Day 7 – Desert Safari

Sorry for the late late late update, people. I know some people are waiting for this with bated breath and here it is finally! The final fun day I had in Dubai!

After the yesterday’s botched attempt to shop for my bro’s birthday present and other personal junk, I decided today I had to do something quick… and also go for Desert Safari. Everyone else in the country had personal and/or religious matters to attend to so that pretty much left me with Rushdi.

I was pretty skeptical about booking the Desert Safari slots right on the day itself but at this point anything was worth a shot. I called up a number that Rushdi had passed to me the previous night and luckily, I managed to secure 2 slots, 3 p.m. The dude told me it was 180 dhirhams and the thing was gonna end at 9. Fuck, I seriously can’t imagine what we’re going to do that’ll take that damn long. I began listing off the things we could possibly do in that 6 hours there that I’ve heard these dudes talk about. Hmm… dune bashing, riding a dune buggy, camel rides, sheesha and food in the middle of the desert under the stars and of course, belly dancing. Nah, seriously can’t imagine.

Since the driver was going to come pick us up at 3, we had the whole morning so I decided that we make the best of our time and try to find a Toys R Us to get my bro’s stuff. Once more I found myself in Kerama sipping chai with Rushdi in the alleys. Good times, good chai.

We made our way back to his house so I can empty my camera’s memory card. His dad and a friend was there that day, I think. After that we went to get a bus on the opposite of the block that Al Falaq was on to get to a Toys R Us at Deira. Unfortunately we missed a stop or we downright took the wrong bus and we ended up at the Gold Souq bus station. Since I was the tourist there I had seriously no idea where did we miss so Rushdi went around to cab drivers and other bus drivers trying to find an alternate route to the alleged Toys R Us. While he was doing that, I saw this little kiosk where they had drinks. Damn man, Dubai is cold and dry at the same time. By now and for the past few days, my tongue actually got chaffed licking my lips from stopping it from cracking to nerve-wracking pain.

So I skipped over, got myself a Mountain Dew. We don’t get it here much but Kickapoo is probably Malaysia/East Asia’s extremely pitiful counterpart to Mountain Dew. So far I only found (and discovered) Mountain Dew at a little shop near Indahvilla, BC Shop. While lining up for the Dew, something on their counters caught my eye… some currypuff looking object. SHITTT… it was sambosas! I usually pay out of my ass for this shit at Tarbush and that’s just daylight robbery man… and it sure as hell doesn’t taste as good as this!

After a bit more chowing and a bit more information gathering, time became more and more an apparent enemy as the time for the driver to pick us up at Panorama became closer and closer. Eventually after fruitless attempts, we conceded and went back to Panorama. The cab driver started talking to Rushdi regarding the other drivers’ recent behaviors and it seems that it had taken a turn for the worse. I could understand like, 5% of what he was saying as he was talking in Urdu. I understood Rushdi more because as he puts it, he was using seriously crude Urdu, the type you’d use when you wanna gut a dude. Plus, I was pretty shocked as this was the actually the first time I heard him ever had a conversation in Urdu after these 2 years that they have been teaching it to me.

We got off at Panorama and it was already lunch time and we needed to stay close by because we only had an hour before the driver was coming so we went over to Al Khaleej to grab some KFC.

Al Khaleej Centre, pic was taken at a cafeteria across the place



They got a Patan restaurant here too! Vegetarian joint...

As these guys said, KFC at Dubai is definitely much better. Size is roughly the same, taste is better but damn, they’re stingy. You have to pay an extra quarter to get a packet of sauce, be it chili or ketchup… damn!

Had our meal and waltzed upstairs to check the place out and found that they had a Baskin Robbins. I just wanted to see if Baskin Robbins in Dubai had any edge over M’sia’s Baskin Robbins so I grabbed a cone. Just the same, sadly, but I’ve always held M’sia’s Baskin Robbins in high regard.

