Well, where to start?
Our flight was uneventful. I mostly read up on our destination, but there was enough time to take in an episode of Dragon’s Den, plus the BORĐ”T film. If you thought Borat was outrageous and had come close to death before, you need to see his latest escapades.
Anyway, we arrived in Dubai yesterday evening, just before midnight. I’ve never seen an airport so busy that late at night. It was absolute bedlam, with people swarming all over the place.
Somehow, we managed to find the man holding a board with our name for the transfer to our hotel in the Bur Dubai neighbourhood. A quarter of an hour later, we were there.
A fast and efficient check-in awaited us, with a couple of complimentary glasses of pineapple juice to refresh us. A nice touch, I thought.
Eloïse was well past her bedtime, but behaving very well. We wanted to make the most of the next day, so we quickly got ready for bed and hit the sack.
This morning, we were woken by the alarm clock and went to breakfast in the hotel. It was fine, but it was standard western fare, and who wants to eat the food they’re already familiar with when travelling abroad? My mind turned to all of the Lebanese and Iranian delicacies we might discover in the course of the day.
After getting some money from a local cash dispenser, we took an abra over to the Deira side of town. From there, we walked through a number of souqs: the Spice Souq, the Gold Souq, the Covered Souq and the Naif Souq. The Spice Souq was the most fun, with its pungent odours and abundance of frankincense. Everywhere we went, people stopped to touch Eloïse’s red hair and remark on how beautiful she is. We know, we know!
There aren’t many places to eat around the souqs, so we headed back along the wharf and eventually found an Iranian eatery (we didn’t know it was Iranian at the time, as neither of us can tell Farsi from Arabic). It was packed inside, so we were forced to sit outside, but that’s no hardship in this weather. It was a balmy 25°C or so.
Ordering food proved a challenge, but another customer sidled up next to us and helped out. He turned out to be an Iraqi who also speaks Farsi and now lives in London. Once we’d got the food ordering out of the way, we got chatting and he told us his tales of torture at the hands of his Iraqi commanders during the Gulf War of 1990. He had been repeatedly stabbed all over his body with the bayonet of an AK47. Ugh.
Eventually, he was captured by the coalition forces and offered the chance to take up residence in one of a number of countries. He picked the UK and is now a British citizen. He is in Dubai to visit the rest of his family, who have since fled to Iran from the city of Basra.
Anyway, the conversation really added to our meal, which was pretty good in its own right: chicken with lots of salad, a cucumber and yoghurt dip, mango juice and something vegetarian for Sarah. Eloïse loved it, too.
After the meal, we took the abra back to Bur Dubai, relaxed for a few minutes at the hotel, then headed out again in a taxi to the Bur Juman Centre, an extremely upmarket mall about a ten minute drive from the hotel.
We shopped till we dropped, which for us takes only a few minutes. My only interest in the mall was the Breguet boutique, as I love that make of watches. It was fun to look at an official brand shop and scrutinise some of the watches.
As the Bur Juman is quite upscale, we were able to get dinner at one of the many decent restaurants there. There was none of the fast food and MSG rubbish you associate with American malls.
After dinner, we carried our purchases (which was easy, as we had bought nothing) to the exit and queued for a taxi, which turned out to be a long wait. Public transport here is virtually non-existent, so people take taxis for even the shortest journey, as they’re very cheap.
I noticed that the taxi we stepped into didn’t have a taxi sign on top, but thought no more of it until we got to our hotel and were asked to pay an exorbitant fare. I don’t bow to this very easily, so I stood up to the taxi driver, which became something of an altercation. Eventually, it was resolved (to my satisfaction, anyway) with our having paid only the fare we considered reasonable.
Now I’m relaxing in the executive lounge of our hotel, typing this to a cup of coffee as Sarah puts the small one to bed. Eloïse, by the way, behaved fantastically today. I can’t believe how far she walked and how much she put up with, with scarcely a whinge or a groan all day.
In the morning, we’re off bright and early to visit the Jumeirah Mosque. In the afternoon, we’ll probably head over to the over-the-top Mall of The Emirates, just to see it, as the malls of Dubai are famous and worth experiencing, even if one doesn’t plan to buy anything.
That pretty much describes the first day. Dubai is incredibly cosmopolitan and more tolerant of cultural and religious differences than any city that I can think of. Only 10% of the population is native Emirati, with the other 90% being made up of immigrants from all over the world. The atmosphere is amazing.
Anyway, this lounge is closing now, so I will, too.