Our second day in Dubai saw us back at the Gold markets in the morning and then at the City Central Shopping Centre for lunch. Dubai is supposed to be a shopper’s mecca but I have been yet to see anything ridiculously cheap. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been exposed to the US’s coupon/voucher/rebate schemes so much that nothing else seems relatively cheap. Everything is still pretty reasonable but I really have nothing I want to buy just yet.
We made our way back to the hotel where we had organised a desert safari for the evening. Costing AUE230 (AU$90) this safari offered by several companies (we went with Orient Tours) is something I highly recommend everyone do. The one that we picked combined several different facets that are hugely popular with visitors to Dubai including desert four wheel driving, visiting a camel farm, and several stops at picturesque points along the way, before reaching the campsite for dinner. Activities abound at the campsite including camel back riding, sand boarding (pretty fun too!), getting a henna design, and shisha smoking before chowing down on a tasty Arabian barbeque dinner to be followed by traditional belly dancing (oh, and be warned, pretty much everyone has to get involved as well!)
The safari package is superb value, especially if you are into four wheel driving. I haven’t ever done it back home (is it on Fraser or Straddie?), but I’m not sure if you would ever get the same sort of driving. I’m yet to work out whether our driver was cocky or just crazy for not wearing his seat belt for the entire trip. To give you any indication, my sister and I felt the need to wear our seatbelt to protect ourselves before we even left the city! I don’t think that I would ever be driving a 4WD like that, but the driver certainly made the afternoon and evening a fun one. Imagine an entourage of 16 cars all ripping it up in the sand hills of the desert. After dinner it was even more thrilling (worrying?) that we had to make our way back out of the desert at nighttime, at the same crazy pace we came back in. At least you can tell from this post that we got back home safely anyway.
On our third day, we continued with another tour of the United Arab Emirates. This tour was extremely cheap at only AED130 (AU$48) for an entire day although it did not include lunch. This tour saw us stop in Masafi to browse the ‘Friday Market’, a collection of market stores along the roadside selling various rugs, fruit and vegetables and other various trinkets. I picked up a pomegranate as it the first time I had seen one in real life. This tour was pretty much driving a long way into many of the other Emirates and even a cross over into the border of Oman for a short while. We stopped at a beach resort where we had the chance to go for a swim in the Indian Ocean. We also indulged in a Lebanese-style Mezza spread for two (that really could have filled four people) which was pretty good.
Average temperatures of 40+ meant that the sand was just as hot. Running into the sea from the sheltered beach lounges was the only way of minimally scalding your feet (which I still managed to some degree), only to find yourself standing in some really warm water (my guess, about 30°C). The water was extremely clear and blue and it was refreshing to be in it, if not only to avoid the hot sand.
We drove back through what appears to be the only mountainous regions of the UAE, with the bare rock indicating the strength of the erosive desert winds. Apparently these are the richest areas for agriculture as it receives the most rainfall and has access to the most groundwater reservoirs. Approximately 100mm of rain fall in the UAE, therefore most of the agriculture depends on processed sewerage water, and drinking water coming from refined seawater.
Our final destinations for the day saw as stop at Al Badiyah, the oldest mosque in the Emirates, at old Fujairah city where restorations of old buildings are currently taking place, and then at the old citadel at an oasis in Bithnah. This tour gives you a better idea of what life outside the largest cities is like, and an understanding of how harsh living in the desert can be.