April 20, 2013 Dubai, UAE - Day 2 - Depart 5:00p

Unlike yesterday, it was hot and sunny out. Made for better pictures, but was really hot when the bus was stopped. At least when it was moving you got a breeze. I had my scarf with me and wrapped it loosely around my head and face. (hey, it works for the Arab women) 

We caught the first shuttle bus for the Red Line which is their city tour. It started at Deira City Center and continued to Burjuman Mall (Shops, Bars, Restaurants, Entertainment) and Karama  (Little India, Markets, Restaurants, Vegetable and Fish Market) and continued on to Wafi and didn’t stop at the Dhow Creek stop since we were trying to make the 11:30 walking tour and if we took the 1 hour Dhow, we would have missed that.  

We got off at the next stop which was Al Fahidi Fort which now houses the Dubai Museum. The impressive Dubai Museum is located in the 210-year-old Al Fahidi Fort, and features artifacts from Dubai's pearl-fishing days, and archaeological finds that date back as far as 3000 B.C. It was an interesting museum, but very dark and crowded. I said it was like roller derby in there with people pushing and shoving. YIKES! After the museum we went in search of a cold drink. Their soda machine was sold out and a lot of places weren’t open. We found a little place and ordered a couple of Cokes. Then, we had some time to kill and found a small grocery store and bought some ice cream bars and some water. We are standing out front of the store eating the ice cream when a couple from our ship (Frank & Rita) came by and said we always see you eating. Yep!  

 

 

We met the guide for the Arabian Treasures walking tour and it was a pretty large group. We stopped at the Grand Mosque and then proceeded down a narrow alley with lots of vendors. We then walked on to the Old Dubai Souk. Very interesting! Of course there were a lot of clothes and reams of beautiful cloths. Unfortunately, it was just a walking tour and no time was allotted for shopping. We then got on a traditional Abra boat to cross to the other side of the Dubai Creek. that took us to the Spice Souk. There they gave us time to shop. The guide said there was a gelato shop there where they make it with camel milk so we went off to find it. We go one that was date flavored and one that was camel milk flavored. Both were delicious. The date gelato was really sweet and tasty. 

 

Then the guide took us to the Gold Souk. WOW, some of the pieces were huge and showy. The guide passed out postcards with the picture of the biggest ring in the world. (in the Guinness Book of Records) It’s the world’s heaviest ring made of 21k gold and is over 63 kgs and over 58 kgs of gold. It would fit a wrist or an ankle! It had 1 large diamond flanked 0on both sides by 6 smaller diamonds. 

 it's a ring.....

 

 The walking tour was over and he caught us up with the next stop of the bus. There were 4 of us that wanted to go back and catch the Dhow Cruise which unfortunately was the prior stop and the only way to catch it was to ride the bus around the entire circuit (which we didn’t have time for) or take it to 2 stops later, get off and catch a water taxi to the pier. He said we had time to catch the next one. Ha! We got off the bus and the 4 of us were running and running and it took forever to get to the water taxi. We got on and it was almost time for the Dhow to leave. Since a lot of things were running a bit late we hoped the Dhow had not left. We had to walk a long way to get there and of course only found the empty space where it used to be. So, we had an hour to kill before the next one. We had not had lunch and on that side of the creek there was no place to eat. ARGH!  

We finally got aboard the next Dhow and got some cold sodas and grabbed a seat in the shade. They would start serving food once we started the cruise. It was a very pleasant 1 hour cruise on the traditional wooded Arabian Dhow. The commentary told us of the trading history of the Creek and went by where the merchants have traded for centuries and still do! There were also beautiful modern buildings and the Grand Mosque. We sailed to the mouth of the creek and then sailed back. It was relaxing and picturesque. The Dubai Creek is a saltwater inlet and cuts the city in two and visitors can take a water-bus from one side to the other, enjoying views of the breathtaking shores. 

 

 lunch

 

In hind sight we could have skipped the walking tour and walked the souks on our own shopping as we went, but …… After the Dhow we took the bus to the stop where the souq was so I could shop for about 15 minutes before we needed to grab a cab back to the port. I found a cute pair of turquoise blue harem pants that have black camels on them. Yep, they are tacky! They are comfy and cool with the flowing cotton. I also bought a black and white tunic, but it doesn’t look that great with the pants. It was then time to grab a cab. The first guy wouldn’t take us. He said he didn’t have time, but I think it was because it was a short distance and a cheap fare. We finally got a cab and he had no problem taking us there. We had about 20 minutes to shop in the terminal before boarding the ship. I got my token magnet and something to configure into a Christmas ornament. The only place that we didn’t get to was the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House. 

We made it back for our 4:30 all aboard and got showered and went to dinner and the show. The show was a Musical Comedy Actress named Sally Jones. She has done a lot of stage in London and around the world. She was very entertaining. Great singer and funny. She did some regular songs, but she also took many songs that she sang well, but changed the words to something hilarious.  

Came back to the cabin and worked on the blog for a while and went to bed. Phew, this seeing the world isn’t for sissies. Thank goodness we got to set the clocks back an hour tonight! Whoo Hoo, an extra hour to sleep! We tour Doha tomorrow!