Twenty years of Souk Madinat Jumeirah: Dubai in microcosm

Dubai Tourism

I got a press release this week marking the 20th anniversary of Souk Madinat Jumeirah, and was immediately transported back to an unusual damp, rainy day in the early winter of 2006, soon after I’d first made the move to the UAE.

It was unusual because it was my first experience of rain in Dubai, and also my first visit to the Souk.

As dark, unfamiliar clouds rolled in from the Gulf, I met some friends at a Moroccan restaurant (long gone) that had a great outside terrace and fantastic views of the Burj Al Arab.

Huddled beneath canopies from the squalls, we spent a merry few hours, until – with the first symptoms of some serious man-flu brewing – I decided to head back to my hotel.

On the way out I got my first taste of the winding, confusing lanes of the Souk proper, and was mind-blown. I really was in Arabia now, I thought.

That illusion lasted only a few minutes as I took in the stalls and boutiques filled with knick-knacks and bric-a-brac from – it seemed – the four corners of the earth, from the life-size bronze lion and six-foot giraffe to the designer sunglasses and printed Dubai T-shirts, with Afghan daggers, miniature kanduras and Aladdin lamps along the way.

You know Souk Madinat is faux-Arab, but it still hypnotises with its own unique magical spell

I soon shook myself out of this Arabian reverie, realising of course the whole thing was artificial and modern, a tourist trap designed to lure you into an Orientalist vision of the Middle East and spend some dirhams there, as though you were in the historic bazaars of Istanbul or Cairo. 

But that is the beauty of Souk Madinat. You know it is faux-Arab, but it still hypnotises with its own unique magical spell. Loosely inspired by the renovated but authentic Al Fahidi district on the Creek, it is Dubai in microcosm.

There was for a long time a blog called Fake Plastic Souks that took an affectionate look at expat life and culture in the UAE, but it doesn’t seem to be active any more. I wonder why?

Anyway, that day was the beginning of an almost two-decade love affair with Souk Madinat that persists to this day.

I will always bring visitors to the Souk at least once as a deep-dive into Dubai life, and they are just as mesmerised as I was on that first visit.

I remember a German friend I took on a tour once, who enthusiastically followed my recommendation to haggle with the stallholders.

“Why do you hate my children? You are starving them with these prices, you are taking the bread out of their mouths,” he shouted at a bemused Bengali charging him AED35 for a kid’s bracelet, attracting a small crowd to the ruckus. It worked – he got it for AED25.

I’ve lost track of the number of friend and family names I’ve had engraved inside a miniature bottle filled with “real Arabian sand”, or the times I’ve bought belly-dancing outfits for guests’ young daughters.

Down the years, the clientele has changed significantly. It was mainly western Europeans who casually strolled around in couples in the early days, then larger crowds of east Asians hungrily snapping up “bargains”. 

Now it appears to be organised coach parties of Russians who follow the guide’s banner, disdainfully declining to buy anything so cheap.

At night, the Souk comes alive with a different clientele, as fun-lovers throng to its restaurants and bars.

I must have visited all of them, and got quite well known in some. The stories are too legion, and occasionally risqué, to be recounted here.

There must be an honorable mention for Ushna, the Indian restaurant I make it my duty to visit alone once a year when my family is away. I’m always greeted like a returning prodigal and given tip-top service.

Hats off too to McGettigan’s, which from its canal-side perch must enjoy the best view of any Irish bar in the world, and which has been the scene of some memorable, though sometimes hard-to-remember, evenings.

And Trader Vic’s, which has catered to Jumeirah John and his girlfriend Jane for the best part of two decades without apparently changing the menu or the salsa band. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I say.

The same applies to the Souk. It must be one of the most successful tourist attractions in Dubai, and deserves to go on spinning the Arabian spell for at least another two decades.