One of the excursions that we booked was the Camel Ride, Sand Bashing and Desert BBQ and Show.  On the surface, I knew what to expect with this adventure because their names are self evident; however, I was not sure what the actual experience would be like.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

We started the morning off with an early breakfast and made our way to the one of the Lego Land for an Eric Cartman experience.  This is a reference for the cartoon SouthPark, where one of the characters – Eric Cartman, showed up to the amusement park shortly before closing and attempted to get on every ride in the park before closing.  The goal was to eat early, have some fun, grab an early lunch and prepare for our trip and everything worked out according to plan.

Our driver contacted me on What’sApp and confirmed that he’ll pick us up for 2pm and he was actually 10 minutes early.  Off to the desert we go!  

After driving for about an hour, we pulled over to the side of the road to what looked like a shack in the middle of…well… in the middle of the desert.  There were a few people there and we were mobbed by sales people who put the Kafiya/Keffiyeh on our heads and bottles of sand in the kid’s hands…it was over whelming.  The one thing that I did want for myself was one of the coofandy…the white garments that the men wear and just my luck, they had one that fit me perfectly.  So, after the shopping, it was time to ride the camels.  By this time, many more people had arrived and it looked more like a bazzar or swap meet than it did of the shady ghost town 20 minutes earlier and we all felt more comfortable.  

The camel guide led us to the other side of the gate where the three camels were as well as people in the distance riding on All Terrain Vehicles (ATV’s) and there was also a gentleman with a falcon on his arm for people to pose and take pictures with for a nominal fee, of course.  Our guide informed us that we have the falcon pictures included with our trip, but it is not until later at the buffet and that reduced the pressure of the “once in a lifetime opportunity” to take a picture with the falcon.  We approached the camels and I must say, I got nervous for a quick second, concerned as to whether or not the camel could support my weight.  Two of the camels had muzzels over their mouths.  For the one that did not, I instructed the boys and my wife to not look the camel directly in the eyes on the account that they may spit at you.  Now…I’m not sure if that is true or not, but I have seen enough instances at the National Zoo in Washington DC where the camels were able to spit on folks with pretty good range.  At any rate, the two older boys mounted the first camel, and he stood up with no issues.  My wife boarded the second camel with my our youngest son, and that camel stood without any problems.  As I approached my camel he and I made contact.  The camel let out a loud groan as if to say “You’re kidding, right!?!  There’s no way that you are getting on my hump!”  I groaned back at the camera as if to reply, “Yep…this is happening…it’s already paid for.  Maybe they’ll give you workman’s comp.”  With that, I swung my leg across his saddle and held on tight as he stood up and let out another loud barrowing groan.  I believe this groan was directed towards the camel guide as if to say to him, “I’ll get you for this!”

The camel ride lasted about 10 – 15minutes.  We walked about 400 meters and then we stopped as a kid on an ATV drove up right now time with a camera and he took pictures of us.  Once he was done, then we walked back to where our camel trip began and we got off of the camels and took family pictures with them.  We exited back to the other side of the gate and as we were ushered back to our Lexus Land Cruiser, I was approached by the final vendor with the pictures that they took of us on while on the camels with an offer to purchase them.  We quickly negotiated the price and we received five beautiful 8″x10″ pictures for about $35 bucks. 

Now that I had the pictures from the camel ride, I joined the rest of the family inside of the Land Cruiser and we left the “property,” and drove for maybe five to 10 minutes and drove up to a gate once again in the middle of the desert.  We waited for a few moments and a couple of other Land Cruisers pulled up next to us and behind us.  The drivers got out and spoke for a moment, then one of them opened the gate.  Our driver returned to the Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) and said “Now we do sand bashing!”  And with that, he increased the speed and we started to slip and slide and go up and go down and I promise, he did everything in his power to try and break the car but it held up.  My youngest does not like going up and down on hills…well, lets just say that we went up and down so many hills and he cried so much to the point that he overcame his fears!!!  It was a lot of fun.  I tried to play it cool, although I was holding on for dear life.  After about 30 minutes, we met the rest of the Land Cruisers in our party…about 15 in total and everyone was able to get out and take pictures of the sand and the sand dunes and ride the snowboard/sand board down one of the hills.  The drivers used this time to service their cars as needed.  While here, we experienced a beautiful sunset as the sun went down over the horizon.  Everyone re-entered their respective SUV’s and we drove about 30 minutes to another remote section of the desert where we were treated to a night of traditional native entertainment and a BBQ in the desert.

The BBQ was quite the experience.  There were different types of vendors around the perimeter.  Souviners, jewelry, hand painting, soft drinks.  Towards the back were two set ups of food.  This is where the lines would eventually be for the folks to get their food.  The area was about the size of an American football field…roughly 100 yards.  In the middle was a stage.  And surrounding the stage were a tables, each surrounded by four to six bean bag style chairs.

The entertainment began with two shows…  a man who spun in circles for 10 minutes balancing baskets and a belly dancer who danced to traditional Arabic music.  They called him the Tanura Dancer or Local Bedouin Dancer.  He started with two and went up to six.  The belly dancer…well, she danced.  After they did their thing, then everyone rushed to the two lines and got their fill of three different types of rice, a couple of sauces to put on top of the rice, authentic flat bread that was made on the inside of the clay pot topped off with dried out chicken and a ground lamb molded into the shape of a small hot dog that actually tasted pretty good.  I kept it light because I knew that we were at least an hour away from the hotel and I did not know if and/or when I would have to go to the restroom.  I figured worst case scenario, we would return to the hotel just before the dinner buffet closed at 10:30pm and I could get something there or order room service if I or Autumn or the boys were still still hungry.

After the dinner, another performer took to the stage.  This was a fire show where the gentleman danced with fire and twirled fire and even spitting fire and extinguishing fire in his mouth.  It was pretty cool until I noticed that my seven year old was looking at the performance as if he was taking notes so that he could attempt to tame the fire once he returned home.  Once Fire Man concluded, then we were treated to a second belly dancer.  This dancer had a slight wardrobe malfunction in the very begging of her show, which garnered her the undivided attention of half of the audience.  She had a ton of energy and she was slightly hypnotic as made eye contact with various members of the audience and made them believe that she was communicating to them through her eyes.  Additionally, she was able to get crowd participation and involvement with her show.  She was really good. 

Once the final performance was over, we made our way to our car and started our way back to the hotel.  All I can remember is closing my eyes once I got in the car and like magic, once I opened them again we were pulling up to the hotel.  We were able to grab a late dinner and head to the room once we were done.