Dubai


Dubai

Sunday 26th November 2017
Bought a one-day pass (AED 22 dirhams – about £5 each) for the Metro and tram. The tram station was at the base of our hotel – couldn’t be nearer! 








Train-surfed all day, firstly to the old part of town. Visited the various souks.





 
Different parts of town catered for specific items – gold, silver, textiles, cookware, spices – etc.
 

Usual hard selling taking place, but all very polite and chatty, and when realising we were from the UK, the words ‘lovely jubbly’ kept being heard. Del boy has a lot to answer for! One lovely spice seller showed off his shop with pride – giving us smells and samples of a massive range of spices including frankincense, but sadly no myrrh.   Bought only some honeyed nuts, fragrant tea and camel-milk chocolate.







Wandered through to the creek and took a very dodgy water-taxi across to ‘old souk’.  Lovely lunch at a restaurant overlooking the creek – salad nicoise for me with a mint tea.  Watched old dhows plying their way up and down the creek/river, as well as numerous wooden water-taxis.  The building had been one of the original import/export agents in the 1930s and the living quarters for the family was the largest accommodation in Dubai at the time. How things have changed.  
Wandered around the Dubai museum – only about £1 to enter – but full of artefacts from 2000 BC and history of the remarkable growth of Dubai from desert to this massive city built in the late 20th Century.

Pleasant day for wandering around – not too hot and a slight breeze. Perfect.


A bit more metro-surfing took us to the Emirate Mall which was stupendously extravagant and full of things which you can’t possible live without – all the gadgets, lots of bling and trainers embedded with jewels. Yuk. Didn’t buy anything on principle. 









Also watched the weirdest sight of a snow piste with people skiing, wearing full snow gear against the cold….. indoors, in the middle of the desert….. 


So much money washing around here. £10 for a glass of wine – didn’t indulge, and instead bimbled back to the apartment for our own cocktails.


 
  



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