So, this morning, I was able to secure a spot on the inland sea picnic. For $27, it was an excellent deal. The 20 of us split amongst 5 SUVs and drove out to the coast. Although we had to wear long sleeves, long pants, and closed toe shoes, the drivers did not. Go figure. It took us about 45 min to get out to the sand dunes. On the way, we got to see a little bit of some of the apartment complexes from a distance. Lot of construction going on, pretty clean and nice Arabian architecture that reminded me of the Alhambra in Spain.
The sand dune driving was a trip. Our driver, Shyam, from Sri Lanka (the other drivers were from Ethiopia, Egypt, and Pakistan) was really good and took us ripping across the dunes at angles that I was sure were going to make us rollover. We finally ended up on a bluff overlooking the coast -- impressive.
Then we drove down to a semi-permanent camp with A/C tents, volleyball court (that no one used), showers, and an eating area. For the next 3 hours, we did whatever we wanted there, but mostly, people just swam, laid out (but the sun was extremely hot and anyone who was follish enough to suntan will pay the price tomorrow), ate, or read.
The water was beautiful. Light shade of blue, then turned into a dark turquoise when it got deeper. What was most unique about it was the salinity, which was so high that some of the women were able to lay back and just float. I tried and failed, getting a nose full of super salty water. I highly recommend you not try this.
I felt sorry for the two bored looking camels that had been there all day, so paid $5 to ride one and get some pictures.
When we came back, the entire carfull of people was really subdued because people were just worn out and sunburn-fatigued. Good day.
I had hoped to make the evening trip to the mall, but no luck - already full. Apparently, it's a place where you can ice skate.
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