Just a few weeks ago I was sleighing down the hills of snowy Eastern Europe. Today, I was snowboarding down the sand dunes of the Middle East.

Today was amazing. We went on one of those cheesy touristy desert safaris. It was pretty much the middle eastern equivalent of what we did in the Fijian islands in the sense that it was all specifically designed for tourists, and there is one big camp with lots of activities and you choose what you want to do and when.

The start was quite a disaster. Because we're not staying in a hotel, the pick up by the company struggled to find us at the place where Matt's cousins live. I think it's largely due to the fact that they seem to change the names of their roads allllll the time and a lot of the buildings don't have names clearly on the front! So with all the construction going on it can make it pretty confusing. After a lot of annoyed phone calls and just over an hour of waiting outside, we eventually were picked up.

I'm not going to lie, I was impressed with their apology. Instead of the typical white 4x4 we were picked up in a giant black hummer! It was beautiful.

The drive was quite long but it was beautiful. We eventually made it to the desert and then the car pulled in to the sand dunes for some dune bashing! It was insaaaaaaaaane! The sand was so beautiful because of the sunset so the tones were really angry red and bright orange and so on. The dune bashing felt so extreme to me haha and I freaked out a few times that the car was going to fall on its side! Since it was literally sliding sideways down some of the dunes. But it was really thrilling and I'm glad we had a cool driver!

When we arrived at the camp there were heaps of activities to do. There were quite a lot of people as it was the final meeting point. The first thing Matt and I was ride camels! They are cute and remind me of Ghana. It's really weird when they stand up and sit down though, since the knees on their back legs are backwards and so they get up really strangely and it totally throws you around - and I can imagine it's very easy to fall off! It's hard to explain so maybe if you're desperate to know what I mean you should YouTube it :) I had to share my camel with an Asian guy though :( Whereas Matt was fortunate to get his own! (As you'll see from his new profile photo).

After this we had some yummy Arabic tea! In fact I had multiple cups… But I've grown to absolutely love tea since I left New Zealand. We then grabbed some tasty snacks which included a big falafel ball and some potato wedges covered in something… I'm not sure what… One guy said onion but it didn't taste like onion… It was kind of like a crispy batter. It was delicious :)

Also there were bowls filled with figs that we could help ourselves to whenever we wanted! Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.

We then decided to act like goons and dress up in Middle Eastern clothing. I don't know what they're called - but you know the white outfit guys wear, and the black ones girls wear. We got some silly photos and then proceeded over to the shisha section and smoked lots of apple flavoured shisha.

We were interrupted about fifteen minutes later by one of the photographers who told us to go sit by the bonfire for some group photos. I love bonfires, but what I don't like is how stinky they make you! So we didn't sit there for long as I wanted to avoid smelling like a walking ashtray. Plus it wasn't that cold so it wasn't very necessary.

I also got some henna done for what I'm pretty sure is the first time ever. I can't believe how quickly and beautifully they can do it :O The woman even finished it off with lots of glitter so it looked amazing! Weeeee!

I remembered reading about sand boarding on the advert when we were reading in to which safari to do. But I couldn't see a sign for it anywhere! So we asked our driver where to go and he walked us to the dunes where the sand boards were. I had no idea what to expect - in my mind it was going to be those little body board things and I was going to sit on them and slide down. But it was actually like a snowboard! I just want everyone to know that I didn't fall off once!

Dinner was being served after this. And the food was absolutely amazing. Learning to cook Middle Eastern food is now definitely high up in my list of to do's for this year. Not only was 90% of it vegetarian - but it was also totally delicious. I filled my plate with heaps of things such as hummus, two different curries, a bit of rice, some yummy something covered potatoes, lots of salad, and so on. It was gorgeeeeeeeeeeous!

The evening was starting to get rounded off by this point and so the dance shows began. The first half was of a guy doing some crazy spinning dances with lights and lots of layered clothing which came off bit by bit. It was really strange and I don't know how anyone can spin around like that for like twenty minutes. Poor guy.

The next was belly dancing that went on for about four dances worth. It was also pretty incredible and each dance she would change the colour of what material she used to dance with!

So yeah… Basically a really cool day. Feel a bit lame doing the cheesy tourist stuff but on the other hand it was pretty amazing to do things like dune bashing, camel riding and sand boarding. I really have no idea when else I would get the opportunity to do so, so I'm glad we did it! Although it all started off a bit stressful, it was amazing getting a hummer instead and worth seeing the jealousy on everyone else's faces when we arrived :D Over all it cost Matt and I just $65 each which is actually a bargain given that we paid like $150 for something very similar when we were in Fiji.

For those of you who are coming to Dubai in the future, or plan to - the company is called Oasis Palm Tourism!

I'm really, really enjoying my time in Dubai and absolutely loving the challenge of learning more about the culture here. It's strange because I think I felt much more unsafe in Rome and Athens than I do here.

Tomorrow we are going to head in to the city centre, specifically to go up the Burj Khalifa (World's tallest tower), but also to have a look around!

Miss you all, but I'll be seeing most of your faces REALLY soon :O

xxxx

WAIT! HOW COULD I FORGET! As soon as everyone was told to start heading back to their drivers and clear the camp, suddenly loads of wild desert cats appeared haha! They were all trying to quickly clean out the leftovers! They obviously do it all the time because they knew exactly when to run out and grab food from the little traditional tables (which weren't exactly like normal tables - everyone sits on the floor with a cushion and then there's a table-like thing for your food)

P.s. remember COMMENTS on my blog make me happpppppppy! Even if you just leave your name so I know who is reading :)