Now we come to one of my favorite days of all our trip- Shopping at the bazaars (only in this part of the world, they are called "Souks")


First, we came to the gold souk. Imagine, if you will, street after street, row upon row, ENTIRE MALLS of gold jewelry. This was not just your run-of-the-mill, American mall kind of gold! This was very pure gold and VERY, very yellow in color. And, you can imagine, very expensive. Each little shop had a little digital read out on the wall, showing the day's price of gold per ounce, and all pieces were sold according to weight. Of course, each shop also levied a "craftsman's fee" on top of the actual sale weight of gold. Now, as to whether the scales were accurate...???


After tiring of looking at gold for about an hour, we wandered over to where one would cross "the Creek" to the other side of Dubai. To cross the river, you take a water taxi that looks like this:

Your average citizen, as well as every tourist, would take this taxi for about $.25 per ride; very reasonable I'd say :) The ride to the other side takes about 10 minutes and is very pleasant to plop one's tired derrier down and soak up the atmosphere. Along the way, you can see massive amounts of these:


They are actual cargo "dhows" that transport all manner of goods up and down the river to various ports along the way. They are fascinating! Imagine the taste of slightly salty air, the rhythmic drone of the afternoon calls to prayer coming from a hundred mosques, and the spicy, pungent scent of cloves and cinnamon wafting all around you, and you'll have put yourself right in the middle of Dubai Souk-ville. Fantastic!

After disembarking our little water craft, we came to the spice souk. Aromatic to the max! The guys had everything from nutmeg, vanilla beans, star anise, footlong cinnamon "baseball bats", and too many other things that I could not even guess at.


Every spice shop had kitchy litte souvenirs for the less astute souk shopper. However, our party passed up on these in lieu of a few pictures for posterity's sake. No way, baby, we're there for the real deal; and at a good price too! Steppe Sister can bargain with the best, and she came away with some awesome deals! Next week, I'll post some pix of my most excellent booty. (Get your minds out of the gutter! Not THAT booty, for heaven's sake, I mean the great stuff I got!)

My only regret was that I played the usual "no, the next stall will have it cheaper trick" and aced myself out of some fresh saffron. DOH!

Okay, do you love fabric?? Let's move on to the textiles part of the Old Town souks.

How about the colors here?? Can it get more amazing?? Yes, it could. Amongst the beauty, there was not one remnant, not one square inch, of 100% cotton fabric. NO. WAY! It was a travesty, I say! We did enjoy the feel of the silks though, and were amazed at how many ways an Indian sari could be made.

After, wandering more little alleyways that looked like this (see below), we started noticing the overpowering stench of incense and shoes being just sort of "stashed" in doorways. Okay, this is weird...

"Excuse me, madam, may I help you?"

"Uh, no thanks, just looking."

"Um, madam, this is Hindu Temple Area"

"Oooh, gee, so, uh, sorry! Um, we'll just be going now..."

Okay, that was the conversation between a worshipper and a touron. That's short, by the way, for tourist/moron.

Undaunted (too much) we headed to the Dubai Museum, which will have to wait until the next exciting episode of:

"Doin' Dubai"

Until Next Time,

Your SteppeSister