Allyen Speaks

Thanks to Ambien we had a great night sleep. Woke up early no problem and started day 1 in Dubai. The Hyatt Regency is very nice here and we had a wonderful breakfast buffet. I had lychee fruit for the first time and absolutely loved it. It tasted like lemonade and grapefruit to me. The cheeses and baba gnoush, foul medemas were terrific. Thanks to my uncle Aref I started early, eating and loving middle eastern cuisine.

We walked to the gold souk which is interesting. Several hundred stores filled with gold based jewelry and plenty of salespeople from every possible nation on earth to show the goods. I rather liked an $8,000 necklace for Stacy but decided to save my money for a car or a year of college for the kids. Of course this necklace was no where near as expensive as much of the wares.

After some serious gold over exposure we found our way, with many stops to ask directions, to the spice souk. Again, many shops, many people enticing you to enter their shop. The area is full of wonderful aromas, interesting sites, and friendly people. I finally found a ready supply of zatar. In Denver I always have difficulty finding it. Here it is available in every shop with a 10 pound bag of the stuff.

Finally got to see what frankincense is after hearing about it all these years in christmas songs and stories. The saffron is of the Iranian variety and much cheaper than what we can get in the US. We have learned their are a lot of Iranians here and they use saffron in almost everything. The Iranian cuisine is significantly different than the Arabic food I am used to.

We continued our exploration of Dubai with a quick, nondescript lunch at a middle eastern chain. We hired a “guy off the street” to drive us to the fabric souk on the other side of the creek. Until now we had stayed on the south side of the creek in the Deira section of the city. The fabric is in the Bur Dubai area, north of the creek.

At first Stacy was dissappointed because we learned that the stores don’t sell by the yard they sell by the roll! A roll is usually 25 yards, so unless Stacy is going to make the whole family matching head-to-toe outfits she won’t need anywhere near that much fabric. Luckily, after some diligent shopping, we found some hand made Indian fabrics that are too elaborate to sell in such bulk and are packaged in 2 meter lengths; just right for a Stacy project! We went on to find other options for Stacy to feed her fabric habit. This nice gentleman in the photo was patient with us as we scoured his store and even gave us a cold can of peach juice. A very nice gesture indeed considering the heat outside.Â

I can’t wait to see what day two will bring!

Â

Â