A Red Rug at The Blue Souk

My boss Diane took a few of us to the Blue Souk, (or Central Market or Central Souq-- GPS goes with Central Market) in Sharjah last weekend. I wasn't thinking I needed a rug, but when I got there and saw these beauties I decided I really needed a rug! This experience for me is "a gateway rug" because I plan to go back and buy more sometime. This is the one I settled on, I love red. It was handwoven in Afghanistan and was a really fair price. It is good quality, made of camel wool, and very soft. Although I don't have a photo of the backside, it is also a very neat pattern.

They send you out the door with a small bag, but that is magic, they manage to get even large rugs into little shopping bags.

I want to show a few photos of the Blue Souk itself, it is a really pretty building, it seems to represent the beginning of the huge marketplace culture that exists in Dubai today.

The kids had a blast running around the shop, crawling behind the rugs and playing hide and go seek. It looked like a lot of fun. In the photo below is Mara and Brian's daughter, she was still for a moment and let me snap a picture of her. Rafeek is in the foreground, if you look to the light in the background, there is a little girl there.

Rafeek is an excellent salesman and showed us all the variety of quality, patterns and colors that we were all looking for. He served us tea and had impeccable stock. There are other rug vendors in this huge older shopping place (souk) but there was plenty to choose from in this shop and it was nice to have an appointment to see him, he was expecting us. Here are some photos I took during our shopping experience. The last photo is a beautiful rug that is my favorite, and is about $45,000.

End of blog post, but not the end of my rug shopping.

Friday Brunch in Satwa

One of the coolest authentic adventures I've had here was the Friday I ran errands in the Pakistani neighborhood near my apartment and stumbled into a really great brunch. Brunch in Dubai is an "institution." They can be over the top, or quite reasonable. I first stopped to look at the neat snacks (chatt) in the window at Vandna, but then realized that inside was interesting too.

There were a few tables with people eating, and I figured out that the food was something I wanted to try. Luckily, there were a couple of options on a very straightforward menu. Pointing and affirmative nodding is how I communicated through this tasty meal.

I was brought a series of dishes, and a man came around and kept offering more bread, rice, curries, or "Ayran" the yogurt drink seen in the metal cup.

Eating got a little messy, because I used only the bread and rice to scoop up all the food. But as in many restaurants in Dubai, I was given a box of tissues instead of napkins. All of the food was very tasty, even though I'm not entirely sure what each of these dishes are. My favorite was the brown sugar and bean-- that might have been dessert, but I ate it along with the spicy dishes. The bowl of white, that is an entire bowl of sugar, which I might have wanted to stir into the yogurt drink, but who knows what it was intended for? I sampled it all, it was very good. The guys there were really nice. Just before I left more families started to come in and it got busy. The men were coming home from mosque and it was time to eat. I can see why the place became crowded.

Dessert in the Desert

Lina was kind enough to organize curb service transportation to a "desert safari."

Upon arrival, the set up was chaotic and you almost begin to think that the lack of organization for such a huge operation is staged, but alas, they are authentically cluster-fucked. When you finally get into one of these Toyota mommy mobiles, you go "dune bashing" or get yourself dune-bashed, either way you look at it. I felt quite honored to get to ride on this treacherous journey to a desert-encampment with Betsy Stevens, assistant dean of the college of business at Zayed University. Neither of us peed, noticeably.

Upon arrival, first thing I saw was Lina and Daniel riding on a camel.

There was free shisha, henna, and a guy walking around with a falcon.

Next was entertainment. We saw a guy spin-dance with a light up skirt, a fire dancer, and a belly dancer.

The food was good, although it was a little funny that everyone was running to the buffet, there was more than enough for everyone. It was a BBQ, similar to what you'd have anywhere, with cabbage salads and such. There was very good fire-roasted chicken. Vanilla pudding, with a slice of Apple and slice of orange was the hurried desert that I shoveled in before taking one more dangerous ride through the sand dunes, back to the school bus. Didn't get a photo of the dessert- sorry!

Dubai Public Library

I stopped by a branch of the Dubai Public Library today and took a few photos. This is what it looked like:

Very pretty, and full of resources, but one of only 8 branches to serve this city of more than 2 million people.

Burg Khalifa is within view. Across the street is Safa Park to compete with, (UAE version of Parks and Recreation rivalry?)

I like the air conditioned bus stop directly in front.

Nice landscaping and even a water fountain by the door.

These are the last pics before I was asked to quit taking photos.

It was a fun 5 minutes before I was getting looks that said my time at the public library was over. I'll visit again someday and not take pictures.