Desert Safari (July 7 and 8, 2006)

Finally an out of town trip was organized last weekend. So the group decided to take a Desert Safari overnight package. The package includes dune bashing, dinner buffet and overnight stay at the desert camp. Additional freebies are henna painting/tatoo, "all you can" shisha, "all you can" water and softdrinks and belly dancing.

Riding our reinforced 4 X 4 going to the sand dunes. We drove around 2 hours going to Margham Area, near La Habab.

The regular team members: (L to R) Peng, Tik, Suda, JCo, Thorsten and Sun Jun. Behind us are sand dunes and in front of is the cam and off course, more sand. We stopped for a few minutes to get photos or what i call the last photo, who knows what will happen during our dune bashing.

You can see the 4 X 4 are like ants going up the ant hill.

Our ant line going through the sand dunes and doing dune bashing. Dune bashing is basically surfing, sliding along, going up and donw on almost 60 degrees and jumping over sand dunes. Cool huh, the expereince is quite different. Here the drivers skills really come into place. They have to mix speed and correct mix of engine power to make the ride as exciting as possible. Like roller coaster, only using a 4 X 4.

We stopped by a place to do sand borading, it is like snow boarding but now we use sand. Presenting our cool Project Manager, Thorsten, with his I don't know hop move.

Jignesh, raising the sand board and celebrating that he made it out after trying sand boarding.

After sand boarding our bashing continues.

Embracing life, whatever is left of it. Sorry I have to be sentimental again. Looking at the sunset and it was very magnificent. I just wanted to embrace the time I wasted and shout someones name until she hears me.

This is what I am seeing and I wanted to share it with you.

The buggy mens. Ohh, the girl standing behind Jignesh is the reception and also responsible for renting out the dune buggys.

Camel, up close and personal.

Camel ride.

Our dessert camp, this is where we will be spending our night.

At the "Camel" stop, waiting for our ride.

Funny poses from the group, Sun Jun with his "Thuk Tong Na Krap" pose.

Shisha anyone. I am not fond of this so when I look at this picture I would miss bowling.

Shiek Sun Jun, the next Shiek of DIC Bldg. 6. There are some Kandura for you to wear so you can take photos like a local.

Guess who? Is she one of us?

Guess who again with Shiek Peng. Shiek Sun Jun looks more like a Shiek.

Shiek Jco with Guess who, I don't look like a shiek actually.

Shiek Sun Jun and shit JCo with the "Thuk Tong Na Krap" pose.

Finally, she revealed herself. It was Suda all the while, she looked familiar to me but can't reall tell until she showed her face.

Shiek Tik and Arabian girl Suda. Did you notice Shiek Tik's henna painting/tatoo, whatever it is called?

Arabian girl Pond's own henna painting/tatoo.

Shisha for Sun Jun.

Shisha buddies Thorsten, Jignesh and a new found member. I think Thorsten is stoned already.

After the Arabian Girl theme, Suda went for the Cleopatra pose with the persian cat who by the way is our lookout for the night.

Suda's scorpion henna.

Finally, dinner time. The food was good. It was all you can eat lebanese food, in short grilled stuff, grilled chicken, shiek kebabs and mutton. Vegetable salad, rice, beans were also served. The dessert was also nice, a variety of fruits and custard. Hmmm, what happened to Sun Jun? I can only describe this as eat till you drop.

Woohoo, belly dancing time. Immediately after dinner belly dancing started. It was not what i expected really i guess it is not the authentic one. This was also the girl who was at the reception. This is the best sample of multi-tasking.

Belly dancing Thorsten and ohhh, Sun Jun's tummy dancing as well.

After dinner and belly dancing, everybody left. Apparently, it was only us who were left for overnight.

Preparing our sleeping bags for the night. We were planning to do star gazing but unfortunately it was very cloudy.

Different styles of sleeping in desert.

More shisha.

After a certain time they close the generator and just provided us lamps. Since I was not able to sleep so I decided to take some night shots and play with my cam.

Some stars around 2 AM. Still wide awake and taking photos.

Break of dawn while everybody was sleeping, I took some shots.

I took a morning walk and this is what I saw, basically all sand. What do you expect, I'm in a desert.

Where our food was barbequed. This was my last shot and this trip was one of few cases where I used up my two batteries.

We still have some funny moments after this and it was in Peng and Suda's cam. I will try to get them and post them here. So the trip ended with them serving us breakfast at camp and then driving us back to our hotel. It was a really nice and worth while experience. Personally, I would recommend this to my friends who will be coming here to Dubai for a visit. But I think day package is enough there isn't anything to do for overnight unless you went there with close friends who you can chat with for the whole night.

Do you know who she is?

Something happened the next day, suddenly the world turned around. I think the sun dried up everything and people tends to get confused.