The Birth Of Venus: October 2014

Monday, October 27, 2014

It's time to purposely be stuck in the middle of the desert! When my aunties booked Desert Safari, I didn't know if I'm excited or terrified for one reason... I'm afraid that I might puke in every corner of the the SUV. I have a low tolerance for car sickness. I once went to Baguio riding a bus and I filled 9 plastic bags of my barf. Not a good picture. I was excited because I'd get to be in the shoes of John Lloyd Cruz in his movie, Dubai, when he barfed on the sand after Desert Safari. Woohooo exciting.. eh?

We killed time at BurJuman as we wait for the vehicle that'll get us to the desert. I went piktyur piktyur by the fountain, went to Saks Fifth Avenue to find Christian Louboutin (ugggh the red soles tho!) Before we leave, I took two Dizinil tablets (counterpart of our Bonamine).. you know, just to be sure and have my family safe from my barf.

When I got out of the van, the sweet sweet smell of camel poop gave me a warm embrace. Mmm mmm! Few other tourists came, there were even two ladies who dressed up as belly dancers and I'm pretty sure they're not one of the performers.

The moment of truth... Dizinil really kicked in. I didn't feel any motion sickness, so as soon as I assessed myself, I took my camera out and filmed the entire ride. It was fun! The rush you get as you anticipate the drop from the mountain sand is just legit fun! And the driver was very impressive, it was as if he's nagpapayabang with how much reckless he is, but that's the fun of it. When we got to the camp, I immediately went to the top of a tall sand mountain (is that how it's called?) And define nakakapagod but as you see the sunset at the sand horizon... aaaah it's just breathtaking.

I thought the most exciting part of this trip would be me riding a camel. I take that back. That was scary and smelly. Haha. But I'm glad that I got to tick that off from my bucketlist. Half past six, we find seats, got a 20secs. henna tattoo, watched a spinning guy with a massive skirt, got bored with the firedance because Boracay's firedancers are still the best, and debated with myself if the belly dancer was a woman or a transgender. Had Arabic food for dinner and Pakistani for driver. Heehee. Dozed off on the way home. Thanks Dizinil.

@ BurJuman

The anti-social in me

#BeauteLouboutin

*angels singing*

Looks like an ordinary SUV. But wait, he's more than you can imagine char

So that's where the smell is coming from! Mmmm!

Negotiation in action

The only photo I took while on the ride

Climbing that sand mountain is harder than it looks

Camp from my POV

Little girls must have emo moment too, okay?

Yaaay! Thanks for climbing with me, Auntie D!

Bahay kubo in the middle of the desert

Bro, piktyuran mo ko

Heehee

Take a picture with the falcon? 10 dirhams please.

I named them Timmy and Sonia

The struggle is real

Ngiting may halong kaba

Timmy stands up, Rachel goes gaaaaah

Heeeee

Love the #ootd, my friend

One more round

Trying to act normal by awkwardly flipping my hair

3 different smiles

Camp

Ha? Sinong haggard?

Sending love with the sand to my girlfriends!

XB Gensan ng Dubai

20 secs. henna tattoo that lasted for 2 weeks!

Sheeeesh

...

Arabic food for dinner

Werk it, gurl

Burj Al Arab

The first thing that most people think of when it comes to Dubai other than desert is the 7-star hotel, Burj Al Arab. It's situated on an artificial island (Jumeirah Beach) few meters offshore. I didn't get to go inside the hotel, it's not that I don't want to, it's because I just can't afford it. You see, the cheapest suite would go around $1,000 per night which is equivalent to Php 44,000, and the most expensive suite costs $28,000 = Php 1,254,297 per night! Talk about luxuriousness level 1000. Makakapagpaaral na ko ng kolehiyo sa isang gabi na 'yon. Maybe I'd consider checking in when I finally found myself say "Wala na kong mapaglagyan ng pera." Hahaha!

So we went to Wild Wadi and Jumeirah Beach instead. With that, we can still say that ooooh I'm just few meters away from Burj Al Arab. It was an open beach, anyone can come and go. There were a lot of half-naked people who have their faces burning red, kids with the cutest bathing suits, and tourists who take as much photos as they could (like me).

Burj Al Arab from Wild Wadi

First ones in Wild Wadi!

Aaah yeah

Auntie and Mommy (flaunting her armpit like yeaaah)

But of course, Mommy didn't take the whole shot of the building (classic Mom and her photography skills)

Okay, there we go

#chelfieeeee

The water's fine, Mom can testify that

If only I could punch the heat

Leaning tower of Al Arab

*smirk*

Friday, October 24, 2014

A Day in Abu Dhabi

From Dubai, it'll only take one and a half hour to get to another Emirate country, Abu Dhabi! We had to rent a cab for the whole day, it would be best for my Auntie to not go on a long drive. And good thing we did because we got the cab driver who has a kind heart to give us a huge discount, plus he's really good-looking. Take my word for it. Oooh, and he's not driving an ordinary cab, he's driving Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. Medyo sosyal na cab driver.

We got to the Grand Mosque before 3pm, but since they were currently praying, we're not allowed to go inside yet. We took a detour to the Emirates Palace, but apparently, they're not letting tourists in that day. Bummer. I was just looking at it from afar and it's nothing like any other palaces in movies. They said that's where the Sheik (counterpart of president) lives. Anyhoooo, our gwapong chauffeur took us to Heritage Village instead. It was more like an open park that has Arabian houses, buildings near beach, souvenir stalls and ducks.

4pm. Mr. Chauffeur politely told us that his shift ends at 6pm and has to return the car by then. And since we don't him to get in trouble, we had to have a quick tour at the Grand Mosque. It was my first time to enter to a mosque and it was woah. It was like Princess Jasmine's castle. The interior as exquisite. The wall design and chandeliers was very kabog. There's nothing really much to see, just their Quran and the clock that tells their prayer time. And we had to wear Abaya and take off our shoes before entering.