Advertisement
From the lifts
This is the view from the window in the hotel near the lifts, to be able to give people a perception of how close we were. After waking up very early (jet lag is a delicious thing), we headed down for breakfast. Now the food they put on for us was just stunning. I started off with fresh watermelon juice, and a bowl of muesli. I then had some toast, fruit salad and a little dish of rice custard. The rice custard was just amazing. I’m not sure if they used a spice or put perfume in it, but it was beautiful.
The day had been pre-organised with a pre-booked Desert Safari in the afternoon. For the morning, we decided to head over and discover the Dubai Mall. Yes there are photos galore of this place. It was the most beautiful Mall I’ve ever been into. There were so many different elements to the mall. We headed down from the Dubai Fountains, inside to the see the waterfall three stories high. It had to be noted that walking through the mall, the one thing that struck out to me was all the shop names I recognized. I don’t know, it just seemed odd going to a foreign country and seeing Billabong, Rip Curl and things like that having their own stores.
Next we walked past
The Mall
Seemed every different section had a completely different but beautiful element worked into the building. Was just amazing! the ice skating rink I mean what’s a mall without ice skating. Other areas of note had to be the Butterfly hall. Was so pretty, and then the Aquarium. Well worth pulling up a chair and just sitting watching the fish float on by. In the end I kind of wish we had have visited and gone into the Aquarium, but that’s what trips are for, leaving enough things undone, so you can have fun next time. For lunch, we opted for the wonderful Starbucks (I know very sad, in Dubai eating American). I just couldn’t find the food mall… I wasn’t particularly hungry anyway … I did eventually find the food mall on a later visit, but we never ate there.
We got back to the Hotel for our Arabian Team Adventures pick up (Not to be confused with Arabian Adventures, there are two groups with very similar names – we used “team adventures”, cheaper and had a brilliant time). I had to laugh, Robert sledged me over taking an umbrella, but it definitely came in handy, as I used it to shelter myself from the sun. The driver once again was lovely. He informed us that we
For My daughter
She loves macaroons and they had towers of them! had three more passengers to collect. The 4wd we were in was in perfect condition. Just at the next hotel the Al Manis we collected what ended up being 9 tourists. 4 ended up jumping in with us. Those ladies were not particularly impressed having to be slit up. Well hello? It’s a desert safari in 4WD? Would be fine you can go sit on the other vehicles roof if you like. We soon discovered these ladies were from Brazil. They nattered away like a bunch of squirrels the entire ride.
We had a fair distance to travel before we pulled into the token rest stop. It was apparently here that everyone using Arabian Team Adventures all met up to then proceed in a convoy. Going into the shop, first thing that happened was Robert was attacked by sales people trying to seel their wares. I escaped the shop Robert walked out with an Arabian Head dress! I then instructed him when we were outside not to touch the Falcon a man was carrying around … did he listen? Nope, so he quickly discovered that the bird was thrust upon him and somehow the guy threw it at me
as well, and 20Dhs later, it was “I told you so”. I think the bird even though its eyes were covered, might have been considering me for an early dinner. I guess I had to ease up on the husband as a lot of the tourists we walking out with the head dresses on. It also proved to be a good hat to protect from the sun. I believe it was on a dollar or two dearer than what you could buy in the stores in town, and for that extra price they did the fancy wrapping so he wore it.
Our car seemed to be the lead vehicle. We drove off and the rest followed. We were driven onto a property and then again it was a case of stopping. Guess the meeting up at the shop hadn’t worked out exactly like it was supposed to. At this point there were camels and goats behind a cage. The tires were let down and we then waited for the remaining cars to catch up. Finally we jumped back into the 4wd and it was all systems go.
This was where being in a car fully of Brazillian women
became fun. No idea what they were saying but they were screaming and having a ball as we went crazy over the sand dunes. We spent a fair amount of time going up and down the dunes, before having a stop on a hill for a drink break and more photo opportunities. I ended up taking my shoes off. The sand was warm/hot and beautiful between the toes. Again our car lead the way, as we then made it onto a road. It seemed like there were so many other tour companies out and about in the same section of the desert.
After a shorter ride we could see a whole line up of 4wd and buses along the side of the road. Our vehicle didn’t wait with them, rather preceded straight into one of the camps right off the road. Our group was the first one there, and it seems we had a good 20 – 30minutes clear to explore around before other groups joined us. First thing I did was get a henna tattoo on my arm. Maybe not the best place to get it done, with the formal nights on the boat, but hey, always wanted
Roof
Loved the different ways they used lighting to highlight the beauty of the architecture one. There was a camel ride which we could also do, but opted not to do this even though there was no cost. There was a sand art tent, which I went up to towards the end and had two bottles made up for me for my sons. Was fascinating watching the man in action. The other option at camp was smoking one of their pipes. Didn’t bother with that. Our meal was in two separate courses I guess. The first was a type of wrap. It was nice, whatever it was, the second after the belly dancer was a help yourself to the salads tables and then receive some lamb and chicken fresh off the bbq.
The Belly Dancer was interesting. Apart from the fact she was blonde (?), she had won the men over with her talents. The way she could move different parts of her body independently was quite the talent. The final show of the night after dinner was a man coming out and spinning around with an outfit made of lights. Was quite amazing. After this all finished it was a case of trying to find the van you came in. Considering how many
vehicles there were, was surprised we got to ours without any hassle. Same couldn’t be said for the other girls however. It was then a very long drive back to the hotel and the welcome bliss of bed!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.202s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 5; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0611s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
