After my brothers flew back home on Tuesday morning, 2 of Caroline’s aunts arrived later that night. They are here for nearly two weeks. So now it’s round two of the winter tourist site visits! Today we took them to Dubai for the day. One of the things we wanted to do was to go to the old Gold Souq in Deira. Now, I had the same idea for my brothers, but I got horribly lost in the old part of Dubai and couldn’t find it! Today I decided to do some better homework and work out how to get there properly. On one website forum I found it said the best way was to park in the Carrefour in Bur Dubai, walk to the Abra station and get an Abra over the creek to the Souq area. So, we did. It was a great experience.
We parked in Carrefour and it said that if you stayed over 2 hours you would have to have to spend 100 AED to get your ticket authorised, but when we got back over 2 hours later we didn’t have to pay anything. It’s a short walk up the road to the Abra station. We queued for ages in a long line and when we got to the front we realised that ladies and families could go straight up to the front at another barrier (noted!). The cost for the boat trip is 1AED! Getting in and out of the station is a bit hairy as they seemed to drive the boats like dodgem cars ,bashing them into each other and squeezing one out to get another in!
Just near where the landing station is you first come to the spice souq , which we hadn’t been to before so that was quite interesting. Then, on to the gold souq, where I bought Caz some pearl earrings that she had wanted for ages.
Other stops on the day’s tour included Ibn Battuta Mall, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Madinat Souq and The Atlantis Hotel.
Now we are home knackered and having tea and cake!
