Dubai Journal 12 - The Gold Souk & Final Night

The posts from here on are going to be non-chronological, given that tonight is my last night in Dubai, and there's still a lot to blog about the time here. On the one hand I'm looking forward to getting home to my cats and friends (and to watching all the DVDs I've bought, lol) - on the other hand there is a certain amount of trepidation at how Jhb is going to feel now that I've discovered how green the grass really is elsewhere.

I'm interested to see how the energy feels after having felt so free and safe for 3 weeks. That's not a long time, granted, but it's been enough for me to grow accustomed to not locking doors and not worrying about what one leaves exposed in cars, and such everyday things that we simply can't take for granted in SA. My good friend Trevor, who left SA a few years back, says the tension in Jhb feels "crushing" every time he comes back for a visit, but he's been away for longer periods - I suspect it will just be a small adjustment for me after so short a time away.

This sense of freedom was further underlined today, when I went out to the old part of Dubai, where all the "souks" (markets) are. Tiny alleyways lined with shops crammed with all manner of goods, in the least savoury part of the city. And yet not once did it occur to me that I could be in any danger of being accosted in any way that could be called threatening - unless you feel that being sidled up to by pimps qualifies, lol :)

Contrast this with Jhb, where we simply DON'T go to certain parts of town - period. It's actually ridiculous that I should feel safer in the really salubrious parts of a foreign country than in the place in which I live! Oh, and it's CLEAN!

Right in the middle of this area (Deira) is the Gold Souk - rows and rows of shops selling gold, gold, and more gold. I'm not a fan of the stuff, but it was amazing to look at. And the incredible thing was that this is essentially a giant gold fleamarket - yet no need for any security whatsoever! Didn't see a single policeman or private security guard in 6 blocks. Not even bars on the windows. These are all small shops, and when the owner goes to the toilet, he just asks his neighbour to look out for any customers and leaves his shop open to the street!!!

I couldn't believe what I was seeing - never seen so much yellow gold in one place in my life - this pic is of one shop window out of easily 70 shops. And this is ALL 22 carat gold!
(Click picture to see the full effect)

Time to get some sleep - booking luggage in at 10am tomorrow so that's done, and the airline will take it to the airport for us - great way to cut down check in time at the airport.

Dubai Journal 11 - Desert "safari"

One of the recommended excursions was the desert safari. You get picked up in at home and driven out into the desert (stopping for the mandatory souvenir shopping along the way - a fair old racket). Once in the desert, the driver indulges in his favourite part of the tour - some sandhill bashing. All the safari operators seem to go to the same place, so that there are around 40 4x4s of all description flying around the dunes at the same time. It turns into "desert dodge-em" and it's great fun. The dunes are steep and the sand is really deep - I have considerable new-found respect for the Toyota Landcruiser. They're incredible machines, and by far the most popular 4x4 in Dubai.


Then it was off to our encampment for coffee and dates, a camel ride, and dressing in traditional garb. Camels are bloody uncomfortable things to ride! And uncharacteristically, I consented to a little dressing up...


Dinner was a Middle Eastern buffet, followed by a belly dancing display. After this everyone except our family party of 6 left - turns out we were the only ones who had booked the overnight stay - sleeping out in the desert was high on my agenda in the first place, and to have the place to ourselves was an unanticipated pleasure. We smoked shishas and drank real Pakistani chai tea round the fire with Noor and Rihan, our Pakistani guides, and then slept.

Here's a pic of where we slept, taken the next morning (you can just see the camp on the upper right - or just click to see a bigger pic)...


I made sure I got up in time to see dawn over the desert the next morning - it was thoroughly worth it!

Dubai Journal 10 - Woolworths

In case anyone was wondering ;)

Dubai Journal 9 - Wonderful irony!

Was taking an ironic photo of a garish little consumer temple called Faith (a shoe shop) - and this gentleman happened to walk past, thus completing the irony beautifully...

Dubai Journal 8 - Ibn Battuta

This is the best looking mall in Dubai, hands down...



Ibn Battuta was a legendary Arab explorer, who now has the dubious honour of having an entire mall in Dubai dedicated to his memory. Perhaps dubious isn't the word, cos throughout the mall are museum pieces and exhibitions covering his travels and discoveries, as well as those of his contemporaries. He alone walked, rode and sailed 120 000km in 29 years. I spent a fascinating 3 hours looking at them all, reading the history, and taking pics (Flickr gallery to follow.) While I was doing this, a couple of educational tours came through - it seems the local colleges send their students to the mall to learn about their history - which should give you an indication of quality of the exhibitions.

Here's an example of one of the hundreds of exhibits dotted throughout the mall - the Islamic Astrolabe:



The mall itself is 1.25km long! (Which means that if you arrange to meet someone there, you'd better specify exactly where - you could face a loooong walk otherwise, lol.) It has 5 "courts", each named after an area the explorer traveled in: Tunisia, Egypt, India, Persia and China. Each court has its own unique decor and they are all exquisite. And there's a Starbucks in every one! Below is the gorgeous Persia court food hall...



This is the Egypt Court:



India Court looks like this:



And then there's China court:



On the way home, I saw a Hummer limousine - what on earth next!

Dubai Journal 7 - New Year

Watched the various hotels competing with their New Year fireworks displays, from across the lake of the villa complex where my brother lives. The bunch on the villa balcony behind us being Australian, it was inevitable that at some point the words "not as good as Sydney" would be uttered. Unfortunately, they were right, lol.

Well, here's to a great new year!

Dubai Journal 6 - Catching up

Shew - been doing so much, haven't gotten around to blogging anything, so now to recap - I'll blog highlights individually...

Spent quite a bit of time in the desert, first just for a night braai and then on an overnight "safari" as they call it. Discovered another stunning mall, Ibn Battuta, which commemorates the journeys and discoveries of a prodigious Arab explorer. Went out to Dubai Creek, the waterway that divides the two parts of the city. Saw Henry Rollins live in a spoken word performance and had the best espresso I've ever tasted (Jamaican Blue Mountain). Met one of my best friends from school days whom I haven't seen in 14 years (he's an architect whose firm has designed some of the pretty famous buildings here, one of which is on a bank note). Did yet another mall, this one called Madinat, with an "old quarter" feel to it. And have now just come back from Hatta, which is in the middle of the Hajah mountain range in Oman - the most jagged mountains I've ever seen.

I bought a digital camera a few days ago - decided that my 1.3 mega pixel cellphone camera wasn't doing the place justice, so I'm going to create a Flickr gallery and will then upload photos and link to them from the individual entries to follow.

Meantime, here's what I mean about jagged mountains.... (it's worth clicking on to view full size)