We went back to Panorama to chill a bit and watch some TV and eventually reception rang and they told us that the driver had arrived. We cleaned up a bit and went to see our ride for the Desert Safari. Pretty nice Land Cruiser and the company that was bringing us for this tour’s called North Tours. Or was it Northern Tours? Geez…

I rode shotgun and Rushdi was behind me. There were another 4 slots left and we went to a nearby hotel apartment to pick up the remaining people for the tour. They made us wait quite a bit as the allotted time for pickup was 30 minutes tops and the driver got to us 1st earlier than told. Eventually 2 Brazilian couples got in. White dudes with white girls, I guess they’re the descendants of the Portuguese or something.

Everyone was quite quiet on the journey through the city and onto the highway and then we eventually stopped at a little area full of souvenir shops and loads and loads of toilets, for some odd reason. There was a little stand that sold coconuts too but I ain’t gonna touch that in Dubai. First stop, the toilet. Later I went to check out the souvenir shop and bought a few sand bottles. Uhh… that wouldn’t be the right name but it’s a bottle filled with sand of different colours and they make an image that is usually camels travelling the desert. I also finally decided on a little boxing camel pen for my brother since we have a little inside joke when we bought similar pens, although there were kangaroos, so I thought that was an appropriate present, albeit a rather cheapskate one. Meh.

Rushdi stepped out of the loo and we had some chai from the cafeteria that we took a leak at and then went into the shop next to it. As soon as I walked in, the owner came up to me and started wrapping that Arabian cloth thing around my head. Just call me Camel Rider X. I decided to pass. It didn’t seem like a very good idea at the time.

I walked into the shop that our Land Cruiser had directly parked in front of with other 4X4s and tried to get some spare batteries for the cameras just in case mine decides to die on me in this crucial part of the trip. Pity they didn’t have any. They only had those new modern one piece batteries for the newer cameras. One thing that these shops had in abundance were clothes, hats, sheeshas, and a plethora of extremely sexy belly dancing costumes. Damn. If I had a chick I’d buy 3 different types for her. Turns out the reason we stopped there wasn’t just so the shops could pull a fast one on us tourists but also to let out the air from the tires. Apparently it’s essential for dune bashing. Oh, and the area we’re in is called Al Ain.

Rushdi and the land cruiser



Me on the land cruiser



Two foos and a land cruiser

After that we set off for the desert and found out that a hell lot more land cruisers contained were on Desert Safari duty today, not just this particular company. Earlier in the cruiser we saw a drastic increase of land cruisers on the road and also discovered that our Brazilian passengers were only on their 2nd leg of their Middle East tour. I just remember that they were to go to Egypt next and perhaps other places too. We eventually reached a U-Turn on the road and went around to the opposite of the desert.

We waited for every land cruiser to assemble and the leader car started off. Oh yeah, throughout the whole journey, and I mean WHOLE, the car was pumped with nothing but Indian songs. It sounded pretty out of place as we went nuts dune bashing. Dune bashing… is pretty much going up and down sand dunes, rough turns, nearly sideways driving and downhill sideways drifting. Pretty hard to describe but I do have a video of it. It’s a 1st person view video, doesn’t seem awfully exhilarating and doesn’t really help explain dune bashing but watch it anyways…

The video was probably taken between the 2nd and 3rd stops. The 1st stop was just after 30 minutes of dune bashing. It was a good start but after experiencing the whole thing, this was not all that intense. We just stopped to take some pictures. Here they are…

The most sand I've seen since arriving in Dubai



"Bleargh~!"



Sand, oh glorious sand!



Seems awfully bright and scorching but it's cold as ice there



The desert keeps on growing...



... and growing...



...and growing. So much sand!!! But then what'd you expect?



Sand's not hot at all! The heat's under there, a feet or two

Before that as soon as I got off the land cruiser, I had to see whether desert sand, was indeed, desert sand…

Yeah, that’s fine desert sand.

We went off once more, deeper into the desert and the dunes got higher and more challenging and the ride definitely got a hell lot better! We stopped again at a little camel enclosure.

