::ThoughtFarm::

No visit is to Dubai is complete without a Desert Safari to do dune bashing, savor the Arabian coffee, sheesha and dinner laid out in an oasis tent accompanied by a belly dancer while the stars brighten up the desert sky.

Desert safari is done at a place Hatta, around 45 mins drive from the bustle of main Dubai city. The cars used for the dune bashing are Toyota land Cruisers 4X4 drive. The entire safari lasts for about 5-6 hours and costs around 150 dirhams (rs.1875).

Once we reach the starting point in the desert, all the land cruisers come together and then the fun starts. In our land cruiser, the driver was a Pakistani while the rest of the passengers were Russians. On asking us to fasten our seat belts, Mustafa, our driver, roared the car in the desert. The cruiser bounced and sped over the dunes and we did an adrenaline rush for the next hour. From one sand dune to another, the cruiser went through almost 80 degree turns sideways and even vertically.

The cruiser goes through such verticals that even taking snaps becomes difficult particularly when Mustafa used to intentionally slide the cruiser downwards from a slope as my fellow Russian passengers shrieked and laughed with excitement as the car went up and down the dunes.

As the sun descended into the horizon, we stopped to take sunset photographs, while standing on top of the fading desert dunes. The view of the desert sun slowly fading down a distant sand dune was truly awesome and the orange-blue hues of sunset intermingled with the brown desert sand made all the passengers stare at the sight till the Sun finally disappeared over the horizon.

We then headed to the campsite where a convoy of camels awaited our arrival for short camel rides. After returning from the ride, we relaxed on majlis (low cushions) in traditional Bedouin tents. We were also served Arabian coffee which has a strong lingering flavor of cardamom.

There were some desert scooters on which I had a small ride near our camp for about 15 mins (they are damn costly).

Returning back to the camp, all the fellow passengers were settled in respective tents while arabian music was being played. I even had a snap of mine dressed in traditional Bedouin male garments. (Check out the snaps below).

I have had Sheesha’s quite often at café mocha’s in Mumbai but the original sheesha that was served over there in the chill of the desert night was truly awesome.

We were served barbeque dinner consisting mainly of chicken and fish along with some pasta and some veg items. But considering that the organizers of the desert safari are mostly Indians/Pakistanis, the dinner wasn’t very Arabian and actually was quite like the barbeques that we have in India.

Towards the end of dinner, suddenly the music volume was increased and we were entertained by the dancing of a belly dancer to traditional Arabic music. The belly dancer was actually an Ukrainian dancer .

Wont speak much about her “belly dance” since this is an open forum

 

Tags: dubai desert safari, hatta, landcruiser