The mosque has tours for non-Moslems at 10am, 4 days a week and I’d hoped to take the tour, but our timing wasn’t suitable.
Jumeirah mosque
I found out later that the tour was a closed door, hour and a half event with long descriptions of the finer points of Islam, so it’s probably fortunate that we missed it since our time in Dubai was already limited. Next we moved on to the Bastkiya district, mostly reconstructed buildings in the ‘old Dubai’ style, the area was originally settled by Iranian traders, now it’s pretty sterile and we didn’t find much of interest.
Entrance to dubai Museum
We left the Bastkiya district and drove through heavy traffic to the Dubai museum and fort, a mix of basic reconstructions and video presentations, the undersea depiction of pearl divers was quite well done. We spent 40 minutes walking through the successive areas, plenty of time for a quick look. Jameel was waiting at the exit and suggested we take a 10 minute walk to the Dubai Creek where we wanted to hire a river taxi for half an hour. The walk was interesting in itself, as we skirted the ‘old souk’ area, absorbing the everyday business of life. I was surprised that there were so many people walking on the street, though I don’t recall many native Dubai-ers, it seemed to be mostly Indian/Pakistani and Europeans. All of the everyday work is done by temporary workers from other countries, the original Dubai-ers ‘work’ mostly in government positions.
Izzy and me at the Dubai Creek
We waited in the shade while Jameel negotiated our river taxi cost, 60 dirham (about US$17) for all six of us. The dock area was packed with people and boats coming and going, all full of travellers, so we had a strange feeling when our large boat pulled in and a path through the crowd was cleared for just the six of us to board, others who attempted to board were prevented. We pulled clear of the dock and headed out into the river, the boat would normally accommodate 20 to 25 people, it was no more than a wooden deck about a foot above the water with a long back to back bench down the middle, an engine in the centre and a canopy overhead. It was a great way to see the city from the water and we were free to move around for photographs, though it required some care as there were no rails or anything to hang on to.
sailing up the Dubai Creek on our water taxi
Izzy on the water taxi
After 25 minutes, we pulled into the dock at the spice souk, paid the boatman and wound our way back and forward through the alleys, Jameel had provided some directions on where he would meet us. The spice souk gave way to a more general souk and after heavy but friendly bargaining I took advantage of an offer from a small clothing vendor and bought a thobe, the long Arabic robe, complete with ghutra and lgal (head cover and rope type thing).
The spice souk
We continued on into the gold souk where the ladies did a lot of window shopping ‘til suddenly Jameel was there, he had found us amongst the thousands of busy shoppers. After a bathroom break, we decided it was lunch time and soon Jameel dropped off at the main entrance to the Mall of the Emirates.
The mall houses a massive winter setting complete with ski slope, while the temperature outside may be 38 degC, inside it’s a constant minus 4 degC, we spent some time enjoying the winter scene and thinking of home where it had snowed just recently, life is tough. We found a food court and made our choice for lunch (New York fries for me) and after some shopping, we met back at the mall entrance.
Driving down the trunk of the Palm
Contrast in Dubai, bikini clad woman next to burqua clad woman in the Atlantis hotel
After a drive-by of many of the royal residences and more affluent neighbourhoods, we headed out onto the Palm, a massive man-made island/peninsula in the shape of a palm tree jutting out into the Persian Gulf. We drove down the length of the trunk, under the tunnel at the end and arrived at the Atlantis Hotel, the building furthest out into the ocean.
Me outside the Atlantis hotel on Palm Island
We took twenty minutes to check out the hotels interior and then headed back to the mainland and along to the Burj Al Arab for a brief stop at the entrance and then on to Jumeirah public beach for further views.
Me by the Burj Al Arab
The Burj is the iconic, sail shaped building, known world wide as the only 7 star hotel in the world, we couldn’t confirm that claim as entrance to the interior is strictly limited to paying guests and at $120 each for afternoon tea, we decided that a view from the main gate was good enough.
Burj Dubai (from 2 separate photos)
Our last stop was possibly the most spectacular, the Burj Dubai, 818 metres (2684 feet) of gleaming steel and glass, tallest structure in the world, it was awe inspiring, unbelievable to see how high it stretches above all the other skyscrapers in the area, I didn’t expect to be so impressed, but it really is impressive. We stopped at the Palace hotel which afforded great views of the tower and had nice grounds of its’ own, we were too close to the tower to get it all in one picture, so I took it in sections for joining later. By then it was around 05.00pm and we were ready to get back to the ship, so about 40 minutes later, Jameel dropped us off back at the dockside, he was a great driver and we were very happy with his service, he went way beyond driver duties and made our visit stress free.
Dubai is truly dazzling, everywhere is new and sparkling, presently there‘s $93 billion in construction underway according to our guide. Entire areas are just a forest of cranes and new construction, the opulence of palaces and royal households and new buildings, one trying to outdo the next, is amazing
Back on board, I fell asleep and didn’t waken ‘til sail away around 09.00pm when I went up to have some pizza, Izzy had already eaten with Doreen and Bob.
