Like Friday, Saturday was also mostly an optional day. We had a presentation with Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club that was mandatory but the rest of the day we were free to do what we wanted. In keeping with my goal to do experience all that was offered to me I stuck around, and I am glad that I did. After the presentation we had lunch on the terrace of the club house. They had a phenomenal brunch buffet and a great view of the city. After this huge brunch 4 of the students, including me, and the 2 professors played an extremely quick round of golf on their Par 3 course. We were able to finish 9 holes in about an hour. Gwen, who played golf for William and Mary, won the women’s tournament and John, won the men’s tournament. It was a good time.
Me and another guy, Kyle Entz, had to hurry back to the hotel to make it for our Desert Safari trip with a few of our other class mates. The Safari started with a 30 minute ride out of Dubai to the middle of the desert. Once we reached the dunes, we were asked to get out of the SUV. They released almost all the air of the tires (the driver told us there was only 9 PSI of air left, which I found hard to believe) so that they would have more traction on the sand. What a wild ride we had over the dunes. We were flying around the desert going up and down and side-to-side seemingly pushing the limits of the SUV. There were a few times where I was sure we would tip over and go rolling down the dunes. About half way through the ride we stopped at a camel farm and took some pictures. They were kind of gross and smelled somewhat awful but that wouldn’t deter me from riding one later in the evening.
After about a 40 minute ride through the desert we stopped at Al Jabal Village. They had traditional shops, coffee & tea, Shesha, and food that were all included in the price of our safari cost. I great deal I thought. First though was the camel ride! It was very similar to riding a horse except you are a lot higher up and getting off was a challenge. They had the camels kneeling on the ground but when they sat up or got back down you had to lean back so that you wouldn’t go flying off! I got some pretty good pictures of this process.
The rest of the night we conversed with our classmates, met a group of people from Purdue who were also doing a study abroad in Dubai, and ate. The food was good, at first, with traditional Emirati cuisine which included hummus, rice, and lamb. During our meal they brought out a belly dancer, which was entertaining. Afterwards though four of our group members wound up getting extremely sick from the salad we think. One of our members even had to delay his departure out of Dubai because of it. I was lucky to not have eaten it.
Overall though it was an interesting and busy day. Pictures coming up after the jump.
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