Making Friends with Strangers in the Desert

by Sebastian Partogi (Indonesia)

I didn't expect to find United Arab Emirates

Have you ever seen a Hollywood adventure comedy film about an introverted nerd who suddenly gets thrown into a wild adventure among his more extroverted and cooler classmates? Although awkward for the nerd in the beginning, he will be transformed into a more adventurous person by the end of that film. A typical formulaic Hollywood script. I have just been involved in such a formulaic story recently. Having always been timid and introverted my whole life, I am never interested in rollercoaster rides, surfing adventures or parachute jumps. Recently, however, I signed up for a desert safari tour on the sidelines of a trip to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The package takes you out from Abu Dhabi’s Al Khaleej Al Arabi business district into the Liwa desert, away from the skyscrapers in the modern metropolis city through the long al-Hayer road. When I walked inside the car which would take me to the desert, I also received yet another shock therapy. I thought that the tour would be joined by tourists who, like me, were above 28 years old, dressing conservatively. To my surprise, I was joined by a number of Australian youngsters who looked like sporty adventurous people. The tough-looking people looked like backpack travelers with their T-shirts and shorts. I felt instantly out of place with my batik shirt and long pants. Furthermore, a timid person myself, I felt anxious among these adventurous youths: what if I vomited out of dizziness and nausea? Mary, Jordan and Hannah were the most talkative among my traveling troupe. They discussed trendy stuff like sports cars, about which I was dumbfounded. Suddenly I felt so uncool and probably being too old to be around them anyway. I remained silent at the first half of our trip to the desert out of nervousness, not knowing how to connect with these youngsters. But the stiffness broke when Jordan started to greet me, saying his group was from Australia. Upon saying that I was from Australia’s neighbor, Indonesia, he said instantly that Mary, who had sit next to me on that car, was a half-Indonesian whose mother came from East Java. But, just as these Hollywood adventure comedy films show you, the initial calm was usually a false alarm building up to a bigger nerve-wracking situation that was about to follow. After stopping by on a roadside, allowing us to feed camels while I walked by, feeling the sand grains scattered by the wind to caress my face, while marveling at the grand sand dune and the beautiful sand-smokes blown by the wind on the paved road dividing it, my head was about to spin out of control. I had gulped three cups of coffee in the morning prior to the desert safari trip. It obviously did not help me with my nausea as the car swerved up and down, right and left, in the sand dunes’ crazy sloped contours to make its way to the camp, like a rollercoaster. I started to feel dizzy and nauseous. The gastric acid accumulated on my stomach was about to come out. It turned out that Mary was also not feeling well. She asked the driver to hand her a plastic bag. I broke in cold sweat. My hands were shaking as I withstood my nauseous and dizzy sensations while the car still trekked up and down. The desert showed us no mercy; just to demonstrate how enormous nature is. Thankfully, as Hannah checked whether Mary and I were okay, we arrived at the camp. I sat down on the ground, marveling once again at the majestic sand dunes, allowing my adrenaline to dissipate. Apart from our age and style difference, however, the Australian backpackers and I turned out to get along really well. Besides discussing trendy subjects like sports car, like me, they turned out to also enjoy gossiping about their friends, who was dating whom and so on. The full moon that evening was beautiful. I found the nerve-wracking, almost-embarrassing desert offroad race to be worth experiencing, after all.