Our trip to Dubai had a simple goal – no churches, no castles and no culture. Just fun. But we had to do something local (and the malls did not appeal to us). So we did a desert tour with Arabian Adventures.

It starts with a driver picking us up at the hotel in a big GMC 4X4. We then proceeded to the Dubai Desert Conservation reserve. What they are trying to protect is beyond me … not sure where that wildlife was ….

The desert is beautiful. Desolate, but beautiful.

The wind really started to pick up. It wasn’t that warm.

The drivers stop as you get off the road and enter the desert, removing half of the air out of their tires. They explain that if you have full tires, you will get stuck. They then line up the trucks (there were 30) and start bounding through the desert with a clear goal, to make you think that at any moment that truck is going to bloody well flip over.

As we drove, we passed an abandoned Bedouin camp. The driver explained that they had been relocated into government funded housing. We actually passed the housing on the highway – I would like to live in that type of government housing.

We survived, arriving at a camp for dinner. This is where it gets a big odd. One of the guides walks up to us and asks us if we know who Iron Maiden is. Uh, sure, but for the record I like ACDC better. It turns out that they are on the trip too and these tour guides think that this is just the coolest thing on the planet. Personally, I would not have recognized them had he not said it .. although the dude with the professional video camera videoing it all was a give away that there was something going on. Appears that a band member talked about their gig here. I never took a photo .. (wouldn’t know who they are) .. but I think they are in this photo ..the dude with the camo hat standing by the guy with the dreadlocks (He must have read the Rock Band 101 manual).

We settled in for a traditional dinner, some belly dancing, a camel ride and this Arabic coffee which was very pungent and not to my taste. It was made from spices .. definitely not coffee. They should probably call it Arabic tea.

So we were able to sneak in a little culture (sans any church or castle or museum!) in Dubai. Just a little. Another cool trip complete.