Time flies when you're having fun! I hadn't even realized almost a whole month has passed since I did Part 1. I literally had all intentions of completing 1, 2 and 3, within several days of each other. But life had other plans for me. The summer is here and it's already lit! I have amazing things going on and coming up so i'm really just trying to enjoy all of it. Now I have to try to remember what happened on a trip 2 months ago. Anyone who knows me knows I can barely remember things from 2 days ago. So lets kick it off with Day 2!
Day 2
We paid extra for a Desert Safari tour which is a must if you ever visit Dubai. Apparently it wasn't included in our package, but that's a story for another day. It cost about $70 something US and included dune bashing, camel rides, dinner, henna, hookah, dance show, and transportation to and from the hotel. Anyway, you don't depart till the afternoon due to the heat/sun so we had the morning to chill out, hit the pool, and have some lunch. I had the most banging meal at this Filipino restaurant around the block from the hotel. I learned there's a pretty big population of Filipinos that migrated to UAE for work, majority of them being in Dubai. The area we stayed in had tons of Filipino restaurants.
I believe we met in the lobby around 3PM and left to head to the tour. We left in groups of 4/5 in individual SUVs with our own drivers. One of my travel peeps recommended shot gun so I hopped on it!
We rode through the desert for about an hour dune bashing and it was dope. Halfway through dune bashing we stopped to take some pictures that I was later bamboozled to buy. Its all good though! We had a blast during this portion taking pics enjoying being in the middle of nowhere.
After taking some pictures, we continued dune bashing till we got to our campsite for the evening. We all got to take a camel ride that was included as well as some pictures on the camel. I also decided to pay an extra few bucks to ride around on an ATV. Something to note... the camels are miserable as f*ck. It actually made me kind of sad. They are tied to each other with muzzles on, often making weird ass moaning noises which I interpreted as "IDFWU."
We got to watch the sunset which was super pretty and relaxing. After ATVing, we entered the campsite where we would have dinner and watch a traditional show. Prior to the show and dinner, there was a section to get henna done, have arabic coffee and these yummy little donuts, take pictures with an exotic bird, smoke shisha, and dress in traditional clothing and take pictures. I was loving the hookah. It was seriously the most relaxing part of the day for me. It was a chill area where you sat on rugs and what looked like bean bags while being barefoot. Pass me the hookah!
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the BBQ dinner, watching a traditional Arabic dance show while the photographer passed around our pictures we had taken all day that were for sale -___-
At the end of the evening, we headed back to our SUVs to head back to our hotel. Good effing times!
Day 3
I regularly sift through my travel Instagram account looking at other travelers' pics and always noticed the Dubai Miracle Garden as being one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen so it was a given that that was on my list of things to do. We had the morning/afternoon to ourselves with plans to attend a Dhow Dinner Cruise at night as part of our package. The Dubai Miracle Garden is a flower garden that has only been open for 3 years and has some of the most gorgeous flower set ups. It opened on Valentine's day. It was hot as balls there and I was sweating the entire time. The guards were kind of rude to us but that aint anything new! If you're a girly girl like me, it's a must see! Admission costs 30AED which is about 8 bux.
Gorgeous, right?!
After replacing my lost fluids, and catching a cab back... we chilled in the hotel till it was time to get ready for this Dhow Dinner Cruise. We really didn't know what to expect but I got dressed in my fancy abaya I spent an arm and leg on.
Lets just say the cruise, we could've did without. Everyone had an attitude by the evening, the food was just okay and we barely moved anywhere on the boat. Not to mention we later on found out that that was considered one of the 'cheaper' lower end Dhow Dinner Cruises. I did manage to get some more henna though which was dope. By the end of the night we were pooped and looking forward to our day trip to Abu Dhabi that would start at the crack of dawn the next day.
That concludes Day 2 and 3. Stay tuned for part 3!
