Wayyy back in October it was "Islamic New Year" and we had a 3 day weekend. John and I decided to take the metro to Dubai Creek to visit some of the souks. A souk is a market or bazaar - and you can spend hours inside of them wandering around and admiring the lovely items. However, be prepared to be harassed by the shop keepers... they will drape pashminas over you as you walk by, calling out to you in multiple languages hoping that you'll respond and walk into their shop to buy something! John got called "Hey Jack Sparrow" a few times and I received several calls of "Hey Shakira, you want a pashmina?" All you can do is laugh it off, avoid eye contact, and keep on walking!
Anyway, unfortunately for us we do not live on a metro line. The closest metro stop to us is around 11 km away, but you can do a "park and ride" there. The Dubai Metro is the world's longest fully automated (no drivers!) metro system in the world. There are plans to expand the metro closer to us but that probably won't happen for another few years. It's too bad because riding the metro is fairly cheap, clean, and less stressful than driving around on these hectic roads!
The reason we took the metro down to the souks was because it is generally very crowded down there and hard to find a parking spot. On our afternoon we visited 3 souks - the "Old Souk" (textile souk), spice souk, and gold souk. We had previously been to the textile souk when we first visited Dubai several years ago with our friend Greg. It was time we headed back for a visit!
At the Old Textile Souk there are plenty of lovely pashminas and other Arabian trinkets but I was on the lookout for pillow cushions. At the souk you need to barter hard. It's like a game... every time you walk away the price drops! Keep going back until you get the price you want to pay! It's mentally tiring and after having dealt with it every time I went shopping in Vietnam, I wasn't really in a mood to barter in Dubai, so I didn't buy much. I just wanted the experience of being in the souk and wandering around. At the Old Souk, it's like you've gone back in time. Wooden boats called abras sail across the creek, ferrying people across for 1 AED (around $0.37 CDN). There are no huge skyscrapers in the area, unlike downtown Dubai. It doesn't even feel like "the real Dubai."
With my purchases in hand, we left Souk #1 and paid our coins to the boat driver who sailed us across the creek so we could visit Souk #2... the Spice Souk. This was the first time we had been there, and it will not be the last! I loved wandering through that place, with the colourful mounds of spices on display outside of store windows, and all kinds of exotic aromas filling the air. Shop keepers lure you into their doorways with promises to try their unique spices. It's a really interesting experience! We ended up getting some sort of incense which smelled really good. I don't even remember what it was... sandalwood, amber? We'll have to go back to try some more some day.
After leaving the Spice Souk we walked over to Souk #3, the Gold Souk. I had absolutely no intentions of buying anything there - I'm not a rich Emirati! The store windows were crammed with displays of gold bangles, gold necklaces, gold earrings... gold, gold, gold! It seemed like most of the people at this souk were tourists just looking to take some photos here like us. After a short time, we left and crossed back over the creek on an abra to have some lunch.
Our lunch spot was a traditional Arabic-looking place with a patio over the creek. It was called Bayt Al Wakeel, and it was really good. The prices were reasonable and it was nice to sit there watching the abra boats. We ate falafel, fattoush, and had lemon mint juice which is very popular here. It was a great way to end an interesting afternoon at the creek!
