Desert Safari

After visiting Ski Dubai, Cel and I made our way to a "Desert Safari" tour. Our guide came and picked us up at our hotel, then we drove outside the city limits of Dubai and into the desert. The sand dunes were beautiful and the sand was so fine and soft. We met up with several other tour vehicles (Land Cruisers), where the guides/drivers all let air out of the tires to prepare for our desert off-roading.

We piled into our vehicle and the drivers then took us on a half-hour drive through the desert, jumping over and sliding down sand dunes. It was wild! In some places, it felt like a roller coaster. All the while, heavy-based techno music blasted from the speakers. Around sunset we stopped to take some pictures, one of which is shown above.

Camels in the distance.

Just as the light was fading, we reached our camp destination. The camp consisted of a little shanty-town like area, but had modern bathrooms (thank goodness!). There were a few places selling things, as well as various activities. You could get henna tattoos, or smoke sheesha (flavored tobacco out of those big hookah pipes), or ride camels or ATVs. There was a guy doing a magic show, and little low-lying tables with cushions for us to sit on. It was really beautiful out under the desert stars, surrounded by huge sand dunes. Usually there is a belly-dancing show, but since it was Ramadan, there wasn't one. Our guides made BBQ chicken, lamb and beef, as well as a variety of other Arabic dishes for us to try out. It was actually pretty tasty!

Once dinner was wrapped up, our tour guide took us back to our hotel where we watched a little bit of Animal Planet and collapsed into sleep.

Celeste's henna tattoo as it was drying.