In my Post of yesterday OCT 9, 16, I showed you photos of some of the buildings located in the downtown area of Dubai.
How did I come to be able to do that? How was it that I was riding in an automobile in the front seat and was able to take the photographs that you saw yesterday?
THE REST OF THE STORY .. Thank you Mister Paul Harvey
I signed up with Rayna Tours to experience a Desert Safari.
How did I find Rayna Tours? They have a desk here in the lobby of my hotel. I am telling you that I have one fine hotel here!
To get to the desert we had to drive about 1-hour out of Dubai. In so doing, we drove through some of downtown Dubai and I was shooting photos as we journeyed out of Dubai.
In this Post I will show, and share with you to some extent, my Desert Safari courtesy of Rayna Tours.
Now comes the impossible part. How can I possibly convey to you just what I experienced. How do you convey the actual experience of riding a Roller Coaster? You can show photos as you ride the Roller Coaster BUT you can NOT in any way accurately share the experience.
When my Rayna Tour Director ( Ahad ) carefully explained in detail to me what the tour would encompass, I said to Ahad, "I will skip riding the sand dunes in a dune buggy."
When I told this to Ahad, I had already paid for my tour and Ahad had already registered me. Somewhat abashed Ahad said that he could not easily change my tour itinerary.
He then explained to me my second option if I wanted to skip the dune bashing. This term, dune bashing, is what Rayna Tours calls surfing the sand dunes. Basically, if I skipped the dune bashing, I would be taken directly to the Rayna Desert Camp and I would completely miss the entire point of the tour.
Me being me I said to Ahad, "That is fine. Don't change the plan. I will participate in the tour I agreed upon as you presented it to me Ahad."
BUT, being convinced in my own mind that I did NOT want to ride the sand dunes, I thought to myself, "When we come to the part where we get into the Dune Buggies and set out to bash the dunes, I will just decline and will quietly remain in our car and I will let the others go out and bash the sand dunes."
Got it?
So out and off went Gimmesome Roy, to the land that knows no time, down a trail no man could conquer, to a cliff no man can climb .. The Search For The Perfect High .. Shel Silverstein
Repeat. Have all of you got my plan?
When we arrived at the sand dune bashing part of the tour, the part where we were to get out of our Toyota Land Cruisers and get into dune buggies, I would just stay in the Toyota Land Cruiser and I would let the others get into dune buggies and ride happily off to bash the dunes.
How on this good earth could I know that the Toyota Land Cruisers themselves were the dune buggies.
Suddenly, with all of us IN the Toyota Land Cruiser, off we roared down a steep sand dune with my heart in my throat! I had absolutely no choice in the matter. Had I gotten out of the car there was no place for me to sit down and wait. We were on a one way trip to the Desert Camp with no returning to the beginning of the dune bashing segment of the tour!
Powerless? Do you all want powerlessness? There I was, INSIDE OF my Toyota Land Cruiser, bashing a sand dune.
I am so sorry that the following photos do NOT, in any way possible, accurately convey to all of you how I was feeling as up and down we roared on the sand dunes.
To do this, we had to drive fast or we would bog down in the sand.
Oh! Just before we began, our driver ( I was soon going to learn that, unbeknownst to me, he is a saddist ) said to us, "If any of you start to feel like you are going to vomit please let me know."
With God of Abraham as my witness, and my right hand on my Bible, he really said these words. What a thing to put into all of our minds! There was a possibility that some of us might get sick and start vomiting inside our car! Read my Epilogue at the end of this Post.
How can even one of you 'feel' the terror as you suddenly crest a sand dune and begin to plummet down the other side like a missile? It was extremely difficult for me to 'hold on' and at the same time shoot photographs. The below photo was my best effort at capturing one of our descents!
"I sure wish that I had worn one of my adult diapers today! I think I may have an uncontrollable accident of the number 2 variety!"
"I think that I am going to S - - - my pants!"
Our ride was not smooth. We were bouncing up and down like basketballs!
