This year Dubai’s Global Village represents 26 countries and two continents. For sure, I have my favorites. One of them is Yemen.

If you’re new to the Global Village, it’s a huge fair-like shopping and cultural event that runs during the winter months and is located in Dubai Land. To know more, see my post Dubai’s Global Village ~ Where the World Comes Together.

Back to Yemen. When I’m in the Yemen pavilion, for those 30 minutes or so, I almost feel like I’m in Yemen. I’m surrounded by all things Yemeni. Each stall is manned by charming and chatty Yemeni men in their traditional dress—including daggers–selling their Yemeni goods.

I even get to practice my limited Arabic here because the vendors’ English is even more limited than my Arabic. I bought walnuts from these guys, who showed me photographs of their children back in Yemen. 

The pavilion is also a great place to buy spices. 

Of course, the prime attraction is the Yemeni honey. I buy it every year—pricey but tasty. If you are grey-haired and male, you will be offered “honey viagra.” … Don’t ask. 

The Yemen pavilion is the place to shop for silver Arabic jewelry, antique jewelry, stones, prayer beads and trinkets of all sorts and prices.

I bought a mother-of-pearl pendant from these two vendors. 

To sum up: Yemen is the place to buy honey, nuts, spices, jewelry, and silver trinkets. Oh yes! And daggers.

Please check out my posts on the Iraq Pavilion and The Turkey Pavilion.

What is your favorite pavilion?

As an expat, one day I will eventually leave Dubai. One of the things I will miss the most will be the Global Village, a shopping extravaganza out in the desert with pavilions representing 26 different countries (mostly from the region) and two continents. The Global Village has both a global feel and a county fair feel. For me, it’s about the shopping—unique handmade global items—but also the multicultural entertainment and cheap street food.

Yes, it’s true: the Global Village has had its ups and downs. It originally started as a small fair on the Creek in 1997, lasting one month & launched with the Dubai Shopping Festival. (Now it’s a separate entity.) Then it moved. Then it moved again to its permanent location in Dubai Land out in the desert. After it expanded from one month to several, the quality sadly went down.

Now the Global Village is experiencing a comeback. With Saeed Ali Bin Reda in charge, the GV keeps getting better and better in terms of facilities, organization, quality of goods, and something new each year. (This year, it’s Tunisia and Spain and the dancing water fountain.)

Holly’s Guide to the Global Village

1. Go early. It opens at 4:00pm, so aim to arrive a little early. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a sweater for those late winter evenings. Also, bring a large sturdy shopping bag to haul your goods. Expect to buy lots.

2. Get a map at the entrance and plan your strategy. For the most authentic experience, go to pavilions representing countries from the region. For starters, visit: Yemen, Palestine, Morocco, Africa, and Egypt. If you have the energy, visit India, the biggest pavilion of all.

3. Don’t plan to visit all the pavilions in one go. Be selective and take your time. Also, give yourself time for the multicultural entertainment and food from the region, such as this yummy kanafe (sweet Arabic cheese pastry).

Or these Africa dancers:

4. Keep an open mind. If the Egypt and Turkey pavilions were disappointing in past years, it doesn’t mean so this year. In fact, they are both quite fantastic this time around. Check out this Egyptian shop where I bought a hand-appliqued quilt.

5. If you don’t care for products made in China, do not visit the China pavilion.

6. Shop, shop, shop. Bring lots of cash, preferably in small bills. Also, bring your bank card as a backup in case you see something unexpectedly amazing. For example, check out these burka bracelets:

7. For objects with prices of more than twenty or thirty dirhams, it’s good to bargain—but do so with a smile.

8. In addition to trinkets, handmade items, carpets and textiles, think FOOD. Among the unique foodstuff on offer: coffee beans from Ethiopia, baklava from Turkey, saffron from Iran, zataar from Lebanon, olive oil from Palestine, tea from Morocco, and honey from Yemen. 

9. When the vendors hand out food samples, try them. This will provide sustenance for more shopping. One stroll through the Palestine pavilion can add up to a light meal. 

10. When you are totally exhausted and your feet hurt, it’s time to eat an actual meal. Have Middle Eastern or Southeast Asian “street food” and watch the world go by. You’ll see more locals here than almost anywhere. After a good rest, look at your map again and strategize your next round of shopping.

11. When you are dragging yourself out the gate at 11:00pm, don’t be surprised to see crowds of Emiratis streaming in.

Basic Facts

The Global Village runs from November 1^st, 2011 to March 3^rd, 2012.

Timings: Weekdays 4:00pm to midnight; Weekends (Thursday/Friday) 4:00pm to 1:00am

If you hate crowds, avoid the weekend and national holidays. Arrive super-early.

