Sand is my weekend colour

Just as the hot summer starts trotting towards its end, the hopeful conversations about the "burr" begin. While everyone flocks to the malls, the beaches, and the hotels of Dubai in the summer, the winter is a complete contrast.

The Arabic word "Burr" directly translates to "mainland". However, in the U.A.E. it is more commonly used to refer to the desert. Why? The majority of the United Arab Emirates is just desert.

I find it so ironic. The entire "let's go burr" mentality. The country boasts such an amazing collection of things to do and places to visit. It has literally built everything it has today, and most of it is the best in the world, right on this land of barren desert.

Yet, all of the other plans feel feeble and boring. The barren desert is where we want to go!

I believe it has become a challenge for us. To find the best spot to chill on the weekends. Thousands of kilometers of yellow sand. All the same. Yet we argue over the best "spot".

In any state, from any point, it probably will take a maximum of 20-30 minutes to drive to the nearest desert land. Yet we become extremely passionate and have parliament level debates on which piece of the desert would "entertain" us the most.

Just as you may have guessed, the place we end up agreeing on are ones that usually take longer than 2 hours to reach. But if you are on a streak of guessing correctly, then you must know by now that all the choices and long tiring drives are just a poor front for something very special.

Leave your guesses in the comments? I'll tip 1 hive to the first correct guess.

We have grown a very specific ritual when it comes to weekends in the burr. It always begins with a WhatsApp group where we decide how many cars are going, how many people, whose cars are we taking, who rides with whom, and who drives whose cars. This weekend we took 2 cars with 8 people in them.

As always, we found a petrol station to stop by and fix the tires to suit the sands. We bought snacks and refilled the tanks. Then we took off.

The most exciting part is when we actually reach the burr. It's a showdown of who can make it to the top of the chosen sandhill the fastest. It's a show of skill. It also is extra fun when someone gets stuck.

If no one gets stuck then we carry on with the night. Hook up the lights and connect them to the battery. Stand around like a bunch of useless camels and gaze into the darkness. There is something extremely calming about that. The cold sand is like a natural bed of stress balls. The cozy coldness of the desert. It's a mix of everything wonderful.

Eventually, someone gets tired of standing and lays the carpet. The chairs...floor chairs...the back supports come out. A teapot, of course! A stove. Playing cards. Food and snacks. And that's it!

Honestly, there is nothing more to it. The burr is all that I just shared with you. I am trying to think if we did anything more than this but nothing comes to mind. It's always the same. When it gets a little chilly we go and stay by the fire. But that's pretty much it.

Still, it is the best few hours I will ever spend on any Saturday night.

We roast each other, talk about work, talk about businesses, talk about the most ridiculous thing that happened to us during the week. We play cards, we laugh, we joke, we have a good time. All this in the desert. Where there's nothing, we create something.

This time we have burgers. Made from scratch as we sat and spoke to each other. This we take very seriously. Food, I mean. One of our friends got so good at making sandwiches and hotdogs for us in the burr that he actually ended up opening a roadside stall in Sharjah.

Since then culinary skills have been added to our list of things we take seriously, a close second to driving skills. Every burr session someone new is appointed as chef. Somehow, even when the food turns out to taste bad, it still is a good time.

When all is said and done, and we have had enough sand in our mouths, we begin the trip home. Put out the fire, bury the remains, pick everything up and carry it with us until we find the nearest trashcan. We stand around and take in the view and the feeling before saying our goodbyes.

The burr is an exceptional experience that I wish everyone has. It is calm and quiet. It is peaceful and beautiful. It is simple and fun. Maybe the nothingness of the desert is a pleasant experience from the fullness we are surrounded by. But the reality is, it is not the what but the ones we surround ourselves with that make it special.

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