Why oh why didn't I bring my dental night guard with me. One of these times my jaws are going to slam shut so hard I will break a tooth or two or even three!
The thing is this, I could only capture the 'smoother' parts of the dune bashing. As your head shoots to the ceiling of the car you can NOT snap photos because you are trying to avoid breaking your neck.
Am I exaggerating? Yes I am and NO I AM NOT! This was not for the faint of heart.
I know you are all thinking, "These sand dunes are mere little hills Captain."
In the below photo you may see that some of the drop offs were really steep. And before you suddenly tip down and plummet like a rocket all you see is the sky ahead with no horizon. Try oh try to feel what the experience was like.
The people ahead of us, and soon us, are looking out into space.
Then you tip over and straight down you rocket.
"Geez I wish he wouldn't tailgate so closely!"
And to think that, as he dropped me off at my hotel some hours later, I actually said to him, "Thank You for a great day."
THEN I slipped him a 20 UAE Diram gratuity.
Not one of the other six in our car did this and I felt sad they don't know the science of gratitude for a job well done. Of course each of them were thinking, "I now have got to do laundry because of the mess in my pants."
Then it was over! We had bashed the sand dunes. It was time for a long rest break. Trust me, for each photo I have posted, there were many photos that did not make-the-cut. I just snapped away like a man possessed.
Are you all sitting down? The official car-count for the day was 71. Figure 5 tourists per car and you have 350 for dinner later at the Desert Camp.
Below was our Toyota Land Cruiser. Brand new, it had less than 1,000 Km on it.
Overhead was a man with a motorized propeller on his back entertaining all of us.
When I wrote my review for TripAdvisor, I stated that this is not for the faint-of-heart. Further I stated that senior citizens, especially frail ones, should be very cautious about going on this part of the Desert Safari. You can totally skip the above dune bashing and just go to the Desert Camp.
However! In hindsight, I can see that Ahad did me a real favor in talking me into going on the sand dune bashing.
Below we have arrived at the Rayna Desert Camp.
For those who wished to do so, a Camel ride was included in our day.
Back in 1990 I did a Camel ride and have never wanted to repeat the experience. Not that it was a bad experience because it wasn't, it is more of a been there and done that thing.
I sat with an Indian family from Calcutta for dinner and the evening show. They seemed mesmerized with my detailed knowledge of Calcutta. He works in Qatar full time and his family was here for a 4-day visit. I wish I had told his son to gently squeeze the shutter.
They did one great job with the buffet dinner. They had four serving lines and no one had to wait at all.
Several times I have mentioned Rayna Tours by name. This is because they seem to be a very good tour company and I feel blessed to have them available to me.
How many of you will ever come to Dubai? Then if you do visit Dubai, how many will have the time to take a Desert Safari?
So I hope at least some of you have enjoyed this Post.
With Joy, Feeling Honored To Be Here .. Cap
Epilogue: Thanks to Ahad my tour director, I was the first to be picked up. I therefore got to sit in the front seat beside our driver. Photographically this was a real blessing. En route to pick up the other 5 members of our little group, the driver and I got to visit for about 20-minutes.
On the 1-hour drive home I asked him, "Do people actually get sick and vomit on the sand dunes?" .. "Yes." he replied. "Do cars ever roll over?" .. "Yes." he replied. "What other tours do you drive?" .. "I drive this tour 7-days a week with no exceptions."
He is from Pakistan and has been here 20-years.
I said, "You were with another man, standing together and visiting out on the sand dunes. I can't get over how much the two of you look alike. Are you identical twin brothers?" .. "Yes." he replied.
Sad to say, I did not get his name. Yes he told me but I immediately forgot it because it is a complicated Arabic sounding name and we were driving. When one works with tourists day in and day out, one gets hardened to them.
Well Patti My Dear One,you had your job cut out proof reading this Post. Thank You again and again for your efforts on my behalf.
How did I come to be able to do that? How was it that I was riding in an automobile in the front seat and was able to take the photographs that you saw yesterday?
