Al Maha Unique Dining Experience

Al Maha Desert Resort has a fleet of camels serving as hotel limousines. We’ve also borrowed them to take our group photo.

Our Gala Dinner was held in the middle of the desert. After dark, two of us shared a ‘walking limousine’ and it was a 30-minute ride to get to the restaurant. But how the camels or the camel jockey found their way in complete darkness? Well, I really don’t know. Towards end of the journey, all of us became silent until we saw little spots of light ahead of us.

Riding on a camel was fun,
but riding for 30 minutes was somehow boring

How they managed to build a fully functional restaurant in the middle of a desert is something quite beyond imagination. Salad bar, cocktail bar, grill bar – anything you can see in a 5-star hotel in the city can be seen here. What’s even amazing was a flush water toilet. How they managed to build it? Well, they can build a hotel in the middle of a desert, building a restaurant and a toilet shouldn’t be a problem.

The restaurant was completely perfect except without air conditioning as it was outdoor. Temperature was probably around 35°C. It was even hotter after we joined the belly dancers for the traditional Arabic dance. I was highly admired because of my little personal folding fan.

Services from Al Maha Desert Resort were super luxury. The number of waiters were more than the 18 of us. We were served drinks immediately upon arrival and the four-member band started to play Arabic music. There was a camp fire in the middle and fire posts around. I just had a 100% Arabic feel. Our seating area was covered by carpets and table setting was 6 by 3. The restaurant manager came to each of our tables to introduce the dishes just to make sure we enjoy an authentic Arabic dinner.

After dinner, Al Maha was afraid that we would fall off the camels and sent cars and drivers to take us back to our tents. What an amazing Arabic dining experience at Al Maha Desert Resort.

Al Maha Desert Resort

Al Maha Desert Resort is a member of the The Leading Small Hotels of the World. Well they are small in terms of number of rooms, but they are great in terms of customer service, room size and everything. The whole property has 30 tents. Each tent is relevant to a room/suite in a normal hotel. Even the hotel is full, there won’t be more than 100 guests. So we were guaranteed of the most premium level of intensive VIP services.

The following morning, we gathered at the Library and a briefing was done by Gavin and Danielle. They were our barters as well as guides. Actually they were very good at multi-tasking and did whatever we wanted.

I am going to skip details of our meetings, because I’m here to talk about my unique travel experience and not to promote our headhunting business. The group meetings were held privately in a place of our choice within Al Maha. The four of us – John (the boss), Leon, Rita and me gathered at John’s suite. I am not quite sure what type of a suite it was, as at Al Maha, there are four types of suites, namely Bedouin, Royal, Emirates and Presidential. My boss is always luxury for everything, so I assume his suite was the best.

The interior design of my tent is basically the same as a suite, but just smaller in size.

Indeed it was the most luxury suite I have ever come across. At the main entrance, there was a courtyard and a fountain with one bedroom on both sides. These are bedrooms for helpers, not for the host. I assume whoever travel with two helpers must be luxury travellers. Inside the suite, the living room is like the size of a basket ball playground overseeing the private pool. Of course the pool size is much larger than the one at my room. The double bedroom was shared by John and Peter, the other single room was occupied by Leon.

Well, this is only the beginning of my amazing journey at the Al Maha Desert Resort. I have here clipped a video to introduce the Suite Bedouin – just to give you a quick preview of its unique Arabic interior design and the associated environment. The video is nicely taken, however without music background. Please bear with it.

I have browsed Trip Advisor and found that Al Maha Desert Resort is enjoying almost unanimously 5-star rating, which is quite rare. You might want to click and read the reviews.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I shall continue posting about my amazing journey at Al Maha Desert Resort.

Arrive Into Dubai

Departing from Hong Kong, it took us 8.5 hours to arrive into Dubai, including a brief stop at Bahrain.

It was my first time to the Middle East. My first impression was ‘hot’. Arriving into Dubai by midnight, but the temperature was still high, probably over 35°C. Dubai airport was quite big. It took us almost 30 minutes to walk to Immigration. UAE is a rich country, hence don’t care about a visa fee. We could all obtain our visa upon arrival. More about UAE visa.

To continue our journey to Al Maha, we had to wait for the four-wheel drives which took us almost an hour’s waiting time. The driver was complaining that the traffic was badly controlled and he was unable to pick us up though he saw us waiting.

Driving in darkness in the desert was a new experience to me – there were no roads, no traffic lights, no road signs and only sand around us. I had a feeling of unsecured because our safety all depended on the experience of the driver. In about 40 minutes, we arrived at our destination at last – Al Maha Desert Resort.

Wow, I was completely exhausted, though we travelled on business class. The welcome drink became the most treasure thing in the world. Though I realized that Al Maha was quite an unusual place, I just didn’t had the energy to examine it. The water heater needed to store water first. I therefore decided to give up my bath as it was already 3am and I had to attend our business meeting at 9am sharp the following morning.

Anna's Luxury Recommendation

Dubai Luxury Hotels

Anna's Amazing Journeys

Amazing Journeys

I have many amazing journeys which are unforgettable. My blog is here to record them and to share my travel experience with the world. Someone wrote this in his travel book: other people’s experience in a strange place is your best travel guide. Indeed, I hope my travel experience will help to add value and fun to your next journey.

I used to work for a headhunting firm and my company had brought me to a number of extraordinary luxury offsite tours in different continents. Apart from these corporate amazing journeys, I am going to record along with my personal travel to some of the most attractive places in the world. All destinations in this blog have one thing in common: uniqueness. Some of them are quite luxury.

To summarise my unique and luxury travel blog, here are my journeys to:
· Al Maha Desert Resort – Dubai, UAE
· Ulusaba Game Reserve – South Africa
· Istanbul, Izmir – Turkey
· King Pacific Lodge – Canada
· Road to Mandalay – Burma
· Midnight Sun – Norway
· Southern Alps – New Zealand
· Altitude Yunan – China
· Great Wall of China
· Penguin tour – Kangaroo Island, Australia

Amazing Journeys