Today was our last full day in Dubai before relocating to the desert resort we now knew was in a different Emirates. We had booked a half day walking tour of the old part of the city.
Walking Tour of Old Dubai
After breakfast we caught a taxi to the designated meeting spot for the tour. There was a couple from Germany and two women from California that were doing the tour with us. Both groups were friendly and interesting. There was another group that was supposed to join us but they did not meet us in time and did not catch up with us later.
The tour guide was amazing! She described to us a lot about the UAE history and culture and how things work. For example, she was born in the UAE but is not a citizen. She said only a very tiny percentage of people who live int he UAE are actually citizens and have full rights as citizens. Even through marriage there are only certain situations where children can become citizens.
The part of the tour first took us through the gold souks. A souk is essentially a shop and gold souks are apparently quite popular. Despite not mining the gold in the UAE and most of the goldsmithing turning the gold into jewelry being done outside the UAE, the market still existed and dominated the work gold market because of low or non-existent taxes on gold which kept prices lower than in other countries. The shops had some fairly extravagant pieces on display in the windows. The guide explained that the pieces are common for wedding ceremonies in certain cultures.
We then went to a spice souk where we got to sit down and the guide explained the different spices that were popular, how they were cultivated, and the history behind them. For example she told us why saffron is so expensive (has to be gathered by hand) and explained what to look for in high quality saffron vs lower quality versions. We also got to try some chocolate covered dates. Dates are extremely popular and plentiful in the region.
We then took a water taxi across the river to visit the textile souks where we stopped in another store where she explained some of the traditional dress for men an women. We even got to try on some traditional UAE clothes!
This is the German couple in our tour group. They looked the part! We learned the clothing style isn’t really liked to any religious customs, though in the UAE it’s tough to separate the two. Different regions in the Middle East have different styles of dress as well.
The tour proceeded through other parts of the old city and explained some of the building architecture and history of the people in certain areas. We visited an art gallery and a coffee museum where some of the people in the tour tried some local coffee.
The tour ended at a restaurant with some traditional Arabic food. My wife loved it and Tomatico tried some of the things but wasn’t feeling too adventurous. After lunch the tour guide recommended we take the metro public transit train back to our hotel. She took us to the train station and helped us get the right tickets. We got the “gold” tickets so we could sit in the first car and have the best views of the city.
The tour guide was amazing. We would definitely take another tour with her. She was thoughtful, knowledgeable and really great with the kids. She even had take pictures of all the groups on the water taxi and had them printed out for us by the time we got to lunch. It was a really great touch!
On the train we were up front in the driverless train with fantastic views as promised. Tomatico took lots of pictures and videos. Interestingly another one of the passengers on the train was American and asked where we were from. I asked what he was in Dubai for and he was apparently part of a stunt driving show at the Global Village we had visited the first full day in the city. We didn’t know about that or else we would have gone. The show was, of course, off that day which was our last day in Dubai so we wouldn’t have a chance to see it. Bummer.
Mall of the Emirates
We were intending to take the train all the way back to where our hotel was, but we were still kind of hungry and noticed one of the stops was at the Mall of the Emirates. We decided to stop there to get something to eat.
Upon entering, it was obvious this mall wasn’t nearly as nice as the Dubai mall. It was still pretty nice and still quite large, but we were jaded from our experience in the Dubai Mall. We found the food court and had a quick snack.
The Mall of the Emirates is the one with Ski Dubai, the indoor ski slope, and we decided we needed to at least try to see it. We followed the signs and it was of course on the other side of the mall from where we were. After a 10 minute walk we finally saw the entrance to the registration area where you could rent the equipment and buy tickets. We weren’t going to actually ski so we kept walking to find some windows to see inside.
It was definitely surreal to see snow inside, though we never found a place to get a good view of the slope. There were dozens of people skiing and many looked like they actually knew how to ski. We could even see a bumper car area that, instead of cars were snow machines. Neat!
It was neat to see but it was time to head back to the hotel. We found the taxi stand and were soon on our way.
Global Village Again
Back in the hotel we rested up for a couple hours. Everyone wanted to go back to the Global Village again. The kids were excited about doing more rides and my wife wanted to do some more exploring of the shops. We hopped in a taxi and got there just before the sun went down.
The place didn’t look quite as surreal with the sun still up, but quickly transformed back into the magical colorful world when it got darker. We headed over to the area the stunt driver had mentioned the show was and of course the signs said there were no shows that day. Bummer!
We did find another area with food booths we hadn’t discovered in our first visit. We visited a few countries and some non-country countries such as “Europe” and “Americas”. We definitely had to check out what their impression of the US was and it was actually pretty horrific.
We got the kids some more credits for the rides and they spend most of them on the bumper cars. They spend their last few credits “sharing” a video game. Usually they fight over these types of things but they were doing a great job cooperating so we were happy to see that.
It was time to get some food and we split up. My wife and Tomatico went their own way while our youngest and I stretched our foodie muscles. In the food booths we hadn’t seen in our first trip to the Global Village we had noticed one advertising chicken fingers in a waffle cone. This is pretty edgy stuff for us so we decided to go out on a limb and give it a try.
In the end is was actually fantastic.. It was simply a fresh waffle code that they filled up with chicken fingers they chopped up into smaller pieces in order to fit more in. It didn’t hurt that the chicken fingers were really tasty on their own, but hey, we were experimenting!
After dinner we went to the main stage where a show sponsored by the Americas pavilion was about to start. The show has some gymnastics and dancing centered around a story involving a train at a train station. It wasn’t too deep of a story but was very entertaining and well done.
I have to say the quality of the stage and sound system was top notch. It wasn’t quite up to Disney standards, which are a cut above everything else, but they definitely didn’t cut many corners with the sound, lighting, video boards, and set quality (or the talent).
The Day Ends
After the show everyone was getting tired so we decided to grab a taxi home. We didn’t make the same mistake and hire the luxury ride. It was to be our last night at the hotel and we’d be moving to the desert resort the next day.
On our way up to the room I asked the desk agent how they would recommend we get to the other resort and if taking a taxi was an option. He was very excited for us about the property we were going to visit and was very helpful in explaining our options. He offered to call to arrange a taxi for us the next day so we could get a driver that knew what they were getting into with the drive, which was about 90 minutes away. I had him do that and he also updated our record so we could have a slightly late checkout. We wanted to eat lunch before heading to the resort as we knew it would be cheaper to eat locally than at the captive restaurants in the desert.
Once back in our room it was time to get ready for bed and we’d also take advantage of the washing machine in our room. So not only was it huge and essentially a furnished apartment, it also had a washing machine in it. We brought enough clothes, but the kids always seem to go through them more quickly than expected so doing a mid-vacation wash would help with that. The washing machine was an all in one ;type of machine so it would wash and dry the clothes without needing separate machines.
That was set to run overnight while we slept so hopefully we’d have clean dry clothes in the morning.
Tomatico Travels 
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