A Tale Of Two Cities

After 30 months of living and working on the Bur Dubai side of the creek I ventured out last weekend to check out the other side.

So far I’ve been afraid of traffic snarls and bad drivers, of getting lost, not finding a taxi or a parking space and the general mayhem in my otherwise peaceful uncomplicated world of driving to work in 12 minutes; doing all my entertaining and shopping in the five square kilometres around my home or the work place and the luxury of getting everything delivered at my door.

Why I ventured out, I really don’t know. Perhaps I was bored of the same old things, and wanted a different experience… and what an experience it was!

New hotels, shopping malls, hundreds of little eating places and the teeming rush of people. Chinese, Russian, Indian, mixed bags of western tourists, Afghans, Iranians, Emiratis and other Arabs… a heady mix of colour, costumes, languages and accents all around me.

Elating as it was, I wanted the Arabian experience in the historical heart of Dubai, a heart that has slowly lost its importance because Shaikh Zayed Road and beyond all the way to Abu Dhabi has now become the flavour of the millennium.

I haggled at the spice market in the Old Souq, felt like Alice in Wonderland in the Gold Souq, wondered at the dhows, showed off my born-by-the-sea antecedents at the fish market, and when I decided I had had enough of the bustle I retired to the green at the Creek Park with the intention of doing it again, albeit in a less haphazard fashion.

The Creek which was and is still the life line of Dubai has left us divided.

It’s quite possible that someone living over in Deira has not made the trip to Bur Dubai in a long time for exactly the same reasons as mine.

All I’ve got to say to all those who have lived here a long time and moan about missing the real Dubai and those newcomers too afraid to venture far: "Cross that bridge."