Stephen’s turn for Friday summary.

Friday morning had us get up and get breakfast first thing. We enjoyed a nice breakfast in the courtyard right outside our room. Pastries, chicken sausage, mango and orange juice, yogurt, under the shade and a cloudless blue sky. Today’s agenda seemed not too hectic. We thought about the museum, then going to find the Bahri Bar and enjoying the view of the Burj Al Arab hotel. However that plan changed a little. We decided to find the local souks, come back for a refreshing drink at the hotel, then head to the mall and then the Bahri Bar. Of course, first thing’s first: You can’t do anything without any money. We walked about a ¼ mile down the road to exchange some money. Unfortunately you can’t exchange traveler’s checks without a passport, which we left in the room safe, and instead just converted some regular dollars. We tried to make our way to the waterfront where we would catch a water taxi called an abras and for 1 dinhar (about $0.27) we could get to the other side of the Dubai Creek and visit the souks. Walking along the waterfront we could feel the sun and heat coming, it was getting hot. We took a turn and walked down the Dubai souk, mostly textiles and tourist trinkets being sold here. Hustle and bustle of quite a few people, although since it was Friday (essentially Sunday), not all the shops were open. Something I saw that I didn’t quite understand: men holding hands. WTF!?! Evidently, Elizabeth had read in the travel guide that really good male friends can hold hands together to express their friendship. Sort of extreme in my opinion, but whatever.

There were 2 stops on our side of the waterfront that transported people to 2 spots on the opposite side. We got on, paid our due, and took the 5 minute ride over. Taxis were everywhere, many boats were strung up on the sides. When we got off, we started walking toward the direction we thought the souks were. We found quite a number of other foreign tourists walking around the area as well, and soon the pungent aroma of the spice souk found us. There were a few store fronts open, probably to accommodate the tourists that frequent the area. Many of the other shops were closed. Bags and bowls of spices, dried leaves and mushrooms, and peddlers outside every open shop speaking broken english wanting you to come in and visit their shop. What’s a tourist gonna do with a bag of spices? It was hard enough for me to identify what they were selling anyways.

The peddlers were out in force in the gold souk, numerous alleyways and store fronts devoted to selling jewelry of all kinds. I think they particularly singled out Elizabeth cause of her brightly colored shirt and whiteness of her skin. For as much as my looks don’t fit into the area, Elizabeth was even more so. Some of the peddlers were scary, they’d follow us after we’d passed their shop still asking us to come browse their wares. I was constantly putting my hand on the camera bag I had strapped around my shoulder to make sure it was still secure.