Desert Safari, Camels and Lots of Hummus in Dubai

So a couple days ago, on my one day off, I went to the desert with my friends/colleagues! It looked oddly like you’d expect it to look, but was surprising all at the same time. We went on a desert safari and zoomed down dunes in a 4 x 4, I rode a camel, saw a belly dancer, pretty much packed all of the touristy things in at once, but most importantly, I ate some delicious food.

First thing’s first…the desert! There is a lot of sand! Some of it went in my mouth. It is very hot here. We’d go out for 5-10 minutes at a time from the air-conditioned car and immediately I would chug tons of water and still be thirsty. Crazy.

Our driver/desert safari guide/crazy dune mission leader taking a break while we furiously snapped photos of the landscape.

This camel and I became acquainted. My friend and I hanging out with our new camel buddy. I had a bit of an internal dilemma though, I was very excited about camels! I also felt kind of bad that these lovelies had to deal with us dumb tourists every day. I saw some wild camels in the desert and wild goats, I hope these camels get to do a bit of exploring as well.

After the desert safari (how often do you say that?!), we were dropped off at a little “camp”, where every tourist thing happened at the same time. This is where the camel-riding, mini 4×4 driving, sand-boarding, henna, water from a coconut drinking, “try on traditional Arabic clothing!” etc. happened. Here is one performer above that spun around in a really cool outfit, then all of a sudden pulled another swirly thing out of his skirt and then lit himself up with lights! I am a sucker for pretty lights.

Where is the food?!?! you ask. Well, here it is! I thought my eyes were bigger than my stomach,  but turns out they weren’t because I ate all of it. In the middle there is delicious hummus, from the top right then are spiced boiled potatoes, steamed veggies, lentil daal, fresh cabbage salad, some noodle dish, cucumber tomato salad, tomato-y pasta thing, and some parsley sort of tabbouleh without the bulghur thing, served with warm pita. Dessert was glass noodles in coconut milk with some time of peanut flavor and fruit on top. This food was so good! There was a vegetarian buffet and everything was already vegan except for the yogurt sauce, then there was a tiny little meat section. Hah! I cannot believe I am eating at all American restaurants after this, I have to leave no and go dive into a pool of hummus, kthx.

Anyway, if you, too, want to do ALL of the things, get the poop scared out of you zooming around the dunes and then stuff your face full of hummus, here is the info for Desert Safari Dubai.