial center: visiting Qatar without seeing Doha is equivalent to going to the Vatican and electing to avoid all the Catholicism.) Everyone else is a guest worker, who all enter the country with the understanding that they shall never become citizens and one day they will leave. While in Qatar, however, they earn more than they ever would where they came from, so everyone’s fairly content with the arrangement, which is if nothing else very straightforward: you have a role in our country, you fulfill it for a certain amount of time, you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here.

Qatar — located on Saudi Arabia’s eastern border — possesses a skyline almost entirely built in the last decade and far more construction is on the way in the next 10 years as they prepare to host the 2022 World Cup. It is a place that loves to shop, with the result that there are more luxury retail outlets per capita than anywhere else on earth. (They encourage everyone to open their wallets: it’s a fascinating experience to see women in full black burqas heading into Cartier, while many ads for malls feature Westerners with decidedly exposed limbs carrying bags overflowing with recent acquisitions.) (Speaking of Westerners, while Qatar frowns most sternly on drinking, you can get all the booze you want at Western-style hotels, apparently based on the theory that if Prohibition didn’t work on those people in their own land, it won’t do the trick here either.) In general, Doha feels new and squeaky clean in a way few places do (even with all the dust being kicked up from the desert), which makes sense since so much of it is still being assembled.

If I had to capture Qatar’s appeal in a single attraction, I would cite the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani Museum. How to describe it? Do you have a family member who has a bunch of stuff they’ve accumulated over the years that they just kind of toss into the den? Imagine that relative were given access to an unlimited amount of cash and this museum is pretty much what you’d get, as it’s essentially a bunch of cool stuff the Sheikh crammed into a large building. (Not large enough, however, as they’re constructing a massive extension.) Its attractions include huge amounts of fossils, Lawrence of Arabia’s bike, and one extraordinary grab bag room that included:

1. The first airplane used to explore for oil in the Arabian Peninsula

2. An autographed uniform of German Formula One legend Michael Schumacher

3. Working race cars (a staffer wandered over and started one to prove it)

4. Two wells well over 200 feet deep (again unprompted, the staff lowered a bucket on a rope hundreds of feet and brought it back up filled with water)

5. Lots of boats, though sadly the museum employees failed to demonstrate their seaworthiness by lowering them into the waters hundreds of feet beneath us

The museum is by invite only so you’ll have to get in touch in advance, but if you ever wanted to see what would happen if your packrat uncle ran the Smithsonian, it’s a can’t-miss.

Also, you should check out the camel races, where camels are ridden by remote controlled robot jockeys; yes, it is every bit as wonderfully insane as it sounds.

Toronto lacks camels, much less ones being whipped by robots. It is, however, a similarly diverse place, though newcomers tend to stay for the long haul as it owes its mixture largely to Canada’s liberal immigration policies. (These policies grow particularly attractive as the U.S. shuts its own borders.) The metropolitan area for Toronto is home to over five million people and it houses a number of ethnic neighborhoods including multiple Chinatowns, though the boundaries have broken down enough that when you see a white guy, a black guy, and an Asian guy playing street hockey it seems perfectly natural, unlike so many parts of the world, where anybody playing street hockey is jarring.

Like Doha, Toronto is a spotless city. Newly renovated areas are tidy, of course, such as the Distillery District, which in recent years has filled with galleries and cafes so it seems like a Great White North version of Brooklyn’s DUMBO area. That said, even the older/less yuppie-friendly sections feel the same way. In general, it’s a place that simply has a good energy with its city-sponsored bike rentals everywhere for the person who suddenly feels the need to pedal and the like, due at least in part to the fact most of its residents are still in solid spirits thanks to it dodging much of the economic meltdown plaguing the globe in recent years. (That said, it’s not entirely in the clear, as the U.S.A. remains crucial to Canada’s economy through tourism and trade in general and our lack of a recovery may eventually drag them down as well – ah, Wall Street, you’re the gift that keeps on giving.)

It should also be noted that both Toronto and Doha passed the “I took a late night stroll without being mugged or at least having the feeling of ‘Huh, this is ominous’” test (indeed, my only point of concern was the sheer number of bars I passed in Toronto showing a pay-per-view UFC bout: this is a place that truly appreciates two men pounding the crap out of each other).

Now we reach the big difference between the cities. When I travel, I divide places I like into two categories: the ones I want to return to occasionally and those where I could see myself living. Vegas is a classic example of the first category, Buenos Aires would be in the second (I adore its exchange rate where every one of my dollars magically triples in value and their lifestyle where it’s perfectly natural to say, ‘How about we take a nap and then go out at midnight for wine and steak? After all, it’s Wednesday’”). Going to the Middle East is an overwhelming experience (just getting there is an investment, both in travel time and cost: here’s my experience on Qatar Airways, which was recently named the world’s top airline) and once you’re there, well, you can only see so many robots on camels before you think, “I’m not sure I fit in here completely.” I eagerly await the chance to return, but Doha struck me as place I’d like to explore periodically, as opposed to one where I’d make an extended stay.

