Dubai Museum

Moving from the Bay Area to Abu Dhabi was a shock to the system.  However, Abu Dhabi is completely tame compared to the Dubai, the Wild West of the 21st century.  In Dubai, the buildings are taller, the traffic is worse, and brunch doesn't start until 6pm. We couldn't very well let our prized guests from Sweden, Katie and Nik, leave without a visit to this...place.  Here are they are, in stunned (and befitting) tourist mode. 

After a trip to the Dubai Mall (biggest in the world, of course), we took the Dubai Metro (biggest or most something, probably) to the Dubai Creek, home of the gold, spice, utensil, and textile souqs.  We found amazing jewels, including this very large bracelet.

The spice souq is on the Deira side; we rode an abra to cross Dubai Creek to get to the Bur side of the creek, where we stumbled into the Dubai Museum, which we had looked for but never found.

There were interesting exhibits of old boats...

...luxury desert housing....

...and signs we weren't sure made sense at a museum.

It was a surprisingly large museum, and we ended up breezing through the last few exhibits.  But we'll be back.  Once we made it out, it was time to grab dinner at Potbelly's (!) and retrieve our car at the mall, which doubtless is also the most crowded in the world.

Dubai Creek

Long before Burj Khalifa reared its glitzy, Armani-studded tower, Dubai was a regional trade hub. (For a sickeningly pretentious account of Dubai's current status as a global hub, see this op-ed.) In the 19th century, the British Empire regarded Dubai as the lynchpin for its middle eastern trade, and entered into an agreement to protect it from other imperial interests. Dhows from all over the region wound up in Dubai Creek, a salt-water meander that splits the city in two (it meanders at such a leisurely pace that Dubai's name, most people agree, derives from words meaning "to creep" or "locust").

Welcome to the Dubai Creek area circa 2013. (Some things have changed.)

The area remains a hub of sorts - certainly the hub of Dubai's hubbub, which is no mean feat. We were reminded of our fond encounters with Nepali traffic.

Others haven't changed much at all. Dhows still line the creek, and the sidewalks nearby are inundated with boxes - of vacuum cleaners, bicycles, flatscreen TVs, and other staples.

From the waterfront, Dubai's newer developments are just barely visible.

Near the banks of the creek on the Deira side you'll find a spice souq.... 

...some souqs about which guidebooks are curiously silent.....

....and (yes, really) a gold souq. Margaret's ring didn't quite fit in.

There was so much gold.

Window after window crammed with the yellow stuff.

We found specialty shops for every taste, filled (for example) with massive, unwearable rings shaped into frogs, snakes, and even (ugh) skulls.

Can't find the skull? Here he is, enjoying his Death Metal.

The glare out on the water was much more bearable (it was just the sun). We took a ride on an abra across the creek. (There are two prices for these rides. One, aimed at tourists, is priced at 120 AED. The other, for people who just want to cross the creek, is only one dirham). Nick sniffed out the deal immediately.

 The creek is full of boats, all making similar journeys.

And not to worry - crossing the creek does not necessitate saying goodbye to the souqs! On the other side of the creek is a textile souq, with the most aggressive vendors yet.

We emerged unscathed, and (remarkably) without any pashminas to show for our travails. Back on the water, Dubai was at its most peaceful.

But only for the length of the trip.

Dubai: Near the Top

We bought tickets to "At the Top," the observation deck of the world's tallest building, Burj Khalifa. It was originally named Burj Dubai, but was renamed after the ruler of Abu Dhabi after Abu Dhabi bailed out Dubai in 2010. (Names here are super confusing. Most streets, for example, are named after Sheikh Zayed in one way or another.)






















Here we are "At the Top."

Well, near the top. Here's what we could see below:



And here's what we could see above:

Before heading to the top, we prowled the nearby Dubai Mall, the world's largest mall. The mall went on for miles. There is an ice rink and an aquarium; we gawked at the latter in great awe for quite some time.



Honey is sold much like perfume - in beautiful glass vats, at almost $100 a pound.



There is an impressive array of designer clothes, including baby lines for some of the major brands. For example:



But most of the miles are full of cake. One of us spent a lot of time gazing at the cakes. There were layer cakes, and cupcakes of all kinds.

 A branch of Magnolia Bakery (though *this* Magnolia will screen print your cake with Disney princesses, which we're pretty sure is a no-go at its big sister in New York).



And the loveliest and most wonderful bookstore in the world. Well, in the UAE. Here Margaret is, in delight. For what did she find? The complete work of Dickens in three different editions per novel, and a full stack of secondary Literary Criticism. Not bad.