Qasr al Sarab

I had an offsite workshop on Wed and Thursday last week at the awesome Qasr al Sarab resort at the Liwa desert. It's basically a resort developed in the middle of the desert, about 2 hours drive outside of Abu Dhabi, 20km from Saudi Arabia. Link here.. http://qasralsarab.anantara.com/

Getting there was an adventure itself! We got lost along the way, trying to find the road that leads there..just like Malaysia, there are no signs. We did see 1 sign, and took that turnoff, but then of course, after that there are no more signs so we ended up driving until we came to a pool of cab drivers. My colleague who speaks hindi gets out and asks for directions. There is a huge commotion, lots of shouting, waving of hands and finally the asking of some moolah! It was hilarious, I of course stayed in the car being the only female..the taxi guy did lead us to the right track finally!

On the way, we saw camels walking along the desert. It was amazing for me, just like what we would see in the pictures. There is no herder either, the head camel seems to know where to lead the herd too, and there are like 20 camels in a herd. It was surreal, I wished I could have taken a picture but we were going at 150kmh so not a good idea.

The resort itself is amazing. It stretches 1.8km from one end to the other. I stayed in a basic room. By basic I mean it included a nespresso coffee maker, lots of fruits, dates, sweeping views of the desert and a huge deep bathtub that took 25mins to fill! There are villas with private pools, and a royal pavillion which is where all the sheiks stay. The views are amazing, it changes colour throughout the day. While it's not cheap, I really think it's a once in a lifetime experience. I'm glad I got to do it for free though I was cooped up in a boardroom for the whole day.

Pictures coming on my flickr site soon..