Soak in the history at Dubai creek

Wondering what to do this weekend? Take a trip back in time with a leisurely stroll along the waterfront. You won't regret it

Both were equally weather-beaten - the gently bobbing abra (a small wooden boat) and its 'captain', a wiry man with a straggly beard and deep-set eyes lying in a nest of wrinkles. I waved at him as I started assembling my camera paraphernalia on a concrete jetty. He acknowledged my presence with a nod, continuing to sip kadak chai from a styrofoam cup with an unhurried air. A bunch of squawking seagulls flew around, playing a frantic game of tag and swooping up and down in dizzying circles. A stiff breeze started blowing and I felt the stress of a hard week gently seep away. I couldn't help but think to myself, 'I should come here more often'.
I was roaming around the Dubai Creek waterfront, which guidebooks often describe as 'atmospheric'. When the Greeks stopped here during one of their many 'let's-see-the-world' expeditions, they called the creek, River Zara. In those ancient days, the creek apparently extended all the way to Al Ain, located more than 130 km away! Nowadays, it only flows for about 16 km before ending in the Ras Al Khor wetlands. It was around this creek that Dubai had its humble beginning as a port with a natural harbour. Back them, the inhabitants kept themselves occupied with fishing, pearl farming and dhow building. But all that is long before it developed into a major trading port we know and love today.
The story of its development is an interesting one. Earlier, Lingah in Iran was a big port but the authorities there took the momentous decision of increasing custom dues. That's a decision that certainly didn't do their retirement funds any good - especially because, in a masterstroke, Dubai introduced several trade-friendly services and facilities and, soon, merchants started gravitating there. With the pearl industry, along with several other secondary and tertiary industries being present, it wasn't long before Dubai became an important port of call.
Traders from Far East Asia, Iran, India, Pakistan and East Africa all sailed across seas, calm and treacherous, in their rickety pastel-hued dhows to trade with merchants in Bur Dubai and Deira, the two districts flanking the creek.
Even today, if you walk through the various spice and textile souks (markets) on the waterfront, you can still get a whiff of the Dubai of yesteryears. I was fascinated by a Chinese trader negotiating terms and conditions in Arabic with a Moroccan merchant. A fact that was pointed out by Behnam, the 'captain', who has finished his chai and was now starting to take an active interest in what my camera can do. He's been a sailor as far back as he can remember, he tells me.
Behnam, whose father came to the UAE from Iran sometime during the 1930s, has never visited his homeland. Instead, he studied a bit in an Iranian school in Bur Dubai and is quite the man of the sea. Benham even remembers the creek being dredged up in the 50s.
He had begun his career with the waves by running a dhow, until one fateful day when pirates off the coast of Aden hijacked it. There, he spent an agonising 36 hours on an open deck without food or water until ransom demands were met. After the ordeal, he promised himself never to set foot on a dhow ever again, but a sailor is never comfortable on terra firma. Behnam now operates as a tourist guide of sorts. He takes passengers on 1-hour cruises along the creek (unlike the other abras, which crisscross the creek, ferrying residents between Deira and Bur Dubai for the princely sum of Dh 1).
Behnam snagged a young couple eager to have an authentic abra experience. He guided the couple onto his boat, waved out to me and disappeared amongst gaily-lit dhows languidly floating up and down the creek. The seagulls lost their boisterous air and settled down for the evening on the wooden eaves of the buildings lining the creek. I got myself a kadak chai from the same place that Behnam ordered. And slipped through the time portal called Dubai Creek to a life more simple, yet fascinating.
Mriganka Kalita is a Dubai-based advertising professional who loves escaping the world of deadlines by travelling

• UAE