The abra crossing
A working wooden boat people use daily; the crossing takes five minutes.
Phil6007 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · McKay Savage from London, UK — CC BY 2.0 · Phil6007 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Asd akhilesh — CC BY-SA 4.0
The waterway out of which the whole of Dubai was cut — a natural inlet running some fourteen kilometres in from the Gulf, dividing Deira from Bur Dubai. Before oil, Dubai was a pearling and re-export port, and all of it happened on this creek. Dredging it in the 1950s on Sheikh Rashid's decision — paid for with a loan the emirate took on at the time — is what let larger ships in and made the trading city it became. Anyone who wants to understand where Dubai came from should look here rather than at the towers. The abra is the essential experience: wooden boats crossing between Deira and Bur Dubai for one dirham a passenger, paid in cash to the boatman, leaving when full with no timetable. It is working transport used daily by labourers and traders rather than a tourist ride, which is exactly why it is worth taking. The crossing lasts five minutes and is the cheapest and most honest thing in Dubai. A whole abra can also be hired by the hour for a run along the creek, which costs far more and is haggled over. On the Deira bank are the traditional cargo wharves, where wooden dhows are still loaded with goods bound for Iran, India and East Africa — a scene not much changed in a century. The two banks link the Deira souks to Al Fahidi, and the whole route walks in half a day.
A working wooden boat people use daily; the crossing takes five minutes.
Wooden dhows still loading for Iran, India and East Africa.
The Deira souks on one side and Al Fahidi on the other — a half-day walk in all.
Between Deira and Bur Dubai
It is daily transport used by thousands, the crossing is short and the water calm, but the boats are open, usually carry no life jackets, and boarding needs some balance. Non-swimmers or those with small children may prefer a larger hired boat.
The public boat crosses between the two banks for a dirham and is over in five minutes. A hired one runs the length of the creek for about an hour past the wharves, towers and old buildings; it is priced by the hour, haggled, and agreed before boarding rather than after.
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