Uneven Pavement

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I didn’t know what to feel when I announced that I am going on a trip to Dubai over the Summer holidays. The truth is Dubai has never been anywhere near my travel radar, which is why I had no idea what to expect. So it’s a bit ironic (in a good way) that I come home declaring it as one of my favourite cities I’ve ever visited so far. And while that statement might come into question if I ever get to experience the Arabian summer, the Dubai during the cold season was certainly perfect!

I’ve been thinking long and hard on how I would go about writing my Dubai travel blog posts. It took me a couple of months as you can see. We dropped by A LOT of places— and by dropped by I mean we visited a lot of places but some only quite briefly— though it was enough for me to easily tell you which locations were my favourites. It didn’t seem like going strictly with a per day narration of our trip was going to work, so I’ll just try my best to create a sort of flow for this series of posts.

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Photos

Madinat Souk
I found Dubai’s city planning rather meticulous. Most of the multinational companies are grouped together by field in a business district. And for the sake of uniformity, all of the houses and apartments are built using an Arabian-style of architecture, making the residential sector of the city look like a modern take on Aladdin’s hometown. A good illustration of this architecture for me is the Madinat Souk. On the outside it looks like a traditional Arabian desert home, but on the inside it’s actually air-conditioned and decorated very well! It’s a mix of old and new that works so beautifully!

Madinat Souk
The souk is not crowded and is actually very organized, which I was thankful for, but what made my foodie heart really flutter is the insane variety of spices, dried fruits, teas, and nuts here. Possibly every spice or tea you could imagine! There are also a lot of dried flowers, which in hindsight I regret not carefully perusing!

DEIRA GOLD SOUK
The first thing that greets you is this display of the world’s largest… ring. I mean, it’s a ring if you’re a giant, but for regular people the size of this thing is more like a dress. It can cover up a person’s body, it’s so big! Called the Najmat Taiba (Star of Taiba) it is indeed shaped like a ring estimated to cost $3 Million! (FYI, it’s not for sale!)

Madinat Souk
The Madinat Souk is actually an indoor marketplace that allows you to browse all the lovely little Arabian trinkets, jewelry, rugs and carpets, cups and saucers and such.

Deira Spice Souk
We managed to take home some saffron, dried figs, and a whole lot of nuts, but what I did forget to buy are the fresh vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks, plus the dried lavenders and roses I have always wanted to try in my baking. I know, I know. It was a very scatter-brained moment on my part. Sadly I foresee that it’ll be a long time before I can come here again.
Now that photo below actually has a funny story attached to it. Before I exited the Spice Souk, this guy chased after me, asking ‘Where are you from?’
‘The Philippines,’ I tell him.
‘Oh!’ He pauses to think for a moment, and with a twinkle in his eyes he says, ‘May boyfriend ka na ba?’
I was startled for a second, hearing such familiar words coming from a man whose face doesn’t quite match the language. Then I laugh at the joke and ask him to pose for a photo. He of course flashes an award-winning smile.

DEIRA GOLD SOUK
Jewelry here is displayed like it’s normal wares and not composed of precious minerals. It’s crazy especially when you come from a country where jewelry stores would have state of the art security systems. Here the stores are regular glass-fronted ones, and all the gold simply hang from racks like regular fancy jewelry! (I guess it also goes to show that here in Dubai the law is truly respected.)

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Driving around feels a little like you’re driving in circles. Actually it reminds me a little of Singapore in that sense because it’s almost as if you take a few spins on different roads in the same area to get from one place to another. It’s really interesting to just watch the city pass by the car window as the place is a treasure trove for aspiring architects (like my brother!) because you can’t help but marvel at how unique the buildings here are.

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This carpet store is literally just like a scene from Aladdin.

DEIRA SPICE SOUK
The Spice Souk is not the grandest of markets but it is much more full of life than the Madinat Souk, in my opinion. Here is the place hagglers will really enjoy being in, first of all thanks to the sheer number of things in the souk, and the fairly game storeowners who will keep asking you to name your price. Yes, even for the gold and the diamonds!

Comments

[gangopa]

Dubai - the glitter of gold
Grishma, Grishma, I read your blog with interest....your first blog but with over 200 viewers! Wow! Surely you presented a new style where less text in the body but more description under the most photos. While my blogs are mostly descriptive, your style is total opposite. I must agree there is a merit in it where a reader can pick and choose an image of choice and is not constrained to read the whole blog. I am glad that we have a myriads of styles in our travelblog world now, enough to satisfy the appetite of all kinds of readers. I had some difficulty of following the map though. Grishma, Welcome to travelblog and I am sure you would enjoy the community!

[Grish]

Thank you so much for liking my blog, please suggest me for an improvement and addition, will come up with the new style and more discription.

[gangopa]

A response to your comment
Grishma, everyone has their own style of writing. Yours perhaps a bit different. So, it would be unfair to comment which one is better than the other. All I can say, whatever the trend I have noticed in the last year or so, if you have a blog with approx. 1000-1200 words, people read it more. Keep the captions of the photos, but less descriptive. Just experiment with it. If you read any of my blogs, I can't write short blogs...I'm too descriptive because I try to explore more of the people in my blogs, it's not merely a journey from 'A' to 'B' as I have said in my profile. So, I have few but selected readers. That's my style and I am content with it. But try to experiment and see where you get more appreciation. I will try to follow your blogs and we could discuss the pros and cons from time to time. I didn't know how to send my comment back, so I sent you an invite...but regardless, you will be able to see this, hopefully.