Dubai Day 3

Our mornings are getting later and later as we try and relax into being full time tourists. Plus we are tired! I keep reminding myself it's not the same kind of tired as working three 12 hour shifts back to back in Middlemore ED but more tired of not having anything to call home. No familiar faces, no home cooked meal, nothing is normal and you spend a lot of time just trying to find food or the basics like transport or converting money into something you understand. We have to remind ourselves that what we are doing we spent months working hard for and that despite being stuck in 40 degree heat which is unpleasant, it is better than being at a desk! However, for all my ED colleagues I don't know whether I would say its better than being in a really good resus ;)

We are getting better at the breakfasts and have worked out the best food that tastes the least American. Plus I had brought a lot of ginger tea from Lombok which we discovered at the Sheraton - Amazing! The problem is that they are very large heavy sachets, so drinking them will help get our baggage weight down. Leaving the hotel we walked to the closest metro station feeling the heat smack us in the face as we left the revolving doors of the hotel. Everyday we ask ourselves how and why do people live in this heat!

Buying another day train pass we worked out the station we needed to get off at for Deira which is considered the old town part of Dubai where all the spice and gold souks are. The city unfortunately doesn't have wifi for tourist unless you buy a SIM card. The issues with this is often we are just using the app Mapsme and our winging it attitude everyday often makes it difficult. Majority of the time we end up back in a mall to use their wifi and to get back into the air conditioning.

When we got off the train we felt a little lost, I had researched the train stop but nothing further! Luckily after walking towards the buildings and heading down a wee side street we came across all the souks. It was much like Indonesia with the shop owners trying to get you to look at their shops whether it be gold, spice or clothing. We saw a couple of gold stores but mainly what they had in the front window was very outrageous pieces that would mean majority of your body would be covered in gold if you wore it. I think anyone other than the King would look ridiculous wearing it! Next we found the corridors full of spice traders. The first one we came across gave us a full run down of all the spices and teas in his shop. They were in large bins outside the shop and he questioned us on what items were. Majority of them we had no idea as the spices are mostly from other Middle Eastern countries. But they did have recognisable stuff such as whole nutmeg and turmeric. Since it was so hot we welcomed the retreat into his shop where we shown a huge amount of dried items for tea and things such as frankincense to make either yourself or your home smell nice. He kept pulling items off the shelf and encouraging us to smell them.

We felt inclined to buy even a little bit of spice off him and he assured us we could get it through customs as long as he heat sealed the package instead of staples. There were a few that I though would be tasty on chicken but I had smelt so many I struggled to remember which one it was. I went about sniffing everything in the containers trying to find the one and ended up with 50g of Tandoori spice which I labeled and then asked the shop keeper to also write the name in Arabic. Did you know they write from right to left? It only cost us 10 AED ($3.80NZD) and is enough to last for years. As we walked out of the shop I realised we were supposed to haggle them for a lower price but we had forgotten. Oh well we were converting it into NZD as we went so we knew that we weren't paying a massive amount. We had a good overview of the spice market by then after throughly being shown one shop as they all seemed to look the same. Still navigating the narrow walkways of the souks we came across many more spice sellers until the buildings opened up along the waterfront. 

I had already read on some blogs online that you could get across the water on a public boat for 1 AED (30c NZD). However, majority of the drivers want you to pay 60 AED each for a boat trip around the harbour. Now that sort of cash we weren't carrying and we ended up following some more touristy looking people as they hopped on a boat. You organise to pay the driver once you are moving and he held out his hand at each end of the boat collecting the coins.

The river was full of boats that to me were either fishing boats or something that resembled a refugee smuggling boat. One sailor even looked rather suspicious when I was filming him with the GoPro.