Leaving the 1st stop



Arriving at the enclosure



Family of camels in the background



Rim shot by Rushdi



Camels and camels and camels...



Didn't get a chance to see whether there was a herder

There was this family of camels outside the fence that seemed very docile… or freaked right out of their fucking heads to react. Plenty of people went over to pat, take pictures and attempt all sorts of stunts with them. White folks… Hehehhe… Some even took off their sandals/shoes/slippers to enjoy the sand… near a camel enclosure with a zoo-like whiff in the air. Geniuses went over to the camels and stepped in humongous amounts of camel dung. Fucking brilliant. Took a few more pictures…

Desert sunshine



Just chilling

Went for another session of dune bashing, deeper into the desert now and the dunes were getting bigger and steeper and a hell lot more fun! Since we were the cruiser that was somewhere in the middle, we saw all the other cars perform different tricks on the dunes. Probably after another half an hour, we stopped to take sunset pictures in the desert. It’s like these dudes made the sun set for us right on cue… Hehehehe…

Beautiful end to a day



That's me, right there, in the corner. Can't miss me.



Land cruisers all parked and unloaded passengers

There was this chick, magnificent one who had this flowing white dress and beautiful long hair that was just posing like a supermodel in the sand and the desert wind was blowing her dress and her hair to make it perfect for shots. Fack… After ogling at her long enough, we climbed a sand dune.

VICTORY! I made it to the top!

Here’s the view from the top of the sand dune.

At the peak



Yup, that's all North Tours' cruisers right there.

We came down sliding and inviting buttloads of sand into our shoes and pants once more. Some dude decided to roll down the sand dune. Didn’t seem that exhilarating so I decided to pass and took more shots.

Dusting off is the easy part



Our Brazilian friends enjoying the sights



Once more, the sunset

Before we left one of the land cruisers backed up into a bank of sand and got stuck so the other drivers, instead of helping him out, made it worse for him by piling sand on the front wheels and pushing it deeper into the dune. Eventually they let up and helped him slightly out and the poor passengers got out to get their sunset pictures.

As the desert sun set in the distance, we were rumbling away back to the road through the desert serenaded by funky Indian music. We got back onto the road, got back at the stopover point with all the souvenir shops for a shorter time and left for the desert area behind the shops. Interesting.

Not much dune bashing here and everyone’s stomach and equilibrium had adjusted to the journey so it wasn’t that exciting anymore. Passing another land cruiser that somehow got stuck (n00b…) we finally arrived at the North Tour camp!

Pretty much a circular area with tables and shops surrounding it.

Wasting no time, I signed up for a pricey dune buggy ride – 80 dirham’s, and went on with the rest of the tourists into the camp. We were greeted at the gate with island-themed torches and a little table up front that served Arabic tea and dates. This tea is not to be confused with the chai I had over my visit in Dubai. The chai I had every time was fucking amazing. This one tasted like ass. I didn’t touch the dates either.

I wandered around the camp for awhile and went to check out our seats. Every car had a maximum of 6 people and every car had their own table. So we were seated with the 2 Brazilian couples. Eventually Rushdi told me that the dune buggies were ready to go so I went and got the gear on.

"Gentlemen, start your engines!" Boy, that was cliched!

The ride was pretty fun. There were 4 people in every pack, the leader and 3 other people. The people that joined me for this ride were a dad and his daughter. Choiy, the daughter was tight; she was 17-19 tops. Dad was an ass though; he pretty much ruined my whole ride. Reason? Not even 1/4th into the ride, the dude started swerving left and right madly and blowing sand into my face. The leader stopped and warned that if we (probably didn’t wanna point fingers directly) don’t stop fooling around, he would slow down. Aw, geez… but that motherfucker kept going at it and we did slow down to the point that conquering sand dunes were a task. 80 bucks gone and sand in my mouth. Let’s leave that behind. I went inside, looked for Rushdi and eventually found him near the entrance and we found our seats. I went to the sand bottle kiosk to get a personalized sand bottle.

