Arabian Desert – As beautiful as a dream

I always have strong feelings for the sunset. So does my husband. Wherever we go, we always look for a beautiful place to watch the sunset, sometimes in front of the beach, sometimes on the hill, sometimes on the middle of the mountain, or a high-rise building in the busy city … I have no memory of how many beautiful sunsets we have spent together. Our wish-list is not shortened but only longer. The Arabian Desert is a place where I put a sticker on my notebook – “Yay, after all, we’re already here!”

Nearly 5 PM, the afternoon scenery on the immense sand desert really overwhelmed me. I can’t imagine how people could have survived day after day in the hot desert and looked hopelessly helpless. The more I think, the more I admire Dubai with the ambition to make the impossible possible.

As you know, Dubai was built in the middle of the vast Arabian desert. Here, outside the city area with modern buildings, the desert area still accounts for the majority. There are many beautiful deserts to watch the sunset such as Bidayer, Fossil Rock, Al Faya, and Liwa … However, these places are quite far from the city and the best way to get there is to rent a car to drive yourself; In addition to the road trip experience, you also need “n” other skills and it is best to have the natives accompany you.

The sun descended, and I stood on the top of a sand dune, looking far away, clearly feeling the humility of people before nature. My husband reveled in his camera, capturing the beautiful scene before his eyes, although he knew, even the most beautiful photos could not be as nice as the scenes recorded in our minds that afternoon. Photography is just… a little human desire.

So, there is one place only 50km South of the city which is the Lahbab Desert. It is exploited for tourism, so there is not natural beauty only but there are also shuttle bus, dining, camel riding services, which are convenient and safe for tourists like us. You just need to book a tour and go! We do not like to take a long-term tour, but often go on our own and book short-term tours on our schedule, which make us more active, do not force tourists to go to too many places and we can actively spend our time without having to follow the group.

3:30 PM, a strong Land Cruise specialized in crossing dangerous terrain picked us up at the hotel to go to Lahbab desert. About 1 hour later, we arrived, the car continued to take us across the towering sand to go into the desert.

Although I preferred to go by a jeep so I could feel the sun and the wind all over us, but when I thought about it again, the weather there was like this (on hot days, it was up to 45 Celsius degrees), just after 10 minutes under the sun could probably make me fainted. Therefore, the Land Cruiser which was well-covered and air-conditioned should have been a more suitable choice.

Sitting in the car and the whole body was like being thrown around with every turn over giant sandy beaches gave us a wonderful feeling, better than any thrilling game in amusement parks ? When the car stopped, I had a little dizzy for a little while, so if you often get car sick, you should be prepared beforehand to bring some candies for your blood pressure not to be too low!

Nearly 5 PM, the afternoon scenery on the immense sand desert really overwhelmed me. I can’t imagine how people could have survived day after day in the hot desert and looked hopelessly helpless. The more I think, the more I admire Dubai with the ambition to make the impossible possible.

The sun descended, and I stood on the top of a sand dune, looking far away, clearly feeling the humility of people before nature. My husband reveled in his camera, capturing the beautiful scene before his eyes, although he knew, even the most beautiful photos could not be as nice as the scenes recorded in our minds that afternoon. Photography is just… a little human desire.

6 PM, the car continues to take us to the place of camel riding and dinner. Back in Turkey, I used to ride camel a little. This time, the camels took us on the sandy desert, through the night. What an extremely interesting experience! I imagined we’re going back to a time when people’s lives depended heavily on camels, imagining how hard but happy “the Little Prince” was in the process of looking for the “treasure”, wondering if loneliness would defeat me if I was one of them – the small people on the journey to overcome the harshness of nature to continue living and constantly flourishing…

*The camels took us on the sandy desert, through the night. What an extremely interesting experience!*

Near the camel riding area was the tents for people to enjoy traditional dances, buffet dinner with typical Arabic dishes, to smoke shisha, to draw henna, or to try on indigenous costumes … My husband playfully tried on a white coat for Arab men. According to the document, that type of coat allows maximum air circulation throughout the body to keep it cool, and the hat of the outfit protects the owner from the sun. I went to the henna drawing counter, and some Arab ladies in black robes painted beautiful henna pictures on my hand. The henna ink there had a strong smell of herbs, taking longer to dry and the color was durable, unlike the henna ink I bought in Saigon.

After a welcome dance, the dishes were served in the “buffet tent”, people took their own food, sat on lazy pillows, at the low dining table and continued to watch the performance. It was still hot, but in the evening, it was a bit easier than in the afternoon. The food was simple but typically Arabic with vegetables and casseroles or grilled meat, marinated with lots of spices and herbs.

*My husband playfully tried on a white coat for Arab men*

*The food was simple but typically Arabic with vegetables and casseroles or grilled meat, marinated with lots of spices and herbs*

The space could not be enough for us to feel like the only one under the wide sky, and unfortunately, that evening there were not many stars, only the golden crescent moonlight. But watching the sunset and having dinner in the desert like that was such a beautiful dream, enough to make me very satisfied.