Day 7 (20th Tuesday) Continued
Arrive at Qasr Al Sarab (in the neighborhood of Liwa - but not quite there!)
THIS is what we came over the hill in the dark to see... I think having seen it in the light and seen it in the dark, I'm really glad we came into this place at night - it was so "Arabian Knights" it wasn't funny. SO impressive and beautiful light up.
The bedroom...If you look at the web site the view of the deluxe balcony suite, I think that the one pictured is the actual one we stayed in - based on the background view, etc..
I even had to take a picture of the bathroom in the lobby area - I love the options of bin for paper, or wand for washing... and it's all done in a nice stone with a wooden seat. Very nicely done.
The sink area in the lobby potty - the other thing that lets you know you're at a very nice hotel is they use wash cloths as hand towels... no paper towels for these folks... we were living large, that's for sure!
Could be my all time favorite picture and what I view as desert... this was the view from our balcony on the first night... VERY nice!
Day 8 (21st Wednesday)
And the daytime reality from the bed :) not nearly as pretty and romantic as in the evening, eh?
The view from our room - literally as it was laid out.. I should weld them, but it's too much of a gap...
Checking out the pool area....
Sand sand and more sand, it's so fine and blows so easily that there is a constant film of sand everywhere... the good news is it is VERY fine - like talcum powder, so not nearly as irritating as you would think... but not nearly as clean as you would like at any given time in any place you are.
The back of our actual balcony - although it's very open and breezy, it's very private as well.
Main lobby reception to the right, concierge to the left... walk all the way in to a sitting area (past the very nice fountain full of rose petals) ... to the left of the sitting area a bar, to the right a library.
FINALLY - someone taller than me!!
we were on our way to Liwa to see if we could score some sun cream - aka sun screen as we forgot to pack it for the trip. Oops!
aka speed bumps! Oh, they are EVERYWHERE on just about every road - coming into round abouts, coming into towns, anywhere they want you to slow down... which is a LOT. Sara said something about having over 100 speed bumps and almost as many round abouts in her daily commute. Yuck!!
Later that evening - on our way to our camel trek we spotted a lone gazelle.
too much effort to move this... it's the cool entry about half way between the road and the resort - it's beautiful and those pots are something like 10' tall!
OK, back to camel trek! This is Batua - Sarah camel and the one I got to know the best as he was right at my knees and breathing hard most of the trek... he was young and in SUCH a hurry... and he did try to bite my foot at one point - thank goodness for the snot caps :)
One of the guides took my camera to take some shots on the first part...
We went maybe a mile, mile and a half to our "spot" to watch the sunset. Who's idea was it to have us then hike the side of a dune to watch said sunset? WTF? I didn't want to climb a mountain... I'm fat, old and out of shape folks!!
And this, my dear friends, is about as good as our sunset got. With NO clouds and all the sand in the air, this was it.. there was no fan fair with the colors due to the yuck in the air as it was too low to make a hoot of difference in the color. Such a disappointment on the sunset factor!
The rest of the folks watching the same thing we were...
Pigs at the top of a dune!
And the embarrassing action shots... but we have to include them, as they are my reality - therefore worth of seeing... mounting the camel...
LEAN back... and whatever you do keep your FEET forward.. that is the trick to this... feet forward... as they will rock up and back and as long as feet are forward all will be well.
It just looks awkward.... it didnt' feel awkward by this time...
And we're UP!!
I'm so happy, oh, so happy, oh so happy and Witty and ... well, you get the gist!
Good grief we're out of order. This is going DOWN the dune!!
This is the LAST "down boy" move... and note I am one handed at this poitn because I'm encouraging him to hurry up and go DOWN.... he did an awkward shakey squat for a bit before he finally relented and went down.
And they're heading back to the barn...
Our very, very handsome camel man...
photo opportunity at the end of the night....
Day 9 (22nd Thursday)
Up bright and early for DUNE bashing!!
Sand over the windshield! Whoooo hoooo
I'm not a fan of sand, but this was very pretty and soft sand... more fine than FWB... but with reds and grays and greens in it.
Shadow pigs :)
Love this with the shoes outside the door - hood popped to keep the car cooler...
Leslie's view of the toes.... same as mine... just snuck in here again... I loved the look of our toes in the sand... especially with the henna.
Waseem - from Pakistan. We're welcome to come visit his family anytime... he should NEVER tempt us of such things :)
Sand Angel
Dusting the sand out of Sara's hat!
When we got back we had a nice picnic of hums, breads, fruits and mimosas on the patio - what a nice way to end the morning!
Million to one shot - Leslie popped the corn, hit the ceiling and right into the ice bucket!
After Dune Bashing and breakfast, Leslie and I hit the pool for a snooze in the shade. Ah, the life. We then went for our spa that afternoon and were balls of jello by the time we got home. They do the tummy massages here too, but it wasn't as offensive as the Egyptian massages - they did cover you, they even gave you disposable panties to wear - weirdness. All in all a wonderful way to end the trip to Qsar Al Sarab!!
Day 10 (22 st Thursday)
Some parting shots!
Final toes in the sand before gathering some to take with us...
The long trek back make me VERY glad we had done it in the dark - although there were things to see, it was mostly sand, sand and more sand. I tried to get a shot of a sign that was prevalent at all outposts - "keep door closed" where it should have said gate... I guess door works too...
Along the way we did see some mama and baby camels as well - I'm not sure if they were wild or farmed... could have just been free range ones.
Another funny sign, just because!
I also saw a chili's sign, but to me it wasn't nearly as iconic as:
Funny sight to see... this is a "man truck" ... I guess this is how you will see workers being transported in some ares... does not look like a pleasant way to travel! Note the sand blowing across the road - the wind had picked up again... just for me!
And that my friends, is the end of my trip.
We got back into town and we bummed around the apartment until it was time to take me to the airport as this was Friday and my flight would leave at 1:20 am on Saturday... the only upside to flying back is that you get home the same day you leave even if you do fly and travel for 24 hours!
