City of Gold

After my solo adventure into Bur Dubai n Deira, Ben decided to follow in my ‘footsteps’ the next week on his day off. So we started out on the same route, but briskly walked through the Bastakiya area and Old Souk cos there weren’t many interesting things to see. And instead of taking the long route on foot all the way to Shindaga, we skipped the Heritage & Diving Village and hopped over to Deira on an abra.

This guy whizzes up and down the creek in his speedboat. The traditional costume that he’s wearing is called a dishdash, so Ben calls these guys “dishdash brudders”. Most of the time you’d see them speeding through the streets of Dubai in a PRE-release car (they upgrade their cars like how Ah Bengs upgrade handphones, so the latest models are always sent to Dubai first), and like this guy here, they’d be chatting on the phone. Either that or you just see a luxury car or Hummer with fully-tinted windows speeding by, or hear a really fast car, see a blur of colour, and go “Whoa… Lamborghini? Maserati?”


It was mid noon so almost all the shops in and around the souks were closed. It was like walking through zombie town. Only one shop was open in the Spice Souk, and a few other shops selling household items and children’s toys (the made in China type).

The Gold Souk was partially open, with shop after shop displaying all their ‘bling’ in mighty splendour.


Huge-ass diamonds, jewels, gold, gold, gold… more than all the Poh Kongs put together!


The streets however were paved with sleepy shopkeepers having their afternoon siesta.

The Perfume Souk is not exactly a traditional souk but rows of shops selling perfumes, incense, etc. Further away from the Gold Souk and close to the Al Sabkha Bus Station, we entered a shop selling spices, nuts, sweets, etc. Most of the shops here sell the same stuff, either spices, nuts & sweets, or household items & toys, plus a couple of haberdasheries.


Ben n I walked back to the creekside and sat at the Creek Park to watch the sunset, then took an abra back to Bur Dubai cos we were too bored and tired to wait for other shops to open.


The souks in Bur Dubai and Deira are places you’d go see once, just to say you’ve seen it. After all, it’s not like one shops for gold, frankincense and Superman suits on a regular basis, if ever.