The next day , 18th August was kind of D day. That is the day Venkatesh had booked for Desert Safari.
We visited our nephew's family in Dubai in the morning and got ready for our trip to Desert in the afternoon. We were picked up in a four wheel drive special vehicle (Toyota Land Cruiser?) near our house. My brother, hubby and myself were going for this. Another South Indian family also joined us (three of them) in the same vehicle. We were taken to a shop near the edge of the desert. (We passed through Sharja) We had some cool drink there as the day was very hot. We did have some iced lemon juice with us in the flask.
The pressure in the Tyre of the vehicle were reduced. I started feeling that, I did 't know what I was getting into. When my friend Ayeysha told me 'Don't miss desert safari all I knew was I should not miss it without knowing what it was!!
So happily we proceeded into the desert in groups of vehicles from the same Company. Once inside the desert again the pressure was reduced little more.
Now the Safari started. Initially it was just a rough ride, but it turned out to be a Roller Coaster ride on the desert sand. Up and Down the Vehicles went and the vehicle started going on the edge of the sand dunes . When the vehicle started riding on the top of the sand dune it appeared to be hanging for its life along with us who were inside. I was holding my breath and was reminded of the rough Sea ride in the Indian Ocean in the Speeding Motor Boat in Maldives, but this was an entirely different kind of experience. Only once when the vehicle was on the top of the sand dune and the it took a plunge (it was just coming down) I closed my eyes. It was so surrealistic with all vehicles going up and down one behind the other with never ending sand dunes around. They told me that this is called Bashing. After some bashing all vehicles came to a halt for a photo session. After few more lesser Bashing we came to the edge of desert where the tyre pressure was increased again indicating that we will have a smoother ride. But there were ups and downs again as we were going into the desert again.
We were brought to a camping site where lots of tents and camels where waiting to take every body for a ride! I did not venture to go atop the camel. Food and drinks were arranged in the tents. we could see the sun setting in the desert horizon . In a tent a lady was putting henna on every body's hand which I promptly put on my hand. There was a high sand dune where kids were climbing up and I tried to climb and my legs were just going inside the sand making it tough to walk. It was fun climbing the hill if I may call the sand dune a hill. Some how the sand made me feel I was in a beach which also has so much of sand but how different they are.
We had vegetarian dinner on the open space and the food was quite good rice and dal and some vegetable was there which was good enough for me to get our food in such a far off desert. There was a dance by a man who was swiveling round and round. Normally Belly Dance would be there by a lady but since it was still Ramzan fasting, it was not done that day. But we had seen that in our Turkey trip which was so good that I did not feel bad that I missed it here. In all it was a wonderful experience. We were dropped back to our house.
This picture is of two buildings in the shape of Dolphins which impressed us very much. Picture taken from the Car.
Another Building which looks as if some body has twisted it!
Next day our visit was to Ibin Batuta Mall. The name sounded very familiar and only after going to the mall I understood it is the name of the Moroccan Traveler of 14th Century about whom we have read in History who had visited India also and had recorded about the People and the Countries he visited..
Today it was very hot and I could understand why people are so scared of the heat, it was simply unbearable even to walk from the car park to the Mall. We were lucky the previous two days. I was told that it would be still worse.
The Arch We have to go in before we enter into the Mall building.
Inside the Mall.
India......
China........
The Mall was very different from so many malls I have seen. It was thematic and themes were Locations, like Egypt, Tunisia, India, China and each one was designed, architecture etc of that particular place. Very nicely done. Artificial sky has been created giving it a look of being in out doors. The shops were the usual big shops with big brand names.
From the Mall We went out to have our Lunch in a Restaurant by name Kamat and the lunch was superb. When we were in College Kamat was a very big brand name for Restaurants in Bangalore. I find the Indian food available in Dubai is much better than what we get in KL.
After seeing so many lovely buildings and lovely structures I felt i t is amazing what Man can achieve and what Money can achieve and the combination of Man and Money can achieve. In a desert which was just that a few years back is now a city with so many sky crappers each vying with other for the design and look and our attention. Another amazing thing is the , greens watered by drip irrigation . I understand that the biggest saline water treatment plant is in Dubai.
