Deira & Bur Dubai

On my last full day in Dubai I visited the northern parts of the city. This is the 'old town' area of Dubai and was originally centred around Dubai creek, a trading & transit hub based on fishing and pearling and located on the major waterway of the area. Warning - this is a very picture intensive post...it was a big day!

The 'creek' is still a major part of the transit infrastructure and is a little larger than I expected

There are a couple of bridges but most people cross the river using the 'Abra', or water taxi

and the river is still used to ship in a lot of produce, from food & drink to white goods. That dhow could fit a bit more I reckon...

The north side of the creek is Deira, the most traditional part of the main Dubai city, which is a strange mix of half built (or half ruined?) buildings backed by new structures

Interspersed with a few mosques

ridiculous traffic (why are you hooting? There's 100 cars in front of you!)

and a few 'souqs', or market areas. The new spice market was still under construction

 but in the back streets were the old spice souqs. They smelled even better than they looked!

After a few hours of wandering around Deira I caught an abra and crossed the river. That was an experience in itself - you basically take a seat and wait until it fills up, and then the driver walks around the edge taking the 1 Dirham fee. He then promptly backed out into another abra, which was a bit concerning

but after a bit of shouting & gesticulation we were on our way...

and I started to relax...hey, if the worst comes to the worst the camera is waterproof

It took about 15 minutes to cross the 'creek', dodging tourist boats and dhows as we went

The southern side of the creek is Bur Dubai, which is based mainly around the riverfront. By this time I'd been wandering around in the hot sun for a few hours and was starting to feel the 38 degree heat, so it was time to seek shade in the Dubai museum. The old fort was more than a little oppressive   

but the underground gallery provided some welcome relief and some interesting background on the history of the region. For instance the bedouins really liked their goats in the evenings

 and were early adopters of break dancing

At this point I was ready to go back to the hotel, but I couldn't help stopping by the Bastakiya region. I was tempted to grab a quick burger but didn't want to get the hump

 Instead I wandered around the beautiful and strangely deserted 'old town'

Despite what it looks like I don't think these are intended to be celebrating gay pride...

 Still slightly creepily deserted

Look - a person!

By this time I'd been out in the sun for over 5 hours so I beat a footsore & undocumented retreat back to the hotel. Not a bad way to finish a stay in a strict Islamic state...

It was a very interesting morning. If you're in Dubai for more than a couple of days it's well worth taking a break from the glitz and glamour of downtown and checking out the Creek area.