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The ultimate Dubai experience is a 6 hour sunset safari road trip deep into the desert, and Hormuz Tours Desert safari can take you there. Pack your camera to take your own amazing postcard pics on a great Arabian experience.
First up, a large eight-seater 4 wheel drive collects you from your designated point, along with fellow tourists in the area who have booked the same trip. The drive heads outside of the city of Dubai - actually straight in to the middle of beautiful wind swept sand dunes which continue into the distance for as far as the eye can see. In no time you are tearing up the desert with some major dune bashing in your large vehicle - keep your seatbelt on!
Next you are sand-surfing down enormous dunes. This is an activity easier than it looks - the sand moves for you, all you need to do is balance on the board and walk back up the dune..and again and again, beleive me - you'll want to!
As the sun sets, dunes are highlighted with a barren mars-like glow, and it's onto a group activity with fellow tourists where seperate tour companies who have been sand dune bashing now join together for the rest of the evening. Under the stars, you'll be camel riding, snapping selfies in authentic Arabian costume, and dining together with fellow desert safarians. Smoke from apple flavoured shisha pipe creates the perfect Bedouin camp atmosphere. You'll sip traditional Arabian tea and hold a falcon. Be painted with a temporary henna tattoo - all part of the tour. Under the night's stars you are then treated to an Arabian feast fit fot for a sheikh, and the entertaining skills of an expert belly dancer who works wonders with swords. The whole evening's experience won't break the budget, there are plenty of tour companies advertising online for around 160 dirhams and up, all Inclusive.
Recommended: Hormuz Tours Desert safari is perfectly entertaining way to explore the culture and landscape of Dubai.
Photos by Justin Steinlauf
It’s not hard to see why Melbourne gets a reputation for being a hipster’s paradise, the city reinvents itself like an aging pop star. When one thing has its day, another springs up. Urban Scrawl conduct daily tours of Melbourne’s CBD, showing you the latest in its ‘underground’ street art culture.
You can’t really call it an underground movement anymore, it’s as present as day and continually changing and growing as the artists populate and evolve.
Starting in Degraves Street in the heart of Melbourne’s city, and pretty much the epitome of its famous café culture, we queue up for lattes and get to know our guide, Zoe, a part-time street artist (of the stencil variety) and passionate lover of the city’s outdoor galleries. Along the way we learn about the different sub-cultures of street art from stickering, to paste-ups to mosaics, to larger than life murals.
“It’s so common now,” Zoe says, “that it’s actually becoming mainstream.” She explains that it’s not uncommon for a bride and groom to shimmy down the lanes to have their wedding photographs taken.
My favourite pieces are the pop culture references, everyone from Michael Jackson to Biggie Smalls and even ex-Prime Minister John Howard and Ned Kelly. “Street artists are the bushrangers of this century,” says Zoe. Which, if you look at a lot of the art, seems true. They have this ‘stick it to the man’ feel. Or perhaps they just all want to be like Banksy, who has famously made Melbourne walls his canvas in 2003.
We learn that there’s even a subversive rivalry between artists, Zoe tells us how disrespectful is can be to go over other’s work. Although you’d be hard-pressed to find a blank space on the walls, so naturally this happens constantly. Some of the detail is astonishing, as are the heights these artists get to, usually in the dead of the night to create their work.
Hosier Lane is one of the most famous spots for street art and it’s here that we get to see an artist at work, because (unlike other cities) it is actually legal in some areas. Armed with a permit and their paint, they go to work in front of the public. It’s like a living, breathing exhibition. Never has watching paint dry been so fascinating.
Tours cost $AUD25 urbanscrawl.com.au
Journeying by rail to Australia's Red Centre is hardly the fastest way to travel - but that's exactly why thousands do it. The Ghan has been crossing the desert from Adelaide into Alice Springs for more than 70 years, but these days it also collects passengers from Sydney and Melbourne. We boarded the Ghan in Melbourne after flying from Sydney.
It is one of the greatest ways to experience the Northern Territory Outback while not leaving the human comfort-zone of bunk beds, cooked meals and proper bathroom facilities. For those intent on having a motoring holiday but not wanting to risk a breakdown in the desert on the way, it is also possible to take the car aboard.
The Ghan inherited its name from the Afghan camel drivers who arrived in Australia almost 150 years ago to transport goods through the inhospitable terrain. Telegraph linesman later relied on camels before they were replaced by trains in the late 20s, when the Government decided to build a railway line.
The 1 1/2 day trip is one of the best ways to appreciate the vastness of the land. Panoramic windows in each of the cabins ensure passengers do not miss any of the sights, in daylight at least. There is also something to be said for the old-fashioned feel of the wooden-panelled interiors and uniformed conductors strolling the corridors.
Passengers ranged from families with young children, couples and backpackers to pensioners and war veterans. For most, it was their first trip, although one train buff named Frank, a war veteran, said he'd made the trip more than 10 times, simply because he relishes the experience. He doesn't even get off at the Alice but stays on board for the return journey.
We travelled overnight to Adelaide, with the few hours before bedtime spent in the lounge car, swapping travel tales with the other passengers and taking advantage of the bar. While some of the guests retired to the smoking lounge for port and cigars, I decided to give in to sleepiness and crawl into my first-class cabin bunk-bed where, despite the rocking and odd bump, it was surprisingly easy to sleep.
Brilliant sunshine blazing through the window took the place of a regular alarm clock, waking me naturally. But for those who might otherwise accidentally sleep through breakfast, a friendly announcement is made before food is served. Meals on the Ghan, unlike pre-prepared airline offerings, are cooked by on-board chefs and range from bacon-and-egg breakfasts to gourmet dinners. Later that night a grilled lime and ginger snapper went down extremely well with wine for dinner, while a picture-perfect orange sunset provided the backdrop in the restaurant car.
The Ghan passes through several key tourist spots on its way from Melbourne to Adelaide, including Geelong, the sandstone ranges of the Grampians, Victoria's wheat district and Bordertown. We arrived in Adelaide shortly after 10am and disembarked to explore the local sights for five hours before starting the final leg of the trip. There's a choice of tours but we decided to hit the local shopping strip before enjoying a long lunch in one of the city's many restaurants. The most scenic leg of the 2387km journey is from Adelaide. The lush green coastal vegetation rapidly turns more scrub-like as we pass by spinifex plains and salt pans across to the rugged MacDonnell Ranges.
Just in case of monotony, I had brought some books. A conductor took a bet that I would not get through one. He won. It is amazing how satisfying it is simply to watch the landscape, the changing colours of the sky and the sunset.
Most travellers watching their budget choose the day-nighter cars with reclining seats. But for those wanting a proper bed, sleeper cabins are available with almost all the facilities of first class, the only difference being they have to share a bathroom.
Overseas travellers are expected to make up the bulk of passengers on the Ghan when it embarks on a new route to Darwin. Construction on the long-awaited link has started and is expected to be completed by early 2004.
A Top End Club has been established to register the names of people who want to be first on the Ghan's historic first crossing to Darwin. But for us, when the Ghan rolled into the Alice Springs station at 10 am, everyone disembarked to begin the next leg of their outback adventure - everyone, that is, except Frank.
Our writer Linda's outback travel tips