When we arrived at the sand dunes outside Giza, our tour guide motioned us toward the crowd of 30+ camels, all saddled and ready to go. We were ushered onto the camels, told to lean back, and hold on tight. The guide then ushered our camels down the hill and toward the Great Pyramid of Giza. 

My cousins have lived abroad twice for my uncle’s work. For the past year and a half, and five years before that, my cousins have lived in Doha, the capital of Qatar, a small country on the Arabian Peninsula. During October break, my parents, my brother, and I visited them for the first time. During our nine days visiting, we spent time in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

The first day in Doha, we went to Souq Waqif, a favorite marketplace of my aunt. We were greeted by friendly shopkeepers and a wide variety of goods, from spices to hunting falcons. Many of the other marketplaces and souqs that we visited had very aggressive shopkeepers who loved to barter, but going at off-times minimized that stressor at Souq Waqif.

On our day in Dubai, we spent most of our time at the Dubai Mall, the largest mall in the world. Right outside the Dubai Mall was a great view of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. While malls here have started going out of style, malls in the Middle East are still very relevant. There are tons in Doha, as well, and that is where most shopping, even for groceries, happens because you can stay in the air conditioning in between stores. 

In our remaining time in Qatar, we went dune blasting, rode camels, explored the cultural district of Katara, visited Purple Island in the northern region of Qatar, and took a dhow ship out onto the Doha harbor. Dhow ships have a lot of historical significance in Qatar, we even briefly visited a small dhow ship museum in Katara. Dhow ships are important because they were used to pearl, which was the original big industry in Qatar, before oil became big. As a result, pearls are also a common symbol of Qatar, and you can find a lot of them for sale at the souqs. 

Our last two days were spent in Egypt between the neighboring cities of Cairo and Giza, and we spent an entire day seeing all of the pyramids. They’re so large you can see them from across the city, and it’s amazing to see something built thousands of years ago and still standing with minimal preservation efforts. We also got to see a part of the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which didn’t officially open until the week after we got there. However, we got to see one of the exhibits that opened early, which was mostly statues and sculptures related to Egyptian gods. 

I learned a lot about both history and how people live in other parts of the world; even between the three countries we visited, there were huge differences in culture. Traveling to the other side of the world was a truly incredible and unique experience.