Well, after a good night’s sleep we went down to the Restaurant in the hotel for our breakfast. Wally and Helen hadn’t arrived so we started without them. I had a full buffet breakfast and Sandy had cereal and coffee. The waiter came and took Sandy’s bowl and mug and also his cutlery. He didn’t go and get more utensils and when the bill came we were charged 220 Dubai Dirham (equivalent to $A35 each person). Nearly died and was not impressed, to say the least. We obviously won’t be eating there tomorrow morning.
After we had breakfast, we arranged to have a dessert ride called The Desert Safari and a BBQ tea. This is done through Lama Dessert Tours and with a professional driver. This cost 550 Dubai Dirham or ($A140each). They are going to pick us up between 3.30 and 4. In the meantime we went for a walk through Festival City Mall. There are lots of shops there but we didn’t buy anything. Then we went to the Mall of the Emirates where they have an indoor ski slope. There were lots of people there from children to adults. It seemed like fun but we only took some photos as none of us were keen to have a go. The shops were great and you could have spent lots of time there. We came back to our hotel and found a Ceramic Cafe where we had some late lunch. Wally and Helen had Garlic Bread and Sandy had a full breakfast. Wally, Helen and me had basil and orange juice with fine ice (similar to our icees) and they were just beautiful but cold. Came back to get ready to go dessert riding.
The guy, Malik, picked us up and off we went. We had to pick up 2 other Asian people at their hotel and then we travelled for about 80kms. When we arrived at our half way destination, they had to let some of the air from the tyres to travel on the sand. After about 10 minutes, we were off. “Off” being the operative word.
We went over sand dunes and drove sideways. They really gunned the motors and I was not too amused. Sand flew up and we slid any which way. Sandy sat in the front and Wally, Helen and me sat in the back (with the roll bars) and the other couple sat in the dickie seats in the back. We stopped about ½ way again for a photo shot of the sunset. The dessert is very orange sand and the sunset was lovely. Thank God we had a stop otherwise I would have had to ask him to stop, just for me. I can’t remember the last time I was feeling car sick but today was one. Just an upset tummy but enough for me. We went through a Conservation gate and onto land called the Bedouin campsite located in the heart of the dessert, where we were going to have our BBQ. We saw some gazelles on the way. I think they looked at us and wondered what we were doing there but by now I’m sure they are used to humans.
We arrived at our BBQ site and were welcomed with 2 camels which we could ride for a brief time, Wally & Helen had the 1st camel and Sandy had the 2nd. I would have loved to have a go but didn’t need it with my upset tum. We had refreshing Arabic coffee (Kawa) and dates. We could have soft drinks, tea and water also. You could smoke the Sheesha or ‘Bubbly Hubbly’ which is a typical Arabian experience. It consists of mild and fruity flavours which offer a tingling sensation. Needless to say we didn’t try it. You could have a Henna arm tattoo also.
We sat on cushions on carpet for our tea was a chicken kebab, 2 ?? rissoles and a piece of carrot and a piece of potato. There was a belly dancer after our tea who was not too bad. Another lady and a young girl did some dancing also but they were from the audience.
After all this, we found our driver and came on home. Thankfully we didn’t have to go through the desert again as it was dark and there were no lights.
We came back to a little gap and put more air back into our tyres and then found the highway. The hotel was about 50klms away but the roads are so straight, long and 4 lanes that it didn’t take too long and we were there.
They have a little ‘pub’ attached to the hotel so we went in there and had a beer then went to our beds. The pub is like an Irish Pub, very old and rustic but nice.
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