United Arab Emirates - Dubai Part II

On our first day in Dubai, we spent most of our time indulging in some of the amazing luxuries available in this cosmopolitan city like an indoor snow dome and high tea at the world's only 7-star hotel. Our second day in Dubai should be called the Emirate Heritage Day. We kicked off the day by taking the metro just a few stops to the Sheikh Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding. I've said this before, and I'll keep saying it until any potential Dubai travelers heed my words. Dubai is not a walkable city! They have 2 metro lines, and they're building more, but the stops are essentially useless except for a few things (mostly malls). By day 2, the reality of this still hadn't sunk in yet. So, we took the metro across the sand pit from our hotel only two stops, but then still had about a 15-20 mins walk after that. (FYI - be very careful what kind of metro card you buy. I don't remember exactly what happened, but for some reason we bought the wrong cards and both had to pay an exit fee. This just goes to show you just how different countries and cultures can be. When this same thing happened in Thailand, they just smiled at me and waved me through. But that's another blog for another time. And I know what you're thinking. I need to pay better attention to what metro cards I buy! Yeah yeah...I know.)

We pre-booked a tour of the historical quarter and also a cultural lunch, but since we arrived too early for the tour, we went to the Dubai Museum first. For a country with very little history, they had a really nice display. 

Dubai Museum

After that we went back to the Sheik Mohammed Center for Cultural Understanding. Because we arrived a little early, we waited in the waiting area and read a rather disturbing article about Bush, Blair and the war in Iraq back in the beginning of the 21st century. It always saddens me to read articles like this that are published in foreign newspapers. I wish other countries didn't pass judgement on the American people based on the decisions of a few politicians. Yes, we elect our officials, but in a country with 200 million people, surely they have to understand that we all have differing opinions on things and shouldn't be judged the same. At any rate, we seldom suffer ill treatment when traveling abroad which always restores my faith in humanity.

Anyway, before too long we gathered together as a group, and took a very nice walking tour of the Bastakia Quarter. The guide explained their old architecture and wind tunnel system that they used before they had electricity. Given how hot it can get in the UAE, it fascinated me to see how the people coped with the weather extremes before modern conveniences like air conditioning.

Bastakia Quarter - Historical District - Dubai

After the tour, we walked around a bit until our cultural lunch at 1:00 inside the center where our tour began. We could only stay for the first half of the lunch, but the whole experience was very interesting and enlightening. We all sat around the food on the floor with our shoes off. When they uncovered the food, they said something on the order of, "now, don't expect us to select one side of the group to go first in an attempt to be organized and efficient about this. In our culture, its every man for himself." And with that, everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, and then slowly, we all started getting food. We enjoyed many authentic dishes. We ate chicken and fish with saffron rice, white rice, a chicken and vegetable stew, and sesame/honey donut holes for dessert. 

Just before lunch - Dubai Center for Cultural Understanding

Culture Lunch - Dubai Center for Cultural Understanding

After we all had plates of food, our tour guide rejoined us along with another lady and gentleman from the center. All of them were dressed in full covered Muslim attire, and they opened the floor for us to ask any sort of questions we wanted about their country and religion. They did a really good job explaining things from their perspective and took no offense to the questions we asked. They addressed all manner of things from having multiple wives to their opinion of the more radical Islamic terrorist groups. They insisted that they, along with their government, believed that Islam is a very peaceful religion and that groups and governments who try to use it to spread fear are doing so with political agendas. Having had little contact with the Muslim community and knowing next to nothing about Islam, I really appreciated how open they were to clear up many stereotypes and misconceptions of their religion and people.

Around 1:45, we excused ourselves from the lunch and hustled back to the hotel to change. One of the top rates activities in Dubai is going on a desert safari. Platinum Heritage Safaris were a little pricier than some of the other companies, but they were well worth the expense. What an amazing experience! (You can read my trip advisor review of them as well.) You may be asking yourself, just what is a desert safari? Well, my friends, I will tell you. 

A driver Fahad (or Jaquel - his nickname) picked us up at our hotel around 2:45. We stopped at 2 other hotels to pick up 4 more people; a couple from Germany (Marius and Francine) and a couple from New Zealand and South Africa (Paul and Angela). From there we drove about 45 mins to the Dubai Desert Conservation which is privately owned by the Prince of Dubai. Once we arrived, Fahad gave us all special head dressings to wear to help keep the sand out.  We loaded into old 1950s land rovers and began our trek across the desert. 

Fahad and our Land Rover - Dubai Desert Conservation

I'm not sure if I can accurately explain the concept of dune bashing, but take a look at my picture above. Imagine driving through the desert at a pretty fast (though still safe) speed and bumpity bumping all over the place. Because these vehicles are refashioned from the 1950s, they had some trouble restarting every time we loaded back into them, but that let us know they were authentic.

Fahad stopped often and made sure we saw lots of wildlife including orcs, camels, and antelope. He generously took pictures for us even though the company arranged for a special photographer to follow our car and other cars around and take photos that we could later buy. 

Wildlife in the Dubai Desert

Some more wildlife in the Dubai Desert :)

After dune bashing for about an hour and stopping often, we came upon a small campsite where a gentleman from South Africa performed a falcon demonstration. One of the falcons only had one eye, and the guy explained that this falcon required special training or else he wouldn't see the prey and fly off. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of the way through our demonstration, the one-eyed falcon got confused and flew off anyway. That cut our demonstration short because the guy had to go "track down his bird" as he said. Fortunately, the birds all had GPS trackers on them. I contacted the company when we got home and they confirmed from that he did, in fact, get the falcon back. That made me happy! 

Falcon Demonstration - Dubai Desert Conservation

From the falcon demonstration, we continued on to a Bedouin camp. The sun was setting, and we enjoyed traditional Bedouin dancing, camel rides, henna tattoos, and a delicious dinner. One thing we were all happy to see when we got there were bathrooms. Until that point, the guys had been able to find a private spot in the desert as necessary, but us ladies were stuck waiting until we got somewhere with accommodations. And being a desert camp in the middle of nowhere, we had no idea what to expect. Fortunately, the company was first class all the way, and the bathroom accommodations were amazing. 

Bedouin Camp - Dubai Desert Conservation

Camel rides - Dubai Desert Conservation

When we first arrived at the camp, we went for a short camel ride and then sat down to eat. They served us a variety of food on small trays. We ate everything they served us commenting among ourselves that while quite tasty, it wasn't exactly a terribly filling meal. Then to our surprise and delight, they called us over to the open flame kitchen and served us each a plate full of lamb and chicken kabobs with rice. Now after eating every morsel of the appetizers, we were beyond stuffed after eating the rest of our dinner. 

After dinner, we enjoyed some dancing, henna tattoos, and they passed around a pipe that contained some sort of cherry tobacco for communal smoking (which we didn't partake, but looking back on it, we probably should have at least tried it. Alas...I was too timid). 

Henna Tattoo - Dubai Desert Conservation

Like I mentioned above, they had a guy following us the whole time taking pictures. While we sat listening to the music and watching the dance, he came over to us and showed us the digital prints that he took throughout the day. We were very pleased with the shots he took, and since he offered them at a decent price (not like the penguin encounter from the day before), we bought them and got the CD. 

The whole desert safari experience lasted over 8 hours. We didn't get back to our hotel until after 10pm. From our morning at the cultural center, an afternoon of dune bashing, and an evening of amazing food and smells and getting to know the folks who were with us, we had a pretty terrific day. If only the next day would be just as good. Unfortunately, it wasn't. What happened? You'll have to read my next blog HERE.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler