4/27/2015
Even though our first day in Abu Dhabi was an incredible experience, Day 2 definitely takes the cake. It was the perfect blend of relaxation, culture, and adrenaline. At the end of last night my friend Hannah asked me, "Do you know that state of nirvana that you reach when you're perfectly at peace in a vacation?" She paused a second and then said, "I'm there."
We slept in yesterday, which was pretty wonderful considering it was a Monday morning. For the eleven of us staying in this hotel, breakfast was a nice rotating table of six of us as we all meandered in and out based on when we woke up. I came in towards the end of the meal, and we quickly made a plan at the table to depart for the World Trade Markets. There was a mall there as well as a souk, where we had the opportunity to purchase suveniers, spices and teas. It was nice to have a place to admire the clothing, carpets and other cultural items that are demonstrative of the lifestyle in the middle east, but we didn't shop around for long. Instead, five of us went into the tea house to enjoy different types of teas.
We went back to the hotel briefly after leaving the markets, and a small sub-group of us went out to Yas Island (home of Ferarri World and some of the nicer resorts in Abu Dhabi) to spend some time on a beach. The public beach there had a small entry fee, but the sands and waters were just gorgeous. We swam and laid out for a couple of hours. It was just blissful. I could absolutely live my life on a beach.
We had to rush back to the hotel from the beach. We were really lucky to have found a van cab that seated 6, because the cabs only passed through the beach area every 10 minutes and we would have been in trouble if only half of us could have gone. When we made it back to the hotel we had 10 minutes to turn around and be ready to depart for our desert safari.
I had joked with Will previously during the day that the desert safari was going to follow a certain prescribed route. I thought that I knew exactly what to expect, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
The safari was AWESOME. It was easily the most fun I have ever had on a tour. We were picked up by Land Rovers at the hotel, and started the journey by driving an hour outside the city into the desert.
When we arrived at the site in the desert, we had to stop the cars. The driver got out and asked us to wait inside for 2 minutes, which was a no-brainer since there really wasn't anywhere we could run off to. He emptied air out of all of the tires on the vehicle, and then got back in and started driving really fast and would drift between the different sand slopes on the sides of the road. It was awesome, but in no way foreshadowed what we were going to do next.
Eventually we left the road and ended up driving directly over the sand dunes. This alone seeemed trecherous enough to me, but to made it even better the drivers would do tricks where the entire car would slide sideways down the dune, or we would get air over the top of the dune before baralleling over to the other side. Mom, I know you won't enjoy reading this, but it was SO MUCH FUN. I spent the entire time giggling.
We made two stops for pictures during the dune bashing section of our night. The first stop was with camels. At first I was very intimidated by the animals, and kept my distance from them. However, after being around them for 10 minutes I started to be able to sense their good nature. By the end of the photo session I was standing amongst 4 camels at a time, giggling as they would nudge my head or bend down so that I would rub their necks. It was an experience from another world.
Our second stop for photos was on top of a dune where we could see all of the stunts the other cars in the caravan were pulling. While we were standing there, Carissa's hat blew off of her head and down the sand dune. I ran after it, and had the best workout of the trip by climbing back up the dune. Kevin and Chris were inspired by my little sprint, and decided to race eachother to the top of a sand dune on the opposite side of our group, The dune was incredibly high, and I really didn't think that they would be able to make it, but alas - they did. I work with some athletes. The guides found their sprint extremely amusing.
After getting back in the car after the second stop we all started to feel a little car sick - riding over the dunes is incredibly motion intensive. Luckily we didn't have to wait too much longer before arriving at the camp where we were to have dinner. The camp was great - but much larger than we had expected. There were about 20 long tables with cushions as seats that surrounded a large stage. Along the perimeter of the camp were different activities that we could participate in - sandboarding, henna tattoes, shisha, a traditional garb photobooth, sand painting, and camel rides. It was such a tourist gig, but it was really fun nonetheless. Dinner was from a GIANT buffett, and although it wasn't incredibly authentic it was still delicious.
After dinner we rode back home, and spent some time unwinding together before heading to bed. We went into Dubai this morning, so it was definitely important for us to get a good night of sleep.
I am so grateful for this trip with wonderful friends. I will post the final day's adventures tomorrow after writing about them while on the plane. The trip is over, but the memories will last for a long time.
