Before there were skyscrapers...there was only desert

There's a whole different side to Dubai that is not really easy to see amidst the emerging forward momentum of business and commerce in the country. It's easy to forget that not long ago (I think maybe just a little over 30 years) most of Dubai was pretty much sand. I got a chance to get a little of the desert experience recently, in the form of a desert safari.

Getting ready to head out, my buddy, Yessine describes the adventure to come.

It's actually a very cool experience. The company we hired took us out about an hour and a half into the middle of the desert for quite a ride.

In between sand dune 4 wheel driving, they take breaks for photos. It was a group of about 4 SUVs.

Before we headed out they checked under the hoods to make sure all was well. Also, this came as a surprise to me, they let a lot of air out of the tires. Apparently, less air means better traction in the sand.

Not sure if you can tell from this vid, but the ride is crazy. We were climbing up and descending dunes with pracitcally 90 degree inclines and declines. There were points where I thought the truck was going to tip over because we were tipping so much, but just when you thought we'd turn over the driver corrected the angle and leveled us out.

We stopped every once in a while to take some photos and take breather from the vomit ride of climbing sand dunes (Yes, I got a little nauseous). It was a little weird being surrounded by nothing but desert. Very peaceful.

The sunset was quite amazing...

After dark they took us to a camp in the middle of the desert. We ate dinner under the stars, with nothing more than torches and dim lights to illuminate the pitch black of the desert.

The food was delicious too!

And to cap off the night, we had a pretty awesome belly dancing show...

Here the belly dancer balances a sword on her head. Harder than it looks...trust me.

And when the ladies joined in it got even better :)

The ladies do it much better than the guys. Trust me you don't want to see that video.

Over all the whole day was a great one. It was nice to get out of the chaos of Dubai and just surrounded by nature. The desert is such a barren, dry, and intimidating place, but at the same time it's really quite a beautiful as well.

Especially at night.