Toronto, on the other hand, is a the metropolis that’s, as the balladeer/Nicole-raiser Lionel Richie put it so succinctly, “easy like Sunday morning.” Getting there is a snap. (I flew Porter, which lands at Toronto’s smaller downtown airport, meaning once you get off the plane you’re a short ferry ride away.) For a place packed with millions of people, it remains genuinely mellow. It’s the polar opposite of, say, Beijing (a truly extraordinary city every person should see at least once, but also one where spitting inside museums and violently shoving anyone who dares to use public transportation remain widely accepted social customs).

Incidentally, Toronto is a case where “mellow” is not synonymous with “boring.” My favorite attractions include:

The Art Gallery of Ontario

While much of the AGO is devoted to Canadian artists, it also houses a superb collection in general; while I was there the exhibits included “Abstract Expressionist New York”, which was on loan from the MOMA and gave me the chance to see works I somehow missed when they were five blocks away from me.

The Royal Ontario Museum

A highly child-friendly museum devoted to world cultures (yes, people in animal costumes do wander around the lobby, so as to trick your spawn into thinking they’ve entered an amusement park); my favorite exhibit was the Bollywood Cinema Showcards display, highlighting advertisements from India’s sprawling film industry that quite frankly shames Hollywood’s own recent ads, which rarely evolve much beyond, “This is a photo of Kevin James. He’s fat.”

Bata Shoe Museum

Your girlfriend’s dream attraction, offering both a history of shoes and footwear from Canadian celebrities. (Yes, I have now seen Avril Lavigne’s sneakers up close.)

CN Tower

To my knowledge still the world’s tallest freestanding building (by the time you read this, Qatar or Dubai will likely have constructed a loftier structure just because they can). Try to go up when their neighbors the Blue Jays are playing a home game, then find a spot where you can gaze down at the action; remember to scream extremely loud while watching, as your heckles have a long way down to travel.

Hockey Hall of Fame

Realization visiting this shrine to all things puck-related: while hockey goes beyond popular to simply being a crucial aspect of existence in Canada and much of Europe (as assorted exhibits demonstrate), Americans can only really get into the sport when it allows us to crush the spirits of another nation, which is why we got so excited when we knocked off the U.S.S.R. on our way to winning Olympic gold in 1980 and were so pleased with ourselves when we stole away The Great One Wayne Gretzky from Edmonton and dumped him in Los Angeles, dismantling the Oilers’ dynasty and paving the way for an NHL franchise named after a movie starring Emilio Estevez. Man, we’re dicks. (That said, hey Vancouver, congrats on the Canucks beating the Bruins to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada…oh, right.)

Real Sports Bar & Grill

I stayed at the Hotel Le Germain Maple Leaf Square, which is next to where the Maple Leafs and Raptors play (if you’re interested in attending, Raptor games tend only to be popular when the team’s doing well, while the Leafs are always mobbed), a short walk from where the Blue Jays play (until the Jays win another World Series, you should be able to find seats or, again, spy on them from the CN Tower), and perhaps most importantly in the same complex as Real Sports, which features a two-story high television screen and then seemingly hundreds of smaller ones. I cannot imagine a better place to enjoy huge quantities of Toronto’s local Steam Whistle beer while watching Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks defeat LeBron James and the Miami Heat for the NBA Championship, as I did. Highlight: when former Toronto Raptor and current Heat player Chris Bosh fell to the ground sobbing after the loss, at which point the bar thundered with applause and reminded me that King James isn’t the only player to burn a few bridges for the privilege of living in the town Scarface built.

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On a final note, both Toronto and Doha share a last bit of common ground: respect goes out to their residents who stick around for the entire year, as each boasts a season when life turns fairly hellish. Doha boasts a summer when temperatures surge far above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. (I interviewed the photographer Andrew Hetherington and he told a great story about wondering if he should cut an outdoor photo shoot in the Qatari desert short, as his film seemed to be melting; we also reminisced about the robots on the camels seriously you must see them life will never be the same.) Toronto has a winter where the mercury drops well below zero. (On a windy day in the middle of winter, Toronto generates temperatures I normally associate with the ice planet Hoth.)

Try to plan the timing of your stay accordingly because, as Antoine de le Sale noted on one of his wanderings during the 15th century, even the perfect visit can be marred if you freeze to death and/or burst into flames.

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