Dubai Day 3 28 April 2023

A huge day today! Hameed collected us at 8am and whisked us off to Abu Dhabi which is located an hour drive from Dubai. A couple of things that intrigued me on the drive were the complete change in the motorway at the border. There were different road lights and the road was a different colour so you knew that you had left Dubai. And then when I saw a turn off to Saudi Arabia I really knew that I was far from home! Our main destination was Sheik Zayed Mosque. We have passed so many beautiful mosques during our short time here but we had heard that this mosque was a ‘must see’. The whole place was stunning. Taking eleven years to build at a cost of 545 million USD the mosque is visited by people from all over the world and can hold 47,000 people. It took us almost 30 minutes to get inside and there were no queues! I was required to cover up with a head scarf and have arms and legs concealed. There were several security checks and a scan. Once again there was a staff member every 10 or so meters to guide you. When we finally emerged from the underground maze we stopped and looked in awe.

The organisation was impeccable and roped paths guided us without obscuring any of the experience. A point to note is that materials for the build came from all around the world, including New Zealand! Our very own wool was used to make the magnificent hand knitted carpet, which is in the Guinness book of records as the largest carpet in the world.

Hameed drove us around Abu Dhabi explaining the hierarchy of the seven states of UAE. The King’s palace was truely something from a fairytale, and visible from across the water.

We said our goodbyes to Hameed after he delivered us safely back to our hotel. he didn’t have a business card with him, but these are his details if you are ever in Dubai in need of a private tour driver. Hameed - 00971503347548

Three forty five found us waiting at the lobby for our next tour, The Arabian Adventure Night Safari. Our tour guide arrived on time and guided us to his four by four. Please note that I have not introduced him by name. That is because it would be unfair to name him in a public forum when I am about to say some derogatory things about him. What a blithering idiot he was. It was like we were being guided by Mr Bean but of Indian decent. I just can’t tell you how strange he was! Fortunately Lance was in the front so we couldn’t look at each other. We were joined by four ladies from Brazil who were really nice. And the tour was fantastic, apart from Mr Bean. Driving an hour out to the desert had me feeling pretty anxious because his motorway driving was so terrible! In fact when we picked up the Brazilian ladies he drove past the very obvious entrance to the hotel and tried to enter by the exit. This of course can be an easy mistake, except that the whole forecourt was filled with cars facing the opposite direction to us. Around 20 Arabian Adventure Land cruisers gathered at the entrance to the entrance to the desert and the drivers were all busy letting air out of their tyres in readiness for the soft sand.

There were plenty of shrieks and laughter as we traversed the sand hills. It was really great however, I had that little piece of me that kept thinking we are being driven by Mr Bean and does he have any idea what he is doing. It wasn’t only his driving, it was his complete demeanour that helped to install a vacuum of doubt in his ability. At the first photo stop we all jumped out. Walking in the sand was like one of those nightmares where your feet won’t work. It was so powdery and deep that Lance and the elderly Brazilian mama stayed in the car. Walking in this sand would have had Lance’s knee completely buggered! I managed some, in my opinion, great shots before we headed off to the Bedouin camp for dinner and entertainment.

Along the way we passed wild life! I hadn’t expected gazelles and Arabian oryx to be wandering around!

The camp was really well set up. And I do have to give Mr Bean credit here as he took our vehicle to a back entrance so that Lance and Brazilian mama could easily get inside the camp. And then he got them chairs, as everyone else was sitting on cushions. The set up was great, small tables were set around the covered perimeter with Persian rugs layer out on the sand. The staging area in the middle also had Persian rugs and then there were a variety of tourist stalls, the food service and the bar all situated at the end. And best of all the toilets were proper toilets and very clean!

One of my goals was to have a camel ride, and I succeeded! Although I was very worried that I would fall off either on mounting, when the camel got up, when the camel got down or on my dismount. I am not going to tell you that it was easy, because it wasn’t, but I managed to maintain my dignity.

This was not the case when Lance and I went to the tent to dress up for photos. Lance really looked the part, in fact I think the long white shirt and head gear were quite distinguished. Not so for me, and most of my photos will remain forever in the vault! So much so that when the guy was showing us the photos on the screen he asked us to say yes or no as the photos appeared so that he could start to collate our choices. When my photo came up my mind was still in disarray with how disgusting I looked and my mouth hadn’t even begun to move when Lance blurted out “NO”. I tell you, my face looked like a bowling ball in my headdress. Maybe this is why my maker decided that I should not be born to an Islamic family.

The wine provided in our package was not to my liking, but Lance was prepared to suffer with the Amstel light beer. My decision to upgrade my package so that I could have a gin or two proved to be fruitful as it also included a beer upgrade. Lance was a happy chappy when I came back to the table with a Heineken!

The food and entertainment was very good and we had an entertaining evening. We would highly recommend this tour. However we do wish that we had been with our lovely Hameed (or any other tour guide for that matter) and not our Indian Mr Bean.