Desert Safari revisited

Reminiscing The Desert Safari. There I was, inside the back of the TLC
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As the EK388 flew towards the east catching the morning rays from my homeland, not realising the gallantry of my REDs keeping the Champions League.
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Saifulislam.Com

Saifulislam.Com
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Masyhur sekali kisah seorang anak yang gemar mencuri pensel kawan-kawannya di sekolah kerana ayahnya sendiri sering membawa pulang pen pejabat ke rumah untuk kegunaan peribadi. Anak berdosa, isteri ingkar, jangan segera menyalahkan mereka tetapi muhasabahlah diri kerana itu etika seorang imam terhadap makmumnya.

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My Fotopages

So I've registered with Fotopages. No thanks to the difficulties I am encountering with Hello posting from GCC (Countries around the Gulf). Therefore I am off posting pics in this blog, but will still continue with my entries as before. Now if you want pics feel free to see em at my Fotopages. If you want some 'semi serious' discourse here is the place.

More reasons fro me to burn out my Canon A400 batteries. And watch out guys, you might get caught in one of the stills. Now, let me download what you've missed all this while.

I survived my first Desert Safari adventure ride.

Everybody that went for the ride were already making preparation days ahead. The key word was 'don't throw up!!!' The 'ritual' prescribed by the so-called veterans was not to have heavy meals especially of the spicy stuff before the ride. Well, most of us stretched the ritual further by avoiding spicy foods 3 days prior. I don't know about other riders but my Land Cruiser were still spick and span at the end of the tour. By 3pm everybody was downstairs waiting. We stock-up (some literally 'satcking-up) tid-bits, ciggies, chewies and minerals. Not forgetting assortment of DigiCams, VidCams and (I am not joking guys!) a girl with with a FilmCam (sheesh!! this from someone who actually introduced Skype to me).

Three huge Toyota Land Cruisers (TLC) stopped, load us all up in 5 minutes and off we go to a meeting point where 2 more TLCs full of our groupmates from downtown awaiting, together with 10+ more TLCs from other tour operators. By 5pm, after little shuffling of passengers among the TLCs, the convoy hit the road. Few minutes later we arrived at a designated 'entry' point a well beaten dirt road, a few meters by the edge of sand dune, where the TLC's humongous off-road tyres were then de-flated.

When all was done our designated TLC driver Omar, warned us to buckle up and sit tight. The feeling right then was similar to that slow ride up to the peak of a roller-coaster trek. Since Omar was sort of a senior driver, our TLC was relegated to the rear. The suspense was more upon seeing other TLC shoot off one by one. Without warning, our TLC revved up and straight away hit a low patch then up before veering to the left, hit hard right then climbed the first dune. All this while I was trying hard to breath!!. The vista cleared up and in front of us just spots of sand flumes by front TLCs. The first half of the ride consists of long bumpy trekking and some wide turning among the undulating dunes, maybe just for us soak-in the adrenalin assaults.

After an hour and a few mild stomach-turning events, we reached a camel farm in the middle of nowhere to take a half hour rest. The TLCs were perfectly lined up by the side of a shallow dune, a picture perfect panorama. While stretching the worn legs (I was seated at the back row of a 7 seater TLC!!!) few of us took the complimentary ATV rides offered while some went inside the ranch for some 'intimate moments with the camels'. The whistle blew signalling the resumption of ride and everybody clambered up into their 'well rested' TLCs for another anticipated destination: Desert Camp! (and bellydancers yeah!) But we were not warned this time around, thinking that this ride would be no worse than the first ride. How wrong were we!