The Global Village is located in Dubai Land on Emirates Road.

You’ll find twenty-eight pavilions from around the world.

The Global Village has been running for 15 years from 1997.

In recent years, the Global Village received 4.5 million visitors per season.

In addition to the canal boat road, there are also amusement rides.

For details on specific pavilions, check out my posts: The Yemen Pavilion, The Iraq Pavilion, The Turkey Pavilion, The Africa Pavilion, The Palestine Pavilion, and The Egypt Pavilion.

What is your favorite aspect of the Global Village?

When a friend invited me to join her on a visit to an art gallery in the Al Bastakia Quarter of Dubai, I readily accepted. She told me we would see an exhibit of photographs of Dubai by an Emirati photographer. It sounded worthwhile. (I could already imagine the photos.) The extra perk was a stroll through Al Bastakia, a district I always enjoy but rarely visit.

Al Bastakia is what I consider the real “Old Town” (not that area around Dubai Mall). The neighborhood is located near the Creek waterfront on the Bur Dubai side, not far from the Dubai Museum. Built at the turn of the century, this quarter has been declared a conservation area, and restoration work has been ongoing.

The area features a number of old, traditional wind tower houses, which were once the homes of wealthy Persian merchants. The wind towers were a traditional form of air-conditioning, whereby cool air was funneled down into the house.

To get to the gallery, we passed old-style shops like this one selling trinkets and even small antique items.

We walked through these narrow, peaceful lanes, and I could sort of imagine the life of the merchants at the turn of the century.

After nearly four minutes of walking, (the area is small) we reached the gallery: Dar Ibn Al Haytham for Visual Arts.

The gallery is a traditional home with a courtyard in the middle and small rooms off each side.

As I said, I already had an image in my mind of the types of photographs we would see—the usual Dubai skyline panoramas, the contrast of old versus new, plus the typical black and white photos of Sheikh Zayed Road in the 1980s, etc., etc. I had seen it all before.

Well, I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

We saw a total of five installations, all by the award-winning photographer Jassim Al Awadhi, who was there to give the six of us a guided tour. To me, Jassim is more of a mixed-media artist who manipulates and embellishes his photographs in unexpected ways.

To start, we viewed what I call the “Message in a Bottle” room. This was a whimsical display of photographs inside glass bottles. We were all fascinated by these and we got up really close to study the photos.

This bottle contains a montage of photos.

The bottle below contains a lovely photo of the Dubai Creek.

 And this bottle displays a photo of Sheikh Zayed Road from what appears to be the 1980’s… I knew it!

Next was the room with crumpled photos. Again, we were fascinated. 

What does it mean? Someone asked. Jassim shrugged and shook his head.

To me, the crumpled photos reminded me of a throwaway society, as though one crumples something, tosses it away, but then has a change of heart, and the object is salvaged.

The next room contained framed photos embellished with Arabic calligraphy. Here Jassim explains the significance of fish in Emirati society as he points out the calligraphy written on the fish.

 Here’s a closer view of the fish. Unfortunately, this photo is not very sharp, but you should still get an idea of the calligraphy on the fish.

This is my favorite photograph—an exquisite image of an old, modest Arabic door, covered with small, tidy Arabic calligraphy (added to the photo by the artist). 

Next were the colored photographs. These were sepia-toned photos of the fruit and vegetable market and the fish souk that the artist had softly colored in.

 

Here is a close-up of the fish. The color is subtle, but it’s there. It seems Jassim enjoys photographing fish. I was drawn to these images as well. 

Finally, the last room—the most unexpected and challenging of all the installations. In this small room were about a dozen of these black-cloaked images, each about 6 feet tall.

Upon closer inspection, each piece contains an x-ray image covered in some variation of Arabic letters, numbers and calligraphy. These images got us all talking, thinking and speculating. 

Some of us in our group made guesses as to the meaning behind these unusual pieces. Jassim just smiled and shrugged. But he did suggest that the installation had something to do with his police work, his specialty being CSI, crime scene investigation. But he wouldn’t say more.

Jassim Al Awadhi has been taking photos for over 30 years now. Most recently he has been Assistant Professor in the Photography Department of the American University of Sharjah and the Chairman and a Founding Member of the UAE Photography Club. His work has exhibited extensively in the UAE as well as Syria, Egypt, Jordan, India and Europe. He also works for Dubai Police.

The Dar Ibn Al Hayam for Visual Arts is located in Al Bastakia, house number 17. This exhibit is showing until December 20, 2011. For more information, call 04 353 5321.

Question: What are your impressions of Al Bastakia and the area around?