Desert safari in Dubai/UAE – tips and our experience
Desert safari in Dubai: which company to choose, what's included, staying overnight and dune bashing.
We went on a desert safari in the UAE in April 09, which included an overnight stay at a desert encampment. Here are some tips and highlights from our experience:
At around 3pm, we got picked up in Dubai by a driver in a sturdy four-wheel-drive, and headed north into the desert.
QUAD BIKE STOP
Our first stop was a tourist trap "farm" where you can hire a quad bike and go crazy on the dunes (15 minutes = AED150 [roughly £30/$45, at the time of writing]). We did, and it was great fun. Naturally, you have to sign a waiver before you start ("no insurance is included and you are liable for anything that happens to you"). There are the usual tourist tat shops and this is also where the drivers deflate their tyres a little to prepare for the dune bashing that comes next.
DESERT SAFARI - DUNE BASHING
If you aren't sure what the guides mean by desert safari, then this is the main part of it. The drivers from the various companies make a bee-line for the big Tatooine-style sand dunes, and then let loose their inner boy racer. The idea is to slide, leap, bash and surf the dunes in their four wheel drives until all their passengers get motion sickness and are ready to stop for a photo-opportunity. The experience is a bit like being on a roller-coaster without the safety features, and at an angle that looks like the car is going to roll-over. You are either an adrenaline junkie and love it, or you're not and you love the moment when it's over. This goes on for a while, with various stops, and then you head for camp.
ARABIAN ENCAMPMENT AND DINNER
We liked the camp. Just be aware that If you're expecting an authentic Arabian Nights experience this isn't it. In true Emirates fashion, the locals have delegated their cultural heritage to migrant workers, and so, even the hosts dressed in traditional dishdashas were more likely to speak better Urdu than Arabic. Our driver told us there were two main encampments serving the desert safari tourists: the one we went to (about 45 minutes out of Dubai) and one that's smaller and closer. The camp had the usual tourist amenities: take your picture on a camel or in traditional dress, have a henna tattoo, smoke the shisha, buy tat and get repeatedly approached by the man selling fake Rolexes and his friend who will absolutely write your name in sand in a bottle. Apart from the tat and alcohol at the bar, everything is free in the camp, and following the coffee and shisha, you get served a fairly sumptuous barbecue dinner, which is followed by a sword-wielding belly dancer show (about 20 minutes).
Overall, I would say there were about 200 visitors in the camp.
Once the show is over, the various tour groups depart, and within a short time, the whole place empties leaving only those who are on the overnight safari.
SHOULD I STAY OVERNIGHT AND SLEEP AT THE ENCAMPMENT?
Probably not. As everyone else left and only the three of us remained (along with camp staff who were busy clearing up the tables and preparing the encampment for the next day's tourist herd), we pondered the virtues of staying overnight. On reflection it was good that we were the only ones left. Apparently fifty people stayed on Saturday night, and I couldn't imagine they got much sleep, sharing the same tent space with young children and snoring adults. The idea is that you are given a sleeping bag and a space in a closed tent area, to sleep among the carpets and cushions. Despite the beautiful night sky outside, this isn't the most comfortable of sleeping arrangements. The generator noise stays constant all night, there are mosquitoes aplenty and the sleeping bags aren't the cleanest. You are awoken sometime between 6am and 7am and given a tray of breakfast (scrambled eggs, sausages, bread, jam, Lipton’s tea and instant coffee), and ushered out afterwards. We were then driven back to where we were staying in Dubai.
Verdict: there's no real point in paying extra and staying overnight, as all you get is an uncomfortable sleep, that's not too authentic or exciting, and despite the brochures talking up an extra trip the next day, we already covered that part the previous day, so the stay was sort of pointless.
If you do decide to stay overnight make sure you take the following with you:
- Ear plugs (to help you sleep against the backdrop of generator noise)
- Toilet paper (the toilets are wash-your-bum style, and do not have any loo paper in them)
- Mosquito repellent (trust me, you'll need it)
- Some clean sheets (if you don't like the idea of a slept-in sleeping bag).
WHICH SAFARI COMPANY SHOULD I USE?
Based on our experience, I would say that most companies follow exactly the same route, stop in the same places and end up in the same encampment. Along the route and while dune bashing, there were some 15-20 different companies going to exactly the same places and stopping for exactly the same photo-opportunities, so it's likely that you would end up on the same trail. If you've had a significantly different experience to what's described here, by all means do leave a comment at the bottom of this article for the benefit of others.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
The overnight desert safari experience cost us AED450 each (around £80/$120), which included the dinner and breakfast. for the whole thing without the overnight stay we were quoted AED175-275 (£30-£50/$50-75) depending on the company and extras.
WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT?
Absolutely. If you want to get a real sense of the sandy desert dunes, and aren't sick on roller-coasters, it is highly recommended. If you like the adrenalin rush you'll love it even more. I wouldn't really stay overnight if I did it again, but that's all part of the adventure.
Xiahe closed – an update on access for foreigners to Tibetan areas in Gansu Province, China
Xiahe - an update on access for foreigners.
Following my article about the Tibetan towns of Xiahe and Tongren being closed to the outside world, I got the following update from Oswald, a Dutch traveller who managed to get through:
I read on your website you wanted to know if people were in the region and whether it was possible to enter Xiahe. I just ended my holidays in China with my friend Arne and we have been so lucky to visit Xiahe (we arrived on Sunday the 12th of October).
Instead of taking the more often used route through Lanzhou, we travelled from Beijing to Xining. When we arrived there we heard that we couldn't get bus-tickets because foreigners were not allowed to travel to Xiahe.
When we insisted we wanted to go to Xiahe, this guy we met in Xining, a translator called ****** *** (name removed - ThatDanny), said he'd try to call some guys with a van and 5 minutes later two guys in a minivan showed up to bring us to Xiahe (6,5 hour drive) for 700 Yuan. It was such an amazingly beautiful road trip! We were not certain if this was a clever idea because we did not know whether we could trust these guys or if we would be stopped at the Gansu border. Everything worked out and we arrived after a breathtaking trip.
When we arrived in the village there was not a foreign soul there! People stared at us as if they hadn't seen any foreigners for some time....which appeared to be true...
Apparently some German tourists were removed from the village about a week before and the army had been in the village since then.
We spoke to a Dutch woman in a shop who had been living there for 8 years with a Tibetan guy and she told us no foreigners were around for days and that we had been lucky to get through. At the Tibetan overseas hotel there were almost no rooms filled because of a lack of tourists.
The Dutch woman told us that the guy who was concerned with foreign affairs in Xiahe was usually not around on Sundays so we could be lucky and not be kicked out. "Keep a low profile "she suggested...that was a bit impossible both of us being Caucasian and 1,90 and 2,05 m tall!
We bought bus tickets the same day in case we would be stopped so we could tell the police "hey, we already have tickets to leave, so don't bother throwing us out". That did not happen.
It was incredible to visit this place although people were a bit hesitant to discuss what had happened (which is of course completely understandable).
The next day we met this guy from Switzerland who was travelling alone and arrived by bus. He hadn't had to much trouble travelling to Xiahe. Maybe because he spoke Chinese quite well. I think he also got a visa for Tibet so that may have helped, I am not sure.
My impression was that people were not eager to talk (or even be seen) with us but I am not sure if this is true. Everyone we met didn't want us to take their photo which seemed to me to be strange at first. Only a few older monks did not mind about that.
When we arrived later in Guilin and Yangshuo I tried to find on the internet what had happened in Xiahe but all sites on these kinds of subjects (including your site) were blocked so I did not get to read a lot (only the first lines i could read in Google).
I am very happy we went there although somehow it did not feel really safe.
Footnote: I am pleased to report that the Chinese authorities have blocked accessed to my blog. I must be doing something right...
The Azores Island of Sao Miguel – Tips and Impressions (+ a note on eating dolphin)
My partner, D., likes escaping to islands that I've never heard of, usually in the middle of nowhere. This is sometimes as simple as spinning Google Earth until a candidate presents itself – followed by the planning of a 'random holiday'. Weird as this sounds, I must admit that after my initial doubts subside it usually works. The less popular they are, the better.
This time it was The Azores, a cluster of nine islands, set on the tips of ocean volcanoes in the deep Atlantic, between Portugal and the US. They lay empty of human habitation until the fifteen hundreds, when Portuguese settlers claimed them from nature. Today they are an autonomous region of Portugal (and therefore within the EU).
We stayed for a week on Sao Miguel island, the biggest member of the archipelago and chose its capital Ponta Delgada as our base.
Sao Miguel Island - “ What's it like?
- Sao Miguel is beautiful, lush and green. In places it feels like the backdrop to a Jurassic Park movie, especially where giant fern-like plants surround you amidst the steam from volcanic geothermal boiling water (in Caldeira Velha).
