Mystique of the Dubai Creek - page 2

picture by Andy Carvin

Article by Nazar Hayat Khan

As you move east along the Creek towards the Sheraton, you find the cargo laid out neatly beside the vessels. There are fridges, air-conditioners, pumps furniture, and drums destined for ports in the Gulf, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. The creek is now surrounded by wide roads and Dubai’s modern high-tech skyline of tall buildings, glittering with glass and steel, large parking lots, neat walkways, water and electricity points for vessels, public telephone boxes, flower beds grassy lawns and clean small cafes. There are signs which prohibit the dropping of litter, fishing and cafes.

As the cool evening breezes set in, an intriguing variety of vessels move into their parking berths as others sail out. They all look, and probably are, handmade and hand-painted. The toilet of one vessel is labelled ‘To Let’, its window pane, from which someone’s vest hangs, broken, I’m told that no-one is allowed to enter unless that vest in place.

The channel waters ripple against the concrete sidings as I approach the Sheraton, where the latest, factory-made, luxury vessels of fiberglass, motor cruisers for recreation and small boats for hire are moored. A stone’s throw away is the newly-opened wharf area, offering every possible facility for both large and small vessels. Once again, there are parks, parking lots, flower beds and date trees, uprooted from their natural habitat and planted here.

Just over the Maktoum Bridge is the new Creek side Park from where you get a perfect view of the Dubai Creek Yacht and Golf Club with its two architecturally unique clubhouse buildings - one shaped like a dhow and the other like an ocean-going liner.

The beautification program is a credit to the city which wants to preserve its history while moving ahead with the times. Past and future, East and West, tradition and technology have been blended together to make the colourful, interesting and dynamic mosaic of life that Dubai is today.

By now, the sun has gone down and the neon lights are flashing as I retrace my steps back to my hotel, past expatriate workers lounging on benches after a hard day’s work, while fishing boats offload their catches into refrigerated trucks. Families take group snaps in front of the flower beds and small children frolic on the lawns. Delicious aromas of strong spicy foods waft across from the boats where cooks fry with pans filled with onions, garlic and ginger.

I suddenly realize that not a single boat has sounded its horn. Perhaps they are prevented by law, I muse as I step into the lobby of the Dubai Inter-Continental Hotel, into another time, into another world. As my body temperature adjusts to the cool air-conditioned environment, The New York Jazz Quartet plays at the Cafe Boulevard. My peep into the past in over... until the next time I fly to this unique world of Dubai’s Creek.

<---- back to page 1

<---- Dubai for Visitors home

for inquiries (non-commercial only please):