After breakfast we had our last visit to Deira City mall to post my blogs before being picked up at the hotel for our overnight safari. I had tried to get hold of the tour company to see if they could help with transporting our luggage – the hotel were most unhelpful. No we could not use the Ibis shuttle service. And no, they would not ring the company for me. So much for being an Accor Club Member. We got back to the hotel lobby early because each courier so far has turned up at least fifteen minutes earlier than scheduled. We were picked up by a ‘cute as’ Arab in an awesome 4 wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser or some such vehicle. You would love it Rowan. There was one other couple with us, from Korea, and they spoke very little English which made communication very difficult. We headed out on the road towards Oman, and had a short stop about half way for a loo stop and some souvenir shopping, where we had our photos taken with a falcon on our arm. Shortly after this we turned off-road and headed into the desert. We stopped to wait for about four or five other groups to join us and then off we went – into the sand dunes.

Only one word to describe the whole experience – AWESOME. I was in the back seat so difficult to get a good video, but it was just like the video on You-Tube. We stopped to take photos of the sunset which was spectacular, before going on to the campsite.

What an amazingly organised operation – a permanent campsite set up, complete with souvenir shop, henna tattoo, a place for people to try and have photos taken in Arabic dress, the camel rides, sheesha smoking.

We were greeted with Arabic coffee or tea and dates, and settled down at our allotted table for nibbles – which comprised of chicken shawarma and falafel. It was then off to have our tattoos done and camel ride. Back to our table for dinner and entertainment. Dinner was barbeque of chicken, lamb or fish (no baby camel as mentioned in the brochure).

Entertainment was the belly dancer – she dances for 25 minutes non-stop (such energy) and then a guy dancing for about 15 minutes – a very theatrical performance. Phew!!! Would like have of that amount of energy. There were about 500 people at the dinner and would you believe it – Narms and I were the only ones staying the night. So we had the cute Arab all to ourselves. We sat and I tried the sheesha – it was okay, smelt nice and fruity (strawberry I think or apple and something) In the middle of our dinner, the camel ride guy came and found us, we had had our photo taken and Narms then did her haggling bit and got the price down from Dh for four to Dh 60 for three, but then came back with all four photos for Dh 60. Way to go Narms. She’s really good at that. ($21.95 for four photos) After everybody left they brought us our mattresses and sleeping bags and we made up our bed. At about 9.30 they turned the generator off and I sat out under the stars for about ½ an hour after Narms went to bed. You could hear dune buggies belting around outside the compound and there was a constant stream of planes coming and going – we were directly under the flight path. We both had a great nights sleep – in fact we both thought it was the best we had had since we got here – only waking once, and seeing what we thought was a dog come into the tent. Narms was a bit concerned, but I said it was probably a pet dog belonging to the staff who live on site, and we both settled back to sleep. I awoke at 6.30am and Narms was already up, and sitting up on a sand dune waiting for the sun to come up. Breakfast was at 7am – sausage, egg, juice, Nescafe coffee, bread, cream cheese, strawberry jam (once we got the jar opened) and yummy orange juice, plus fresh fruit – which we put into our bags for later.

Back on the track again, stopping briefly to take some photos at the camel farm (breeding farm for racing camels) and then out onto the highway to Dubai. We asked the driver about the dog – he said it might have been the German shepherd or it might have been a fox coming in to scavenge the food scraps from last night’s barbeque. OMG Our driver very kindly took us back to Deira Ibis instead of dropping us at Ibis Mall of Emirates, so we could pick up our luggage and we then caught a taxi to MOE which cost us Dh42.50. Ibis Mall of Emirates is really nice – the staff at reception were very friendly and extremely helpful – way more so than at Ibis Deira. (Hard to believe it is the same hotel chain) At first we were told we couldn’t check in until 2pm (and this was just after 9.30am) but we could store our luggage until then. We sat in reception and sorted our gear and charged our phones, and within about ½ an hour the chap came across to give us our room keys and directed us up to the sixth floor to a very nice room with a fabulous view. What wonderful service. He also gave us tourist pamphlets and advised us which trips to do. Will certainly recommend this hotel to people coming to Dubai, and it is only costing us $71 NZ per night. After getting up to our room and sorting our luggage and having a shower, it was off to the Mall of Emirates. Oh my gosh – this is very posh, very expensive. All the big labels here – Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Armani, Dior, etc etc etc. Way out of my league. But to my delight, I did find the Pride of Kashmir. Checked out Pashmina and carpets. Very nice. Found a lovely wee carpet 2’ by 3’ with the starting price of around $2000 NZ but because I come from NZ and because I have been to Kashmir he halved the price. Used the excuse it was too big and heavy to carry home, and he folded it up into a reasonably small parcel. Told him this was my first day here at MOE and I would be back later in the week, so managed to get out before I bought anything. But it is a really nice carpet and would cover up the spot on my carpet at home where I spilt the bottle of bright pink finger nail polish!! The pashmina are more expensive than the ones I bought at the textile souq. We split up about here and Narms went off to do some more shopping at Carrefour and I headed to Costa Coffee to check in to the free wi-fi to load some photos to Snapfish. I am loading photos each day, so hopefully it will be all done by the end of the trip and will arrive at home just a couple of days after we arrive home – well, that’s the plan anyway. So now I am sitting at the window in our 6th floor hotel room watching night falling over Dubai. What a beautiful sight. It’s only 5.45pm and it’s dark already. And there is an amazing coverage on television of the Anniversary Celebrations. I don’t think I have mentioned anywhere in the blog about the celebrations going on this week. It’s the 40th celebration of the UAE and everywhere there are flags and bunting of Black, red, green and white. Every building is adorned with flags, every lamp post has a flag flying from it, people are wearing scarves, or ties, teeshirts and hats, and even the ladies are wearing shayla decorated with the national colours. Cars and four wheel drive vehicles are painted with the Sheik’s photo, and flags or painted in the national colours. The ceremony has just come to an end, and because of the language difficulties we have been unable to establish whether it is here in Dubai, or in Abu Dhabi, which is the capital of the UAE. But what a spectacular show involving thousands of people, but also some very high tech imagery and lasers, mixed with fireworks at the end. It would have been great to have been there, if only we had known where it was. Wooops, I thought it had finished, but it appears that there is more. Now we are being entertained by Arab men dancing (quite sedately actually). Dressed in traditional gear and carrying walking sticks, they are chanting (or is it singing) and bobbing up and down and waving the sticks, and in the background the crowd is cheering and applauding. And now we are seeing images of the UAE military, which is interesting because all the tour guides we have have mentioned that this is a very peaceful country and has not had any wars. Must remember to check that out when next I get onto google. Not sure how much longer this programme is going to continue so I will stop here and say - that’s it for another day. Ela al Lekaa (see you later)