tour

There are two types of travelers—those who want to visit every historical sight and those who are just there for the food. It can be hard to satisfy both the history nerd and the foodie on a trip. But what if there was a way to combine eating delicious food and learning about history while on vacation? This is exactly what happens on a culinary tour.

A jewel in the desert sands, the Qatar peninsula sits surrounded by crystalline Persian Gulf waters. In its early days, Qatar was sustained mainly by the pearling industry, with fluctuations of its wealth coming from the changing value of pearls. After a brief stint as a part of the British Empire, Qatar has been independent since 1971, and the country’s abundant oil supply gives its residents the highest per capita income in the world.

The scaled head of a predator drifts through the water like the tip of an iceberg. He wanders closer toward the boat and blinks his beady, black eyes at the passengers. For a moment he lies motionless, and you could mistake him for a brown, misshapen rock. Yet when the tour guide throws a morsel of food toward the water, the alligator rapidly raises his monstrous body and snatches the food out of the air. Then the giant reptile smoothly sinks back down into the murky water and glides away, his tail shifting back and forth behind him like a snake.