I read the reviews, they were contradictory and so I went without any special expectations there. The excursion we bought through the operator Anex Tour cost 60$. About who to buy from the operator or through other agencies.
I studied the cost, the prices were all absolutely the same, as I understood, all take to the same desert and the same tank called Bedouin village, so we did not bother and bought from the tour operator.
So the excursion started at 14-00. We were picked up by a white jeep – Toyota Land Cruiser.
We were picked up first, after that we went to two more hotels – in one we picked up a couple and in the second two guys, i.e. 6 people were accommodated in our car.
We lived in Sharjah and it took about half an hour to get to the desert. Our first stop was near a souvenir shop. Here we all went to the toilet and here, as I realised, was the departure station where all the cars that were going on the tour that day meet.
There were a lot of cars, 20 of them exactly. While we all went to the toilet, the car drivers flattened the tyres so that the car would not slip on the sand. We didn’t stay here for long, about 15 minutes, after which we all drove to the desert. The road in the desert was already well-travelled, and I had the impression that the driver knew every bump and every barchan by heart.
We rode for about 20 minutes, after which we stopped for a photo shoot in the desert itself. I imagined the desert a little differently, it turned out to be alive and there were many different bushes, grasses and thorns growing here.
The city was visible everywhere on the horizon, so we had to look for a place for the photo shoot, so that we could not see the cars, houses and people, but we managed to do it.
In front of the entrance on the right we saw camels to ride on. There were 3 camels and they were tied together with one rope, two people sat on each camel.
The camels were sitting, people climbed on the sitting camels and then the camels were given a command and stood up. The camels would make one small circle and that was the end of the ride, the queue went very fast. I didn’t ride a camel because I didn’t want them to be tortured because of me. In general, the camels did not look very cheerful.
Not far from these camels there was another camel, apparently a special camel for a photo shoot.
This special camel was tethered, it stood alone and you can safely approach it and take photos near it. It didn’t look very good either, to be honest.
After the camels we went into the village itself, we were assigned special places where tourists from our car sit. We sat on cushions on the sand at tables.
The village included drinks: water, cola, fanta, sprite. You could eat fried donuts and cold sandwiches.
You could also try on national costumes, but there were only 4 of them and they were about size 68.
Free henna drawings were also included.
A small drawing took about 30 seconds. If you wanted a bigger drawing, it cost 30 dirhams. That’s about 500 roubles. The drawing was sprinkled with glitter on top for money.
There is plenty of time for everything, at sunset everyone is invited to spend the sunset and take spectacular photos at sunset in the desert.
After the sun goes down it gets very cold, so don’t be lazy and take all the warm clothes you brought with you on your trip. The sand cools down very quickly and becomes downright icy.
After sunset, the concert began. There were four numbers in the concert. The first number was two claps, three stomps. There were two women and two men. They danced about 3 dances and after that we were invited to dinner. It was a buffet type of dinner. Men were asked to stand in one queue, men in another. The food was normal in principle, I can’t say that it was super tasty, it was simple, but quite edible. Then a girl started belly dancing, and she danced quite well.
I recommend the excursion.