The other side of the river was even better with proper shop fronts. But once again you would walk down a lane with men loudly talking to you and trying to encourage you into their shop. There were numerous times we had cashmere scarfs put around our sweaty necks as if we were more likely to buy them. However, one guy got Lew good by taking his hat off his head and then proceeding to put a traditional headscarf around instead. I was too busy laughing and taking photos and somehow we ended up in his shop. Next thing Lew was being helped into the traditional white outfit of an Arab man called a Dishdasha/Thawb. For some reason he has kept his black sunglasses on inside the shop so I could barely tell it was him! He just looked like a typical Arab man as there wasn't much skin showing. Whilst I was in hysterics taking photos they had pulled out something for me of course. It was the black Hijab that you see Arabic women wear. It was floor length and they tied me into it at the back. They managed to get the size perfect really but it's not exactly fitting or slimming! They wrapped a scarf around my head and insisted we have some photographs. One of the shop keepers seemed rather intent in also being in the photograph and made me hold his arm. I held back my comment about how you never see one women having two husbands!

Once we had removed the outfits they started putting cashmere scarfs around our necks to try get us to buy one. Our plan was actually to just tip them 5 AED for their time but the scarves were actually very beautiful and soft and I wouldn't mind one! He started getting out all sorts of colours for me to try and I narrowed it down to a couple. I repeatedly asked him how much they were but he totally avoided my question. In the even I told him the one I liked but didn't lead on too much that I did in fact want it. We had been saying to him 10 AED and he laughed at us saying you can't buy quality for that as it's real llama. We didn't really know how much they should go for so we completely low balled it to see what he would come back with. He eventually gave us a price of 130 AED ($50 NZD) and we said no.

The calculators came out and he tried to show us something but we weren't following him. We offered him 30 AED and he said 30 in your currency. Lew quickly did some calculation and worked out that was still reasonably expensive being $30NZD and we declined. We said 45 AED max. When the seller continued to argue with us we started walking out of the shop. But he managed to get me to stay and said he would be happy with 50 AED. Sold! Lew was already out in the street but I went out to check if this was ok as I said he was the boss man. The shop owner had already given me the scarf even though I hadn't paid. But we were happy with 50 AED as that's only ($19 NZD). The other shop owner didn't look to impressed with us when we walked out. I think they were hoping to get a good price from us but after all our practice in Indonesia we had bartering down to a fine art.

After that we were unsure of what to do next and followed another couple of tourists down the waterfront to see if they knew of something we didn't. We lost track of them but it was stinking hot anyway and we were feeling rather light headed. We decided to get back onto a boat and back to the train station. We were in dire need of some air con and wifi. We road the train one stop to "Union" to see if we were missing out in anything. Getting back out to the heat we just stood there wondering what on earth we were doing. We started walking towards the mall we had spotted. I don't think Lew has noticed this but I find everywhere I walk I find the men just stare at me. I always wonder whether I am wearing appropriate clothing, or perhaps I am just that white? They did say in the travel blogs I was reading that Deira (Old Town) was a bit more traditional and you should wear modest clothing. But they really cant expect me to wear long pants and a shirt in this kinda weather. I was just in gym clothing after all. We were Hating the fact that we were spending so much time in malls but it was rather necessary at times. One thing we have noticed consistently in malls and you may have already heard this from my previous blogs is that there is nowhere to sit! We got kicked off some seats for a restaurant as we had given up and thought we would give it a try. In the end I brought some new cheap earbuds and we also went to the supermarket to get some lunch as it was about 3pm. Since we had some marginal cooking facilities at the hotel and we were sick of eating out we decided to cook fajitas. To buy all the ingredients and some other items for lunch it only cost $28 NZD. The worst part was actually dragging it all home on the train with us.

Reaching the hotel at about 4pm we were feeling rather exhausted despite having a late start. I think the heat just gets to you. I hung the washing up in the sun in our window and we went down to the hotel pool for a swim. Staying there until dark we came back up and cooked the fajitas and enjoyed staying in for once.

Tomorrow is our last day and we fly out to London via Moscow at 0200am on the 18th. We are looking forward to some more mild temperature and to finally do some washing!