Day 5: Souks, mosques, and abras

Sorry for the delay in this posting. We have been getting a bit lax with all this sun and swimming. On Wednesday, Lynda, Dave, Ashley, and I decided to go on an adventure. First off, we went for a guided tour at the Jumeira Mosque, the only one in the city to give such tours. It was extremely informative and interesting. We all really enjoyed it and took lots of pictures. We ladies were given scarves to cover our heads, and all three of us looked rather elegant.

Next on our stop was the Gold Souk. I thought that I would be immune to the Gold Souk--since I don't wear gold--but I wasn't at all. We saw some very beautiful pieces that would have set us back a pretty penny. We walked through the Gold Souk to the Spice Souk. That was where things got interesting. Lynda was on a mission for sapphron, so we decided to try our hand at bartering. We were invited into a spice shop by a friendly shopkeeper who explained all his wares to us. Once inside, he started offering us pretty much everything in the store. He tried to sell me breast enlargement soap and Dave, four bottles of libido augmentation serum. It was quite funny! Lynda and Ashley both made purchases, while Dave and I left empty handed.

We decided to take an abra across the Creek to Bur Dubai because the market stalls were starting to close for siesta. We walked through the Old Souk and the Textile Souk to Bastakia, where we went to lunch at the Basta Arts Cafe. We sat in a lovely courtyard and sipped on fruit cocktails. Lunch was tasty and refreshing, and we were ready to take on the afternoon. On the way back, we stopped at the Dubai Museum and learned a lot about Old Dubai. I practised a bit of Arabic on the Emirati working the admission window, and he seemed quite tickled by it, which made me happy. I'm sure that my horrible accent had nothing to do with the small smile that flashed across his face.

After the museum, went back to the Old Souk and busted out our bartering skills. We all made quite thrifty purchases and were proud of ourselves for our bargaining abilities. Since it was nearing rush hour and we didn't want to get caught in the madness, we decided to cab it back to Jumeirah after the Old Souk. On the way, we stopped at the Jumeirah Beach Resort to book a desert safari for Friday. Unfortunately, Friday was sold out, so we had to book Saturday. We went back to the villa, went for a swim, and greeted the newly arrived FX and Kathryn when they got back from the Mall of the Emirates. BBQ followed, and everyone went to bed rather early, exhausted from a very busy day.