Rub' al Khali Desert, United Arab Emirates

We started the day by sleeping in, which we really needed.  But late in the afternoon, we were picked up by Anil, our DUNE BASHING driver, who drove us and a nice group of ladies from the US way out in the Rub' al Khali desert.  "Rub' al Khali" means "Empty Quarter" and that's exactly what it looked like.  Nothing but sand for as far as the eye could see.

As you start out for the Rub' al Khali desert, the sand is very white.

It is very pretty though!

We shared a Land Rover with these hilariously awesome ladies from the States.  

We had to stop to get gas on our way into the desert.  I thought these old gas pumps were really funny.  There's no pay at the pump here!

Someone in the car mentioned they might have to go to the bathroom.  So we made this pit stop and Anil warned us the bathroom wasn't the greatest.  It was a weird little convenience store too, that was only half stocked... except for all the Lays chips!

But yeah.  That bathroom was something else.  What you can't see here because my picture is blurry is that the floor is soaking wet.  A couple of our ladies said, "Nope. I just can't do it."  But even MY MOTHER went to the bathroom!  Can you believe that?

Back out on the road, we made it to the soft desert sands where we would be doing the dune bashing.  You can see the sand is much redder here - it becomes that way as you head farther south from the coastline.

These ladies were a riot, and totally fearless!  We started out pretty tame, but I was still screaming because I was just envisioning the entire truck tipping over and all of us dying or breaking bones.  Meanwhile, everyone else in the car, who were all at least 20-30 years older than me were screaming for more.

We drove out and stopped briefly so Anil could take the air out of the tires, which apparently is much better for the car and the shocks when they do the dune bashing.

It was a good stop for a desert selfie!

Anil, are you sure this is a good idea?

The empty and open desert, with all of it's tire markings.

The desert sands were fine and soft and rusty.

Nothing but the open dunes ahead.

We literally watched this line of Land Rovers drive on the ridge of these dunes - and at least one of them slid down the other side sideways.  I would have been screaming!

The dunes cast great shadows in the late day sun.

Everyone (including our new friends) had trouble walking in the soft sand. Anil actually recommended taking your shoes off as it was much easier.  I joked that it was not quite as soft as the sand on Clearwater Beach!

But seriously... how pretty is this sand????

My ugly feet just sank in the sand.  I love the squiggly lines and waves that they make with the wind.  What beautiful colors!

My mom and I took a long shadow selfie on the Rub' al Khali desert sands.

These vans were hilarious... always together, like a pack of wolves.

I actually thought all of these vans looked like little bugs coming out of the desert sand!

I don't think Anil had any idea how old we all were.  "Just go ahead and jump and I will take your picture!"  Ok, sure.  I think we got about 2 inches off the ground in every picture we took.  Look at my mom, jumping higher than me!

Life goals, folks.  Traveling around the world (they were from New Jersey) with your friends (although two of them were siblings.)  

This video is pretty much just me screaming the entire time.  It's really not flattering of me at all, but it's necessary to the story.  My favorite comment is when someone in the car says about me, "She needs a granola bar!" (Or when my Mom says, "Just say a Hail Mary!")  Then we get to the end and Anil jumps a dune and comes down HARD.  It didn't look that bad in the video but I think we were all stunned.  And I'm all like VINDICATION!!!!!!  We hit so hard that the seat belts pretty much destroyed all of the breasts in the car.  (So I apologize for all of the boob talk at the end, but honestly... it was painful and everyone agreed with me.)  That's when Anil hollers out, "Who wants to go some more?!"  and everyone (I mean... EVERYONE) says, "No, we're good, thanks!"

I've never been so happy to NOT be dune bashing in my entire life.  Hello cute little camels!

We stopped so that all of the cars could re-inflate their tires and the rest of us (or... errrr... I mean just me) could try to settle down after that nonsense.  I like adventure.  Just not at the expense of my life.

As we trekked through the desert to the spot of the evening festivities, the sun was setting and it was amazing.

Anil drove us to the spot where we would enjoy a fabulous dinner, drinks, good friends, music and dancing.

The best news (after that insane dune bashing) was that they sold alcohol at this fine dinner party.  I don't have a license and I dare you to fight me for the drink that I needed after all of that.  They also gave us shawarma for an appetizer, which was really good!  You can see up on the hill there are camels available for riding.  Lemme have a snack first.

This little desert oasis camp was very beautiful.  I appreciated that it wasn't super packed and there were lots of neat little activities to do while you were there.

Everyone was having a nice time, tucked away between the sand dunes.

My mom and I made this hilarious attempt to walk up the side of this hill that was covered in super soft sand.  I was ok... but my mom was really struggling.  We wanted to ride camels though, so we had to do it.  This picture is from up on that hill looking down at the camp.

Hey camel, let's take a selfie!  He does not look impressed.  (They bite, by the way.)

My mother somehow convinced me to ride a camel with her (look!  It's like a camel sedan- enough room for two people!)  If you watched that video at all, you'll know exactly how this camel riding went!  Give me roller coasters all day long... but this is too crazy!

Me and my mom looking all cute with our new camel friends.

My mom is way prettier than me, and way more adventurous.

Camels are pretty cute, aren't they?  The good news is that he didn't try to buck me off or anything.  It's very weird when they sit down though because you lean way forward as they lay their front legs down first.  You just have to be prepared for that!

We had a nice buffet dinner and some live entertainment once the sun went down.  This guy had these circular platters that he carried and separated as he spun. It was really cool because the circular platters (boxes?) all fit inside of each other.

And THEN the lights went out and he LIT UP!  What?  I don't know how he even was able to get off the stage at the end of his show.

Mmmm.  Gimme some dinner.

He just spun and spun and spun, and never stopped.

The last entertainer of the night was a belly dancer.  There were lots of guys with their cell phone cameras out.

She was super cute and worked SO HARD in the evening desert heat.

I've never seen a woman sweat so much.  Ladies, if you want a good workout, go with belly dancing!

I'm in the middle of the desert and this is the very nice toilet I get.  You know it's crazy when I'm impressed with desert toilet cleanliness.

Mom:  "Let me pretend I'm Todd and we'll send him this picture!"

Alas, our beautiful evening in the desert came to an end and we traveled back to Dubai with Anil at the wheel (see what I did there?)  We passed by the Sharjah Mosque which is at the intersection of the E611 and the E102, and it literally straddles the border of Sharjah and Dubai. It's the largest mosque in Dubai (although really... it's only partially in Dubai!)

What a fun evening (even if I was totally terrified of that dune bashing!)

Until next time, Rub' al Khali Desert!