Spicing up your trip to Dubai with a visit to the souks is a must. Part of Bur Dubai, the old part of the city, a boat ride across the Dubai Creek will take you to Deira. The gold souk (souk means market in Arabic) is blinding; it’s not the world’s largest gold market for no reason. Walk down to the next block, into the narrow lanes of the spice souk, which might give you a Gariahat-meets-New Market feel with the haggling and bargaining all around.
What you should be prepared for is a feast for the eyes with spices and herbs of almost every colour on display, along with an assault on your olfactory receptors as pepper, clove and camphor jostle with rosebuds and nutmeg, dried lemons lean against vanilla pods and cinnamon sticks, hibiscus and lavender lay pretty beside saffron, ginger and frankincense.
You can also buy dry fruits like dates, almonds, cashews, pine seeds and pistachio. We picked up some camel milk date chocolates and cinnamon sticks.
Even if you don’t buy anything, just a walk through these alleys will be a treat, especially if you are armed with a DSLR or a phone camera. Rows of small shops with baskets and sacks brimming with spices and herbs is a view to relish.
— Sibendu Das
