Dubai (3)

Enough of the glitz and glitter and the biggest/tallest/newest. We're looking for the old Dubai, so we signed up for a walking tour of the old city.

We met our guide in the Arabian Tea House in the area called Al Fahidi.

The Al Fahidi Historical District abuts the Dubai Creek and is a heritage site. Much of the original infrastructure from the mid-19th century has been preserved — but the buildings have been turned into art galleries, boutique hotels, cafes and museums. No one lives here any longer.

Our tour guide, named Pri, was wearing sunny orange, was born in India, educated in the US and married a 'white boy from Oregon' (her words) before he was offered a lucrative two-year contract in Dubai. Eleven years later, and three Dubai-born children, they're still here. She was an excellent guide, with both local insight and knowledge as well as an international perspective.

Coffee in Dubai is traditionally made with cardamom, cinnamon and saffron. It's quite weak, and is drunk black without sugar. If you want sugar, you're offered a date. On our tour, we had coffee (and dates) in both the Dubai Coffee Museum and the Dubai Cultural Authority building — the latter is an airy white building where government officials work, but where the public is also welcome.

Forty per cent of Dubai's government is women, which is quite impressive. Of course, these are not elected officials. There is no election in Dubai. Government officials are appointed by the ruler of Dubai, who also serves as the vice president, prime minister and minister of defence of the seven emirates that form the UAE. According to Pri, the government appointees are well educated (often internationally) and highly experienced in their professional capacities. Those appointed to ministerial positions are appointed as government CEOs, rather than government ministers.

I asked Pri about population figures. Apparently the statistics on the internet are a bit guess-y; there is no census in the UAE, so population data is somewhat flexible. And it may not capture recent developments. Since the war began in Ukraine, 1.5 million Russians have moved to Dubai — with their teenage sons and US dollars, I imagine.

But back to Old Dubai. The traditional wind towers are a striking feature of the architecture, and are all round the old city. They're designed to catch the breeze and funnel the air down the towers into the rooms below. Wet cloths were hung on the inside of the wooden cross-bars; the air is cooled even more as the water evaporates.

The walls in the old buildings were also constructed with coral blocks from the Persian Gulf.

We need to cross the Dubai Creek from one side of the Al Fahidi Historical District to the other, so we hop on an abra. On the tour with us are two young women from London, who are writing a travel feature for a UK newspaper. I spend most of our walking tour reminding them to reapply suncreen and drink water. And where are their hats? (Did I mention that it was 44 degrees C?)

The Fabric Souk is on the one side of the Creek; the Spice Souk and the Gold Souk are on the other. The Gold Souk has a lot of jewellery, including 24 carat gold soccer boots and the world's biggest gold ring. (And we're back in 'biggest' territory again.)

So these are the 'real' souks, the souks where real local people shop.

Souk Madinat Jumeirah, on the other hand, is a modern version of the souk, set against the 7-star hotel Burj Al Arab on its artificial island you can see looming in the background. (So yes, we're back to 'the new'.) The Madinat, which translates as 'city', is a shopping mall — but what a shopping mall. Canals run through a bazaar in traditional Middle Eastern style, with open-air stalls and restaurants. We're taken to our Thai restaurant in an abra along the canals.

Where is the desert amidst this City of Glitter and All Things Luxe? About 45 minutes' drive east from the city, we reach the desert for our dune bashing and camel ride tour. We're joined on our tour by two young people from the Netherlands, who are on their honeymoon and going on to relax in the Seychelles. We admire their very, very recent wedding photos and get on famously. Just as well, as we're about to embark on our dune bashing experience — think of a rollercoaster on sand — and we're all going to get quite close physically as we lurch through the bumps.

We're in a V8 petrol Landcruiser (Ken tells me those are important details) with rollbars inside the vehicle. A local friend told us that he'd been in a dune bashing vehicle that had rolled 10 times. No one was hurt but all the windows popped out. I probably shouldn't have mentioned this story to the young Dutch woman as we started out — that's not me shrieking on the dunes! (Not that you can hear her screams above the driver's music. You'd swear we were clubbing out here.)

Thank goodness for the calm (and quiet) swaying of the camels. But we've had more scenic camel rides in Mombasa and Broome, frankly. This ride was a couple of laps around the paddock. Maybe the 44 degree heat had something to do with it?

We did manage to see the Fountains before we left. Our vantage point wasn't the best but now we can say we've seen them from above and from ground level.

Our taxi driver to the airport was from Pakistan. I asked whether there were a lot of Pakistani people in Dubai. Yes, he said, it's easy to come to Dubai and easy to get a job. If you don't work in Dubai, you have to leave — and I will say that there is no sign of homelessness or begging on the streets. But, said our taxi driver, it's all just buildings. There's no natural beauty as there is in Pakistan. So you're here for the money? I ask. Yes, he says, but life can't just be about money.

Our flight's been called, so cheerio, Dubai, that was fun. Next stop, Athens.