The alarm woke us again today, as we had to have breakfast and get all the way over to Jumeirah for our visit to the Jumeirah Mosque, the only mosque in the United Arab Emirates that is open to non-Muslims. There turned out to be little traffic, however, so we arrived with plenty of time to spare.
When we got there, we saw a sign, which read ‘Strictly no admission to children under 5’, but the man selling the tickets was kind and allowed us to queue for admission after purchasing tickets. We were warned, however, that the slightest amount of crying would see us ejected from the mosque.
Our guide was a traditionally-dressed Emirati fellow, who spoke good English and cracked a few jokes to loosen up the crowd (which was surprisingly large). He proceeded to show us how Muslims perform their pre-prayer ablutions.
It was then time to go inside, so Sarah covered her hair with a scarf and we headed up the steps, doffed our shoes and went inside. The mosque itself was attractive, but not stunning. More interesting was the explanation of the five pillars of Islam and what it means to be a Muslim.
Five times a day, the call to prayer emanates from mosque speakers all over the city. It’s unmistakeable and penetrates every corner of the city. To a westerner, it’s rather incongruous to be walking around a shopping mall full of multinational boutiques selling western brands, when suddenly the mall’s speakers, give voice to the takbir (i.e. the phrase Allāhu Akbar or الله أك), beckoning the faithful to come to the mall’s mosque to pray. I’m more used to hearing nauseating piped muzak coming through the speakers, so a call to Muslim prayer is a welcome change.
So, the call to prayer was explained to us, along with numerous other aspects of the Muslim faith. It was clear from even this short introduction that, much as one might expect, this religion is much misunderstood in the west.
Unfortunately, Eloïse tripped whilst running around in the mosque and started to wail. Sarah quickly took her outside and that was the end of her tour. I stayed until the end, however, and found the experience quite interesting.
After the mosque, we jumped in a taxi and headed further out down Sheikh Zayed Rd to the Mall of The Emirates. We could see the impressive structure of the Burj Al Arab hotel in the distance.
Whilst not as swish as yesterday’s Bur Juman Centre, the Mall of The Emirates boasts an indoor ski slope on real snow. I know this sounds pretty pathetic — an indoor ski slope in the middle of a desert town that reaches 52°C in the summer — but the scale of the thing has to be seen to be believed.
Ski Dubai is the name of the place and it’s such a strange sight, there behind glass, tacked onto a huge (and I do mean huge) shopping mall. It’s expensive, too; a situation no doubt partially caused by the unimaginable quantities of electricity that must be needed to cool the place and produce the snow.
The oddest sight of the day must surely have been that of the Arab women, clad in traditional abaya, hurtling down the toboggan run on a plastic slide mat, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world to do. And that’s just the point: here, it is!
Eloïse once again proved the star attraction for the other mall-goers. Arab and Indian women are quite taken with her. Everyone loves to touch her and run their fingers through her red hair. She continues to be a great ice-breaker for us!
Once again, we ultimately left the mall empty-handed and jumped into a taxi back to the hotel. I tried to make reservations at Gordon Ramsey‘s restaurant, Verre, but it was fully booked. Perhaps we’ll still get to go at the other end of our trip, just before we return home.
After a quick rest, we went wandering through the Bastakia Quarter, where restored Iranian merchants’ houses, replete with windtowers, suggest the atmosphere of bygone days and make one long to journey to Iran to see the real thing. That’s a trip for the future, however.
Dinner was in the courtyard of the charming and friendly Bastakiah Nights. The food and service were both very good.
And so ends our second full day in Dubai. Tomorrow — all too soon — we must leave again.
After picking up our hire car, we’ll drive east towards the border with Oman, which we’ll cross before driving on to the coastal town of Sohar (صحار), where we’ll spend the night.
I’m excited about Oman, but sad to be leaving both the city and emirate of Dubai, not to mention the home country of the UAE.
My curiosity is now aroused and I’d like to see Abu Dhabi and the other emirates, but that’s going to have to wait until we head back this way from Oman. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to see Abu Dhabi, but that’s probably the only other emirate we have a chance of visiting this time around. There’s just too much ground to cover and we’re only here for four weeks. Still, we’re guaranteed to have a couple more days in Dubai, at least, at the end of our trip.
So, from here it’s onward to the Sultanate of Oman!