Rain Dance 2006

Hello friends,

This past Thursday all of us went to this thing called Rain Dance. It was organized by the same tour company that took us to Hatta the week before. None of us had ever gone to a Rain Dance before, but the tour company promised us it will be a fun filled evening in the desert where they will have rain under which we can dance. So the eight of us gathered at the meeting point. Two more people were to come but one of them had a sprained knee, so she opted out much to our disappointment.

The bus took off from Dubai at 9pm, and no sooner were we on our way when N started another documentary for my video. She introduced everyone in our group much to everyone's laughter. There were about nine more people at the back whom we didn't know. M snapped her iPod in, and we all clapped and sang to the Arabic songs!

N grabbed hold of the microphone and went to the front of the bus, where she welcomed us all on board. "In any case of turbulence, the exits are located at the back and two at the front..." she proceeded to tell everyone on the bus hand signalling like an air stewardess would. "In case of any emergency, please jump out of the nearest window!" None of us were sitting with a straight face as N made us all laugh like crazy.

She went on to give us the itenary by asking the driver. "What's for food?" she asked. The driver doesn't know. "OK, he doesn't know what's for food, but whatever it is, it's edible." More laughter erupted from the back of the bus. "There will be rain there, and G will be showing off his amazing rain dance which he has been preparing for years!" More laughter. N also gave everyone on the bus a chance for feedback. M wanted to know when N will be showing us her ballet skills. Another Filipino guy at the back wanted to know why N was so beautiful, to which N replied "plastic surgery!" It was a constant time of laughter and N was extremely funny with her antics on the microphone!

An hour later, we reached the desert camp, where we moved into the 4x4 jeeps, and we asked for the same driver Mohammad Ali, who took us to Hatta. This time Mo Al was in his hip hop gear and not the local traditional dress. With hip hop music blasting from his jeep, we made our way deeper into the desert while bashing up and down the mini dunes. Two people were not particularly fond of dune bashing, and so many screams were heard from them.

Finally we got to the camp, where we did a bunch of activities. We rode the camels. Held the falcon our hand. Touched a live snake. Tried on the Arabic clothes, where in one case, I pretended to be a terrorist terrorising M! The girls wore the guy's dress, and the guys wore the abayas! We also got henna tattoos made, and I got one made to. The lady putting the henna on me was flirting so openly with me. "Such a handsome guy deserves a big tattoo," and she went on to make the largest scorpion I had ever seen on my left arm!

Dinner was served (which is usually never great at desert safari) and after eating, the dance floor in the middle of the camp came to life. The spotlights went off, with a few disco lights on, and under a million stars visible, people danced under the rain. A few of us got up there, and soon more joined us. It was a lot of fun getting wet and dancing to Arabic, English and Punjabi music. We danced for more than 3 hours. There was also a belly dancing show which was quite amazing.

All in all, by 2am, all of us were tired, and had a long drive back home. The night was still young for those left behind at the camp where they were doing the limbo dancing. Everyone enjoyed it so much (except for the part where one local drunk guy in his shorts was harrasing the ladies with his water squirt gun!), we are looking for the next rain dance which is coming up soon in Dubai.

Mansur
PS Again, I have about 60 pictures, so email me at mansourahsan@gmail.com if you want them.