One of the things a Filipino should experience if they are here in the U.A.E. is Desert Safari. It’s a tour of a desert where you will ride a 4×4 vehicle. I had my own experience of this yesterday.

Our tour departed from Sharjah in the afternoon, traveling across the deserts of Dubai (actually, a part of Dubai which is already close to Oman). When we arrived at the location of the actual tour, we first embarked in a heart stopping dune drive where our 4×4 drove through the sand dunes in high speed, climbing up and down in the dunes. It could be closely compared to a roller coaster ride in a theme park. Many times I thought that our vehicle would turn over, but thanks to the skilled driving style of our driver Ahmed, our fears were not realized. We had several photo stops during the exciting dune drive, wherein the safari drivers let us capture moments of the experience having the beautiful and breathtaking desert as our backdrop. Some members of the tour (myself not included, hehehe…) even experienced the thrill of sand boarding and I swear I saw some of them have eaten some sand in the process while tumbling from the board after losing their balance.

Our drive continued across the desert where we had the opportunity to witness a beautiful desert sunset, one of the highlights of our trip to the Arabian deserts.

After the sand dunes drive, we arrived at our campsite a few minutes before sundown where we had the opportunity to ride on a camel and try out a henna design on our hands or feet.

After all that activity, we have worked up an appetite, and so we enjoyed a delicious BBQ dinner and a shisha (the famous Arabic water pipe). we also enjoyed watching a belly dancer performing her show around the campfire by starlight (except during Ramadan), before returning to your Sharjah.

According to the tour organizers, the bellydancer does not perform during Ramadan (approximately mid September – mid October).