October 22, 2008 – Dubai, UAE

It was hot and hazy as we sailed in to Dubai’s harbor where we docked behind the Silver Whisper at noon and, by 2:00, the ship was cleared for guests to go ashore. We left at 3:30 for a “Dune Dinner Safari” in 4 wheel drive vehicles. We had a 45 minute drive through the commercial part of the city to the sand dunes. We climbed the first hill to stop for a drink of water or soda while the drivers deflated the tires to 15 psi to get better traction in the sand. Off we went for a wild ride up, down and around the dunes, sometimes wondering if the vehicle would flip on its side. Many of the dune hills are high and steep and we traveled at breakneck speeds, sliding from side to side. Paul Simon’s song “Slip Sliding Away” came to mind. We made a stop in the middle of nowhere at a spot with oriental rugs on the sand and were served champagne, strawberries and roasted nuts. It was windy with fine grained sand blowing everywhere, including into our champagne glasses, so we dubbed the concoction “sandpagne.” We got back in the cars and continued our wild ride, seeing camels & gazelles in the wild.

At dusk we came to our “oasis” in the desert. It was a fabric walled, open roof compound with dinner tables set on oriental rugs in the center and open tents around the edges with activities. We could sample Arabic coffee, get a henna tattoo, put on Arabic dress for photographs, smoke a water pipe and enjoy beer, wine and humus. Just outside we could ride a camel or sand board. The meal was excellent with grilled lamb, lamb chops, chicken, steak and a lot more. It was a real Regent style meal with unlimited wine. After dinner Pat & I tried our luck at sand boarding on the lighted slope. It was a standard snow board, but we didn’t strap in, just put our feet against the foot holders. On sand you only go straight down and, if you fall, it’s a soft dry landing. A belly dancer put on an energetic show for us before we got in our cars for the return. Once we made it to level ground we stopped for the drivers to pump up the tires. We got back to the ship around 10:00, showered the sand off ourselves and went to sleep.