I have really become fascinated with safaris! Not really, it was just this coquettish Indian concierge in a Dubai hotel that talked me into it. I told her, I just went on a wild life safari. I have had enough of it. She said, “This is different. If you don’t like it, I will still be here and I will give you a refund.” I figured it is only $100.00 to lose and I have no idea what else to do.  So off I went in a Toyota Land Cruiser with a White robed driver. We arrive at the desert on the outskirts of Dubai and there are another 20 look alike Cruisers lined up. I wondered it must be popular for a reason. The driver now put out a small prayer rug behind the Cruiser and started to pray towards the setting Sun. I figured I am in the hands of a religious man, this does not sound like fun. The driver made his several bows, got up and stuffed the rug in the back. Then he deflates the tires and gets behind the wheel. Soon, we took off in a caravan of Air-conditioned cruisers into the sand. After a winding road, we climbed a sand hill all the way to the top and we sped straight down off the edge. The adventure had begun. The driver had turned into a maniac driving on the edges of the hills straight up, sideways, up and then down again. Somehow, we always landed without flipping over. So this is how you do a safari these days! We then stopped on a hillside for a photo-op. There were these cruisers in the distance going wildly up, down and on the side of these sand hills. So that is how it was!!

 

                                                          A few pictures of the sunset and we arrive after darkness at this sizeable clearance where tents have been set up. The other 20 Cruisers each join us unloading 5 or 6 passengers. We walked around till I found a man smoking a water pipe dressed like a sheikh. I asked how he was doing? He offered me the pipe and I sat down on pillow for a leisurely smoke. (I didn’t know then how often I was going to have this pleasure over the next week). A drink later, we were asked to move in to a rectangle of pillows on the ground and loud music started playing. Lights were dimmed. What do you know? A belly dancer in her diaphanous white robes shows up. Well what else would you expect in the middle of a desert? She is a slim, attractive (never got a good look at her veiled face) sensual woman who started a slow dance. As the music picked so did her rhythm and the shivers that seem to run up and down her body. You reckon, she was cold!! Then it deteriorated into all these tourists attempting to dance joined in. The tourist’s missteps produced some humor and then it was over.

There was this noise in the back and soon everyone rushed to the massive buffet of shish kabob etc. etc…The meals taken care off we headed back in the moonlit desert.