THE REST OF THE STORY .. Thank you Mister Paul Harvey
I signed up with Rayna Tours to experience a Desert Safari.
How did I find Rayna Tours? They have a desk here in the lobby of my hotel. I am telling you that I have one fine hotel here!
To get to the desert we had to drive about 1-hour out of Dubai. In so doing, we drove through some of downtown Dubai and I was shooting photos as we journeyed out of Dubai.
In this Post I will show, and share with you to some extent, my Desert Safari courtesy of Rayna Tours.
Now comes the impossible part. How can I possibly convey to you just what I experienced. How do you convey the actual experience of riding a Roller Coaster? You can show photos as you ride the Roller Coaster BUT you can NOT in any way accurately share the experience.
When my Rayna Tour Director ( Ahad ) carefully explained in detail to me what the tour would encompass, I said to Ahad, "I will skip riding the sand dunes in a dune buggy."
When I told this to Ahad, I had already paid for my tour and Ahad had already registered me. Somewhat abashed Ahad said that he could not easily change my tour itinerary.
He then explained to me my second option if I wanted to skip the dune bashing. This term, dune bashing, is what Rayna Tours calls surfing the sand dunes. Basically, if I skipped the dune bashing, I would be taken directly to the Rayna Desert Camp and I would completely miss the entire point of the tour.
Me being me I said to Ahad, "That is fine. Don't change the plan. I will participate in the tour I agreed upon as you presented it to me Ahad."
BUT, being convinced in my own mind that I did NOT want to ride the sand dunes, I thought to myself, "When we come to the part where we get into the Dune Buggies and set out to bash the dunes, I will just decline and will quietly remain in our car and I will let the others go out and bash the sand dunes."
Got it?
So out and off went Gimmesome Roy, to the land that knows no time, down a trail no man could conquer, to a cliff no man can climb .. The Search For The Perfect High .. Shel Silverstein
Repeat. Have all of you got my plan?
When we arrived at the sand dune bashing part of the tour, the part where we were to get out of our Toyota Land Cruisers and get into dune buggies, I would just stay in the Toyota Land Cruiser and I would let the others get into dune buggies and ride happily off to bash the dunes.
How on this good earth could I know that the Toyota Land Cruisers themselves were the dune buggies.
Suddenly, with all of us IN the Toyota Land Cruiser, off we roared down a steep sand dune with my heart in my throat! I had absolutely no choice in the matter. Had I gotten out of the car there was no place for me to sit down and wait. We were on a one way trip to the Desert Camp with no returning to the beginning of the dune bashing segment of the tour!
Powerless? Do you all want powerlessness? There I was, INSIDE OF my Toyota Land Cruiser, bashing a sand dune.
I am so sorry that the following photos do NOT, in any way possible, accurately convey to all of you how I was feeling as up and down we roared on the sand dunes.
To do this, we had to drive fast or we would bog down in the sand.
Oh! Just before we began, our driver ( I was soon going to learn that, unbeknownst to me, he is a saddist ) said to us, "If any of you start to feel like you are going to vomit please let me know."
With God of Abraham as my witness, and my right hand on my Bible, he really said these words. What a thing to put into all of our minds! There was a possibility that some of us might get sick and start vomiting inside our car! Read my Epilogue at the end of this Post.
How can even one of you 'feel' the terror as you suddenly crest a sand dune and begin to plummet down the other side like a missile? It was extremely difficult for me to 'hold on' and at the same time shoot photographs. The below photo was my best effort at capturing one of our descents!
"I sure wish that I had worn one of my adult diapers today! I think I may have an uncontrollable accident of the number 2 variety!"
"I think that I am going to S - - - my pants!"
Why oh why didn't I bring my dental night guard with me. One of these times my jaws are going to slam shut so hard I will break a tooth or two or even three!
Am I exaggerating? Yes I am and NO I AM NOT! This was not for the faint of heart.
