Riding a Camel for the First Time

Riding a camel in front of the pyramids in Egypt is one of my dream travel experiences. I never dreamt of going to Qatar and thanks to my work, I've been there twice. I got to ride a camel while I was in Qatar in March. During my last trip, I stayed over the weekend and see a little more than what I normally see after working all day long. Some coworkers and friends hired a driver who could take us to the Arabian dessert. The driver took us about an hour outside of Doha to the dessert on a land rover to go dune bashing, see the inland sea, and waited for us while we rode a camel. 

After riding a camel and about an hour of dune bashing, we stopped for a break at the inland sea. It was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't believe the color of the water. From here you can see Saudi Arabia at the other side of the shore. I thought about life for women in the Middle East and how we could be in trouble for wearing a bikini at the beach! Ha! I wrote something on my flight back to the US that I will upload to this blog regarding some thoughts about women...

This was one of my favorite days from the trip. I was sad after seeing the camels. Some of them had scars all over their bodies from being tied with chains. Some chains were rusty and there was so much skin damage around them that I just wanted to cry. I felt guilty for paying because tourists are the ones creating this "market". Animal cruelty breaks my heart and all I wanted was to bring the camel home with me. I'm really happy that I had this experience, however; I don't think that I will do it again.