Fizal and I haven't had many chance to travel so much this year because of 2 reasons; first, I'm in my 2nd year of my PhD study, so I've been very occupied with my research study; and secondly, we've been saving up for our trip home for Raya. Since I've been staying in and around Sheffield for months focusing on my study, so I've been longing for more adventures and missing the excitements of packing for a trip. So we decided to make a stopover in Dubai, en-route our trip back to the UK, from Kuala Lumpur (KL). It wasn't a long stop, but it was a sufficient amount of time in Dubai. 

So we arrived at the Abu Dhabi International Airport and took a bus operated by Etihad Airways (included in the flight package we booked) from the airport to Dubai Bus Station (XNB) at 9:00am in the morning. We stored our big luggages at the airport and board the bus heading to Dubai, which took about 1 hour. The bus stopped at the Etihad Luxury Coach Station (it was luxury indeed! hehe). From there, we took a taxi to our hotel, (Holiday Inn Express Dubai - Jumeirah). We were supposed to check in at 2pm, but the staff kindly prepared our room early that morning, so Fizal and I were able to have a good rest from our 7-hour flight from KL.

Welcomed by the morning sun at the airport when we first set our foot on this Emirati land.

For this trip, I haven't done many research or make any bookings in advance (which is unusual of me), just because I've been so busy in Malaysia and didn't have enough time to do so. So while we were in our hotel room just relaxing that morning, we looked up some tours and packages for a camel safari adventure for that very afternoon of our first day. We then booked our Desert Safari with North Tours, and they confirmed our reservation immediately.

We were picked up at our hotel at 3:00pm by our guide named Muhammad. While were were going around to pick up some other people for the tour, Muhammad convinced us to try the dune-bashing instead of camel safari. Originally wanting to go for camel rides through the desert, we finally gave in and decided to go for the dune-bashing as the others in the group was going for that. We also thought that camel-riding for 45 minutes in the desert in July wasn't really a good idea (we can't even deal with walking around in Dubai city in that heat! Let alone be in the desert in summer!).

Among the views we encountered of Dubai skyscrapers from the main road of Sheikh Zayed Road.



 Undeniably beautiful skyline.


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So once all our group members were complete, we headed straight into the desert which was situated about 45-mins in the outskirt of Dubai city.


We first stopped at an isolated area in the desert where people were quad-biking on the sand dunes. There were shops where you can buy some snacks, that also provide toilet facilities before we headed out for the dune-bash. Fizal and I, and a few others from our group didn't ride on the bikes because it was not included in our package (we didn't want to spend our extra dirhams cos we're cheap liddat! haha). So we just waited for the few people that rode and took the time to take some photos. :)

After everyone was ready, we left the place for the much anticipated dune-bashing. Muhammad requested that we all buckled-up and gave us each a piece of plastic bag in case we needed to throw up. We all laughed of nervousness(?) I guess...

"Is it really gonna be that bad?"

"Has anyone really threw up while doing this?"

"yes" - said Muhammad.

"It this really necessary?"

...we all threw the same sorts of questions.

When we first started the journey, it wasn't so harsh and there were many other land-cruisers around just about to embark on their adventures too. As we got further into the desert, the drive also got harsher and more thrilling. It was awesome at first as our guide turned on some music loudly and we were all enjoying the ride, laughing and screaming. But at some point, when we had ridden on for quite some time, I started feeling a bit nauseous and dizzy. haha. (and there I thought Muhammad was exaggerating when he gave us a plastic bag).

I was feeling dizzy towards the end of our ride, until we finally stopped for some photos while the sun was setting. The view was just unimaginablely beautiful. It was so quiet and peaceful and all we could hear was the clicking sounds our cameras made and of us laughing and enjoying out moments in the beautiful desert. But unfortunately, that beautiful moment only lasted for about 10 minutes when Muhammad called us and signalling us to get in the car again.

There's one car in front of me where its passengers are probably screaming and (most likely) also feeling nauseous and wishing that they'd stop already. haha.








A one-time experience!
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The dizziness continued as we continued our journey across the desert again, but it wasn't long until we got onto the freeway again, and was on our way to the desert camp.
At the desert camp, there were many other groups of tourists (I guess all tour agencies take us all to the same desert camp). The first thing that we encountered once we stepped out of our vehicle was a man, who insisted on taking photos of us saying that it was for their company(?), which, although we thought it was weird, we went with it anyway.

And then, there was the camel ride. Just outside of the walled camp area, you will see several camels just waiting for passengers, I guess. haha. This camel ride was included in our package, so it was a free ride - well, it was just a mere 2-minutes ride. We literally just went onto the camel, the guide walked the camel for about 2-3 meters and came back! haha. We didn't even have the time to take a little bit more photos! Was it just for the sake of being on the camel? haha. It's funny when I think about it now, but we were actually shocked and a little pissed at the time.


Fizal might have mistaken the camel for a pet and 'asked' him to smile at the camera? haha.

As we entered the camp area, which was surrounded by walls, was a large performance stage right in the middle, and surrounded by it was seating areas. There were stalls, nicely decorated in bedouin-style which served drinks, shisha, tea and dinner around the camp. The ambience was nice, but because it was so hot, it became a little uncomfortable (and we were all fanning ourselves with paper plates! haha). The varieties of dinner laid out for us was of decent amounts of Arab and some Indian food too. There were performances; Tanoura and belly dances and falcon shows throughout dinner, which entertained our night at the camp.

The stage at the centre of the seating areas.


One of our tour member kindly took this photo of us both. :)

Beautiful hues of pastel sky accompanying our night.

Tanoura dance...

...and belly dance.

After dinner, we set off again back into Dubai city at around around 10:00pm and reached our hotel about an hour later. And that ended our first day in the UAE.

More stories on my Dubai trip in Part 2 here.