I booked a place for myself on a desert safari.. and here are my photos from it!

You’ll have to excuse the poor quality of the images since I was using some kinda crappy compact camera of that.. era.

Looking back, I can’t believe what an amateur traveller I was.. but I’m also amazed at how much I’ve grown and changed since. I’ve invested so much in myself! This is what I tell my parents or people who question the amount of time and money I spend on travelling: “It’s an investment in MYSELF. Personal development!”

I am now awesome – I am confident, happy, and I can speak to anyone about anything.

Anyway, back to this desert safari.. I chose this day to write about as it was my favourite thing about my trip. Something I loved much more than the skyscrapers and all the other modern, shiny stuff that’s normally associated with Dubai.

^
^Just a scene along the way to the desert

I was amazed by how… ORANGE it was!

Once we arrived at the desert, the tyres of the cars (or jeeps?) had to be deflated before we could do the ‘dune bashing’, a.k.a. driving around the soft mounds of sand in a ridiculous, crazy way to produce as many jerky, rollercoaster-like movements as possible. Supposed to be fun!

See! I’m not the only crazy one.. I was so pleased to see these people rolling down the hill, without a care about sand getting into their clothes.. or even their mouths.

We had a chance to explore the area before the ‘dune bashing’ began.

I wandered around taking a few photos before sitting down with my own thoughts; shoes off. I remember thinking that just 24 hours before, I had been with my family. I don’t know why I thought that, because obviously it just made me sad again as I started missing them and wishing they were there to enjoy the beautiful view with me. But hey.. homesickness, it really takes over your mind (and your heart) when you have it.

I was lucky to have Dino as company.. his bright pink body really helped liven things up a little!

I can’t remember how long the ‘dune bashing’ segment lasted, but it was indeed really fun. It wasn’t as crazy as I’d hoped it to be, but then again, I AM kind of a crazy person who can endure a lot of.. motion, so… (the other people in the car said it was ‘mad’)

After the ride, there was a stop for camel rides.

I’d ridden one in Egypt before so it wasn’t such a novelty, but of course I went and had a go anyway..

I remember that a Brazilian couple kindly took these photos for me. How kind of them! I was a bit shy to ask back then, and they noticed I was alone so they offered their help with the camera.

Riding a camel is like riding a tall and wonky horse. It feels more unstable.. but it’s fun, cos you’re higher up! Also, you get to sit on what looks like a carpet.. Haha

Soon, the sun started to descend and we were driven to a place where everything was already set up for us to have a nice BBQ dinner and watch some belly dancing.

I had the opportunity to befriend a bird.
But I was shy even to speak to birds, especially as I didn’t speak Bird (I still don’t).

See THIS is why I take pics of food! I was trying to remember what the food was like.. and simply couldn’t. But then this picture popped up and I was like ‘Aaaaah THAT’S what I ate’.

I can’t remember if it was amazing or not, but I know I didn’t complain.

Music was playing all evening and the sky was clear. I sat next to a French family. I think the thing that made this experience so ‘intimidating’ for me was that there were no other solo travellers in the group. It was mostly families and couples, and maybe some groups of friends. I totally felt like the odd one out.

I sat quietly and ate my meal alone, while taking the occasional video of the entertainment around me. I remember being annoyed at my non-iPhone phone having such terrible reception that I couldn’t even call or text my friends.

I let myself wallow in my own loneliness for a few minutes.

And then I looked around and up at the stars, realising what a GREAT day I’ve had and what a beautiful night it was. There I was, having dinner, in a desert, somewhere in the Middle East, with a bunch of strangers. It was fab and I told myself to refocus my mind on the NOW.

It was tough, but I tried my best (I’m a pro at it now).

Plus, I got to enjoy a most magnificent sunset.

Obviously, if I were to have this experience now, in 2013, I would’ve ended up with a bunch of new friends and a collection funny photos!

I do plan on re-visiting Dubai, this time armed with ME V2 and a better camera. Emirates operates flights to Dubai from all over the world. I could easily stop there for a few days on the way to Malaysia. In fact, I’ve recently booked my flights for January with them – they’re my preferred airlines to go home with because I quite like breaking up the travel time into two halves. AND Dubai airport is quite an enjoyable place to be spending one or two hours – good shopping, and free wifi 😉

I might also add that Emirates uses the A380 for that route and offers in-flight wifi..