- Despite the wildness and beauty of the lakes and volcanic landscape, Sao Miguel sometimes feels like a huge landscaped botanical garden. The Azorians obviously love their island and invest heavily in taming nature and making it pretty. It is strikingly clean, wonderfully manicured and it is sometimes difficult to tell what is natural and what isn't. The roads are lined with flowers even in remote parts of the island, and everything is, well, just so. If you ever imagined what it would be like to stay at the Eden project for a week, this would be it. The humid air feels like a greenhouse, and the vegetation is spectacular, even if it sometimes feels manufactured.
- One of the best things about this greenhouse was that the utter lack of crowds anywhere. Perhaps it was the timing of our visit (mid October) or that the Azores are such a well kept secret, but being able to sit on the stunning shores of the Lake of Fire (Lagoa do Fogo) uninterrupted by anyone was superb. We also noticed that towns and villages seemed almost deserted. We weren't sure where everyone was, but throughout the week and weekend we drove through quiet settlements that felt almost deserted, no matter what time of day.
- It took us a couple of days to realize that Sao Miguel is eerily quiet, in a way quite different to anywhere else we've been. In most parts of the world whether you realize it or not, there is always a backdrop of aircraft noise above you, for most of the day. Here in the Mid-Atlantic most jets pass over 30,000 feet above you, and so out of sound range. The only planes you hear are those that land in The Azores, and there aren't that many of those either.
- Towns on the island are a strange mixture of old and new. Infrastructure and development are distinctly European, and the Azores' location in the mid-Atlantic hasn't stopped them from hatching American style malls, multiplex cinemas and shopping prices on a par with European capitals. Good hotels are of good quality (we stayed at the Hotel de Colegio which was excellent), and roads are modern and well maintained.
Driving in Sao Miguel
- Driving is on the right and traffic rules are the same as they are in the rest of Western Europe.
- Most towns and villages have very narrow roads, so it is best to hire a car that isn't too wide, and to fold your wing mirror when passing through narrow streets, or when parking. It can get quite tight at times.
- Probably due to lack of hard shoulders on the island, Azorians are in the habit of stopping their cars just about anywhere. You can drive at a 60 KPH on a B-road, and suddenly find that a car is parked in the middle of the road in front of you. Take extra care, expect parked cars on the road, and don't speed.
- Pedestrians in Sao Miguel appear to assume a right of way on the roads, or are simply not fazed in the least by cars. Don't assume that they would move out of the way, give them plenty of space and slow down. It is not uncommon to find a person standing in the middle of the road, expecting a car to overtake them.
- I haven't found any satellite navigation system that covers The Azores. This is not surprising, considering the natives would know all the roads on their islands by heart, and the limited number of visitors has not made the archipelago a priority for digital mapping companies. This should not be a problem in Sao Miguel's simple grid, but here are the two pitfalls to watch out for:
- All villages and towns run a one-way system, which is not always predictable. The capital Ponta Delgada isn't huge, but can get a little confusing, and you may end up going around in circles for a while, at least initially.
- Road signing is usually good and reliable, but in some places, especially a little off the beaten track or where there are diversions, there is an assumption that you know where you're going. The good news is that on an island the size of Sao Miguel it is very hard to get lost for very long.
Eating in Ponta Delgada
- Restaurants in Ponta Delgada aren't as bluntly obvious to the casual observer as in most countries, so you need to look out for them a bit more intently. I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps island mentality is that everyone knows where they are anyway.
- Quality varies like anywhere else, but we've had some excellent meals in Ponta Delgada, especially in the Hotel do Colegio restaurant, which is well known for its great food. At the time of writing, an average good restaurant two-course meal for two costs Euro 35-40 (before alcohol).
- As this is an island in the middle of the Atlantic, Seafood is a common staple, but note that if you see “dolphin†on the menu, it is definitely not the cute intelligent mammal, but a fish now rebranded in most of the world as Mahi Mahi. Yes, really. You can get shark though.
Getting there
SATA International operates direct flights from some North American airports and from Paris, London, Manchester, Frankfurt and Lisbon. It also codeshares with TAP, that has a wider network of routes, so you may want to start your search on the TAP site.
And the verdict?: a great destination off the tourist track. Pack your hiking boots and lots of camera memory. We had a great time.
Page3 of The Sun – Breasts, Dubai Style
Cover 'em up love!
I just had to share this one: if you get The Sun newspaper in Dubai, you'll find that all Page3 breasts are covered by what looks like a thick black marker.
Of course, this is done to guard the modesty of the model, and I'm sure Danni, 22, from Coventry would be delighted (she supports David Beckham's efforts to stamp out malaria, by the way).