The second ride were more of hard turning followed by more hard turns, side skids, sudden drops, rushing slips and to top it all, my TLC was stuck in the sand during one of the side skids. We we halfway from the top of a soft sand dune and Omar wanted to impress us (especially the voluptuous Jeane, our tour operator guide and two single ladies sharing the TLC with us) with his snowboarding right slide trick forgetting that I was sitting was directly on top of the TLC's rear right wheel. Approaching the slide about a quarter way down, as he turned the front wheel away from the bottom of the sand dune slope aiming for a quick half turn, the rear right wheel dug into a soft spot. The more Omar stepped on the gas, the deeper the rear right went and the tilting gyroscope on the dashboard hit the lowest left scale - signalling the TLC was dangerously near a 45 degree slope on its side. I was staring horrifyingly at the bottom of the dune slope 50 meters down. All other TLCs stopped and the drivers got out scrambling to dig our TLC out of our predicament. Our groupmate too climbed out from their TLC to snap photos of the so called rescue operation. As the sand loosen on the front tyres, the TLC began to slide freely down backward. Omar turned off the A/C to conjure enough power for the front wheels to grab on the unforgiving sands and rolled out from the precarious position to the applause of others. I guess Omar's image as a senior desert safari driver took a few dent and a couple of chuckles among the junior drivers.

We continued our trails for another hour towards the sunset which reminded me of that image in the Camel Trophy. From atop of the approaching sand dune, looking down we saw the camp site in the middle of the shifting desert valley. At the center was a carpeted raised platform lined with thick pillows by the borders. As the sun set, we feasted on entrees. Some tried their feet at skiing on the sand slope, others mingled among other revellers by the shisas tent. There are one tent where you could put on traditional arabian gear and take a camel ride. Next best thing to real tattoos is henna. So the muscle toned guys lined up among the ladies for a patch of henna 'tattoos' on their arm.

By 8:30pm buffet dinner was served - bbq chickens, mutton, plenty of kebab and more mutton (no camel meat though) this time around we chowed down without any reservation. Then the 'real deal' began. The bellydance - the rest I leave you all with to your imagination. Suffice to say that I didn't break my back at all. Echoing that famous line by one guy in black leather jacket (which incidently I was wearing for the whole trip) " I'll be back!!! "

Desert Safari

I signed up for Desert Safari ride. My collegues organized the trip for us to get together and also a get-away from the daily grind. The small weekly getaway we are having so far only limited to those who love beach football. Then a little bit later another 'get together' in that small enclosed swimming pool of our apartment complex before Friday prayers. Normally the guys will be scrambling around after that either to do errands, sightseeing in small groups or just lazing away in the rooms. Perhaps, now is a real chance of a bigger get together group.
As a precaution, I planned not take in so much food tomorrow morning anticipating a bumpy ride that would churn out whatever there are in one's full stomach. Now it is time to 'pick and choose' my travelling companions. Whether to be with a 'boisterous' group or sit quitely with the 'shy' groups? Whatever it is, as an article written by 'someone' I know in the STAR back in February describing the Desert Safari ride, hold on to your guts!!!
Oh by the way, I am looking forward to the Bellydance events later in the evening (much to the chagrin of my 'other half'). At least I am 'paying' for the whole trip, unlike that fiasco by one Malaysian State Government Excos at our expense under a so called Lawatan Sambil Belajar expedition.

ESPNSoccernet.com: UEFA Champions League: Ticketless Pool fans plan Istanbul trip

I am seriously thinking of hopping on this bandwagon
ESPNSoccernet.com: UEFA Champions League: Ticketless Pool fans plan Istanbul trip

I Know What U Did To My Hello

Now I (sort of) know why my Hello Photo failed to cross-post uploaded pics to my blog. It seemed that the ISP I am in subscribes to a regional filtering server that would refused (ie blocked) photo upload from certain geographical location. My uploading activities from Hello is deemed 'against the local culture and religious' practice. Well, too bad too because lately, Skype.Com has also been lumped into this category albeit for strictly other (monoplistic) reasons.

As for SkyPe, we are now limited to normal Skype'ing' PC to PC. Any attempt to use SkypeOut to connect to normal international landlines will be greeted by undiscernible local telcos message (voice of a lady fortunately) which I myself hardly understand. The sad fact is that we can't top up the SkypeOut euro credit, nor download SkyPe program ( I manage to keep one handy in my thumbdrive along with other regular gidgets) because it is deemed 'against the local culture and religious' practice.

ps

I am thinking of dropping by Istanbul, since it is now nearby only, to see my childhood team in red playing in the Champions League Final.