Back from Dubai

I started my Dubai trip with an adventure in the desert. We took a Toyota Land Cruiser into the dunes with a group of about forty vehicles. We power slided across dunes and went down hills that were so steep that I thought the back tires might come off the ground in the process.

Here's the view from the edge of the dunes.

Once we were done cruising around the dunes, we headed to a private desert camp where we enjoyed a nice dinner buffet.

Live entertainment included a belly dancer (the image above should show up as an animation if all goes as planned).

The day after exploring the desert, we paid a visit to the markets. You could buy just about any brand of watch or handbag (all fake). The vendors were more than happy to have their photos taken, like the one above who had a huge collection of watches.

Interesting characters greeted us while exploring the gold market. I bought a bottle of water from this gentleman who is posing next to David Nightingale from Chromasia.

Here's an example of the gold that was for sale at the market.

Back at the hotel I had some fun light painting Chris and Jaclyn from cubangroove.com who happened to be staying at the same hotel.

After speaking at the Gulf Photo Plus conference, I headed to Abu Dhabi to photograph the grand mosque with my friend Charlie Borland. On the way there, our cab driver took the wrong exit and decided to back up and cut across the two-lane exit to get back to the freeway. That's when we got t-boned by a small Toyota. The drivers door was smashed in and we were all shaken. The driver of the other car was taken away in an ambulance. This happened within view of the grand mosque and we eventually flagged down another cab and made it to out destination.

Here's an other all shot of the mosque that is a composite of about 35 photographs.

The interior was amazingly beautiful... those little blue specks on the left are normal-sized people.

After returning to Dubai, I looked into using  blogger as a possible replacement for the service I use to host this blog, but had little luck since the site didn't appear in English.

Since returning to the states, I've been visiting friends in San Diego and will be heading North starting tomorrow morning. I'll be making a stop at Vintage Vacations to talk to Craig about the possibility of outfitting a 1940's bus was a new interior. That's just a little research related to a crazy idea I have. I haven't acted on anything yet... I'm still in the research phase. I should end my day somewhere near Los Osos, California which is where I'll be teaching next week.

Comments

[Balliolman]

Fine post, Ben, and interesting photos. Good to know you did not need treatment after the RTA!

Balliolman :)

[Michael Steighner]

Hey Ben,

Welcome back. Glad to hear you didnt get hurt in the accident! Just wanted to mention that I use blogger as well. Seems to work well, but I have considered wordpress as I would like to have larger images blogged like Treys site at Stuck in Customs....any way, welcome back!

Michael S
www.mdsimages.com

[Chad Coppess]

Wow, all kinds of wild experiences! Glad you made it back in one piece.

I use Blogger and like it, but don't have any background knowledge with anything else.

[stijn swinnen]

What an experience! And of course, another series of great images, looks like you really had some fun with your wide angle lens too.

I also find it VERY confusing when websites are translated automatically depending of the location it's viewed. I just returned from a 3 month tour around Europe and many times I had difficulties to login to Blogger and some other websites.