Arabian Adventures

Well, I've been stuck on this air base for a month already and as far as deployments go, this is not a bad place to be.  To celebrate one month down, I decided to escape the confines of the base and explore the country.  As soon as I got off work this morning, I joined an expedition that went about an hour south of the base through the Arabian desert and we ended up on the shore of the Persian Gulf for a few hours.  We drove on the main highway for most of the way to the beach, but once we got closer, we stopped and the driver let some of the air out of the tires so he would have better traction to drive up and down the sand dunes.

We stopped at a scenic overlook.  You can see the Persian Gulf in the distance behind me.

 

   

Here are some videos of us driving through the dunes.  I couldn't believe what these guys were doing to their vehicles.  I was in a pretty nice Lexus SUV and this guy was driving as fast as he could up and down these dunes.  It makes me wonder how many times he has flipped one of his vehicles.  I guess when you live in one of the richest countries in the world, cars are disposable.

 

 

I barely got the end of this guy sliding down the dune

 

When we weren't going up the dunes, we would just speed along these open flat areas

 

 

We stopped for another scenic overlook of the Persian Gulf

 

and then we headed off to our beach

 

 

 We finally got to a little resort type area where we could sit and relax

The water was surprisingly cold when I first got in, but started to feel better once I got used to it.

 Walking down the beach, I stumbled upon two camels

 

I tried hiding behind a dune, but he knew exactly where I was.

 

 and I finally got the nerve to pet one of them

I found their owner and he was letting people ride them.  I rode "Raja".  The other one's name was "Rani", but it had a bad hip so it wasn't giving rides.

 

 

 

After the camel riding, it was time to eat.  I'm a big fan of Mediterranean food and Middle Eastern food is virtually identical to it.  The guides cooked all the meat right on the beach.  As you can see in the picture, we had lamb and beef kebobs, chicken, pita bread, hummus, tzaziki sauce and cucumber salad.  It was quite delicious.

 As if the day couldn't get any better, just as we were leaving, a guy walks down the beach with a monkey on a leash!  He gathered quite a crowd and the owner let some people feed him nuts.  And yes, if you're wondering, that monkey is in fact wearing a diaper.

 

All in all it was a pretty great day . To be able to get away from the monotony that has become my daily life is very refreshing.