With all that, the heat made me appreciate the cool and rainy (though hot at day time) tropical weather of Malaysia.
We are going towards the Hotel in the Palm Jumeira. There is a Train Service also to this place. Both sides of the road have the Fronds.
At the end of the Island. This is where the reclaimed land ends and the sea can be seen.
The other side of the Hotel Picture taken from the Sea side.
At 3 p.m. a vehicle picked us up to show us around Dubai . ( what ever we had not covered. ) This was also arranged my brother. There was a guide also . We went to the small Museum in Dubai, which was ok. Then there was this man made creek, where Big Ships from Sea can also enter. We proceeded to Gold Sauk. But unfortunately it was closed and was to be opened later in the evening, because of Ramzan and I did not get the opportunity to see the Gold Market which is so famous in Dubai. We felt the guide was useless, as we were not taken to Spice Market as per promise and just showed us around in the vehicle without stopping. We were taken to a beach, but lot of crowd was there due to holiday.
Finally we went to Palm Jumeriah Photos of which I had seen many times. It is a famous Island built from reclaimed land. It has a very big Hotel and in all the branches of the Palm which are called Fronds, there are Residences and Resorts. It is rumoured that many Rich Indians also own residences in these Fronds. Since we were driving through these areas we could just imagine the figure of Palm as the View of a Palm tree can be seen from a Helicopter view only. I was told they arrange Helicopter trips also. The Hotel has a very big glass swimming pool where (they advertize that) you can swim with the Dolphins. This we did not see as we did not go inside the Hotel and we just drove on the outside roads.
May be I will need another trip to see the Gold Sauk which I missed but hubby dear seemed to be very happy about that.
In all we had a wonderful time in Dubai thanks to my Venkatesh and Vijaya Manni.
Next day we started in the morning to start our next leg of journey to London. Hurray Europe Here I Come.
We visited our nephew's family in Dubai in the morning and got ready for our trip to Desert in the afternoon. We were picked up in a four wheel drive special vehicle (Toyota Land Cruiser?) near our house. My brother, hubby and myself were going for this. Another South Indian family also joined us (three of them) in the same vehicle. We were taken to a shop near the edge of the desert. (We passed through Sharja) We had some cool drink there as the day was very hot. We did have some iced lemon juice with us in the flask.
The pressure in the Tyre of the vehicle were reduced. I started feeling that, I did 't know what I was getting into. When my friend Ayeysha told me 'Don't miss desert safari all I knew was I should not miss it without knowing what it was!!
So happily we proceeded into the desert in groups of vehicles from the same Company. Once inside the desert again the pressure was reduced little more.
Now the Safari started. Initially it was just a rough ride, but it turned out to be a Roller Coaster ride on the desert sand. Up and Down the Vehicles went and the vehicle started going on the edge of the sand dunes . When the vehicle started riding on the top of the sand dune it appeared to be hanging for its life along with us who were inside. I was holding my breath and was reminded of the rough Sea ride in the Indian Ocean in the Speeding Motor Boat in Maldives, but this was an entirely different kind of experience. Only once when the vehicle was on the top of the sand dune and the it took a plunge (it was just coming down) I closed my eyes. It was so surrealistic with all vehicles going up and down one behind the other with never ending sand dunes around. They told me that this is called Bashing. After some bashing all vehicles came to a halt for a photo session. After few more lesser Bashing we came to the edge of desert where the tyre pressure was increased again indicating that we will have a smoother ride. But there were ups and downs again as we were going into the desert again.
We were brought to a camping site where lots of tents and camels where waiting to take every body for a ride! I did not venture to go atop the camel. Food and drinks were arranged in the tents. we could see the sun setting in the desert horizon . In a tent a lady was putting henna on every body's hand which I promptly put on my hand. There was a high sand dune where kids were climbing up and I tried to climb and my legs were just going inside the sand making it tough to walk. It was fun climbing the hill if I may call the sand dune a hill. Some how the sand made me feel I was in a beach which also has so much of sand but how different they are.
