Sharjah Tour

My plans for today are to go to the barber shop near Al-Rolla, have my hair cut, come back and get ready for the Jumaat prayer. But the barber was so busy with customers that I had to postpone the hair cut and head back as it was almost 12noon. Jumaat Sermons and Prayer start at about 1215.

We had our Beriyani (as usual...every Friday) at Hamid's cafe. Din, our new-found friend had promised to take us to somewhere. We took a taxi to the Bur Dubai city center where Din was waiting near the Citybank building. We met Bro Shaharum, Din's housemate who will be our tour guide for the day.

Our first destination was the Dubai Outlet Mall, about 20km from Bur Dubai. The place houses many brand names but at a bargin price. Most of the stuff there are either surplus stocks or factory reject. The Mall is located in the middle of the desert. Searing heat welcome us there....I was planning of buying a pair of shoes to go to work...I have been wearing the same Camel Active shoes ever since I arrived in Dubai....my other shoes are in the cargo due to arrive tomorrow. But I ended up with nothing.....maybe next time....

We left the Mall and headed for Deira. Shaharum had some business to do at a tailor (Phulwani Trading) there. The shop is located near Naif St. There owner, an Indian, is fluent in Bahasa.....and I met a lot of Malaysians there too. Maybe I'll have my baju raya made there when the time comes....

We left Deira and headed to Sharjah, one of the Emirates, located east of Dubai. Sharjah to Dubai is like Seremban to KL....It's here where we can see more Arabs....and the cost of living here is still much cheaper than Dubai. Many people who work in Dubai prefer to live in Sharjah because of that....but the only bad thing is that the journey it takes from Sharjah to Dubai (20km) is about 2 hours.....because of the traffic congestion.

We went to the Central Souq aka the Blue Souq.....which houses many carpet stores and jewelery stores among other things. We watched the beautiful sunset from the Souq yard.....performed Asar and Maghrib prayers at a make-shift "surau" under a staircase....It's very convenient actually, except that we had to take ablution at a men's room about 20 meters away.....we had to dodge all the ladies while making our way to the surau. And one more thing.....the water was so hot, you could make a half-boiled egg with it.....why? the tanks are located on the roof....hehehehe.....

Shaharum stopped by a carpet shop to buy some tapestry for his sister who's moving to a new house....the owner, Abdullah, is his old friend....I think he's from India or Pakistan, but speaks very good English....

Maybe next time I'd bring my family to this place.....the wife would love it....I'm sure.....

We stopped at Al-Tawassol restaurant for dinner. It's in Deira city. The restaurant serves Yemeni food which was very good. We ate rice, Chicken Salona and some kind of mutton dish (don't recall its name).....the cost was about Dhs60....Dhs15+ per person....fair enough....

They dropped us at the apartment....we were a bit tired but pretty satisfied....

I learned more about Dubai....and met two new friends.....not counting the Malaysians that we met at Phulwani's.

Tomorrow...haircut, Rostamani and cargo un-packing await....

(Pictures are in the photo page)