The Beginning of the End

Since I have been so, umm, fortunate to stay in Dubai for an extra week, I thought I should tell you all about the nice time that I've had during my last days in Dubai. The best part of these last days has been that I haven't had to work. Amazing what a difference that makes! During these weeks of funemployment I've beginning to think that Dubai wouldn't be such a horrible place to live, if I had a better job. Or better yet a husband with a good paying job...

Just a few short days after I set myself free from that one bakery job that I used to have, I welcomed a guest that helped me finally enjoy this part of the world. My very cool friend Trish arrived in the morning on April 3rd, and we set immediately set off for a week of fun. Since we had so much fun, I will have to make separate posts for each day. This post is Trish's first day in town, obviously.

I decided to rent a car, so I was solely responsible for driving us around the town, and I do not need to lie about being incredibly nervous about it. When I drive around an unfamiliar city, I like to have a navigator--preferably a navigator who knows which streets are which. Last August I got to drive around pretty successfully, but this place had a good 8 months to move large buildings and roads to make it feel like driving in a whole new city.

So when I made it to the Bur Dubai/Deira neighborhoods without having to backtrack, make a U-turn, or curse the transit authority, I was completely and utterly pleasantly surprised.

The above photos can give you an idea of what one can find in Deira. I've blogged about it a bit before. It was actually the first "touristy" thing I did when I finally got my first day off. Deira is one of the original parts of Dubai so it is not as polished and clean as the main places. Even though it isn't as pretty, it brings in tourists with the dhow rides across the creek; spice, gold, and textile markets; and historical museums with some original houses.

We first walked around the Bastikaya area looking at the home of one of the old sheiks, and it described the architecture and design of typical arabic homes. One feature that used nowadays, except just as decoration, are the wind towers. These boxy towers directed breezes throughout the homes as early air-conditioning.

Then we got on a dhow and headed across the creek for the souks. It was a hot day, and part of me wanted to swim across. Except that I don't swim.

We wandered the souks, bought some spices (frankincense, vanilla, and saffron), looked at the gold jewelry, and avoided the guys selling knock-off handbags. We ate our first Arabic meal of the week: hummous, kebbeh, and shish taouk.

After getting enough sun to get quite sunburnt, we went to the Souk Madinat--a newer souk designed to look old, and with shops meant for tourists with fat wallets.

But it is the place to buy camel chocolate. So we bought some.

We needed to have some beach time, and although the sun was setting we still decided to get some sand between the toes. I showed Trish the beach with the cool rubberized running track. Sadly the tide was too high for cool tide pools are starfish.

I am sure Trish was exhausted having just arrived from NYC that morning, but she was still game for a trip to the Dubai Mall, which frankly is my most favorite shopping center. We met up with some families from church and had dinner at the food court. Not necessarily the most fancy place to eat dinner. But trust me when I say that Dubai food court options have a tendency to be a bit better than your average mall. We ate at Fatburger. It's pretty tasty.

Then I dragged the sleepy Trish through the mall to look at fancy stuff.

And after wandering around the largest mall with the largest fountain, it was certainly time to call it a day.