Deserts and more

This was a relatively low key weekend. Given that I was invited to a party at my new friend's house (the German and the Celebrity Stylist) on Wednesday and learned a lesson I've learned many many many times before - do not try to keep up with Germans. They drink far more than we do, are fed beer as children and thus their tolerance is much greater than ours and, oh yea.....they didn't have to work Thursday morning!!! It was a great time, however. Met a few more new people. Got a little more insight into my new Celebrity Stylist friend. He and I spoke at length, and there is a past there which he is close to recounting first hand. More on that as he tells me first hand. We're talking Page Six kinda stuff. He's supposed to invite me on a yacht next weekend...we'll see.

Something I have noticed in talking to people that were born and raised in Dubai is that they are shocked when I say that I'm enjoying my time here and looking forward to staying here for the year. This one Palenstinian girl I befriended made a very valid point. Dubai is a pretty transient city. People come here to work or play for a year maybe two. Very few stay for an extended period of time and she was pointing out that it was very difficult to develop deep personal relationships with people. You can imagine that having to make a new best friend every two years can become rather taxing - let alone try to find a romantic relationship.

So on Friday the entire team took a Desert Safari tour. We drove about an hour into the Sharjah desert in a Toyota Land Cruiser and congregated with about 50 other Land Cruisers. It honestly looked like a commercial for Toyota. It was insane. Here are some highlights.

We drove by Dubailand, which is still under construction -but by all esimates, it is forecasted that this themepark will generate about 2times the number of visitors that DisneyWorld does. The piece of land where is sits is HUGE - as you can imagine. The picture above is just a road side advertisement of the theme park, you might deduce, they will have a racing track, skiing and rollercoasters. Insane.

As we set on into the desert, it became a rollercoaster within itself. I will say that our driver was amazing. The shot above will give you an idea of where we were 'playing'. The dunes got much bigger and steeper. Serveral times we were literally driving sideways, skidding backwards and getting 'snowed' by sand. One unfortunate minute, I had lowered my window to get a picture - and about a foot of sand blew through my window. The driver laughed - I was less than pleased!! I will tell you that my legs are quite sore today. Even though I was buckled in and in a Land Cruiser - basic instinct instructs my body to clinch and hold on for dear life.

We stopped for a bit to bask in the sun & sand and take obligatory 'Look I'm in the desert' pictures. Though you can't tell, I am stading on somewhat of a 'cliff'. Immediately behind me is about a 50 foot drop. We were sad that we hadn't brought a body board to go sand skiing - it would've been perfect.On our way to the campsite, we ran across these two lovely camels (errr..can camels be lovely?). One of my goals for the trip was to ride a camel - I almost jumped out of the vehicle to mount the creature, but was instructed that I would get my chance.

And I did!!! That is Esra, one of my coworkers, with me. I will say, that although very exciting to finally ride a camel, the actual ride itself was quite anti-climatic. Having been practically born on a horse in South Texas - it didn't quite compare. Now - if you have ever seen a camel mounted, they kneel down on all fours to allow the rider to get on and off. Having been one of the first ones to ride the camel that day, I didn't really know what I was supposed to expect. It is NOT a smooth transition from kneeling to standing. That was probably the most fun part of the ride. The camel stands its rear quarters first, so we're at about a 30-40 degree declined angle, then stands its front quarters up. The reverse is true on the dismount. He kneels front first - at the point I almost flew off the dang thing. Being so exhausted from the rollercoaster ride in the Land Cruiser and running in the sand - my legs were quite worn out. So, I wasn't necessarily holding on very securely. An 'OH SHIT' may have escaped from my mouth! The ride lasted about 2.3 minutes. Again, all I really needed was the first and last couple of seconds and would've been fine with it!!

We arrived at our campsite and immediately claimed a table close to the center stage area. The place was kinda festival-ish. Flanked by speakers which upon arrival were playing traditional Arabian music, soon changed to some jacked up karaoke style, instrumental, wedding singer, God please shoot my ear drums out crap. I think there may have been someone in the back with their Casio keyboard circa 1983 playing Ace of Base, Michael Jackson, Donna Summer, Madonna, etc. Pleasing, not so much, entertaining - definitely. The campground offered plenty of BBQ, a sheesha lounge, grilled corn on the cob, Henna tattoos and just relaxed fun. It got rather chilly once the sun set. Definitely glad that I wore jeans and a sweater.

At the end of the evening, we were treated to a belly dancing performance. She was quite entertaining. There was a group of 'wankers' that had been enjoying a bit too much Vodka and were rather annoying during her performance. She handled them well with a diva wave of her hands and look from hell as one guy tried to go dance with her without her invitation.
........yes, she asked people to dance with her - yes, I did. :)

Until next time!!