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

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.

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).

This is the kind of displays you\'d see in this museum. This is a store selling spices.

Souvenir store in the Dubai Museum.

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

We went on these small boats that ferry us over to the Souk Market on the other side of the canal.

The water here look pretty clean and transparent. You don\'t see garbage around and there\'s no "smell" to it.

I guess this is somewhat like a local version of the smaller-scale container ships.

This is a pretty busy pathway. You can see there are many boats lined up to leave the harbour.

Seagulls that remind us of "Finding Nemo" parked on the boats in the harbour.

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.
The "Spice Souk" is made up of several small/narrow allies in the area.

Stores in the Spice Souk in Dubai.

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.

This is also used in Chinese cooking so we\'re familiar with this.

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.

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.

Some of the spices have a pretty pungent or different smell.

This is more like a spices souvenir for visitors.

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.


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)

This is the largest gold ring in the world!

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).
More Photos on MY FLICKR:
This Trip Related Posts // 這次旅遊其他 Posts:
1. [ Sharjah ] Pearl Merchants, Falcon & Desert // [ 沙迦 ] 珍珠商人, 獵鷹與一片黃土
2. [ Ras Al Khaimah ] Al Wadi Banyan Tree // [ 哈伊馬角 ] 沙漠裡的艾瓦迪悅榕莊
3. [ Dubai ] Burj Khalifa and the Biggest Things // [ 杜拜 ] 世界最高樓與世界最大的東西
4. [ Dubai ] ARMANI Hotel in Dubai // [ 杜拜 ] 世界最高樓下的亞曼尼精品飯店
5. [ Abu Dhabi ] World of Ferrari // [ 阿布達比 ] 法拉力樂園
6. [ Abu Dhabi ] Emirate Palace of Gold // [ 阿布達比 ] 阿聯酋長皇宮的八星飯店
7. [ Abu Dhabi ] Mosque and Village of the Other Worldly // [ 阿布達比 ] 最美的清真寺與另一種曼哈頓
8. [ Dubai ] Burj Arab: The Seven Star Hotel // [ 杜拜 ] 一生一定要住一次的七星帆船飯店
9. [ Dubai ] Spices, Gold and Canals // [ 杜拜 ] 香料, 黃金與船道
10. [ Dubai ] Atlantis on the Palm // [ 杜拜 ] 在人造島上的亞特蘭提斯