Rushdi then suggested we check out the camel rides and so we did. There were 3 camels and each camel can take 2 guys. The camel ride was right at the entrance, handled by 2 dudes. One is obviously the trainer and the other led the camels around sometimes. When we got there, there was a German family going for a ride and the trainer was taking their pictures and was saying something about taking a picture and calling someone or something a bastard. Interesting. The 2 front camels were taken by the Germans and the last camel had a Russian lady on it who seemed to who have a problem with following instructions.

Rushdi had a short conversation with the trainer as the camels went for a really short round near the camp. It was free, man, what’d you expect? Few kids came over to take the ride as well with us. There was this particular little girl, brave kid, went up on the last camel by herself.



No, I didn't break the camel's back

I had to do it. So, I did, had to sing the Aladdin’s theme song while riding a camel. Yeah, that “Arraabbiiiaaaannn niiiggghhhtttsss~ like Arabian daaaayyysssss~” song. Perfect-o. The ride was really bumpy and the camel’s hump was tough on the ass. Every step it took was pretty uncomfortable. Eventually we got back to camp, dismounted and found a line to the food. Excellent.

Rushdi went up to queue for the chow and hold my place while I went to get some drinks. Soft drinks were on the house and booze, you have to pay. Sheesha’s on the house as well but they definitely overdid the flavor. There was another stall where you can basically dress up like an Arab and take pictures. I did that shit but I forgot to take my jacket off and the shots turn out way funkier than I wanted them to be so let’s leave that shit out.

The food that was being served was typical Arabic food, with your breads, veges, chicken curry, some garden pasta salad, hummus and kebabs. Bada musti. While enjoying the meal, the Brazilians were very curious about Dubai and Malaysia so me and Rushdi gladly told them everything that they wanted to know. I, of course, being extremely critical of our country because I have it’s best interests in heart, spared no detail about our oh-so-glorious country. Spooked them nicely but what Rushdi dispensed onto the Brazilians regarding Dubai wasn’t pretty either but they seem pretty intrigued by everything nonetheless.

Soon after we were treated to THE event of the night, the belly dancing!!! Yeah~

Here she comes...




Strike a pose!



She can give Shakira a run for her money



She got moves, dude!



Didn't I see that costume on sale at the stopover?!

I was sitting just a tad too far to take a decent video but then again, whoever who’s reading this that hasn’t went for Desert Safari before should experience it 1st hand. I won’t ruin the dance routine for you by telling you what she does. It’s belly dancing. Use your imagination. Eventually everyone got down to the dance uh, floor and it was cue for me to go take a chill pill with the sheesha.

Not even 30 minutes past and the announcers said their goodbyes and everyone headed off into their cars back home. I managed to snap one of the stores in the camp before we left.

Pottery shop. Hardly saw anyone walking away with one in hand

Ah, good times. We stopped at the souvenir stopover once more to fill the tires back up and started the journey back. The driver dropped the Brazilians off first and then us at Panorama. Shit, my memory’s getting a tad vague. I can’t remember what happened in the night… Did Ashar come again? Well, at this point it’s a blank and let’s leave it that way. I was set to depart the following day at around 6.40 p.m.

Too tired and too lazy to pack, I dusted my shoes off and emptied all excess sand out of my shoes and crashed.

Peace out y’all!

P.S: I watched the inauguration and I gotta say it’s one hell of a shindig. Obama jumped the gun but what the heck, it’s not that much a big deal. That’s it boys and girls, the White House’s going to have a huge renovation ahead of it. It’s gonna be diamond studded, lined with leather and felt, all presidential cars are gonna be Escalades with 22” rims and spinners and pimped outta this world. Bitches gonna be sunbathing and partying on the lawn that’s going to be redesigned to look like Hefner’s own grotto pool! Not to mention the N-word’ll probably be outlawed. It’s a new era, y’all. Holla.