Tour of Old Dubai

One rather hot day in October, I decided to venture into the old town to tour the Bastakiya and old souks. So I took the 10.05am shuttle from Ewan to JBH (35min-ride), and waited for the 11.10am JBH-Lamcy shuttle (another 35min-ride). From Lamcy, a reluctant cab driver brought me to Al Musalla Post Office for 12 dirhams. Here’s a map of how far I walked in the hot afternoon sun:

Don’t ask me the distance the ‘red feet’ walked, but altogether I took about 4 hours, including stops to take pictures, have a coffee n snack, and visit some of the tourist-targetted places.


The Bastakiya area is one of the oldest heritage sites in Dubai, dating back to the early 1900s.


Most of the old buildings here have been restored and converted into art galleries, shops and restaurants/cafés.


The area is made up of traditional windtower houses built around courtyards and winding alleyways.


From the Bastakiya, I travelled along the creek towards the Old Souk.


Across the creek is Deira, with older buildings to the left and the newer Deira Twin Towers and hotels like Intercontinental, Hilton and Sheraton to the right.


The Old Souk is mainly a textile souk, selling all sorts of fabrics, sarees and clothes, as well as a couple of shops selling the usual ‘touristy’ stuff like the Ali-Baba-type of slippers, souvenirs, beads, etc.


Souks and shops in these older parts of Dubai work split shifts, and are open in the morning and evenings/nights. So in the afternoon, most of the small stalls and shops are closed, although you’re likely to see the shopkeepers lazing around nearby, snoozing on a bench, crate or a “parked” wheelbarrow.


The main abra station is located after the textile souk. Abras from here take you across the creek to the abra station near the Spice Souk in Deira.


You pay just 50 fils (about S$0.22) and each abra carries around 15 passengers. You can also hire an abra all to yourself for about 50 dirhams, and the abra guy will take you up and down the creek depending on how nice he is.


The bigger vessels are dhows, which transport all sorts of goods across the creek, from electrical items to fresh produce, rubber tyres, and even cars.


I stopped at a café called Blue Barjeel (‘barjeel’ is the Arabic word for four-sided windtower) for a break - Turkish coffee and local “mixed pastries”. Yeuckk!!


Of the five pastries, one was filled with spinach and tasted ok, two were filled with (I presume) goat’s cheese which was ok at first bite but got a bit gross after the second. And the last two pastries were filled with some sort of meat. The taste was so foul it probably had to be something like minced goat’s armpit and camel’s liver. When I described this to Ben later, he said he’d tasted this stuff before too and almost threw up. So, stay away from middle-eastern savoury pastries!


Refuelled, I made my way to the Heritage & Diving Village. The Heritage & Diving Village gives visitors a glimpse of Dubai’s maritime history, pearl diving traditions and architecture.


I didn’t visit the Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum House (Museum of Historical Photographs and Documents of Dubai Emirate) this time around as there was nobody around to take my 2 dirhams entrance fee.


Entrance into the Heritage Village is free of charge. I gave it a quick look-around just to know if it’s some place I should bring people to visit if ever we have visitors. Nope. Like the Bastakiya, it’s just another place with man-made re-creations of the simple life in Dubai in the old days, with Bedouin camp sites, huts and homes made of straw or stone, etc.


I gave the Diving Village a miss since I was running out of time, and cos I guess it’ll exhibit the same kinda stuff – re-created images of old fishing villages, pearl trade, etc.


What’s interesting though is that the walls of these old buildings, made of coral covered with lime and sand-coloured plaster, are still intact.


I walked further down, towards Shindaga, the mouth of the creek.

The underground (underwater) pedestrian tunnel is not for the faint hearted. It goes on FOREVER! First, winding zigzag tunnels all the way down…


Then the same, UPHILL! By this time, I pancit already lah.


When I finally reached the Deira side of the creek, it was already past 4pm so I didn’t tour the gold, perfume and spice souks but decided to take a stroll along the Corniche Deira..... Finally...... the ocean!


This view of the open sea won’t be around for much longer as they’ve already started reclamation n construction works of the Palm Deira, which will soon appear on the right hand side of the horizon here.