Free like a bear

Sharjah is famous for its souqs or markets, and for a good reason: they are stunning!

I started with the birds and animals market. It was in an old building falling apart, but had a special atmosphere. And it’s the first time I have been in a market specialized in alive animals! The main focus was on birds, and almost any bird could be purchased including doves or colorful parrot-like birds.

What surprised me most where falcon sellers! The UAE are indeed famous for falconry. Falcons were traditionally used for hunting in the desert, but nowadays it has become a popular sport. The falcon is one of the national symbols of the UAE and is the ultimate status symbol! The birds are very expensive and need to be trained for months to be used in competition. I read that they are the only animals that Arab airlines allow to be transported in the cabin and they get their own passports. They are kept most of the time with covered eyes because it’s supposed to calm them.

 

After the alive animals, I went to the dead animal market: the food market. And what a beautiful market! I expected an old unhygienic market with meat lying in the heat and flies turning around the rotten pieces, but instead, I found a very modern super clean market! One building was dedicated to meat and fish. Unlike our “western” butchers, they had the entire animals on display. I think there is not a single meat part that you couldn’t purchase. Some butchers were happy to see a foreigner, and had fun showing me their favorite item from behind the counter: a cow head! They told me that most of the very special parts like the heads, legs or tails were bought by Africans, who “eat everything”, as they mentioned sarcastically.

 

I was even more impressed by the fish part. An entire area of the market was dedicated to fish cleaning. You can buy your fresh fish, bring it to the cleaning service, wait in your line – men and women separated – , get a waiting number and wait for your number to appear on the display to get your fileted fish back! In another area, the same principle but for guys who want to eat their fish directly. You can bring it to some cook who cleans and grills it for you!

 

In the second building, there was a classical fruits and vegetables area. A big part of it was dedicated to dates sellers. And of course, they all wanted me to try their dates! I have this habit as an experienced traveler to ignore all kind of solicitations because I know that giving you a date is the trick to force you to buy 20 kilos… One guy did not seem as aggressive as the others, so I tried one of his dates. He seemed happy that I liked it and wished me all the best for my travel. That’s it… no psychodrama blackmailing!

 

I ended my market tour with the clothes and souvenir market. It was not so special, although the building itself was quite unique! I admired the women fashion for a bit. It must be hard to decide whether you want to buy the black or the brown abaya…!

Day 12 – 24th February 2019

Let’s head to Sharjah, the third biggest Emirate after Abu Dhabi and Dubai, known as the educational and cultural capital of the UAE.

I left Dubai and the cozy bed at Thomsan’s, my Couchsurfing host (and de facto the bed OF Thomsan since he slept on the floor!) in the morning for a new adventure: the Emirate of Sharjah. And getting there was a little adventure indeed… car, bus, metro and bus, in this order! Thomsan dropped me by car at the closest metro station, which was closed due to line extension works. There was however a replacement bus bringing the passengers to the next metro stop 15 minutes away. I then crossed Dubai from one side to the other by metro to reach a big square in Deira neighborhood where the bus to Sharjah was supposed to leave. Good Bye Dubai! I won’t miss you 😉

It was the first time in the trip that I was taking an intercity bus… and thus the first time I had to play the famous traveler game “Where is the bus stop?”! Getting out of the metro station in the middle of a square with numerous bus stops all around didn’t help, but after walking around (oh yes… around and around and around!) for 15 minutes and asking people who as usual had no clue, I found the correct stop! And for the first time in my life, I saw a gender-segregated line to get the bus tickets, ladies left and gents right – with only one guy sitting in the booth…! At this time of the trip, I wasn’t aware I would see this very often in the next months…!

 

The bus was very convenient. I could use my Dubai public transport card (the NOL card, yes, the gold one!) to pay the fare and within one hour or so, I was at the central bus station of Sharjah. And of course I was welcomed by huge pictures of the sheikh of Sharjah (taken 50 years ago…), Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi.

 

Walking out of the bus station, I immediately sensed a different atmosphere than in Dubai. It looked like a normal middle-eastern town… no pretentious skyscraper, no luxurious hotel.

