Arabian Nights - II

This was the first time I stepped outside the Emirate of Dubai as we took the Dubai bypass road towards Hatta & Oman and it was an 8 lane damn straight as an arrow highway. We could literally see the road curving up and down till the end of the horizon and serene golden sand on both sides of the road, like they show in the movies; it was a beautiful sight to behold. The other thing I always used to wonder about Dubai is the lack of animals as opposed to India, where the center of the highway is the home for our beloved cows and buffaloes. So I was quite surprised to see a caravan of camels roaming freely in the desert on their own.

The driver, who was a quiet Arab, finally announced that we have reached the dune bashing spot at around 4:30. I quickly wrapped up my SLR in the bag because a birdie told me things can go flying all round and I dint want to risk an untoward incident happening to my beloved, suddenly then without an warning I find myself find myself facing the sky, I was like WHOA! It was just amazing the way the car went sideways and it conquered one dune after another with such relative ease. I can’t even imagine a sedan lasting 100 meters on this terrain without sinking in. (My respect for the land cruiser and 4x4 just went way right up there) The Arab was so damn skilled at this, and all the cars went in such perfect symmetry, it was a sight to behold when one of the dunes the sand fell on our cruiser like the wave hits the shore.

Just when I thought this couldn’t get better, the oldie in the front seat started huffing and puffing, he was shit scared out of his wits. He was asking the driver to slow down and the Wifey at back kept asking every 30 seconds, are you having chest pain or a heart attack?! Damn it people, why do you come to such places if you have no stomach for the adventure. The driver just took it easy and skipped many dunes for the sake of that fat ass. I was so annoyed; I was almost tempted to ask my money back! We went over one dune after another for the next 20 minutes or so and then we stopped for a break on one fine dune top to take photos. I couldn’t help but wonder, how the hell they know which direction to go, because as far as my eyes could see, I could only see desert with no perspective of whatsoever direction. After a very short break we resumed dune bashing back to the way we started and then to the camp site.

The camp site was like an Oasis in the middle of the desert, it was more of a sort of a ranch. They greeted us with some traditional Arabic coffee (which I spitted out at the first sip, because it tasted more like they boiled sand in water) and some dates and some kinda Arabic "Mendu Wada" (Bombay lingo). It was a pretty huge camp site, so we went exploring, one side had the Camel Ride which I had no interest torturing the poor animal what so ever. Then there were the Quad bikes, which you could ride into open sunset, I was more afraid of coming back to the site if I went so I skipped that too and there there was some exorbitantly priced memorabilia, apart from this there was a green room where you could dress up in traditional Arabic attire (Yup you got it right, you get to see Simba dressed up as an Arab, only condition if you laugh you gonna be shot at!). So I learned 'Abaya' is the black overcoat for women, 'Kandura' or ‘Dishdasha’ is the men's attire and the head scarf is called 'Shaila'

We moved on after those experimentations, and Hallelujah, the camp became suddenly colorful. Enter a group of giggly hot girls, all immaculately dressed....

P.S (To be continued...)