Desert Safari

Tuesday's highlight was our 5-hour desert safari trip. The tour operator picked us up at our hotel at 4:30 p.m. and we drove out of the city, past several housing developments (villas) and after about 45 minutes were in the open desert. I guess I did not fully realize/understand what dune bashing was. I was never so scared in all my life! He was going really fast, across the crest of the dunes and up and down the steep sides of the dunes, allowing the vehicle to slip sideways in the sand almost to the point of rolling over and then turning the wheel to keep vehicle upright and going straight down 90-degree angles when you knew full well we were going to roll head over heels.. Well, you should have heard the screeching coming from the back of this 4 x 4 jeep kind of vehicle (landrover?). A Pakistani family was in this vehicle too (man, wife, 10-yr-old son and 2-3ish-yr-old daughter). This was truly one of the most terrifying experiences of my whole wife and I felt beyond any shadow of a doubt that I was going to die. The young boy thought it was pretty awesome of course and the little girl was giggling her head off. After about a half hour of this terror, where my whole life flashed before my eyes, we arrived at the bedouin camp. Many other jeeps containing tourists were arriving there as well. Next on the agenda was camel riding. How did I get myself into this? Another terrifying experience for me. They are so flipping big. And the problem is not in getting on the camel as he sits in his relaxed position - but WHEN HE HAS TO STAND UP on those long lanky legs. As the trainer talked to the camel to get him to stand up, he kept saying to me "hang on tight!, hang on tight! Oh yeah, that's a fine thing to say to me. By the way, Ralph was on the same camel on the back hump, which didn't help matters as he (camel) balked a bit/was verbal as he attempted to get up on all four. When he started getting up, I started to fall forward and I thought I was going to go head first right over his head. All the while "buddy" was saying "hold on tight, hold on tight". I was thinking of little Mavis riding the camel for three days in India with Dar and Ralph! The rest of the evening was non-stressful. At the bedouin camp, tables and cushions were set up in a circle and I estimate there were about 100 people or so all together. We shared a table with a man and his son from Iran. There were several great acts to entertain us, followed by a scrumptuous BBQ buffet dinner, and the last act of the evening was a belly dancer. With the exception of the people who were going to spend the night at the camp, everyone else was picked up and taken back to their hotels. When chatting with the Paskistani couple, we learned that he is an neurosurgeon. We were returned to our hotel about 10 p.m.