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Desert safari is a touristy thing to do in Dubai. It has become extremely commercial and mass-produced but still forms an inevitable part of most visitors' itinerary. You drive for about forty minutes out of Dubai, south ( I asked my husband which direction we were heading in and he sarcastically replied that it could only be south since if we drove north we would end up in the Persian Gulf) towards the Oman border in a Land cruiser or some other four wheel drive vehicle and then move into the sandy desert. First, the driver will stop to remove some air from the tires for safety and then start dune-bashing, which is nothing but going up and down and sideways on the sand dunes at a high speed. It's good for some adrenalin rush, I suppose, to those who are into such things.Then you are taken to an open-air camp site in the desert where there is a majlis-like seating in the centre surrounded by stalls on the periphery- for sheesha, henna tattoos, a spot of shopping and after you have partaken of these and other activities like camel ride and sand boarding outside the camp, there is some god-awful buffet dinner, for which you have to stand in a long line. I kid you not, the food is so bad that I carried a sandwich while accompanying my guests. Oh and I forgot to add, a falcon, which is either tied to the falconer's wrist or has a drum tied to its feet to prevent it from flying away, is kept on display. Some people take selfies with the poor bird, I feel like calling the PETA.
Through and after dinner there are 'cultural' performances. Note the quotation marks. Generally there are two: tanoura and belly dancing. Tanoura is performed by a man- who wears a strange costume with a long, flared, heavy skirt, carries a strange contraption and whirls round and round with it, like a sufi dervish. Round and round he keeps on going, till you feel worried for him and finally dizzy on his behalf. His skirt, which is studded with light bulbs (remember Amitabh Bachan's jacket in that old song, sara zamana haseenon ka deewana?) flies up like Marilyn Monroe's (fortunately he is wearing pants underneath) and in some time, the bulbs light up to create a visual pyrotechnic display and you wonder if it's static electricity at work or the dancer has thrown some switch. Some research on Wikipedia informed me that 'tanoura' is what the skirt is called, this dance is in fact related to Sufi tradition (minus the lights) and that the weight of the skirt helps the poor dancer to retain his balance. Of course, none of this is explained in the announcements, that would be too intellectual and high-brow, wouldn't it?
Belly dancing is fairly self explanatory. This remains popular among the men I would assume, partly because of the low cut costumes of the women dancers and partly because of the titillatory dance, pun intended.
So while there are some middle eastern affiliations for these two, even though their current form in the desert safari has probably morphed far beyond their original avatars and probably beyond recognition for the local Emiratis (if any were to drop in- which of course they don't), this time we were confronted by a third performance, which I've seen for the first time- thereby meriting a full post. We thought it was time to go home after the belly dance and tanura, but then there was more music, an announcement, a spotlight in the centre and a tall, dark, handsome man walked into the centre stage. He was carrying a lit up wooden torch in his hand and started dancing with it. Impressive. After some time, he took his shirt off. Much more impressive! It was surprisingly considerate of the desert safari organisers to be so egalitarian, to organise some eye candy for the women as well, after giving the men a sweet treat.
This fire dancer took his job really seriously. He went on and on, performing some fairly dangerous stunts, like drinking up petrol and spouting a huge flame from his mouth! Yikes. There would be a break in the music and you'd think it's over and then the dancer would again jump into a fire or some other crazy thing. After some time, watching this dance started feeling like being a part of an exploitation ring. What did this dangerous stunt (there's no other word for it) have to do with Middle Eastern culture and tradition (My wiki research informs me that this is Polyneisan in origin)? Although the young man's skill and courage were praiseworthy, I found myself hoping that the performance would end soon because I really had no interest in watching someone risk his life for my entertainment. Could the people who banned the child jockeys on the camel races please sit up and take notice?
Have you been to the desert safari? What did you like or dislike about it? What did you think of the fire dance, if you have seen it?
