[ Dubai ] Spices, Gold and Canal

[ 黃金與香料之城 ] Of Gold and Spices

In the Sex and the City movie 2, the main characters supposedly went to "Abu Dhabi" for a nice treat. , Although it was filmed in Morocco rather than in Abu Dhabi, I thought the traditional spice market in the film was quite impressive. In Dubai, the centre of gold trade, you\'d also find the colorful traditional spice souk (market) and gold market, shining... (continue reading... )

在慾望城市第二集的電影裡, 女主角們來到了所謂的 "阿布達比" (其實他們是在摩洛哥拍的), 片中的傳統市場讓我印象很深. 像香料和黃金街這類的傳統市場, 我覺得十分有特色. 在窄窄的巷子裡, 五顏六色的香料, 寶綠色的船水道, 充滿黃金的黃金街, 杜拜的這類傳統市場也....

..... 是讓人很大開眼界.

--------------------------------------------
..... the best they could offer to visitors and locals.

在那之前, 我們先參觀了杜拜博物館. 杜拜博物館是大多旅客至少會去逛一下的景點. 它的所在點其實是個1780年代的軍事重地. 它也曾是個軍營, 宮殿和監獄.
Before then, we went to visit the Dubai Museum. Dubai Museum is considered to be one of the attractions that visitors to the city would normally visit. It is actually in a fort that held significant military importance since the 1780s. It used to be a kind of palace, military fort and prison.

有種博物館是幾乎看不到甚麼歷史文物的. 走進杜拜博物館有點像走入一個故事展示廳 (有點類似香港的歷史博物館或台灣故事館那樣), 重見過去當地人的生活情境和環境, 讓你感覺就好像活在那時代裡.
There\'s a kind of museum where you\'d hardly see any "museum pieces" (or artifacts). Dubai Museum is like that. In this museum, you\'ll see replicas or reconstruction of the ways of living of the local people living in this part of the Arabic world (the display style is a bit similar to the Hong Kong History Museum or the Taiwan Story Land).

這間博物館裡大多是以類似的方式展出當地人不同的生活面向. 這間是間賣香料的小鋪.
This is the kind of displays you\'d see in this museum. This is a store selling spices.

在博物館裡可以看到這邊要買紀念品可以買些甚麼.
Souvenir store in the Dubai Museum.

杜拜博物館外保留的一艘船.
Outside of the Dubai Museum.

我們搭著這小筏從港的這端到對岸的香料市場.
We went on these small boats that ferry us over to the Souk Market on the other side of the canal.

這邊的水都還算滿清澈的, 幾乎看不道污染或垃圾, 也沒有惡臭.
The water here look pretty clean and transparent. You don\'t see garbage around and there\'s no "smell" to it.

這算是當地的 "貨櫃船" 吧...
I guess this is somewhat like a local version of the smaller-scale container ships.

這算是個滿繁忙的傳道, 可以看到後面有許多船正準備出港.
This is a pretty busy pathway. You can see there are many boats lined up to leave the harbour.

許多岸邊停放的船隻上還有像 Finding Nemo 裡看到的許多海鷗.
Seagulls that remind us of "Finding Nemo" parked on the boats in the harbour.

在離港邊不遠的香料市集可以看到這邊較傳統和平民的一面. .
A few blocks away from the ferry dock is the Spice Souk (market). Here you\'ll see the more traditional market for spices and the more local way of living.

許多小巷子內都是賣香料的店鋪
The "Spice Souk" is made up of several small/narrow allies in the area.

在香料市場的店家.
Stores in the Spice Souk in Dubai.

這邊的店家都在自家的店外擺了一堆又一堆顏色很繽紛的香料, 如果不知道這些香料的用處, 想買還真不知道該如和買起, & 買完之後要做什麼.
Outside of every store are piles of these colourful spices. But if you don\'t know what these are, it\'d pretty difficult to know what to buy even if you want to get something from here.

很多的八角！這個我們比較不陌生.
This is also used in Chinese cooking so we\'re familiar with this.

有些看起來像是乾燥的植物, 結晶體, 種子或粉末. 有些磚塊狀的香料聽說是拿來塗在身上來止汗用. 有些是草藥.
But for the other ones, they just look like dried plants, or some form of crystal/sugar-like thing, or seeds or powder. Some block-like spices are said to be used as natural "deodrant". So not all of them are for cooking. Some are medicine as well.

走進這市場, 大部份的當地商人/店家都會跟你用中文說 "你好"! 看來到這邊貢獻的中國同胞應該不少.
When you enter the market, if you look Asian, you\'d be greeted with Chinese. So seems like this is hot shopping location for Chinese tourists.

有些香料的味道真的很強, 或很特別.
Some of the spices have a pretty pungent or different smell.

這算是賣給旅客的香料紀念品包.
This is more like a spices souvenir for visitors.

有些看起來簡直就像礦石... 如何使用這些香料還真是另一門學問.
Some of the spices even look like sulphur or some rock.. It definitely requires a certain level of cooking or spice-using knowledge to know how to use these.

離香料市場不遠處就是黃金市場. 在一本書上看到說杜拜是世界上最大的黃金交易中心, 也有 "黃金之城" 之稱. 書上也寫說這邊的黃金是全世界價格最低的, 不過這我就不知道是不是真的啦.
A few blocks away from the Spice Souk (market) is the Gold Souk (gold market). I read from a book that mentioned Dubai is the centre of the gold trade market in the world. It also has the largest gold market. The book also mentioned that the price of gold here is lower than the rest of the world. But I don\'t know enough about that to comment. x)

這是世界上最大的黃金戒指!
This is the largest gold ring in the world!

黃金市場的店都滿滿是黃金, 不過這邊的黃金因為做的花樣也特別多, 所以含金亮大都沒有到 24K.
聽說在這邊不用怕會買到假的黃金, 因為這邊的警方看得很緊, 被抓到這些店家絕對得不償失, 所以應該都不會拿自己的生意性命開玩笑.
All the shops in the Gold Souk are filled with golden necklace, rings and accessories. But it\'s pretty rare to find 24K gold here. & It was said that you don\'t need to be afraid that you\'d get fake gold here because the stores here don\'t dare to sell fake gold (they\'ll be in serious trouble).

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