DUBAI: My Desert Safari Experience

The Desert Safari is a popular tourist activity in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. My Desert Safari included 3 activities; Desert Dune Bashing, a Camel ride and and a BBQ dinner with a desert camp experience. I booked through Golden Treasure Tourism which did my visa, tourism activities, air ticketing and hotel bookings. To begin the day, a driver picked us up from the hotel with a group of 4 other people and drove us to the desert.  Before I travelled to Dubai, my travel agent had told my mother that sand dune bashing is very scary and if she doesn’t want to have a heart attack she shouldn’t do it because it’s similar to a roller coaster ride. Because of this, when it was almost time for dune bashing, my mother told the driver that she didn’t want to drive on the “fast car” but she wants to come down from the car and drive on the “slow one”. This got lots of protests from the second group. Unbeknownst to her, the slow one didn’t exist.

The driver just completely ignored her, smiled, turned on the car and proceeded to give us the wildest ride of our lives.  I have never been driven so fast in my life! I have also never screamed so loud in my life either! The car was tilting and swerving at a 45 degree angle over steep sand cliffs while we were bouncing and holding on for dear life. I literally thought the car was going to topple over and have an accident. The driver later told me that the second group had paid him to drive extra fast and that was why he was the most extreme dune basher among all the other drivers! But he was such a nice soul who took good care of us and I became good friends with him later.

Although it was so scary at first, I started to have so much fun! The adrenaline was coursing through my veins and I started laughing and taking videos. There is also nothing like a seemingly near death experience to bond everyone in the car. I and the other group soon became fast friends and I learnt a lot about Dubai, camels and the Afghan culture from them.

After dune bashing it was time for the camel ride! Camels are beautiful, tall and calm creatures. It is pretty easy to get on a camel but when it is getting up you can easily fall over so hold on tight!

The next activity was the desert camp experience! There are so many things to do like henna, trying on traditional Arabian clothing, sand art and eagle handling. I tried everything but the eagle handling because there wasn’t enough time. The entertainment included a belly dancer, an illusionist spinning-type dancer, and a fire breather. The food was also pretty good. There was BBQ chicken, beef, rice and lots of salad and bread. I had a lot of fun!

Most days are rarely perfect. I think the day of my Desert Safari was perfect and it is easily one of the top three experiences of my life. I loved every single thing about this experience, the people I met, the new things I tried and I am so happy I got to experience it with my mother. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed my post!