A Saturday Adventure

My laptop is fixed! After several days of being off the cyberworld, I just missed blogging! And I have lots of stories to tell 🙂

Last December 6, I was invited to join a “Desert Safari” trip. The activity reminded me of the movie “Dubai” which starred Claudine Baretto, Aga Muhlach and John Lloyd Cruz. There was a scene there where the characters also went on a Desert Safari. We went on the same place where they shoot the movie.

But before we proceeded to the desert, we went for some mall-hopping first because it was still too early. The first stop was Dubai Mall which housed the “Dubai Aquarium and Discovery Center”.I think this is similar tothe “Oceanarium” that we have in Manila. There was a tunnel where one would feel like he was under the sea, as he would be seeing all sorts of marine life through the transparent underwater tunnel. This place holds the Guinness Record for the World’s Largest Acrylic Panel.

Dubai Mall is just beside another Dubai icon, the Burj Dubai Skycraper, which is currently the tallest freestanding structure on earth. The building is still under construction, and when completed, will stand around 800-950 meters. The building is due for completion by August next year. Forgive my picture, for I took it while I was on the car.

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was the Mall of the Emirates where we had our lunch. The mall houses Ski Dubai Snow Park, the world’s largest snow park. Lying on 3000 square meters of snow, this indoor park is one of a kind and just left me breathless. Imagine a snow park in a desert country where  there is no snow! How money works!

We did not try strolling on the snow as we did not have much time. We walked our way to Kempinski Hotel where we would be picked up for the Desert Safari. Kempinski Hotel is a 5-star hotel and one of the country’s largest hotel guestrooms.

We were picked up by the representative from Knights Tours at the hotel lobby around 4pm. We then went to the desert, near the Oman border.

The Desert Safari is a popular tour here in the UAE where one experiences the thrill of a roller coaster ride on the sand dunes. Our driver, Aseef, was well- experienced in driving on the desert and gave us 4×4 exciting ride.

After the vomit-inducing ride, we visited a small bedouin village where I was able to try Arabic life for a short time. I took a short camel ride, posed with an arabic falcon, tasted arabic coffee, tried smoking shisha and had henna tattoed on my arm. In the night, we feasted on arabic food served on buffet. Supposedly, the last part of the activity will be watching a belly dancer. Unfortunately, Hajj started and it was not allowed in the religion for a belly dancer to dance at this time.

After these tiring trip, we went to Dubai Outlet Mall for a night cap – a quick shopping while waiting for our service car to bring us to Al Ain.

We had a nice time! Life is great!