According to what I read about Sharjah, the Emirate is very conservative and focuses more on Islam-based laws and education. Concretely, it means that alcohol and pork are completely prohibited, and it offers no source of nightlife or entertainment venues, no night clubs, bars or even shisha cafes. As in all the UAE, public displays of affection are illegal. This is however only valid for interactions between men and women, not between men! It is indeed quite frequent to observe men holding hands, kissing on the cheek or hugging in public, but apparently it’s a sign of brotherly bonding or friendship. To me, it seems like they transfer the affection they are not allowed to show for their wives to their buddies. Who knows where the limits are?!… For all those who might not be aware of the behavior rules, there are a lot of signs reminding you of all the interdictions…!

 

The highlights of the city are without doubt its markets, which deserve their own article. As a cultural capital, the emirate has a few historical sites and museums. In the city center, called the “heart of Sharjah”, there are a few old city walls and houses, and an old fort which I visited. The museum inside was quite informative about the history of the Emirate and its rulers.

 

A common thing to most of the museums in the UAE is their hospitality. They often have a lounge corner with some water, coffee or tea for free… and of course some dates! The Arabic coffee was quite delicious, flavored with cardamom.

 

I walked a lot around the city… along the harbor area with the fishermen’s boats and markets…

… along the beautiful palm tree promenade on the shore of a lake…

…and passing by nice buildings and mosques… and mosques… and mosques!

 

The number of mosques reflects the importance of Islam and since I am pretty much interested by religions, I dared entering one of the biggest. It was pretty interesting to feel the very quiet atmosphere inside, with only a few men praying. I wandered around the different areas, discovering the ablution floor in the basement, and nobody asked me what I was looking for or made me feel awkward. I even surprisingly felt welcome. One hour later, I discovered a sign in front of another mosque explaining that the access to all the mosques in Sharjah was forbidden to non-Muslims! Ups…

I loved that the city was not polished like Dubai. Many side streets were unpaved, sandy and dusty. And there was a real middle eastern atmosphere, with e.g. drink water tank deliveries and life on the streets and in stores. Most of the people in the stores were Desi (from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka). I was surprised to see at the cashier desk a sign with the WhatsApp number of the store. But I noticed quickly during the trip that WhatsApp is a huge communication means for businesses in Asia, which is not the case in Europe. By the way, one of the reasons for that is that many phone operators sell voice and data packages separatly, and most of the people only buy data and use voice-over-IP to call.

 

At the end of the day, I spent a few hours in the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilization set in a stunning bazar-like building, and learned so much! I enjoyed reading about Islam, learning about the five Pillars, the two festivals (Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha) or the haj – the pilgrimage in Mecca. The department dedicated to Islamic art was also fascinating, especially after visiting mosques. It helped understanding the mosque architecture, and learning about the function of the minbar (pulpit where the imam preaches) and the mihrab (niche that indicates the direction of prayer).

 

The city definitely put me into Islam mood! With his hundreds of mosques everywhere, the Adhan – call for prayers – was particularly impressive. All the muezzins were singing with some offset of some seconds or minutes into a fascinating cacophony. Unconsciously, their singing was hypnotizing me and I could not prevent myself from singing “allah akbar” with them on the streets, even after it was over… Not knowing any Arabic language, I was obviously singing bullshit sounding like an arab parody, and had to focus to stop in order to avoid being arrested for blasphemy! haha

After this very busy day, I was happy to stay in a simple hotel room. Since it’s not a touristic place, there were neither hostels nor couchsurfing hosts. And as expected, the hotel room was also… Islamic, with a prayer carpet ready to use, and a sticker on the ceiling to show the Qibla, the direction of Mecca!

 

Since there was nothing to do after sunset, I decided to stay in my room and had a little snack. I wasn’t really hungry since my digestion was still perturbed (it sounds nicer than writing “I had the shits”, right?) so I bought some Chinese noodles in a paper box, the ones in which you are supposed to pour boiling water. I had no water boiler but a microwave, so I had the brilliant idea to heat the water in this paper cup… and almost set fire to the hotel! The paper cup caught fire, which I could luckily extinguish easily! I finally realized it was a good idea to sing allah akbar all day on the streets… Allah protected me… and I could continue my trip… inshallah!