Dubai – Thursday 5th April

This is an amazing city.  It was founded in 1833 by 800 members of the Bari Yas tribe who settled at the mouth of the Dubai Creek.  They lived in traditional houses made out of woven palms and developed a centre for trade in fishing and pearls.   By the start of the 20^th Century there was a flourishing port with 350 merchants in the souk, making it the largest marketplace on the coast.  In the 1930s a trade in gold was established and oil was discovered in 1963, making the city very wealthy – rapid expansion followed.  The British were in the area until 1971 (I don’t know the history here) and the United Arab Emirates were formed at that time – comprising Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajam,Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah.  The population in 2010 was 2,262,000 – it has an area of 3885 sq. Km – about the size of Suffolk.

City Centre with Burj Khalifa on the far right

We left the ship at 8 am with the aim of exploring the older part of town which spans the creek.  We took a taxi to Al Bastakiya on the east side  - this is one of the oldest residential areas dating back to 1859 and it has been beautifully renovated – the houses are now home to cultural heritage offices, art galleries and a couple of up-market guest houses – all were open to the public to view. There is also a mosque.  It was lovely to explore before it got too hot and before there were any other tourists.

In Bastakiya

From there we walked to the Dubai Museum which is in the restored Al Fahidi Fort – this had some very atmospheric exhibits depicting life in the days before the discovery of oil  (i.e. all the traditional occupations).  There are also artefacts from tomb excavations going back 5000 years.

The Creek separates Deira and Bur Dubai

We walked through the restored souks down to the waterfront to cross the creek in an Abra (water taxi) – a great ride for 20p, reminded us of the gondola ferries in Venice.  On the other side there are other old buildings such as the Al-Ahmadiya school, but we were mainly interested in seeing the gold souk – every shop dripping with thousands of pounds worth of 22ct. gold – and not much in the way of security.  We asked the price of one small pair of earrings and they were 500 pounds (though with bargaining we could no doubt have got them cheaper) – gold is so expensive at the moment!

Just Looking!

View from the Top of Burj Khalifa

We found a nearby metro station and took the train which runs the whole length of the city (must be about 8 miles).  Most of the route is on an elevated track so you can get quite a good view of all the skyscrapers.  We stopped at Burj Khalifa as we had bought tickets to go to the top of this tower – the tallest building in the world (over 800 metres).  Surprisingly the metro is not quite linked up with the Tower and there is quite a long hot walk to the Mall which provides entry to the tower (a bridge is under construction).  The Mall is huge and very spaced out, we didn’t spend much time looking around but it seems to be full of all the usual western designer shops plus some more with a middle eastern flavour.  The viewing platform is on the 124^th floor and not surprisingly provides impressive views over the city.