Dubai Post 28: Crossing the Creek

Shopping areas surround the creek. 

As you can see, the creek goes down a long way
with no bridges to cross. 

My past two posts revolved around areas that surround Dubai Creek.  For those that live in Chicago, the creek in this city is very similar to the river in Chicago.  Like the Chicago River, Dubai Creek cuts off a major part of the city and then swings to the right so that it flows behind the rest of the city.  Yet a major difference between the Chicago River and Dubai Creek is ways in getting from one side to the other.

If you were walking or driving along Wacker Drive, you would have many ways of getting across the river.  However, it is not that easy with Dubai Creek.  With one tunnel very close to the shore, there is not another way to cross the creek for another three and a half miles.  This is rather inconvenient since most of the tourist destinations are about half way in between the tunnel and crossing.

One of the taxis coming to shore. 

It would make sense to stick to one side of the creek, however, attractions on both sides force you to find a way across. Luckily, Dubai realized this problem many years ago because many of the workers had to cross daily so they instituted a number of “taxis”.  The water taxis are nothing more than a few pieces of wood and a motor. It looks like something that you would be able to build in advanced wood shop class in high school.

For the cheap price of 1 Dirham, you can find a taxi anchored a shore, wait for it to fill up and then you are off.  Three minutes later you arrive at the other side of the creek in the heart of a souk.  What is surprising is that before the buildup of tourism in Dubai, the water taxis still only cost 1 Dirham (about 35 cents).  You would think they would hike up the price to at least 10 Dirhams knowing tourists would not know any better, but that is simply not that case.

You get what you pay for on the water taxis on the creek. 

I am heading to Istanbul later today for the weekend and then Saudi Arabia on Sunday morning for a few days so it might be a little bit until you hear from me again.  Enjoy the weekend and Go Rangers!

There is always 3 or 4 taxis waiting to fill up so it is never a problem to cross.