Abras, Museum and Spice

Today we ventured into the Dubai Museum which is on the other side of the "creek", across from the area of Dubai called Deira in Bur Dubai. The Dubai Museum is actually within an old fort which used to defend the creek and the fishing and trading community there as little as 50 years ago. Dubai was a very small settlement at that time, based mainly on pearl diving, fishing and manufacturing goods for defense such as guns, rifles, bullets, knives and swords.

The museum is very well done with displays of traditional boats, weapons, cannons, textiles and Bedouin ways of living/houses. Underneath the fort is a newly built part of the museum which is very well constructed. It takes you through dioramas of different ways of life, has a video tour of Dubai through the decades and much information on the traditional Bedouin way of life and life in the desert. We both really enjoyed it!

Afterwards, we walked through the Bur Dubai area and visited their souq. We saw many watch shops, shops selling clothing and textiles and stopped in to buy a few Christmas presents! The souq was more like how I had expected them to look like. Wood latticed ceilings, cobble stone path, wooden shutters with wrought iron fixings. Many of the other "souqs" in Dubai and area reminded me more of being in Thailand with rows and rows of shops selling stuff.

After we had finished in the Bur Dubai souq we took another abra across the creek to the Deira side of Dubai. This time again, we were the only people on the abra again. It was a little strange to see the other abras PACKED with people (15-20) and again we were only two. I asked my dad about it when we returned and he laughed and said the normal price for the abras was 50 fills (50 cents) where we had paid 5 Dirhams!!! The guy got a good deal off us!!! (Dumb Tourists!)

Our last stop for the day was the infamous spice souq! It took us a few to find it as it consists of two fairly narrow alleys going in opposite directions. The souq was filled with bags and bags of different spices of all colors and smells, dried fish, dried prawns, and incense, namely huge bags of frankincense. We were corralled by a shopkeeper about our age and he spoke very good English. He was a hell of a sales man and we bargained with him for saffron, sandalwood incense, nutmeg and a ton of cardamom for my chai tea!