Arabian Nights
Our car arrived around 4 PM and our driver, Hesam, loaded everyone in. It was a nice white Land Cruiser. Hesam wasn’t very talkative and didn’t really understand any of the questions we were asking. He would nod or give an answer that made me believe that he didn’t understand the question at all. Over the evening Hesam was somewhat able to communicate with us about a few things, including the fact that he had been driving one of these desert cars for 17 years. He works 7 days a week and gets one complete month each year. So, he has done this over 5,000 times. Even with that information, and the fact that Hesam has never had an accident, Ilise was deathly afraid from the time we got to the desert. Her challenge? We were driving on sand in a car and it felt like it was going to roll over at any moment.
Noah, Drew and I were having a ball, while Karley was having fun but very scared and Ilise was holding on for dear life! At one point she said that she thought the handle in the back seat would be imprinted in her hand forever. She even said at one point that this experience could be grounds for divorce J
The ride was actually very cool. Hesam let over half the air pressure out of the tires a few miles before we got to the desert. This is so the car gets better traction in the sand and the car doesn’t roll over. The tires are equally for traction and somewhat floating on the sand with the lower pressure. We hit sand dune after sand dune and slid down sideways a number of times with sand flying up the side of the car. Noah and Drew were laughing the whole time and couldn’t wait for the next trick, while Ilise was ready to kill someone! We did this for about 40 minutes, stopping a few times to take pictures. It was a cloudy evening but the sun came out just as we stopped offering us some great pictures.
After the joy ride through the desert we jumped on a highway for about 20 minutes and ended up at the Arabian Nights BBQ. There were short camel rides, sand boarding, a huge buffet and a show of native dance. The food was very good, the camel ride was short but enjoyable, the sand boarding was pretty futile and the show was amazing and hilarious, especially since both of our kids were invited up on stage. Drew went up with this powerful dancer that was spinning and spinning and spinning for about 10 minutes, literally. He had on this outfit that was pretty amazing and toward the end he invited audience members to come up and try what he did. Drew did it, spun around a few times, got really dizzy and fell down laughing hysterically. It was great to see her let loose and really enjoy the moment.
Later in the evening the show continued with a belly dancer. Noah was the choice this time, asked to dance and mimic the belly dancer while using a cane. The dancer was doing her best to get Noah to shake his hips and giggle his body, but Noah chose to just laugh and mostly watch. It was great to see both of the kids enjoy themselves. One of the most memorable parts of the fact that it rained while we were at the BBQ. It didn’t just rain, it was a 10 minute torrential downpour. Noah had to do a report for his schooling on Dubai and he kept saying the whole time before we got there that it only rains 5 days a year. So, we were in Dubai during one of only 5 days a year when they have rain!
In the end the rain was short lived and they had tents that we were able to hide out under. The night ended with a drive back to Motor City and another great conversation with Dave and Kara about our day in Dubai, which we headed to on Tuesday, but that is for another post.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 