Glamping in the Middle East: Part 2

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Circles in the Sand

I realised over the past week that as expats, we may spend a lot of time in hotels – because that’s where the bars and brunches are – but to truly experience the full extent of Arabian hospitality you really need to book into one. Preferably for a few days. Maybe more.

Sure, we’ve had visitors who’ve stayed at hotels here and been ‘upgraded to an executive suite’, with an on-call butler serving champagne, dates and refreshing rolled face towels on silver platters. So I knew there was a very good reason why holidaymakers love Dubai – returning home with a renewed zest for life, an armful of gold bangles, a Persian rug, a comedy camel souvenir and their best-ever tan (persuaded?).

Behind the tent…Looks inviting, no?

But, until now, all our travel has either been to visit family back home, or – when we’re travelling with the kids – to countries within a tolerable four-hour flying time radius.

At the Banyan Tree Al Wadi resort in Ras Al Khaimah (an hour’s drive from Dubai) this weekend, I learnt that you really haven’t sampled UAE hospitality until:

● Your accommodation is even nicer than it looks on the photos and has its own private, crystal-clear pool outside

● You are transported anywhere you want to go in the resort by gulf buggy (not as lazy as it sounds – the temperature was in the mid 40s)

● A call to reception to request a buggy ride to breakfast also means maids arrive from nowhere to make the beds before you get back

“Honi, I don’t think there’s room in here for both of us!”

● The bathroom (pictured right) is bigger than your living room

● You’re greeted at your breakfast table by a falcon (the UAE’s national bird)

● Luxurious dressing gowns are laid out on the duvet during the nightly ‘turn down’ – and slippers placed by the bed

● The decorative pebbled pools are lit up by ‘fire features’ from which dancing flames arise

Of course, this is all bank-busting stuff if you pay full price, but there are deals-a-plenty to be had in the UAE (we booked one night, and got the next night free thanks to a summer offer). And the great thing about Dubai is the amount of choice available.

If you fancy staying in a vast waterscape, with exhilarating wild-water rides – two of which catapult riders through shark-filled lagoons – and you want to swim with dolphins, then book the Atlantis on the Palm. Or if you can stretch to a seven-star, super-luxe break, check in at the iconic Burj Al Arab, where there’s a private reception desk on each floor and you can arrive by helicopter.

Or, wait a while, and you may actually be able to stay in a room with an underwater ocean view. Believe it or not, architects have designed a half-submerged spaceship-shaped hotel that, if it gets built, will offer guests the chance to sleep below the surface of the sea.

“Are we going there for my birthday?” BB just enquired, totally enthralled by the concept of sleeping with the fish.

Silent Sunday: Glamping, UAE-style

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Circles in the Sand

I’ve discovered the most comfortable tent in the world – at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi resort in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. There were even desert gazelles wondering by. But just wait till you see what else was out the back…

Quite possibly the easiest, most hassle-free camping ever

The birthday week

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Circles in the Sand

It’s DH’s birthday – a big one! The actual day was on Tuesday, but as it’s a nice round number it’s turned into something of a birthday extravaganza.

Last year, the day passed in a bit of a blur, because of a medical drama in our family. DH’s lovely brother, who also lives in Dubai, returned from Africa with flu-like symptoms that turned out to be malaria. He came to stay with us while he recovered, so while all this was going on – and I was busy swatting gnats just in case (despite being assured by the hospital there was no risk to the boys) – my attention wasn’t really on birthday celebrations.

This year, I promised myself I’d make up for it, so in dutiful wifely fashion, I’ve been busy organising a birthday DH won’t forget. I think I’ve just about managed to pull off a three-part celebration that’s taking up most of the week:

PART 1: (the day) Presents at silly o clock, before school and work. Then Bab Al Shams, a desert resort located in the middle of absolutely nowhere, for a late-afternoon swim and dinner. We’ve done our fair share of camel riding in the Middle East, so we lounged in the pool and watched tourists clambering on the camels, shrieking as they were pitched forwards at the start (camels use their knees to get up and down). It was quite comedic.

Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa – not too far from where we live and very, very nice

PART 2: (the weekend) We’re taking the kids away, to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, for more swimming and more desert. The resort, the Banyan Tree, looks amazing and we’re staying in a ‘Bedouin-style tented villa’. It’s not a tent, I did study the website photos carefully to check, and I suspect it won’t be the ‘oasis of serenity’ it’s advertised as once we arrive. I also just found out my boss is going there this weekend.

PART 3: (the piece de resistance) Using a ‘buy one, get one free’ voucher in the Entertainer, I’ve booked a ride on a seaplane. I may yet bottle out.

Of course, no birthday is complete without cake. Baking is not my forte so I ordered one from Bakemart. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out and fully expected something like exhibit A. So was very pleased with exhibit B, despite the squashedupwriting!