Friday

Today started by sleeping in a little. Our original plan had been to go back to Dubai Mall and just wander for the day til it was time to fly out but yesterday the mall had seemed kinda overwhelming and we didn’t feel like lugging backpacks through the hallways. So we slept in, ate breakfast at the hotel again, and finished packing.

I was wanting to find some traditional Arabic coffee cups for souvenirs and last night a man told me to try the Gold Souq. My phone wasn’t working and I didn’t trust myself not to get lost without a map so I did not look go.

Arabic coffee is served in a dallah, the brass pot in the center. The coffee is a light roast and is prepared by boiling it for like 10 minutes with cardamom. It’s a little spicy and bitter but actually finishes quite well. The cups are filled about half full to cool it faster and to keep the host interacting with the guests, although we were rarely served more than one cup, probably because we were never in a formal setting. Maybe I’ll try making it when I get home.

We walked back there this morning hoping for a successful trip, but discovered Friday is some sort of holiday and a good half of all the stores were closed in town. I asked a shopkeeper guy where I could find them and he first took me to a coffee shop so i had to explain I only wanted the cup, not the coffee. “Oh, just the gawa!” Yes, exactly. Now I knew what to call them also! 🙂 I believe he said they sold them at a wholesale store but they were closed today. So no luck. “But,” he said, “Come look at my store!” We went back to his store with him. He sells spices and let us smell lots of them and told us what they were good for and what they were not good for. Some were blends he had mixed and some were boughten. It smelled amazing and I think if you sould buy them locally it would be fun to experiment with them. Then he had his buddy go out and get an incense burner and he put some mint crystals of some sort on the charcoal and let us sniff the smoke. It would be a wonderful cure for sinus congestion, if you needed it. After all that I felt I owed him a sale so I bought some Masala Chai tea he mixed himself.

We walked back to the creek and rode an abra across to try to find the coffee museum. But the Friday closings also affected the coffee museum and we were not able to visit. It would have been very interesting though.

Close to the coffee museum is the Arabian Tea House, a local breakfast and lunch spot. The dining area was outdoors under trees and little canopies and other places they had thin white and blue fabric stretched over the tables for shade. I feel like it was maybe a little higher class people there, lots of the men and women were wearing traditional dress, and just looked classy. We were seated at a little wicker table and ordered black tea with saffron, which is amazing. Maybe a little spicy, it’s not hot like a cinnamon, but definitely delicious. I hadn’t had saffron, so I took my opportunity. The tea house was full of people, probably close to a hundred, and there were like only 2 other tables with white people at them.

The tea house and coffee museum are located in the Al Fahidi district, which I believe is maybe actually where the old city was. There are a few sections of the old city wall still preserved there. The buildings are either old, or at least meant to look old, built with very narrow alleys between them, and are all tan stone and stucco. The walkways are all a sort of small flagstone. The area housed several cafes and art galleries and seemed geared to the upper class or at least tourists.

On a side note, our tour guide yesterday said the men wearing ankle length white kanduras, are natural citizens and very likely have money. I noticed on the street, the poorer men in traditional clothes usually had knee length robes and pants of the same color, which was usually white, blue, brown, or tan.

We still had time to kill so we walked down the creek til we could see the cruise ship docks. There were four there, if I counted correctly but were a long ways from anywhere so maybe they have a good bus system for the passengers who want to tour around, i don’t know.

We ate lunch at the Blue Barjeel and had a table right on the water. I dined on grilled chicken, with yogurt and a green leafy herb on the side. The yogurt was not something I expected to enjoy, but it was really good with the chicken and herb dipped in it.

After lunch, we walked through the touristy market a few times and got accosted a lot of times. I hadn’t really paid much mind before, but those guys know the right words in a number of languages to get tourists to stop. I heard one talking maybe Japanese, I think German, and Spanish. Its like this; “Hello, sir, where you from? You want scarf? Cashmere? Spices? Perfume? What you looking for?” all along the street, one right after the other. If you tell them you’re from the US, “Ah! California? New York? Washington?” or “Barak Obama! You like him?” One man informed us he was from Chicago and Washington and I think he said California, too. Or a man might step up and offer you Rolexes or IPhones.

Then it was time to head to the airport. We boarded the metro one last time and rode to terminal 3, checked in, and rode the glass elevator up past the multi-story waterfall in the lobby.

I’m typing on the plane. We just finished a meal of garlic chili noodles with prawns, a pasta salad of orzo with black beans and sweet corn, a rather tough roll, crackers and cheese, and milk chocolate mousse with cherry compote and a chocolate garnish. It was very good food for airplane food! The WIFI doesnt seem to work though so I’ll have to finish at the airport. Currently, we have 4.5 more hours to manila…

I’m back… After a too short nap on the plane, confusing immigrations, and breakfast at Chowking, we are waiting to leave Manila for Bohol! Our flight this time is on Cebu Pacific.