Old Dubai

Today was the day I started sightseeing in Dubai. Unfortunately since I got here, although it’s been warm, it’s been hazy and the visibility has been very poor….and today was no better….so not many blue skies in my photos. After waking up later than expected I headed to the Burjuman Shopping Centre for brunch. This is a massive exclusive shopping centre with shops like Saks of Fifth Avenue, Christian Dior, and Burberry, just to name a few and is definitely one of the ‘tourist attractions’ in Dubai. I had lunch and a wander round there, but once again didn’t buy anything.

After lunch I jumped in a taxi to Dubai Museum, located in the Al-Fahidi Fort which is thought to be Dubai’s oldest building. I am thinking of doing the Big Bus Tour tomorrow and that gives you free entry to Dubai Museum so I was considering leaving this until tomorrow until I discovered the entry fee is 3 dirhams or about 45 pence. I spent well over an hour in the museum and found it very interesting. There are lots of exhibits on traditional life in the Emirates, with replicas of abras, the traditional boat used to cross the creek, and windtowers, which were used for air conditioning in the past, and barasti or palm-leaf houses. There is a replica of a old 1950s souk and displays on Bedouin lifestyles and pearling. There is also a multi-media presentation on Dubai through the ages, including the 21st century which shows all the development that’s going on in Dubai at the moment, like Dubai internet city, Dubai Sport City, Dubailand etc etc etc – far too many to mention.


After the museum I had a walk around the Bastakia Quarter, a heritage site with restored buildings and windtowers which were originally built by Persian merchants in the late 19th century. From there I walked down the creek to have a look at all the impressive buildings (mainly banks) on the other side of the Creek in Deira. Ended up walking much further than I wanted to, trying to get good photos. I then walked back up towards the museum area and had a walk around Dubai Old Souk and passed a couple of more mosques, including the colourful Iranian mosque before deciding to head back to the flat.

One of the annoying things about Dubai is the lack of public transport which means you have to get a taxi everywhere. Taxis are very cheap but difficult to find in rush hour. I spent a good half an hour trying to get a taxi with a number of drivers refusing to take me ‘cos the traffic would be too bad, until one driver finally took pity on me. He them proceeded to tell me that it could take two hours to get back ‘cos traffic would be so bad – but we got back in 15 mins! Good thing too ‘cos Karen was locked out of the flat.

In the evening we decided to do one of the more unusual activities in Dubai – Skiing. Ski Dubai is a huge indoor ski resort build in Mall of the Emirates. It has real snow and 5 different runs, which are very short, but fun. It’s ages since I’ve been skiing so I got off to a rusty start but I was loving it by the end and already thinking about a ski holiday next winter. It was very strange to be skiing right up until 11 at night.

On the way back we picked up some chicken shawarma, a traditional middle eastern wrap, a bit like a kebab. It was a bit of a late night, but I had a very enjoyable day. Tomorrow I plan to do the big bus tour, so need to wake up early to make the most of it.