Dune Bashing (walking the talk)

i think i mentioned last time that we are working with the marketing branch of al futtaim to put together a mock campaign launch for the fj cruiser (i wish this program had spell check ...). anyway so we collected information from the client (UAE toyota) and presented to khaled, the head of creative here. over the course of the day they put together some concepts that we could use to turn around and present to the client as part of the marketing campaign.

some of the ideas they came up with seemed pretty good, here is one of the ads they put together for us based on our presentation

i thought that it was pretty good- the catchphrase of the campaign was that the fj cruiser is the "ultimate rugged off road performance vehicle". at the end of the day we (haider, majid, and myself) gave a presentation to the client to share with them the creative concepts from our firm. given that we had only 4 days on the job, and only 30 mins to put together the .ppt, i think that it went pretty well.

so since we had been talking about the FJ cruiser for 4 days straight and sellings its off road merits to our hypothetical clients all afternoon, we had to test it for ourselves. majid got his hands on a cruiser and we went with ali out into the desert to go dune bashing.

so this software kind of sucks... it just deleted 20 min worth of typing ***now 2x***. ok, recap the lost story: we drive out 30 minutes from dubai and go into the desert. it is unlike any other place i have been. there are red sand dunes with a surprising amount of greenery (mostly shrubs but some trees too). we go off the road and into the desert. majid is clearly an experienced driver, within no time we are flying through the sand, driving next to cliffs, and sliding down dunes. we make our way to the biggest dune in sight and start taking turns trying to go up. we go 2 at a time (because the car is lighter that way).

so ali and i were waiting for majid and haider to go up, they go over a hill and we wait 20 min for them to come, but there is no sign of them. eventually we get a phone call saying that they are stuck. in the sand. and we have to *walk* over to come help.

so ali and i start walking the distance it took them 20 min to drive and we start talking about his home in india, his family, and his work over here in dubai. he is 38 now and has been working in dubai since he was 19. his family still lives in india, with his current job, he is able to go home 2 mo every year to visit his wife and kids (6 and 2). so as we are hiking across the dunes as the sun is setting and ali mentions to me that this is the time of the day that the snakes come out. but only by the rocks. i look to our left and we are walking next to a rock-lined cliff.

so we make it to the beached car and manage to avoid any more trouble. when we arrive there are 2 other westerners (brits that were bashing as well) there to assist. we push the car out and then continue with our adventure. we drive to a more secluded dune and we get out to enjoy the night view. from the dune we can see all of dubai and sharjah (the 3rd biggest city in UAE). majid tells us that he came out to that very spot on new year's eve and he could see 8 different fireworks shows. we sat in the sand (it was still hot - burning hot once you dug your hand in once inch under the top) and looked at the stars in the clear sky.

the only drawback to the picture perfect setting was that there was litter all over the desert. it is a very popular destination for tourists and locals alike. they go out to barbeque and just use the desert as the trash can

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tomorrow we start our first day at dubai festival city (dfc). omar built it, of course, and it is a city within dubai. it has the ikea, ace hardware, newest shopping mall, the four seasons and W are going up there, the intercon is already there and it's where we went for dinner (at the golf club) the previous night.

i'm not sure what out main agenda is, i guess we will find out tomorrow. i think we are supposed to take a helicopter tour of the city as a whole, but that may not be the case any more because the presidents brother (this only works as a link without the apostrophe, so bear with me) just died in a heli crash. of course i will bring my camera (and maybe parachute?) just in case we do go.

also today we rushed into the mall to get passport photos for our japanese business visas. we will be there in less than 2 weeks!!!! hard to believe.

already past midnight, have to wake up soon.