Exhausted, but still going.

Exhausted. Completely and utterly. I think last night wiped me out.
Went back an re-read yesterday morning's entry. Water park? Didn't make it back. Couldn't get out of pool. Skiing? Nope - more on that below.

So from where I left off yesterday - Jumeirah Mosque then back to the pool - last night was the desert safari. This is not for those that easily get motion sickness. Oh boy, rolling over massive dunes, speeding to the top only to not be able to see down the other side, where we were going, swerving, and at times wondering if we'd roll side-over-side back down. Kudos to our driver Zahir from Pakistan. Anyhoo, in my opinion, the most beautiful scenery in the world is miles and miles and miles of sand dunes. Don't get me wrong - I love a tropical beach like anyone else, but there's something about sand that does it for me. The Sahara was beautiful, but I also couldn't wait to see a real Arabian desert for myself. Mission accomplished: the dunes in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve near Margham. Gorgeous. We saw wild camels, and even an oryx, which is somewhat like a white Arabian antelope. Kinda.

There were 5 of us plus our driver in the SUV: me, and Zahir who spoke English, and 4 Brazilians, of which one only spoke the most minimal English. Zahir started talking on our drive, and I heard the woman from the back seat say "no understand." I managed to find out they were from Brazil, spoke a bit of Spanish to them, which they understood, and there was our trip. Zahir speaking in English to me, and I'm translating to them in Spanish, which they recognized because it's similar to Portugese... and they'd speak to me in Portuguese which I'd manage to figure out a few words, and well, our outing consisted of both a safari AND language adventure!

We stopped a few times for a break from the stomach-twisting ride, once at a camel farm that was tended by some Bedouins (which the goverment accounts for much better than the US ever did for the Native Americans - we should take a lesson from them, but that's another blog), and watched the sun set over the dunes. From there we proceeded straight to "camp" where they unloaded us for our dinner. Zahir and another driver invited me to break their fast with them and the other drivers and staff, but seeing as the man-to-woman ratio would have been 55:1 in that case, I politely declined, popped a squat on a dune to watch the sun set, then joined the rest of the crowd. The "camp" in the desert was enclosed by a stick fence. Inside were Persian carpets lining the lantern-lit dining area, which consisted of long, low tables with floor cushions, and a few covered sitting areas for shisha and whatnot. I wandered about for only a couple minutes before overhearing some people at a table speaking English, so I asked to join them. One was an elder couple on a wedding anniversary (and breast cancer surviving/celebration) trip around the world from Australia. The others were friends - Ian from Britain, and his friend Olaf from Germany. We had a delicious meal and spent the next two hours chatting non-stop. They were all great company, and we pointed out how fortunate we were to have met each other - strangers in the desert under a moonlit star-filled night. We had all been to Egypt at one point and swapped stories.

I chose to go on this trip alone and never at any point did I wish I could meet people, had been more social, struck up a poolside conversation, or had a dinner companion. I've been perfectly at ease wandering about on my own. Zahir flirted with me incessantly during our stops, and said he felt badly for me since no one was talking to me. I told him not to, I was comfortable and quite in my element enjoying my time alone, despite being in a crowd of 165 people. I like to think I can bring my own party anywhere I go. If I'm not having a good time, it's my own fault. But this time, at dinner, this was the perfect time to socialize. The perfect atmosphere, the perfect dinner companions, the perfect conversation... we, all travelers, randomly brought together at that one moment under the stars to exchange small stories about our lives, then just a fleeting few hours later, we all go our separate ways perhaps never to meet again. There are times to be solitary, and there are times to be social. And this trip has been the perfect mix of both worlds. I'm glad that we all openly acknowledged how special that evening was.

Which brings me to today... I'll be joining Tarek's family for iftar and shopping afterward, so knowing I had most of the day morning and mid-afternoon to do something, I thought today may be a good day to go skiing. When I woke up I laid in bed for a good 90 minutes, but finally pulled myself together in time to catch the free 10am shuttle to the Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai. I had my ski hat, gloves, fleece, and socks. I had all the intention and gear, but once I got there, I had none of the energy. I was wiped. I stood at the "chalet" window overlooking the slopes and wondered if I really had the will and energy to "call it up". Standing doing nothing seemed a whole lot easier than the effort required to get dressed, drag around poles and skis, up the lift, down the hill... So I snapped a picture and wandered around the mall for a bit. I can ski in the US this winter. I could have said I had gone skiing in the desert, but at least I had seen it. It's not like going to Egypt and deciding you don't have the energy to climb inside a pyramid. Skiing can happen elsewhere, and I just wanted a nap.

The mall was nice, but for being the largest mall outside the US, I was expecting much bigger. I've been to the Mall of the Americas, so perhaps I had that scale of consumerism in mind already. A couple hours and no purchases later, I grabbed the shuttle back, donned my last clean bathing suit, and went swimming in the Gulf.

Now as I sit here waiting for Taghreed to let me know when she is coming to pick me up, I haven't yet napped, am still exhausted (can jet lag set in days AFTER arriving, and not right away?), I realize I have just tomorrow left for a full day, and then I'm headed back to the West. I haven't hit Bastakiya or the souks yet, so that's on my list for tomorrow. I really need to get in a real night's rest.

Oddly enough, that's the interesting thing about this part of Dubai so far. It feels like someone dropped a Chicago suburb in the desert. It's so Western here. So American with British flair. SUVs, giant shopping malls, department stores, McDonald's, Applebee's, and TGI Friday's, and acres of open, sprawling cookie-cutter "villas" in a suburb. For a beach vacation where you never leave the resort, this is great. But I almost can't wait to get out of here. "Here" being Jumeirah. Get me into the real part of the city. Get me out of the vanilla that I ran away from in River North in the first place. If this trip has taught me anything - and it's taught me lots - it's that variety is the spice of life. I didn't need to leave Chicago to come to another suburb, albeit hotter. I need diversity. I need culture. I need intellectual stimulation. Going to dinner tonight is going to feel like I've been "saved" from the tourist trap.

But that doesn't mean I wouldn't pass up a 7-day Caribbean cruise where I do nothing but lie about - did I just see a cat walk by the pool? - and not use my brain for a week while cooking my skin in the tropic sun. I'll take that any day, too. *smile*