Last Day in Dubai

Last Day in Dubai

I had a good last day in Dubai today. I left the hotel around 8:30am and headed over to Old Dubai to check out some of the souks, and just to see what is on that end of town. Most of my time on this trip has been done between Bur Dubai and the south, so I wanted to make sure I got to see some of the north before I left.

The first souk I went into was the Dubai City of Gold souk. I believe this is the most famous one here, but it didn’t really do anything for me. It is mostly filled with jewelry shops, that I didn’t see many people going into, just taking pictures in front of it.

This souk is connected to a bunch of other souks, so I wandered through there for about a half-hour. It was interesting to see, but there was nothing I wanted to buy in any of them.

I made my way over to the Creek and jumped on an Abra to get across the river. This is an old-style water taxi that costs 1dh (£0.20) for a single journey. You can imagine all the people who lived in Old Dubai who had to take these to get to the south side of the river to start building it up before there was much there.

Back on the south side of the Creek, I made my way through even more souks on my search for the Dubai Museum. It was a little hard to find because for some reason when you search for Dubai Museum on Google Maps, it brings you to a hostel, so that’s not ideal. I had just about given up on it when I turned a corner and found it right in front of me.

I’m glad I found it because it was pretty interesting. It was nice to see something a bit historical in this city that until now appeared to be only about 30 years old. I also bought my one and only souvenir from this trip in the museum. They had a little artists shop where a local artist was selling their works. There was a small framed door made of leather that was pretty cool and represented these old-style doors in Dubai. It was the only thing I’ve seen on this trip that I would consider putting up in my home, so I figured that was a sign I should buy it.

The only bad thing about the trip to the museum was it was full of Chinese tourists (I’m guessing the tour busses just keep coming all day), so it was packed full of people. The downstairs part of it was a bit claustrophobic, so I wasn’t a fan of that and had to move my way through it quite quickly.

I finished up at the museum and walked over to the Al Fahidi Historical Neighborhood, which was completely empty. I’m not actually sure what it was, because it was mostly new buildings, with a few shops or cafes inside. I expected it to look a bit more historical, but that’s not what I saw.

There were a couple of cool art installations in it though, so that was cool. And it was shaded, so that was very cool. I decided to go back to the center of it all and have lunch at the Dubai Mall this afternoon and get another look at the Burj Khalifa. It really is quite the building.

After lunch I came back to the hotel and have been chilling here for the rest of the day. I even went down to the hotel pool and had a refreshing swim for the first time on this trip. It’s been a great trip, but I’m definitely sick of this heat and am ready to head back home tomorrow. I’m glad I came to see everything here, but I don’t think I’d be in a rush to come back to the UAE. There are some really impressive looking things to see here, but because it’s all so new, it just doesn’t have a lot of feeling to it. It’s a bit soulless. But hey, it was an experience, and I’m glad I had it.

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