Weekend in Dubai

This is a boat on the Dubai Creek which lies between Bur Dubai and Deira. Fancy, no? They use these 'ships' to transport products from blankets and apparel to Refridgerators. You can kinda see behind me the boxes just stacked. There is no formal system for unloading, processing and distributing product. I honestly don't know how they do it.

Bur Dubai, which is Old Dubai, has these different 'souks' - outdoor markets. They have spice souk (pictured), gold souk and a textile souk. Looking at the spices, it is really difficult to figure out what was what. I guess I'm just not used to seeing so many choices....Crazy Jane's Mixed Up Salt anyone? :)

This is another one of the outdoor markets. Walking through you saw shirts for 5dhs, which is about $1.50. Shoes for 10dhs and so much other crap. The fashion here is - well - less than desirable, but still. The interesting thing in going through Bur Dubai, and really most of Dubai, is that you very rarely see women. If you look at the picture above, you see maybe two females. All the rest are men. And there are 1000s of them. And not uncommon for these men to stroll down the streets holding hands or hugging. Certainly a culture shock. I did notice, however, that those holding hands only hold on to one finger. The sense of personal space and human interaction and affection is so different than that of the states. It's kinda refreshing.

The architecture in Bur Dubai and Deira is pretty simple with clean lines. Most structures or houses have 'wind towers' like the one above. They are designed to catch the breeze and funnel it into the house. I thought that was pretty brilliant!!

Of course being a Muslim/Islamic country, it is very rare to find Christian churches. Dubai is a little more fastforward than most Islamic countries in that they allow people to practice Christianity. This is one of two (I believe) Catholic schools/churches in Dubai.

Now - what city/country/world is complete without a Pancho Villa's Restaurant! I almost lost it when we ran into this sign walking around Bur Dubai.

AHHH - at the end of a full day of sightseeing, a Stella awaited me at an English Pub in the Arabian Courtyard hotel. Here, I'm enjoying my beer while Muzamil, a practicing Muslim and can't drink alcohol, is drinking a Faux-Tini.

The weekend was pretty great. The weather was amazing. After sightseeing all day Friday, I really wanted to just hang out Saturday. So, I got my book and headed to Chandelier at the Marina Walk - sat back with a Sheesha (hookah) and had some Hummus and flat bread taking in the weather, enjoying my book and people watching.

I will say it is kinda strange not having any commitments over the weekends. The weekend is really open to enjoy whatever I want to do. There is nothing that keeps me in a state of 'urgency'. I'm having a little trouble adjusting to that, only because I feel like I have to be doing something productive. Trust me, I think I'll adjust rather quickly. There will be a few more weekends of enjoying the outdoors before the heat sets in.

Have a great week!!