Room 417, Savoy Hotel Apartments
What do you know, I got assigned to the same room. Haha. We're fated.Anyway, I'm too exhausted to write. Just got back from the desert not long ago.
To backtrack, we arrived at the hotel after a nice Chinese buffet lunch, and were given like half an hour to change to formal wear before assembling at the roof level for a talk in one of the rooms.
The speaker was late and unfortunately, I couldn't keep awake, so can't really remember what he was talking. Something about Dubai's success being due to...ah, I forgot. :P
Then it was a ten-minute rush to change to comfortable stuff again. We stepped out into the bright sunshine outside the hotel, to see a few land cruisers lined up at the kerb.
Now, multi-seater cars always get me excited, so it was even better news to hear that we would be travelling in them across the sand dunes - an activity called "dune bashing".
Why "dune bashing"? We found out not long after we had driven off and left the city behind.
As the skyscrapers gave way to...well, a lot of sand, the land cruiser drove off the main road and into the desert.
We had barely enough time to adjust to the bumpy surface, when dunes started rising up in front of us.
A heavy bump and we went flying (okay, we would've been flying if not for the seat belts), sand sprayed out outside the window........and the whole vehicle resounded with screams.
This went on for quite some time as we went up and down unimaginably steep dunes, or sped precariously across the side of the dunes (once again, if not for the seat belts the other two passengers in my row would've fallen sideways on me!). Amidst the shrieking, we all tried our best to capture some pictures of the ride.
There was the occasional stop at some picturesque spot to snap more pictures, before we set off again. (Be prepared for a lot of pictures below)
And finally we drew up in front of the campsite.
A queue formed at the entrance for camel rides; inside, everyone ran about trying Arab clothing, getting henna tattoos, and smoking shisha pipes.
In all honesty I don't remember much of the rest of the night. The moment I stepped out of the land cruiser, I had really bad indigestion (must be all that bumping around) and it was a struggle to pay attention to anything. There was a long line at dinner and a vast array of barbecued food - the picture below doesn't do justice because there was a lot of food buried under the meat! That stomachache meant I couldn't eat much.
As darkness fell and it got increasingly chilly, all I wanted was to get back to the hotel and sleep. Had to watch an extraordinarily long bellydancing show first though. Was feeling so crappy that I didn't catch half the show. So no pictures.
I couldn't have been happier when the show finally ended and we all got up to head for the exits.
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