Wild Wadi Water Park / Desert Safari

I discovered that the hard Rock Café in Dubai is closed for the mean time for remodeling. So that is one shirt that I am missing in my collection. The past night was the best night of sleep that I had gotten in a while. I turned in at about 1PM local time to bed and fell asleep immediately. Given the fact that I had stayed up for over 36 hours, I was all tired out. I got woken up by the sound of surprise/screeching that we were late. We had about 20 minutes to get to Wild Wadi water park to meet our friend. We got quickly/prepared for the day hastily and proceeded to the ground floor. We hoped in a cab and were on our way. We got there about 5 minutes late and waited in the front area. I quickly pulled out some pastries to eat and washed it down with a can of Pepsi… breakfast of champions. After a few moments, we saw our friend Si, from the Burj al Arab. He took us to the ticket counter and we were admitted in with his employee discount. A full day ticket price is 200 AED ($55 USD) and a locker rental was 35 AED ($10).

We dropped our bags off in the locker and our food was taken into custody from us to “keep from spoiling in the sun.” This is also known as making us buy park food later… one of the downsides in going to a water park. The half day there was amazing. We went all over the park with the tube slides. The ride went up and then down and had all these twists and turns along the way with the black hole tunnel at the end. We also did the water slide down on the Jumeriah Sceira which was exhilarating. Just me and the water down a slide… I had to keep my eyes closed due to the speed/water splashing down my face. We also did the surfer rider with a boogie board and I tried my best to stay in the water but had a blow out eventually. The hardest part was walking without shoes on as the ground sometimes got very hot and we had to find a water source to cool our feet off. We took a food break in the middle and eat pizza/chicken tenders/fries to get some energy. We did water tubing for 3 times and the rest of the time consisted of floating on their version of the lazy river. We had to grab our bags and change clothes and then leave the park. It was a very enjoyable experience and I would highly recommend it to any visiting Dubai. We left at 3PM and made sure to look at our pictures by the gift shop after saying good bye to our friend who had to report to work. I purchased a photo of myself in front of the Burj al Arab… it was worth every penny (or fil in AED). We took a cab ride back to the apartment and got ready for our desert safari of the rest of the day.

We left promptly at 4PM with our driver, Malik, waiting for us in front of the complex. He took us to the Arabian Ranch community where another party joined us and we headed for the desert after a pit stop in front of a grocery store where all the Palm Oasis tours met up. When we first arrived, we had the opportunity to take photos. Then the tires were deflated somewhat for the dune bashing experience more enjoyable/safe. The driver did a great job driving us around the desert dunes and it was a fun experience. I enjoyed cruising down the dunes sideways and rolling up hills at top speed. We did get off to do sand boarding for a bit. I did fine the first time around but fell on the second time. The next stop was a camel farm where we could take pictures of the camels. I took some time out to dump the sand from my shoes.

Our last stop was the site for dinner and entertainment.
There was opportunities for sand ATVing and camel riding. I declined on the ATV since there was a charge but the camel ride of 2 minutes was included in the ticket. It was a different experience all together especially from horse riding. I enjoyed some appetizers and goat milk/tea when everyone went ATV riding. I did get to enjoy some hookah pike smoking and realize that one time would be all that I needed in this life time. It was tobacco-less but still the smoke can choke someone up. We bought some shirts from one of the local vendors so I am now a proud owner of a Emirates (Airline) shirt. We all got Henna tattoos and the artist only knew how to do a scorpion… wonder what she did for the ladies?

Dinner started at about 7 PM and we got in life for the buffet spread. We had a belly dancer for about 20 minutes and it looked pretty sad for her to be there by herself. I would have only asked them to have at least 2 dancing since there was about 80 in the audience. The facility could accommodate up to 180 people for the high season. Before we left, I made sure to try out their local clothing and got a picture in it as well. We were one of the last groups to leave and the driver dropped off the other group first. We got to learn more about the culture and the city itself from the driver and the other group. The driver, originally from Pakistan, has lived/worked in Dubai for about 10 years. The place that he rents costs about $1000 a month and that is how much he makes from the salary. He shares the apartment with several other people and is only able to go back home once a year for about a month. Dubai is an expensive place to live but for the citizens (20% of the population), they have free housing, schooling, healthcare, and other several benefits. They do not extend citizenship to foreigners at all whether it be naturalization, marriage, or birth. We got back to the apartment at about 10PM and packed our belongings for the return journey home. It was a great day and probably one of the best ones I have had in a long time.