Once you arrive to Dubai, all the new buildings and new attractions capture your attention and forgot that the city started hundreds of years ago as a trading post for precious metals, pearl industry and fishing village. Not far from the new Dubai you will find this markets or Souks the way they are called here.

The Gold and Spice Souks are located in Deira, Dubai; can be said on the Old Dubai. Deira is the commercial part of Dubai but has lost focus due to the accelerated growth of Dubai other commercial places. In Deira you will find the Dubai Creek a natural waterway, where you will found many small boats (Abra boats) moving from one point of the city to another point of the city by paying $1 or $2 AED. The markets are more than 100 years old with gaining relevance with the oil boom of the 70’s.

Once you get to the Souks, walking them are easy and secure. As many places in Dubai they are well kept and with good signage to facilitate walking from point A to point B. As you enter the Gold Souk you are greeted with the biggest gold ring in the world (another record for Dubai!!!), weighting at more than 140+ pounds is huge, it can be the ring for King Kong. As many records they announce you will see the Guinness certificate.

Along the hallway you see the different shops showcasing their work, all things gold… Gold Clothing, hundreds of necklaces, chains, rings, bracelets, everything you can imagine is there in gold. Different Karats and colors can be found, also Silver is widely available with many products being offered. It is a great place for a nice stroll just looking and stopping to see the level of detail in some of the pieces. We did enter to a couple of stores and never felt being hassled to buy something, obviously they will try and show you their work and get you interested but in a relaxed manner.

Not far from the Gold Souk you will find the Spice souk, also with good spaces you will have a colorful and aromatic journey from the different spices you can buy there. The displays looks wonderful and inside the stores you also can see other variety of products. The cool thing here is you can see the product very close before you buy and discuss with the shopkeeper on the different spices and their history.

Walking the Spice souk gives you a sense of traveling back in time, when no supermarkets were available and went to the markets to buy what you needed for the day, there’s no doubt that the level of intimacy on the service is the best compared to the big box stores that exist today in Dubai.

As the year start I will continue the updates from Dubai and sharing more insight on this great place, also will include some post around neighboring emirates. For now if you just read my post, please forward to your friends and sign in to receive our updates; also follow us on Instagram, or Facebook look for #BORICUASLIVINGABROAD . Until next time….