After our adventure at the Burj Al Khalifa Building, we were hoping for a more uneventful evening. Our evening tour was a sand dune tour and dinner. Our tour guide was Kusin, who was born in the UAE, but because his Pakistani grandfather chose, in 1958, to not change his citizenship to the UAE when he came to work, the family remain Pakistani citizens, even though most hav never been there. None of his family can ever become UAE citizens and can only stay in the country on a work visa, that must be renewed every 2 years.
We travelled for 45 minutes to the sand dunes outside of the city and drove past the Dubai Frame. It holds the record for the largest frame in the world standing at 492 feet tall. It mainly serves as an observatory for visitors.
Our first stop was at a market to buy head scarves for our desert picture, as Kusin said “it was a must”. It was also the place the drivers deflated their tires for the drive on the dunes. All the land is owned by the government, so each dune vehicle, must buy a permit to drive on the dunes.
We had a wild drive on the dunes to an “overlook”. There were many vehicles out on the dunes, but with a bit of maneuvering we were able to capture the sunset, without too many people in our pictures.
The Christmas Eve sunset was beautiful…
We got back in the SUV and after a brief moment of being stuck in the sand, we headed to the “village” for Christmas dinner.
At the village, we had the opportunity to ride a camel…you can’t turn that down!! They told us to lean way back when it stood up and sat down. That was very good advice.
We had a dancer entertain us before dinner
Dinner was a traditional Arabic dinner. We have no idea what we ate but it was good.
After dinner, there was a “Whirling Dervish” dancer.
Our entertainment ended with a fire dancer…
It had been a great night. Kasin drove us back to the ship, where we enjoyed the lights of Dubai
What an amazing Christmas Eve!!
