Muse: Dubai - Dubai Museum, Souqs and a Boat Ride on Dubai Creek

On our second day in Dubai, we got a little historical taste of the city. The morning started off with a visit to the house of a former commercial judge. The house, built in 1931, reflected typical Arabic architecture with elaborate arches and columns, but maintained traditional aspects like wind towers as well. Of course, the beautiful view of Dubai Creek hangs in the background, adding some color to the sandy walls of the house.

Our wonderful Emirati ladies said the house demonstrated the kind of "nouveau riche" people who emerged in the city around that time. Trade had attracted merchants, workers and investors from all over the region to Dubai, and began sowing the seeds that turned the city into the financial and commercial center it is today.

View from the house

The Emirate ladies posing for me!

Street Art in Dubai!

Dubai Museum

Souqs

Dubai is home to a plethora of souqs! The gold souq, the spice souq, the clothing souq--you can basically find everything here. I've always been a fan of big, open markets (see my entry on Les Puces in Paris!) because I find the smells, colors and even people, both sellers and buyers, provide a window through which I can really see and understand the culture. In Dubai, these souqs were especially telling. Most of the vendors were immigrants, mainly from India and Bangladesh, and they sold products made in India and China. As the local Emiratis make up only 20 percent of the population, it makes sense that vendors would be from out of the country. It also makes sense that the decorative scarves and shoes lining the streets of the souq are mostly made out of the country as well. The UAE's economy is largely based on oil exports and the banking industry, not cheap factory production.

In fact, when buying presents for my parents, I struggled to find anything actually made in the UAE. I ended up settling for a box of chocolate covered dates--one of the only gifts with the stamp "Made in the UAE" on the back.

This friendly vendor took an interest in our group and especially in Ralph, who he helped into a traditional Emirati headdress for men

Next was Eric. He started to get a bit more creative here

The men scowling for the cameras (except for Geoff, who couldn't help but break out in giggles)

Eric, Max, Geoff and Ralph

Two photos below courtesy of Sarra

Group picture of the UD and Zayed students together!

Boat Ride on Dubai Creek

This is one of my fondest memories from Dubai! Our group split up onto two boats, then headed across Dubai Creek. From the bottle green water, we could soak in the skyline of Dubai and marvel at all the architecturally magnificent buildings. If only the Hudson could look as pretty....

TC and I on the boat

What a diva ;)

Spice Souq

It may have only been a few blocks, but I fell in love with the spice souq! Most of the colorful herbs I had never seen before, but they smelled amazing. They almost inspired me to start cooking--almost. Some of the girls bought handfuls of saffron, which is apparently very expensive in the U.S. Personally, I would not know this because the spices I use in my everyday cooking either come out of prepackaged bags or consist of salt and pepper, but I took their word for it.

Even as someone who shies away from the stove, I could appreciate the the bundles of spices, herbs and roots that lined the walkways and shelves of the spice souq. One vendor let us smell and taste almost anything for free and seemed genuinely interested to even have us in his store! What a sweet man. With the Emirati girls bargaining their way in Arabic, most of us left the souq with bags full of tea leaves or vanilla beans, and still had dirhams to spare!