An American in Dubai: The Weekend: Dubai-Style

The Sharjah "Blue" Souq.

This past weekend we had a pretty 'Dubai' weekend, having some new experiences and checking out some things we had never done before.

On Friday night I convinced Jared that we should go and check out the Sharjah Souq (in Sharjah, the next Emirate over) because I thought it might be fun to check out another souq, and I also thought it might be fruitful in my ongoing quest for an Arabic dowry chest and a Moroccan tea kettle. It turned out to be a fairly interesting night too, because we soon discovered that the whole of Sharjah is a huge traffic jam on weekend nights and also that we did not have a map of Sharjah in our car as I thought we did when we left the house (oops.). So anyone who knows Jared can imagine the unpleasantness that ensued as we were stuck in traffic and lost (oh, and our gas tank was on E, which added another element of fun). Somehow we did end up finding the souq though, and it was well worth the stress to check it out.

The Sharjah Souq is a huge interconnected and enclosed (therefore air-conditioned, which is essential now that the heat is back to the UAE, over 100 and humid everyday, yuck) building with approximately 600 shops inside. And not unlike the Dubai souqs, it is divided into different areas selling pretty much the typical stuff - gold, textiles, and beautiful Persian rugs. There were also a lot of refreshment stands and some souvenir-type shops as well. It was a good size and took us about an hour to go through, but was not so big that it was daunting (think Kapali Carsi - the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul). We had a nice time looking around, but unfortunately had no luck with the trunk or tea kettle (unless I wanted a pure sterling silver Moroccan tea kettle which was gorgeous but approximately 6000 AED. Yeah, my jaw dropped when I heard that price).

And after we left we immediately got stuck in the continuous traffic and got lost yet again, but luckily found a gas station no problem. And despite the stress surrounding getting to and from the Sharjah Souq, I still think it was a good little trip (Jared, however, may disagree as he was growling "This is why we don't go to poor Emirates. Never again!")... Oh well...

Sharjah Souq facade. It's a really pretty building.

Then on Saturday, we were invited for an afternoon out on our friends David and John's boat to go for a ride in the Gulf and to have some dinner and drinks on the water. I had never been on a boat in the UAE before (Oman yes, about 4 times, but not in the UAE). We know John and David from the pub quiz night we go to every week and they also invited along our friends Pauline and Kevin (who hosted a fantastic Royal Wedding Party a couple weeks ago. With all the Brit's living here the Royal Wedding was like a national holiday in Dubai, lots of excitement) who also do the pub quiz with us every week on team "Totem Possum." The weather was perfect and luckily not too humid, so it was a fantastic afternoon.

Pauline, looking very chic as we headed out of the marina.

The small dhows used for shipping. We saw about 10 of these boats heading out and all the guys on board were super friendly -- or maybe they were just gawking at the white women (us!) in bikinis...

David and John keep their boat in the Dubai Marina Yacht Club and I have never seen such a high volume of crazy nice boats before in my life.

Just some of the big boats with a view of the Burj Al Arab in the distance. Everyone out on boats, it seemed, had a legit. yacht. Oh to be rich!

I really enjoyed riding on the front of the boat. It was my favorite spot.

Jared, Pauline, and David swimming off the back of the boat.

The water was really refreshing and the boat had a built-in fresh water rinsing hose for after you got out (which makes a huge difference since the Gulf water is soooo salty). We didn't actually swim for all the long though because there were tons of jet-skis zipping around and weaving in and out of the anchored boats a little too fast and close for comfort. And after the fact, we read that a man was killed on the same day we were out, in the same area by getting hit by a jet-ski while swimming. Hearing that was actually quite unnerving...