Sole to soul in Dubai

I remembered discussing regression with a friend recently, when I realised I was looking at my city through the eyes of a 6-year-old me. Here I was, standing in Dubai's Old Souq, when happy memories began to flood my mind.

Sometimes, we don't value the treasures of our home and hanker after gorgeous landscapes and age-old monuments in other places. We were on the Dubai by Foot tour, Arabian Adventures' new way to view the city.

Though the tour has been designed to introduce old Dubai to tourists, I think residents such as myself will find it a refreshing way to reconnect with the city. Despite the reconstruction and renovation, there are still pockets where time seems to have stood still.

We got off the tour car at the Heritage Village a few minutes before 4pm, as Renate, our guide, began to map out our walking path for the evening. She explained the tour could take from two and a half to three and half hours, depending on the group.

4pm: Shindagha Heritage Village: Once the home of Shaikh Saeed Al Maktoum, an erstwhile ruler of Dubai, the area today has been reconstructed to house museums and is a living depiction of the life and style of the city in olden days. On special occasions, such as Eid, and during the Dubai Shopping Festival, the place comes alive with cultural shows.

4.30pm: Dubai's Old Souq: Also known as the Textile Souq, the place is probably as old as Dubai and continues to be the hub of wholesale trade in fabrics. The marketplace was renovated keeping in mind Arab architecture where the shops look like quaint homes of the past with large, wooden doors and latticed windows. It is also a good place to find bargain goods — such as clothes, shoes and other accessories — and souvenirs.

Just a few feet away is an example of the benign sovereignty that is the UAE. Here stands the Grand Mosque, modelled on the original 1900 version, and the two Hindu temples adjacent to the Textile Souk. The maze of narrow, dingy lanes are filled with colourful shops in buildings that are built of mountain rock, coral and gypsum.

4.55pm: Ruler's Office: We walked on to the breezy, sunlit quay behind the textile market and headed towards the Bastakiya area. The Ruler's Office is a modern building but built in the same manner as the rest of the area, complete with barjeels (wind towers) and watchtowers.

Opposite the Ruler's Office and across the creek is a rectangular building built in Arab tradition often mistaken by people as a government building or a prison. This houses a parking lot to facilitate visitors to the Spice Souq in Deira.

5pm: Bastakiya: The reconstructed residential area includes traditional courtyard houses, many dating back to the 18th century, and is mainly a cultural zone with museums and art galleries. You also find a part of the old city wall here. Like the Heritage Village, Bastakiya provides a glimpse into the past.

5.45pm: Abra ride: No visit to the city is complete without a ride on an abra — small, wooden boats used as water taxis — on the Dubai Creek. This is the best way to view the change in the city's landscape as tall buildings vie for attention with history.

5.50pm: The Spice Souq: The aromas from the Spice Souq brought back vivid memories of pre-vacation shopping for spices and dry fruits. This is a place where time seems to have stood still.

You cannot miss the dried flowers and incense used to make pot pourri and bokhoor. An eager shopkeeper crushed a whole dried lime for a customer to check the fragrance and another sprinkled a variety of leaves and petals into a burning mabkhar while another invited us into his shop to sample dry fruits.

6.05pm: The Gold Souq: Dubai has always been referred to as the City of Gold. Yes, all that glitters in this market is gold and has attracted tourists, residents and wholesalers alike for decades.

From the tiny shops to the larger showrooms, you can find 18-, 22- and 24-carat gold and precious-stones jewellery to suit all styles and cultural tastes. The Gold Souq is an attraction marked on all tourist maps but there's no better way to take it than on foot.

6.30pm: Fruit and Vegetable and Fish Market: There's no way you can come away empty-handed from this old fruit and vegetable market, even if you are a tourist. The large variety of dates on sale are not just a quick and tasty snack but also prove an excellent souvenir to carry back home. The adjoining fish market has all kinds of fish preserved in ice on sale.

6.50pm: Tour ends...Walking the back lanes and narrow streets that evening turned what were bustling streets into a sea of human endurance, cloaked in history and tradition.