An eighteen hour stop over at Dubai on my way to Tokyo alowed me to be able to go on eight hour organised tour of Dubai, which I felt would be the best way to get to know its highlights.
Upon reaching Dubai and despite having been dropped off at Royal Continental Hotel where I had no intention of resting I was somehow forced to stay indoors because the heat was extreme and there wasn't much I could do until being collected.
The organised tour started at the Al Bastakiya area, whose name is associated with the fact that the earlier settlers came from Bastak in Persia. Having fled from their hometown due to religious persecutation they are said to have been offered a few incentives by the Emerati Government.
What remains of the initial Al Fahidi historical neighbourhood did in fact remind ome of Iran, mostly because of the wind towers. It is quite small with numerous narrow lanes and a touch of misteriousness. We visited one of the restored traditional houses - the Mohammed Sharif Sultan Al-Ulam's House, who in 1931 is said to have been the commercial judge of Dubai. The architecture was familiar. It consisted of a two storey high house with two wind towers and an interior courtyard with traditional columns, arches and decorative capitals. It had an incredible view over the Dubai creek, which rose our curiosity, once we would later be going across it.
As we left the residential area we drove to the Al Fahidi Fort and the Dubai Museum it houses. I found it to be very interesting because of displaying the history of Dubai and its heritage in an interactive type of way, with the reconstruction of old streets, activities and shops, thus providing the visitor with an idea of what it was like then.
Dubai's economy is said to have prospered after 1894 because of tax exemption to foreign traders and city's exports were mostly pearls, shells and dried fish.
(To be continued)
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