Saturday 26th January 2008
Day 8: Shindagha then home
Oh what to do on the last day of our holiday? With a whole day ahead of us (our airport transfer was booked for midnight), time was definitely not a limiting factor – the only thing for us to decide was what we wanted to do. Over the last week, we'd covered most of the things on our itinerary, so with that in mind we luxuriated a little longer in our hotel before heading out.
With all our suitcases packed and a last dip in the hotel pool, we headed out in the afternoon with a few plans in mind, but happy to make up the rest as we went along.
We decided to explore the historical sites near to our hotel – up until this point, we'd only explored the Little India area and the part of the creek where all the hustle and bustle of the abra crossings takes place. So the first stop of the day was the heritage village in the Shindagha area. The heritage village has been recently restored in a tasteful manner that is in keeping with the era in which they were originally built. It consists mainly of two streets of huts of palm leaves, a mosque and a courtyard. The huts are furnished with artefacts of yesteryear. There were hardly any tourists milling around, and after taking a few photos, we found ourselves making our way to the exit and immediately into an outdoor café overlooking the creek. Supping our iced coffees, we watched various boats ply the waters, and generally watched the world go by before heading next door to Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's house.
Ian flaking out (or getting brain freeze from the iced coffee).
Typical of the late 19th century Arabian architecture, Sheikh Saeed's house stands as if it had been frozen in time – this was the official residence of Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum, the then-ruler of Dubai (1912-58). Nowadays it is a museum that showcases the history and development of Dubai. The area that I enjoyed the most is the exhibition of photos taken around 1950 of Dubai before the discovery of oil. Some of the photos appear to have been damaged by sunlight, which is a shame, but the majority of the photos look sharp and illustrate a Dubai that is in stark contrast to the city today. Many of the then buildings (and there weren't that many back then) were naturally centred around the creek. And over the years the city has expanded rapidly.
Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum's house.
The views of the creek from the upper floor of the house are great and yet again we found ourselves capturing more of this landmark and at the same time trying to get the quintessential 'dhow in foreground' shot.
Having had our fill of culture, our attention turned to shopping. We browsed a few shops in Little India. Every time we passed a shop selling bags, watches, etc, the shop owner would come bounding out enthusiastically and try to lure us inside, and name-drop the obligatory fake designer merchandise he had in stock. Having run the gauntlet of this busy street, we took a taxi to the more classy Burjuman Centre, another of Dubai's many immaculate shopping centres. Here we killed time before heading back to the hotel to wait for our airport transfer - this is what we're doing right now as I write.
Our hotel for our stay in Dubai: the Sea View.
The question is: would I come back to Dubai? Under normal circumstances, I would reply "In an instant". However, with the amount of changes taking place in the city, I'd love to come back in, say, several years’ time to see the ‘before and after’ progress, as it were. Hopefully the next time I'm here, I'll be able to see Burj Dubai, the Metro, the new buildings at the western end of Sheikh Saeed Road and the Palm and World developments all completed. It sounds like a lot to achieve in a short space of time, but there is such a buzz in Dubai that anything seems achievable.