We had vegetarian dinner on the open space and the food was quite good rice and dal and some vegetable was there which was good enough for me to get our food in such a far off desert. There was a dance by a man who was swiveling round and round. Normally Belly Dance would be there by a lady but since it was still Ramzan fasting, it was not done that day. But we had seen that in our Turkey trip which was so good that I did not feel bad that I missed it here. In all it was a wonderful experience. We were dropped back to our house.
This picture is of two buildings in the shape of Dolphins which impressed us very much. Picture taken from the Car.
Another Building which looks as if some body has twisted it!
Next day our visit was to Ibin Batuta Mall. The name sounded very familiar and only after going to the mall I understood it is the name of the Moroccan Traveler of 14th Century about whom we have read in History who had visited India also and had recorded about the People and the Countries he visited..
Today it was very hot and I could understand why people are so scared of the heat, it was simply unbearable even to walk from the car park to the Mall. We were lucky the previous two days. I was told that it would be still worse.
The Arch We have to go in before we enter into the Mall building.
Inside the Mall.
India......
China........
The Mall was very different from so many malls I have seen. It was thematic and themes were Locations, like Egypt, Tunisia, India, China and each one was designed, architecture etc of that particular place. Very nicely done. Artificial sky has been created giving it a look of being in out doors. The shops were the usual big shops with big brand names.
From the Mall We went out to have our Lunch in a Restaurant by name Kamat and the lunch was superb. When we were in College Kamat was a very big brand name for Restaurants in Bangalore. I find the Indian food available in Dubai is much better than what we get in KL.
After seeing so many lovely buildings and lovely structures I felt i t is amazing what Man can achieve and what Money can achieve and the combination of Man and Money can achieve. In a desert which was just that a few years back is now a city with so many sky crappers each vying with other for the design and look and our attention. Another amazing thing is the , greens watered by drip irrigation . I understand that the biggest saline water treatment plant is in Dubai.
With all that, the heat made me appreciate the cool and rainy (though hot at day time) tropical weather of Malaysia.
We are going towards the Hotel in the Palm Jumeira. There is a Train Service also to this place. Both sides of the road have the Fronds.
At the end of the Island. This is where the reclaimed land ends and the sea can be seen.
The other side of the Hotel Picture taken from the Sea side.
At 3 p.m. a vehicle picked us up to show us around Dubai . ( what ever we had not covered. ) This was also arranged my brother. There was a guide also . We went to the small Museum in Dubai, which was ok. Then there was this man made creek, where Big Ships from Sea can also enter. We proceeded to Gold Sauk. But unfortunately it was closed and was to be opened later in the evening, because of Ramzan and I did not get the opportunity to see the Gold Market which is so famous in Dubai. We felt the guide was useless, as we were not taken to Spice Market as per promise and just showed us around in the vehicle without stopping. We were taken to a beach, but lot of crowd was there due to holiday.
Finally we went to Palm Jumeriah Photos of which I had seen many times. It is a famous Island built from reclaimed land. It has a very big Hotel and in all the branches of the Palm which are called Fronds, there are Residences and Resorts. It is rumoured that many Rich Indians also own residences in these Fronds. Since we were driving through these areas we could just imagine the figure of Palm as the View of a Palm tree can be seen from a Helicopter view only. I was told they arrange Helicopter trips also. The Hotel has a very big glass swimming pool where (they advertize that) you can swim with the Dolphins. This we did not see as we did not go inside the Hotel and we just drove on the outside roads.
May be I will need another trip to see the Gold Sauk which I missed but hubby dear seemed to be very happy about that.
In all we had a wonderful time in Dubai thanks to my Venkatesh and Vijaya Manni.
Next day we started in the morning to start our next leg of journey to London. Hurray Europe Here I Come.
2 comments:
Well, I can follow each and every sentence of your writing as you describe the place you have visited as I am reading the book 'Dubai-the fastest growing city'. The building of shipyards, creeks, airports, desert safari, Buildings with Persian architecture and themes, skyscrapers, malls with shopping complex, 7 star hotel, burj Khaleefa etc has made it a tourist destination.
I wish I could be with you.,
Pictures of vehicles moving on sand dunes look nice.
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