Bur Dubai and Deira

The hotel is super nice. Huge bathroom with marble everywhere, the wall between the bathtub and room is a window with automatic blinds. Flat panel TV, soft sheets, bathrobes and slippers! All for the low low price of $450 a night. Good thing Intel is paying! We will come to learn this is standard for Dubai; it is very much a Vegas-cum-Disney-esque city. Shopping is the top tourist draw, it's clean, sophisticated, chic, and over the top but sanitized: no swearing, gambling, PDA, alcohol, and lots of theme parks and adventure excursions.

I went into the old city area called Deira for my first day. The streets in the Spice and Gold Souks are a warren of small shops lining the twisting alleys. At first I was reluctant to take photos after reading that Muslims should be asked permission first. But I did manage to sneak a few and throughout the week became bolder. The city was founded at the mouth of the Creek which flows into the Arabian Gulf (you don't want to be caught saying Persian Gulf around here). Most of the old rebuilt and revitalized buildings are on the east side of the Creek. I then took an abra, which is a low boat built to ferry the local workers, across to the Bur Dubai side. Here was the Textile Souk, several mosques, an old fort and the old palace rebuilt into museums. The palace museum was fantastic. Not only did I get a glimpse of the architecture and lifestyle, but the museum had lots of old photos and information on the history and culture of the area.

There were 3 noteworthy mosques right in a row along the same street. One Iranian with cool onion-domes on the roof, an Iranian completely tiled in beautiful colors and patterns, and the main Grand Mosque. The old fort museum also had some interesting displays, but I was entranced by the calls of the muezzin for the midday prayer and whizzed through the exhibits to get back out to witness the people coming and going from the mosques. Listening to the various adhans playing from loudspeakers from the surrounding mosques, in the 95 degree humid heat, in a city surrounded by people in traditional dress and signs in Arabic everywhere, was very surreal. Very amazing.

Pictures of my first day are here.

The shock of Abaya-land

Jason has the privelege (though he certainly doesn't think of it that way) of going to Dubai for a conference. Of course, I am not going to pass up this opportunity and will accompany him for the week's excursion.

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While being ferried from the plane to the terminal by bus, we passed a man wearing the traditional Gulf clothing which is a long white robe called a dishdasha (the long black robe worn by a woman is the abaya). That, coupled with 5 Indian ladies vying to get into the bathroom stalla after I emerged (they should try holding a "stand in line day" like in China), made me realize I was definitely no longer in Kansas. During my other travels in Asia I felt a complete foreigner - no way to blend in! - but here is a little different. I definitely look like a foreigner, but with the current political situation I feel very conspicuous and am very sensitive to my appearance and behavior. I certainly don't want to offend anyone here!