Dubai
What a nice bunch of people.
Given how huge this city is, and how many different nationalities have descended upon what was, not all that long ago, a small coastal town surrounded by a heck of a lot of desert, it surprises me how lovely everyone is and how cohesive it all feels. There is no lack of evidence of the abundant wealth that exists here, and you would hope that prosperity could breed contentment, but it's not always the case. However, almost without exception everyone we met was gracious, kind and keen to help. Except maybe one taxi driver - but he didn't seem like a local.
**Unfortunately took pictures on ye old fashioned camera so having trouble getting them onto my i-device! Will hereafter resort to iphone pics!
Dubai seems to be at the cultural crossroads of The West and the Middle East. While ridiculously expensive cars and ultra high end fashion abound, there is still the 5 daily calls to pray and traditional muslim dress very much in the mix. The old souks and beautiful mosques sit beside gobsmacking architectural accomplishments. Stainless steel and limestone. There seems to be a very accepting approach to most things - from ignorant, scantily clad tourists to the extreme temperatures and hardships brought by this environment. There is almost no crime, no car horns. We watched a woman stop a street sweeper and give him coins for his efforts, completely unbidden. There is respect.
I'm very glad we started our trip here and glad we'll have chance to revisit at the end as I think we may appreciate this place more on the back of seeing the cultures of other cities at play.
We stayed is a strange spot. We were close to the old part of the city but not that close. And away from the newer developments, so not easily accessible to them either. Realistically you can't get around here without a car. We did manage to walk into the old part of the city one night and it was only about 2.5kms but there seems to be a bit of getting lost involved with the winding alleys and market stalls and so it takes a bit longer than you might think.
For me, the old city holds much more appeal and our evening walk into the Spice and Gold souks was the highlight of our stay as far as I'm concerned. On the way in we were pestered to take a look at secret stashes of handbags, watches and pashminas but similarly we watched textile traders at work, locals finding their evening meals, men in white shirt dresses carting huge trolleys laden with goods and we walked past the oldest Mosque in Dubai as the call went out for evening prayer and worshippers dropped their shoes by the huge decorated doors.
We caught a tiny wooden water ferry across the creek for 1 Durham and found ourselves, as the sun set, surrounded by the thick scent of frankincense, myrrh, cloves, cinnamon, cardamon and things previously un-smelt! There were all manner of nuts, seeds, petals, pods, roots and leaves to pour and pick over.
I'm not so naive as to think this was all untouched by tourism, but there were enough non-westerners also out buying spices to make us feel like we were somewhere real. The deeper we got into the markets, the more lost we became and the more you feel like you're connecting a bit with something a bit more authentic, until I realised it was quite some time since I'd seen a female, let alone an un-shrouded one, and then I got the urge to be somewhere "less authentic".
We ended up having dinner at a local food place with other traders and shoppers. Payed a pittance compared to what we were charged for lunch the following day in a very nicely designed and recently built tourist market up the coast a bit.
And I know which meal I will remember.
Our next stop is Crete - home of another ancient culture invaded by tourism - but maybe they rely on it more than Dubai.
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