In the below photo you may see that some of the drop offs were really steep. And before you suddenly tip down and plummet like a rocket all you see is the sky ahead with no horizon. Try oh try to feel what the experience was like.
Then you tip over and straight down you rocket.
THEN I slipped him a 20 UAE Diram gratuity.
Not one of the other six in our car did this and I felt sad they don't know the science of gratitude for a job well done. Of course each of them were thinking, "I now have got to do laundry because of the mess in my pants."
When I wrote my review for TripAdvisor, I stated that this is not for the faint-of-heart. Further I stated that senior citizens, especially frail ones, should be very cautious about going on this part of the Desert Safari. You can totally skip the above dune bashing and just go to the Desert Camp.
However! In hindsight, I can see that Ahad did me a real favor in talking me into going on the sand dune bashing.
Below we have arrived at the Rayna Desert Camp.
Back in 1990 I did a Camel ride and have never wanted to repeat the experience. Not that it was a bad experience because it wasn't, it is more of a been there and done that thing.
So I hope at least some of you have enjoyed this Post.
With Joy, Feeling Honored To Be Here .. Cap
Epilogue: Thanks to Ahad my tour director, I was the first to be picked up. I therefore got to sit in the front seat beside our driver. Photographically this was a real blessing. En route to pick up the other 5 members of our little group, the driver and I got to visit for about 20-minutes.
On the 1-hour drive home I asked him, "Do people actually get sick and vomit on the sand dunes?" .. "Yes." he replied. "Do cars ever roll over?" .. "Yes." he replied. "What other tours do you drive?" .. "I drive this tour 7-days a week with no exceptions."
He is from Pakistan and has been here 20-years.
I said, "You were with another man, standing together and visiting out on the sand dunes. I can't get over how much the two of you look alike. Are you identical twin brothers?" .. "Yes." he replied.
Sad to say, I did not get his name. Yes he told me but I immediately forgot it because it is a complicated Arabic sounding name and we were driving. When one works with tourists day in and day out, one gets hardened to them.
Well Patti My Dear One,you had your job cut out proof reading this Post. Thank You again and again for your efforts on my behalf.
What a trip ... bashing the sand dunes! Amazed that they use such new vehicles for that foray ... "yes, cars do actually roll over sometimes, and yes, people do sometimes get sick." Yikes. And, twin brothers ... did you think first that many of the men there look like twins? The tour was quite the deal, capped by dinner companions being from Calcutta. Right up your alley for socializing! Smiles. Love. Patti
ReplyDeleteAmazing, a brand new, just from the showroom floor so to speak, Toyota Land Cruiser. And yes things do happen on these dune bashing tours. Yes I was thinking that in their headgear many do look alike. But NOT that much alike. He was tickled I noticed them. Love, Cap
DeleteHahahahahahah! So happy you were tricked into dune bashing! You will remember that adventure fondly, won't you? I'd be on the camel, you know--after the dune bashing.
ReplyDeleteI was not tricked, just shocked to my tippy toes when OFF WE ROARED and I realized that, like it or not, I was going to bash some sand dunes. I just wanted to settle down NOT ride a camel. Smiles, Cap
DeleteCap- Tom here in R.Oak MI- Reading these with Ginny. Sand dunes look like a wild ride!Your hotel looks First Rate. We had a good time at Tri-County-Conference, we did several service jobs there.I am the coffee maker this month at Honest Desire, and ,if you get this in time, I am at Ferndale Central Office tonight 10/11/16- 5pm-10pm shift.Have fun, be safe. By the way- how about those Cleveland Indians? They ran the table vs. Boston. Imagine how sweet that was for the mgr., T. Francona- who was fired by the Red Socks! Talk about "in your face"!
ReplyDeleteWOW! How very nice to get your comment Tom and Ginny. The sand dune bash was something else. Brand new Toyota Land Cruiser no less! Go Indians .. Go Chicago Cubs. Great the Tri County Conference was so nice. Much Joy to you two. Cap IN Dubai ( pinch me I must be dreaming ) ..
Delete