Delightful Desert Safari Experience (Day 4)
After a tiring and a very long day at Abu Dhabi, we woke up at 7:30am the next morning, fresh but still a bit tired. We decided to rest for a while post breakfast. Afternoon, we had booked for a Hummer Desert Safari. We were very eager to experience this and is a must if you are visiting Dubai.
We then woke up around 11.30 am, dressed up and left to Deira City Centre, a small shopping centre in Deira. It was at a walk-able distance from our hotel.
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| That's me in front of our hotel :) |
We booked for a hummer desert safari because we get to experience two in one - a hummer ride and the desert safari. It costed us 250 AED per head and the experience was just out of the world. The hummer safari should have two people at least for them to arrange and we were 6 people. We wanted only two of us to travel but we were accompanied by four other people who were from India. So we left from our hotel around 2.30pm and the moment we saw the Hummer waiting for us, we were too excited. But unfortunately we didn't get to sit at the front because the other family had already occupied the front seats. In Dubai 120 is the maximum speed limit and have a tolerance of +20 km/h. But whenever it shows 140, no tolerance is available.
Bollywood music was loud inside the hummer. Even in the taxis we travelled, they were playing Bollywood songs. Bollywood sure has a lot of influence in Dubai. After a while we saw a few sand dunes here and there and we thought we almost reached. The drive usually takes around one hour from the city. The deserts are near the Sharjah border and soon we came to a little desert kind for quad biking. Quad biking is not included in the price. It costs around 250 AED for two people. Our driver bought us two tickets and we were all set for one more different experience. They give you 20 minutes and you can take the bike wherever you want inside their camp. There are two options, single and double rider, we went for the latter. The quad bike is actually a little tricky when riding it for the first time. The accelerator is not as easy as a normal two wheeler. When we are turning towards our left or right, we have to turn completely otherwise we will end up going in the opposite direction. It took us a few minutes to get our head around this and then there was no stopping us. We drove however we want and went up and down the dunes, reached some heights and did all the possible adventure.
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| This is the quad biking camp site. Outside lush green and when you enter, its full of sand |
It was then the dune bashing time. This was the first time experience and a very memorable one. The way people drive in the dunes is astonishing and it needs a lot of skill for sure. I don't know how to explain this experience and is something that you can't miss. There were hundreds of other cars doing the same thing. They drive randomly, go up and down the sand hills, and make unexpected turns. You just can't sit straight for the whole of 15-20 minute dune bashing experience. It's like you are riding some roller coaster types with less speed but more thrill. With the Hummer, it was even more thrilling. The driver then stopped for a photo session. The moment we stepped out of the car barefooted and touched the sand, we felt so good. The sand was cool and very nice. Make sure you wear thongs because if you are wearing shoes, you have to remove them each and every time you get down. The driver sent everyone else to enjoy their photo sessions and he took some great photos of me and Naveen. The lovely snap of me lifting Naveen was also his idea and even the jumps. Thanks to him, we got a few amazing photo memories for our lifetime.
After the photo sessions, we finally left to our camp site and on our way we were taken to a shop where the traditional outfits abaya and kandura and all the local craft items are found. As we entered people started helping us with the traditional outfits. Actually the traditional dress is a part of the desert safari experience so we thought may be this is it but it wasn't. The staff over there started asking us for money. If any of you are planning to go there then make sure you don't try any outfits at local stores. Photo session with traditional outfits are included in the package but only at the camp site. With that not so good experience, we managed to take a few funny pics. Here's a look,
Moving on, we had a beautiful sunset drive and finally reached the camp site. It was very different, full of shining and gaudy colours, there were camels, photo booths, and many other stalls to buy traditional outfits, sand arts, henna painting which is actually very famous, the traditional costume hire, Arabian dates and then a big round stage for the performers and around it were beds and tables to sit down and have food. Totally to sum it up, it gave us an authentic Arabic essence.
We first started with the camel ride. There were two camels and quite a few people around them. We had to wait for 5 minutes for our turn. There were two boys ahead of us and they asked us to take a few videos and photos of them and they would do the same for us. The camels were adorable. It was a very sweet experience but the ride lasted only for two minutes. We then went inside the camp, took a few pictures and also ordered for a sand art with our names in it. It's a very special art which looks amazing with the coloured sand and is a great souvenir.
They give you your table numbers and you have to be seated there. After 15-20 minutes, the shows started. We got to see the horse dancing (which is actually two humans dressed up as a horse in a single outfit) and tanoura dancing which is an Egyptian folk dance. They had some special effects added to it with glowing dresses and then the belly dancing which was visually marvellous. We were told that previously the belly dancers used to pull people out of their seats to dance with them but now it's not allowed. In the mean time, we had samosas and spicy channa dal vadas for snacks. We then met a new eagle friend over there and had a close encounter with it. It's eyes were tied up because when we take photos with it, the flash light may damage their eye sight . I was initially hesitant to hold it as I was a little scared but then I came over it. They charged us 10 AED each for the encounter.
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| Sunset drive |
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| Entrance to the camp site |
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| Fleet of cars at the site |
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| Eagle encounter |
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| Belly Dancing |
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| Horse dancing |
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| Tanoura dancing. You can see the dancer if you look closely |
After this was dinner time and they announced that there has to be two separate lines for men and women and they had both vegetarian and meat options for dinner. We had salads, curries, rotis and rice. The taste was ok but the desserts, jalebi and gulab jamoon were very tasty especially the jalebis. We sat down to watch the remaining belly dance which was just "WOW". In the mean time, the sand art guy came to us with the sand art bottles. We loved them. In between all these, we forgot that we have to have a photo session in the traditional outfit. So we quickly went there, changed and took a few pics. But I missed out on the henna painting as we ran out of time.
It was time for us to leave as it was getting late. So we bid goodbye to the place and left for the day. We missed out on two things, henna painting and Arabian dates but we experienced a lot of other wonderful things to cherish for a lifetime.
Hope you guys liked this post. Thanks for reading. Will soon come up with Day 5 :)
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| Goodbye to the lovely Hummer :) |
Hope you guys liked this post. Thanks for reading. Will soon come up with Day 5 :)
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