Have you been to Dubai before? What did you think? 

The post Dubai – Braving the Desert Safari Alone appeared first on SMALLCRAZY.

Oh and that’s why the beach was called Turtle Beach.

I’ll start off with a picture of myself, of course
H aha ha
This was taken on the boat – can you see my big mozzie bite mark

The mud bath/hot springs
Decided to not include any more photos from this part of the day cos there weren’t any that I liked and they all looked disgusting anyway – dont think you want to see me covered in mud and looking like I’m naked underneath.
The mud was gross! And the air smelt like rotten eggs! But it was still fun overall!

On the way through the delta we saw these big stone carvings – they’re ancient kings’ tombs.. or something of that sort. This photo only captures a part of it.

I wish I had an aerial photo of the marshes that the boat navigated through
It was so cool like a big hedge maze
I imagined having a big race there with jetskis and speedboats.. and flashlights if it’s dark!
We could even get into teams and play some sort of game and hide in the thick grass and stuff aahhh

The boat ride was so scenic and the weather perfect
I just stayed at the front; the air was so good…
Thank f the smokers stayed at the back, INSIDE the boat.. enjoying their..smoke? :S

This is a sort of.. river tollgate

Later on the boat pulled up next to a small fishing one
A lady tied a crab onto a string and threw it into the river to lure turtles up to the surface for us to see

So excited when I saw this
Luckily the turtle was nice and bobbed its head up a couple of times
And because I sat at the front of the boat I got the best view!

Turtle Beach

I nearly died when we got to the beach
It was so so amazing, the sun was fully out and it was just BEAUTIFUL

Took tons of photos but unfortunately most of them includes me prancing around and doing dumbo faces so I’m keeping those private!

Ok here’s one of me

I’m wearing my friend Rose’s bathers hehe

Had so much fun splashing in the water
I ended up stealing (not on purpose) some boy’s pool noodle
And trying to use it as a bodyboard.. it worked a few times WHOOOSH it was heaps of fun!

On the return boat ride
Something really odd happened
Imagine the boat just cruising along at a relaxed pace through that scenic path like in the photos earlier
But this time with CRAZY ridiculous turkish dance music blasting out of it
Yeah! That’s what happened!!
It was so irritating but it was so silly that it made me laugh!

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I’m really glad I have the time to show photos from this holiday.. I’ve been on quite a few holidays this year and have always wanted to share more about them but somehow I’ve let this blog become a lot more fashion-oriented lately so I abandoned that idea and stopped trying to find time for it!

In ’08 I went to Alanya, on the southern coast of Turkey and it was so awesome hence this year we decided to pay another visit to the country, but to a place called Bodrum. It’s also a coastal town but much closer towards the west (I think).

In ’08 I did lots of stuff like white-water rafting (so amazing), a boat tour, a jeep tour, vwear a hijab at a mountain mosque (that felt weird btw), have lunch on a floating..raft thing/cafe.. This time I did much more rotting and relaxing and thinking of nothing! I mean, I even read BOOKS. Yeah that’s BOOK with an S.

Here are some photos taken throughout the week from the hotel:

Isn’t it picture-perfect!

There were these yellow spongey things you could laze on atop the pier
They’re like giant yellow fish fingers!

That’s what I look like carrying it! Nearly Spongebob!
Btw I LOVE Spongebob.. wait till you hear me sing songs from the show!

Water was like ice

After every mealtime this guy would come here to feed the fish with leftover bread
There were lots and lots of fish
I laid by the edge and stared at them for ages

Getting my camera ready!

There were a couple of these egg hut things
They’re SO comfortable you wouldn’t believe
I had a long nap there
Best thing is waking up to being served with burger and chips by my XY

Spent hours watching the sunset
OK fine it wasn’t hours but it sure felt like it

The chef cooks us something special every morning in addition to the buffet
In this picture it was cheese omelettes
Pancake day was my favourite

Eggs!

Hotel rooms

One afternoon we climbed all over these rocks
It was heaps of fun

But the rock pools here aren’t as exciting as the ones in Australia where you can find lots of life, like sea stars and baby anemones, sponges, mussels, and lichens.

Instead it was just.. BARE 🙁

“I’m so beautiful”

Unloading film after swimming and tanning!

Ending this with this awesome pic of a praying mantis
Found it outside our room
It turned its head to me just as I was about to press the button on my camera!
That must surely mean it likes me.

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