UAE2020 Day 06: Deira Old Souk

We took the abra from the Bur Dubai Abra Station and arrived at the Deira Old Souk Abra Station 5 minutes later. Rather than wait at the pedestrian crossing in the sun we opted to take the underground tunnel that cuts across the busy Baniyas Rd to get to the Deira Old Souk.

we got off the abra here

and opted for the safer route

rather than cross here

our first glimpse of the Deira Old Souk

we can hardly wait!

interesting souk

looks like an orthodox church?

We walked north past the Utensils Market and past the Belhul Mosque until we reached Cat’s most favourite souk of all: Dubai’s Gold Souk!

hello Kareena Kapoor!

crowd was growing

quite busy

a feast for the eyes

for Cat anyway

if only...

stardust in our eyes

must weight a ton

we'd like to see someone decked out in this

with no security in sight too

one last look

The crowd was quite intense, and since we were intent on avoiding crowded places and confined spaces, we took a quick and fleeting walk along the goldsmith shops that lined each side of the alleyway to the other side and turned left; we then headed north-east along 32A Street right to the very end. Here there was a slight crook in the road of about 50 meters north-west along Al Soor Street before it converged to 28C Street continuing the same direction north-east.

helpful signages

looking back at the Gold Souk entrance

heading down 32 A St

plenty of things to see

interesting wares on display

we started seeing perfumeries

we then walked along Al Soor St for a bit

before walking along 28C St

this must be the Perfume Souk area

love the side alleys

are these pyjamas for men?

reminds us of Malayan Mansion

just like in Masjid India!

If it seemed that we were certain of our direction and headed somewhere with a purpose, it is because we were on a mission. We were headed to the Perfume Souks! Our eventual destination will be revealed in the next post.

heading back to the Gold Souk

another interesting side alley to explore

a smiling butcher

minaret of the Masjid Kuwait

more perfumeries

must go exploring

a busy area

caught Cat's eye

tempting

Ginny and Sern must see this!

An hour and a half later we were headed back in the opposite direction and met up with Ginny and Sern who felt much better after some rest.

we met up with Ginny and Sern here

and doubled back to the perfumery we went earlier

After meeting up with Ginny and Sern, and regaling them with tales of our excellent encounter with Asim our new-found perfumer they decided that they too would like to check out our new-found treasure. We doubled back from where we came and introduced them to Asim. No photos were taken unfortunate, and an hour later we headed back to the Gold Souk.

Cat was intrigued with the roadside selection here

We took another walk through the Gold Souk once again on our way back to the Deira Old Souk Abra Station.

all that glitter!

hello again!

if only...

commemorative coins, or pendants?

ooh la la!

After walking through the Gold Souk we turned left and headed south-east along the Old Baladiya Street before eventually arriving at the Baniyas Road where the abra station was. On the way there we encountered several spice stalls and stopped to see what was on offer.

spices of life

he was too busy to talk to us

we have no idea what it says

we eventually walked into this shop...

where we were almost conned!

we hastily left the con-man's shop

and vowed to be careful with 'mis-pronunciations'

The gentleman in the red cap pictured above gave us quite a run-around. We inquired about some menthol crystals and he duly scooped a small amount onto his weighing scale and said 10 dirhams. We however noticed that he slurred the word "dirham" so much so that it sounded like a cross between "dirhams" and "grams". We asked again for the price, but he kept slurring "10 drams", and gave us the impression the menthol crystals on his weighting scale were valued at 10 dirhams.

We then agreed with his "10 dirhams" and handed him a 10 dirham note, to which he responded with great exaggerated shock "no, no, 10 grams so 18 dirhams per gram... must pay 180 dirhams!"

We told him no thanks and stormed out, as he hurled (what we can only assume to be) unpleasantries at our backs. Oh well, it was a lesson learnt that lingered in our thoughts as we made our way back to the abra station and across the Dubai Creek.