Dubai Desert Safari: Dinner & Dancers

I mentioned before that there would be a second part to my post about my short stay in Dubai, so here it is. In the first installment I covered the 4×4 desert safari and the camel rides at the desert camp, this time around it’ll be a little bit different. More focused on, well, other things. Dancers, food, and desert sunsets. You get the idea. I also have a bunch of badly taken photos that I want to share too.

I mentioned before that we arrived at the camp, which is where the camel rides took place. Here, though, is a picture which I took inside the relatively large encampment.

In the centre, surrounded by the speakers, is the dance floor. It saw a fair bit of action later on in the evening, and the tables and “chairs” were laid out in such a fashion that the dance floor became the central “feature” of the camp. Around the outside in the little huts were where the bars, stalls, shisha pipes and henna painting.

The traditional rugs and pillows were laid out on the sand, which made walking around the camp much easier than walking through the soft sand in the desert. It also meant that you didn’t get half as much sand in your boots. Great idea if you ask me.

Each group had a table to themselves, and for the most part each group also came by 4×4. There were a LOT of 4×4 vehicles parked up outside the camp, which you can probably guess judging from the number of tables laid out in the half I managed to fit into the picture.

Before long it was time to eat. The food was good. Really good. Rice, lentil curry, pastas, salads. The biggest downside was that I couldn’t fit it all onto my plate. A pretty good way to eat your fill after a day out in the desert though. Even better washed down with a glass of red. The alcohol here wasn’t cheap, but the soft drinks were all free, which is a great way of “subsidising” them of sorts. Fanta all the way!

After everyone has eaten, we disposed of the left overs and took the empty plates away in time for everyone to focus on the entertainment. Dancers! But not just any old dancers, lit up dancers! Dancer? Yeah. Well there were technically 2 but not at the same time so. Time for pictures.

At first this guy looks like hes wearing a really odd outfit. He kind of is, but that’s from an English perspective. He’s carrying what I believe are either drums or pans or something of that sort, maybe tambourines? I’ve honestly never seen someone spin so much in my life, and I’ve certainly never seen them walk in a straight line afterwards. This was just the beginning though, as the lights around the stage dimmed, the real show began.

You might notice that he looks a little bit brighter now. You wouldn’t be wrong. The dress / skirt part of his outfit lit up into a whole bunch of vibrant colours. You might also have noticed that the number of objects that he’s holding has increased. By the time he finished with those, there were 6 in total, from the single one that he had started with. I won’t expose the trick, but if you look carefully at the pictures I’m sure you can figure it out for yourself.

I told you these things lit up! If you can’t tell whether the blur is me being a dreadful camera man (which it could be) or whether its actually because the dancer is spinning around, then check out the next one.

Now you can see what I mean. I really don’t know how anyone can actually do that. If I spin around more than 10 times I start feeling dizzy. Being inside all those spinning lights can’t make it any easier, surely?

Half of the pictures I attempted to take came out dreadful, but I quite like this one. It kind of reminds me of a beyblade, if you know what that is.

After we’d finally gotten our heads around the spinning, it was time for the belly dancing. You’ll probably have grasped that from the cover photo, but nonetheless, I feel obliged to share the second picture with you too.

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I see an uncanny resemblance to the Gerudo women in Ocarina of Time. The music there was pretty amazing actually. Still, all in all it made for a great night of entertainment. I do have a video but the quality is pretty dire and I’m still trying to figure out the best way to share it with you. I’ll let you know when I’ve got it online!