TimesToCome

I’ve not seen a single dog here. We did see one cat, actually we heard him from 3 alleys away. What a howl. He’s a long white orange spotted stray who was dumpster diving and singing his tale of woe.

Prayers are called even at 4 am. They sound like the Catholic priests doing their Latin sing song. Different language and religion but the feel is the same.

Police are scarce here, I’ve seen them but only rarely.

Today we hopped on the subway. It’s amazing, the stops are larger than some airports I’ve seen. It’s fully automated, no conductors, and cheap.

First we rode out to the new part of the city. It looks like something out of the Jettsons, every building more amazing than the one before it. Three buildings are being built for every one completed. Dubai is totally a city of the future. But that end of town is empty. The people haven’t moved in yet and often we were the only pedestrians in sight.

Then we rode back to the other end of Dubai. We got off at the most crowded stop and followed the crowd. First we ended up in an Indian immigrant area. Thousands and thousands of shops and people everywhere.

We stopped to eat at a Lebanese/Russian restaurant. The menu items all listed ‘meat’ not chicken, lamb or beef, just meat. I’ve no idea what I had for dinner but it was good.

I tried to get more photos but every time I slowed down a young Indian man would run up saying ‘genuine fake watches, genuine fake handbags, Rolex, Fendi, Prada. . . ‘ So we had to keep moving.

From the Indian area we wandered into old Dubai. Fabric stores every where, lots of shops to make custom suits, burkas and any other clothing you might desire.

Along twisting turning alleys we wandered. I started to notice more and more people were barefoot. I had led us into the back door of a mosque. We were able to back out with out getting dumped into Dubai Creek. ( This is why my sister and husband get nervous when I go wandering ;p )

The bong like things you see in the shop window are for smoking tobacco. Water is in the bottom, tobacco up top and hot coals are placed on the tobacco. All restaurants and bars keep several handy and you see many people smoking them at dinner.

One of the biggest sellers in all the areas we’ve been to are big fuzzy, fake fur blankets – like the kind you see in the states sold along side velvet Elvis’s. I haven’t figured that out – it’s about 95′F at night and 105′F in the day.

Every one here speaks English we’ve not found any one we couldn’t talk to. I’m still shocked so few spoke English in Tokyo. Cameras are very taboo. People glance at the camera as if I were carrying a weapon. So the photos are not as clear or targeted as I’d like.

Today was my first day out and about in Dubai. Friday is like Sunday here so most everything was closed all morning. We made a pass through the local shopping mall, visited the world’s tallest building and went to the Old Golden Suk shopping district.

The shopping mall was mostly locals about 1/3 women 2/3 men. The Old Suk shopping district is Indian and Pakistani natives and about 95% men.

About 80% of the women wear burkas, about half of those with face covering. The other 20% of the women wear Indian or Western wear, even half of them cover their hair. Some of the burkas are very light weight some quite heavy. Almost all are black but many have designs on the front or sleeves. There are some brightly colored burkas usuallly worn by women who are African.

The men wear robes with tshirts and underpants or loose pants and a long shirt over them. About half of them cover their heads. The head covers are extremely thin fabric.

While traffic is light here, there is little pedestrian and bicycle traffic. There are buses, taxis everywhere and a train.

Juice is every where with little juice shops full of fruit that squeeze it fresh, coffee and tea shops are rare.

We stopped at an Indian place for dinner and I had a potato pancake with tomatoes and onions, it looked like a pizza.

Photography of people is frowned on here so it’s been tough getting pictures. The women all seem friendly and smile back. The men are mixed, they all stare, most will smile back, some just glare.

Prayers are called several times a day, praying is done in the Mosques not in public and most of the people ignore the calls.