We are eagerly looking forward to sleeping under the stars in the desert.
Where will they put all of us? Will we sleep in a Bedouin wool tent of goat's hair?
We watch more people leave.
Soon there is no one left except us two. The entertainment becomes watching the clean up. Dishes are gathered up into plastic bins for washing. Tablecloths are ripped off tables. Garbage bins are filled. Rugs are rolled and cushions are propped against the tables.
The moon is full and we can't see many stars. We notice we're near the airport and a flight path.
What were we thinking?? Who's idea was this anyway?
"You wanted to sleep in the desert," says Wayne, "and I'm trying to fulfill your dreams".
A couple of men set up a Canadian Tire nylon canvas tent for us and fill it with foam mattresses, sheets, sleeping bags, a cooler and a flashlight.
Ma'am, please have a look and tell me if everything is ok. I won't leave until everything is ok.
Who am I...the Queen??
All is fine, thank-you very much, I smile at the man whom I later learn doesn't even own bed sheets.
The cook is going to sleep on the stage. Several hands will sleep on the benches above us. It seems all of the Pakistani men workers are staying the night too. It looks like they live here in the camp around the clock. We listen to them quietly talking together in the dark and listening to a radio. We wish we could understand Urdu.
We are determined to see the stars anyway and get a desert night experience so we put our heads near the wide open door and shortly fall asleep.
In the night I wake and hear a mosquitoe buzzing near my ear. Suddenly I remember a Canadian travel nurse saying, "No need for malaria pills in Dubai unless you're going to be sleeping in the desert."
Dear Lord help!
Wayne's got his sleeping bag pulled over his head. I do likewise.
In the night I hear sounds on the sand by my head, and in the morning there is a loud sarcophany of birds and wildlife...is that a jackell laughing??
In the morning we discover all kinds of interesting tracks made by animals while we slept. Maybe that's why everyone was sleeping off the ground, and maybe why we should have had the tent door zipped shut!
Breakfast of boiled eggs and barbequed weiners, a new jar of marmalade and a new jar of cream cheese, very white squishy bread and an orange drink, instant coffee and tea. When we've had enough and get up, the workers sit and finish off what we've left!!
On the way home with our original driver who came to pick us up and take us back to our hotel appartment, I inocently take out my camera to take a picture of him, as I need a pic of a taxi driver for another post. He instantly slows down to 120 kilometers and quickly puts away his cell phone on which he's been busy texting. Ha! Maybe I've discovered the secret...no words needed, just a camera...to help all these crazy drivers in Dubai to slow down.
