Exploring Dubai ... (part 1)

Next day, we wake up early to get our breakfast and ready to go. The schedules for today were quite heavy. There are many places we wanted to visit. Luckily, they are all in an area of about 3 square miles, not to bad for walking. To our surprise, it was raining again for 2 consecutive days. It's a very rarity in this country with nothing but scorching sun and desert wind.


 The very first stop is Dubai Museum. It's situated near Port Rashid, at the Al Souk Al Kabir area. This area had been well established for centuries before the modern day. Like any downtown in the U.S, it's quite crowded and rowdy with cars, commercial trucks, buses, pedestrians and of course, the tourists.

 The museum is pretty small in size. I don't think it is bigger than a few hectares. Inside, there are not much artifacts, and they aren't attractive. By the way, the United Arab Emirates is a very young, and newly formed in 1971. There are not much to see in this museum. Its history is dating back roughly about a couple hundred years.

The museum was built like a mini fortress of the Medieval time of a small town, even though it was built very lately over 200 years ago in 1778. In term of defending, I don't see much if at all, dues to its low and poorly constructed walls. The weapons seem to be a mix of ... well Medieval time. There are 3-4 wings, which display antique monuments such as pottery, weapons, tombs, buildings, ship building, and manufacturing of shipping equipment.


In the center of Fahidi Fort lies a spacious yard that is used for displaying models of local boats and bamboo houses with their traditional furniture. It won't take more than a couple of hours to explore this museum.

We left the museum to explore the surrounding area, which filled with small shops, and restaurants. The shops here are very unique. They aren't called shops but trading posts. Once you get inside, they sell things, no trading.

 
We got in a Taxi Cab to get to the famous trading post of all in Dubai called The Gold Souk of Dubai. There are quite many Souks in Dubai depend on what you are looking for; Spice Souk, Incense Souk. Gold Souk is an old trading post, where people gather to sell and buy gold, platinum, silver and other valuable items like rings, watches, and other heirlooms.






Here, one can find all kind of gold necklaces and chains in big rolls. Some are as big as an electrical wire roll. Every shop displays tons of gold merchandises. 

The Gold souk is every woman's paradise. It's basically a gold market but you can also purchase almost anything from clothes to spices here as well. 


 
 It is easy to part with your money just to get that rare cut gold or diamond, a beautiful and fancy looking ring or an old rare expensive watch . The Gold souk is a series of narrow alleys with small shops almost like a maze. Shop attendants approach you from everywhere like a swarm of bees trying to sell their goods.

 


 


Once, you see an item you like, you have to haggle to get the inflated price tags down. In every travel forums, you would find the same advice. However, while you're thinking you haggled and got the best price, but quite false as you can never tell how much is their bottom price for items you have in your hand. In the end, you got so confused, you don't quite appreciate this practice at all. 

 







Things they sell here are 18, 21 and 24 karat gold chains, necklaces, Indian and Middle Eastern clothes, scarfs, silk, suitcases and more. The whole areas are so enclosed and suffocated, so it's pretty hard to spend to much time here.