I was reminded of a trip to Doha the other day when talking with a client in Miami. The conversation started as we were discussing the topic of women traveling in business. Traveling on business alone has never fazed me, but sometimes I may take that for granted. This particular conversation was sparked as we discussed a trip of mine I took to the Middle East last year. The trip was to Doha, Qatar and I was talking of how much I loved it. My client was intrigued how I traveled myself to a country where there are restrictions on women, yet as a western woman I did not feel intimidated or out of place, but I did respect local customs by wearing western clothing respectful to the local customs. My trip was for business, but I did have one morning off, which I had to take advantage of. I hired a private guide to take me sand dunning in the desert in an SUV. The trip was surreal. It was about an hours drive on highway to the desert where the driver let out the air in the tires and off we went onto the sand. I felt like I was in a movie and the bigger the dunes got, the more nervous I got. We went down the one dune at nearly a 90-degree angle where the car felt as if it was about to tip over. Luckily, that was not the case. The guide then asked if I would like to get out of the car and watch him go down the dune and see what it looked like from the outside. I was so caught up in the moment, I hopped out of the car without my purse and immediately the car drove off. I was left alone in the desert for about two minutes, which felt like an eternity. As calming as the ultimate peace of the desert was, it was equally disturbing. And the one single fly that continued to buzz around me didn’t help! I don’t think I breathed in that 2 minute time. The car and driver did appear, almost magically, far above me and came down the dune like a small creature crawling through the great desert. I let out a deep breath, for nobody to hear and felt lucky to be able to experience such a feeling of being scared and relieved all at the same moment. I suppose any time you travel you take a risk, but in my opinion a risk well worth taking for a once in a lifetime experience! Why else do we travel? -Alex Young, vice president and associate publisher