Potpourri of my life: Friday - A weekend in Dubai

Friday is a holy day for those Muslims in Dubai. Therefore it is consider as a weekend (Sunday is our weekend in Malaysia). Most shop either closed or open from 8am till 12pm, then from 4pm till 10pm (This includes shopping mall as well).

The traffic are clear and not like weekdays where the car are bumper to bumper on Friday. I finisned by job early today therefore I am going for a tour simple around Deira area. My agent's engineer drives me around the area.

First, we went to the Gold Souk in northern part Deira. I don't really know the meaning of Souk but I think it refers to market, because when I check out the map of Dubai, there's a few popular Souk in Dubai such as Spice Souk etc. Gold Souk is an area where all the shop sells jewellery at a very competitive price. Most of the shop are own by the local there. I don’t stay long there because there's nothing caught my interest.

Later, we went to Baniyas Road, beside Dubai Creek where the history and evolution of small village into one of the world's famous tourism spot began - Dubai.

For yours information, Dubai are divided by a creek called Dubai Creek. If the Arabian Sea is on the north and the 'mouth' of the creek face north, the left side of Dubai is called Bur Dubai where as the right side of Dubai is called Deira (Pronouns as dieeeera). Basically Diera is known as the Old Dubai.

In the old days, when there is no bridge, the local people cross the creek with a boat or water taxi. In Dubai, the local calls it ABRA. It takes about 5 minutes or less to cross the creek.

Beside Baniyas Road, there is a place where all the boat load and unload the goods to distribute to the nearby city like Sharjah on the north, Jebel Ali Port and Abu Dhabi on the south of Dubai by sea.

We have taken a ride on abra to cross the creek to Bur Dubai, there is a few heritage site there but we don't have enough time to tour around. The ride was fun thou.

I get back to my apartment around 11am. After taken bath and everything, I set my foot from my apartment and headed to nearby bus stop. The nearest bus stop is about 150 meters away.
It is quite easy to catch a taxi in Dubai. I got a taxi in less than 2 minutes. Headed towards the Emirate Tower (I have no idea where to go initially, and just pick and go from the map).

Emirate Tower is one of the famous landmarks in Dubai where the Emirate Boulevard Mall is located. The shops inside Boulevard Mall are designer brand. Everything is luxurious there and the prices are hefty high.

I walked around Emirate Tower, and cross the famous Sheikh Zayed Road (14 lanes road) headed towards Holiday Plaza where I had my McDonalds lunch there. Never ever try to cross the road because you never make it to another end! Trust me! This is not 2 lanes Malaysian highway, the car there average speed at 120kmph! Imagine you need to cross 7 lanes first before you reach the center divider, then another 7 lanes...no! no! I used a pedestrian underpass to cross the road instead. Beside McDonalds, nothing much to see except the architechture and building engineering around that area. The view was fantastic. Both side of Sheikh Zayed Road are surrouded by high rise building. It was too hot to walk around to shoot some photo.

Finally, decided to go to another shopping center - Deira City Center. I took a taxi to Deira City Center. It is quite easy to get taxi, and there are total of 14000 taxi operate in Dubai. The fares are relatively cheap compared to Malaysia and you get to sit in a brand new Toyota Camry. The taxi in Dubai use digital meter to calculate the fair and it is controlled by the Road Transpot Department. Therefore don't worry, you won't get conned by those taxi driver. The taxi fair is basically AED 3.00 once it is hired and AED 1.50 per kilometres.

Deira City Center is the latest attraction in Deira. 340 shops under one roof include Carrefour, Debenhams, Virgin Records and 11 Cinemas. Most famous brand can found there. I have a stroll down the mall and had my dinner there before heading home to my apartment.

The journey is tiring but it's quite enjoyable to travel and backpack around Dubai.

That's all for today.