Thursday 24th January 2008
Day 6: Gold Souk, Wafi City & VUs bar
The alarm clock rang at 6.30 this morning. Granted, this is normally the time I’d wake up to get ready for work, but this is rather early for holiday standards! Begrudgingly, I stammered out of bed, wiping the sleep from my eyes, convincing myself that this would all be worth it in an hour or so’s time.
The chaotic abra traffic across the creek.
I first read about camel racing in the Lonely Planet and it sounded like an interesting activity to go and see. Apparently, it takes place every Thursday and Friday, between 7 and 9am. Here we were on a Thursday at 7 o’clock, bright eyed, bushy tailed and armed with a map and a guidebook. We waited outside the hotel to hail a taxi. The first guy that stopped never heard of the camel racing place before, so we got out of there pretty swiftly. The next chap that stopped had not heard of it either but knew where the horseracing stadium was. Not a problem we thought, as the camel racing is next to the horse racing stadium according to the map.
Off we ventured across the city and when we got to the horse racing stadium, there were no signs to the camel racing. The driver wanted to drop us off there and then and leave. But we were miles from the city, there didn’t appear to be anyone else around and so we refused to get out. We then clocked the caretaker (literally the only person on the grounds) and decided to ask him for directions. I use the term ‘ask’ loosely here as what this basically translated to was pointing at a picture of a man on a camel (found in the guide book) and doing an impression of a jockey on a horse! He seemed to understand and duly gave our taxi driver directions. These directions did not take us to the right location. Having asked two other passer-bys to no avail later, we decided to abandon mission and head back to the hotel. Not sure whether camel racing still goes on, whether it has moved location or whether it starts at a different time (these were all the possible reasons we were hearing!).
We decided to head over to Deira, in particular, the Gold and Spice souks that we visited on the first day. It was definitely livelier, on account of it being earlier in the day (the last time we were here, stalls were about to be closed for the day). The Shopping Festival had also started too. Before you get too excited at the word festival, as I had done initially, what this translates to is basically that the month-long annual sales have started.
This time around we actually got to see the spices being sold at the Spice Market. They looked colourful, especially with the various types contained in their own sacks being crammed into close proximity. There were hibiscus, myrrh, frankincense, figs, vanilla pods, saffron on offer as well as many others.
A wide selection of spices.
As I meandered along the rows of spice shops, various shopkeepers tried to determine where I was from to engage in conversation, and sell me their wares. "Where are you from?" they kept asking me and when I was not forthcoming with the answer (I didn't want to buy anything, just wanted to look around and smiled as if I didn’t understand what they were asking), they resorted to 'Konichiwa'. I think they default to Konichiwa for Orientals they cannot place.
Dubai Museum was the next stop. In some ways, I wasn’t sure what to expect, as Dubai is a relatively new city. However, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw. This compact site (housed in the old Al-Fahidi Fort) showcases Dubai’s history, culture and traditions via dioramas, mannequins, exhibits and multimedia.
Model of fisherman fixing his net at Dubai Museum.
There was one particular multimedia presentation that I found interesting, covering the city’s growth in every decade since the early 20th century. It highlighted how rapidly Dubai has developed over the years. Just to think, it was in the late 70s, that the only sky-scraper, the World Trade Centre, existed in Dubai.
The World Trade Centre was the tallest building in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates in the early 80’s. Since then, things have moved on and new buildings have been vying for the same prestige. No building more so than the Burj Dubai, currently under construction and once completed (scheduled for sometime in 2008) it will be the tallest building in the world. We’ve travelled past this building many times during the past few days and it looks amazing, even uncompleted at 158 floors (rumoured to house 164 on completion). I wonder who will own the penthouse apartment when it is finally completed!
Burj Dubai (thin, pointy building) under construction in the financial centre.
The Wafi City shopping mall, like many others, is pristine. Aimed more at the higher end of the market this shopping centre is definitely more exclusive. What is striking is the architecture – the exterior is styled with an Egyptian theme. There are several replica Ramses, Egyptian pillars, a pyramid styled rooftop on the adjoining Raffles Hotel etc. There is also a gigantic stained glass window, which is visible inside the shopping centre that spans three floors. When the sun shines in, which it did today, a lovely warm orangey glow is cast into the mall.
Statues outside Wafi City.
The taxi journey back to the hotel proved to be an interesting experience too. What is it with taxis and us today? After queuing for a taxi at the Wafi centre, we were relieved to finally get into one, with the hope of beating the rush hour traffic. The taxi took us out of the complex and on to the open road. So far so good, until we heard a scraping noise to the left side of the taxi, as our vehicle stood stationary at the traffic lights. The traffic started to move again, and the perpetrator carried on as if nothing had happened (there seems to be a pattern forming – I’m referring to the pick-pocketing experience on Monday). Meanwhile, the taxi driver was shouting in disbelief while we tried to read the licence plate of the vehicle, and scrambled around looking for a pen and paper to jot it down with. Somehow, our driver caught up with the lady who eventually wound down her window. “What? I thought I hit your side mirror?” she said innocently. Erm no, try a big whopping scratch that covered all three panels. The taxi driver and the other car pulled over. We had no choice but to leave and try to catch another taxi. The problem facing us now was that we were bang smack in the middle of rush hour. We did manage to hail another one - an hour later!
Having spruced ourselves up at the hotel, we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone (i.e. have a night out combined with a spot of night-time sight-seeing) at the Emirates Towers. From the 51st floor of the VUs Bar at the top of one of the Emirates Towers, we could see Sheikh Saeed Road, and generally the sprawling city. My first reaction was “Where are all the other skyscrapers?” but realised soon after that they were all below us. The buildings on this main road looked small from up here – which they are by no means when viewed from ground level. Here we had a few drinks and enjoyed the views from our window-side table, picking out various landmarks across the black glittery canvas. It was a nice way to unwind after such a busy day.
Me looking out over Dubai's skyline from VUs Bar on the 51st floor of the Emirates Towers.