Dubai

Dubai

After sleeping the entire day we headed out into the dusk, in search of the old souk (market) for an evening stroll through the market and city. Alas, all that travel caught up with us and we only made it a sweaty few kilometres before having “Dubai’s Best Pizza” and taking a taxi back to our hotel.

Geographically, Dubai (one of the ten Emirates that makes up the United Arab Emirates, or UAE)  is on the Persian gulf, on the tip of the Arabian peninsula, so I have to say I was expecting heat. What has really surprised me is the humid heat. As we drove back through the crowded night time streets the fat rain drops started falling. Not enough to call an actual rain, but enough to swirl around the dust and leave mini craters in the exposed sand. Our cab driver told us that Dubai gets the tail end of the monsoons that hit India, and when you look at a map that does make sense.

In one way the weather probably helps the inhabitants of the city feel more at home. Dubai and the whole of the United Arab Emirates is the largest immigrant nation in the world. With a population of ten million, less than one million are actual Emirate citizens. (Read, actually Arabic people who lived here before all the building.) The rest of the inhabitants are all escapees from the underclass of Pakistan, India, Philippines. Flocking here for the better quality of life and higher wages. All this crazy building began a few dozen years ago, taking a dusty Arab trading port and turning into a modern buzzing city. Although I would watch this space as I wonder if this boom town won’t be a bust town in the same amount of years in the future. If you look close enough you can see the cracks in the buildings and the peeling paint from poor construction. As Randall put it, like it was all facade to lure the foreign investment money, never to be actually seen except in photos, and lived in by a grateful Pakistani man, sending all his hard earned profit back to his family in Pakistan. It all smacks of the economic model a la John Perkins, if anyone has read his “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man”.....

After a fabulous night of sleep I awoke to stifled giggles. The kids were all piled on the couch with Randall and attempting to navigate the TV. They had a great game of imitating the Bollywood actors and putting silly words into their mouths. Gotta love Bollywood! Classic......

This day I was determined to see more than the flash metal buildings and speeding, honking cars that we saw the night before, so off we went finally in search of the souks. I must admit this is the part where I got us lost, but I must also say in my defence that the map was really, really bad!

Soooooooooo, after an hour of walking through the muggy, dusty heat, along endless roads, with screaming traffic we finally came to our destination. The “creek” is the old part of Dubai. The inlet of water where the Dhow’s come to bring in their wares - the fish, the spices and the goods traded as far away as India and beyond. For hundreds of years this would have been the cutting edge of action for this part of world. Goods trading hands, the smell of Frankincense, Turmeric and Cloves. It’s much the same today, except the HSBC banking tower looms in the back to show where the real trade is these days. It’s all electronic and not quite as real feeling as the real good trades of the previous generations.

We took a small Dhow (local wooden boat) across the “creek” to the old Souks on the other side. For only 4 Durhims (about one dollar) it was a nice little ride, and yes, we were all glad to sit down after my impromptu tour of the streets.

The markets on the other side do transport you back to that older time. I loved watching the kids experience their first market scenario. It is not quite the same thing as the farmers market, that’s for sure. We stopped at a few spice stores just to get the feel of it. Smelling every barrel, it’s incredible. Dried roses, sage, smoked lemons, pepper of all colours. We ended up buying some pistachios and chocolate for the kids.

Getting deeper into the souk, the touristy places die out and glimpses can be caught of the more everyday life that happens, whether there are tourists around or not. The girls were fascinated by the women wearing birka’s and other such forms of traditional head gear. A good lesson in cultures for sure. As we passed a group of happy, laughing covered women out shopping for new bedding it makes me think what those women would think of us western women for wearing pointy stiletto heals and ruining our feet for fashion. All they have to do is wear a hat. Hmmmm.......

Finally we reached the gold souk. Wow. I am really not a lover of jewelry, but this was astounding. The gold was just unreal. Sparkling from every store for more than a city block. We, of course, went into a few. Randall said he’d buy me something if I found something special. The girls all tried on some Arabian head dresses. They had the time of their lives. Even Liana got into the spirit of it, oohing and awing over all the intricate jewelry. When I asked the man how much for the golden head dress Clara was posing in, he replied it was worth 20,000 Durhims, that’s nearly $12,000US! Crikey man, that’s a lot of gold......

I never did find anything I wanted for myself (I know, what’s wrong with me eh?) and we slowly made our way back to our hotel to pack up and get ready to go to our ship.... The one thing I said I’d never do with my kids, travel by cruising, and here I am getting ready to get back onto a glitzy cruise ship. Lordy, what have I done....

Onto the next phase of our trip. A Gaudy cruise ship where we can be with all the partying fools in an autumn of a heyday. But then, as an adult, it may just be fun. And let’s face it, it is the only way I am going to see this part of the world with all my little munchkins in tow.

Over and out for now.....