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The Dubai Museum – a highly inaccurate recounting of the meaning of the dioramas
This is called a “location defining shot”.
On a recentish trip to Dubai Blonde and Brunette made a determined effort to learn as much of the history of Dubai as we could, eagerly seeking out museums and historical artifacts.
OK, that isn’t true at all. We’d gone on a group tour (gasp!) which included a stop at the Dubai Museum. As the next stop for the day was a boat ride over to the souk we saw the museum as something we just had to endure to get what we wanted. There wasn’t a guide to explain things and it was dark inside and we were tired and not in a museum state of mind.
Our impressive research department (which doesn’t exist) was able to find an excellent explanation of the Dubai Museum and we would like to share that with you.
“For People who are interested in History is the Dubai Museum very good. The Dubai Museum was opened by the Ruler of Dubai on 12 May 1971. The Museum is located in the Al-Fahidi Fort, who are the oldest building in Dubai. Tourists get many informationen about the History of Dubai and can look many Videos from Dubai.
When you make a Dubai City Tour often the Admission to the Dubai Museum is included. Please ask your tour operator if you can look the Dubai Museum“.
What is that language? Aralish? In any event it certainly sums up the vast majority of the facts you’ll get in this post.
The museum is built inside the walls of Al Fahidi’s fort. Al must have had a lot of enemies or a mother-in-law he wanted to avoid to have built a fort, but we aren’t here to speculate. (This just in: apparently it wasn’t a guy named “Al”, the word means “the” in this context. Too bad, we prefer our version as it has more options for a storyline.)
The ruler of Dubai in 1971 opened the museum. Its aim was to “present the traditional way of life in the Emirate of Dubai” which, at some point in the past apparently was not focused around upscale shopping malls. This would seem to be because the museum is showing life before the discovery of oil in 1966. Rumor has it that changed things a fair bit.
An al agra (the bigger boat in the picture above) is on the grounds inside the fort. One of these would have been what “Al” used to go back and forth across Dubai Creek. We are going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn’t try to launch it from this exact location.
(We took a slightly improved version of one of these to the souks and were glad we knew how to swim. The operators of the boats appear to have the same attention to safety as Indonesian ferry operators. The upside is that it’s a small body of water and it might even feel good to fall in on a hot day.)
In the picture above there is a large pole with a hole in it, a rope around it and the appearance of a palm sprouting out of it. The palm was actually a regular palm tree, the tree part of which was hidden behind the pole. We didn’t see an explanation as to the purpose of this so assume it was a place where “Al” peeked through starting the first program of spying on your citizens which has now been enthusiastically adopted and expanded by the American government. Good work “Al”!
Al’s donkey looking downcast that he isn’t carrying Louis Vuitton luggage.
Prior to the discovery of oil “Al” could not afford high-end luxury brands. His albino donkey, due to transporting poorly packed cloth sacks, developed a serious case of protruding knees.
Some of Al’s children
This diorama show two young Bedouin boys building a model ship. Subsequent to the discovery of oil they would have been building the world’s largest ship featuring previously unheard of architecture and embellishments.
Maybe this is what happens when in one generation a country goes from being relatively poor and unsophisticated to finding oil, striking it rich and wanting to show off. (Historical reference supporting this theory: the American TV show The Beverly Hillbillies, minus Elly May’s short shorts. Not “minus” in that way.)
The only person in the museum who was doing any work – a woman.
The Dubai Museum strives for accuracy in this scene from the early reality TV show “Bedouin Housewives”. The women apparently covered themselves in what appear to be plastic garbage bags to ensure maximum misery while cooking. You do not ever take a picture of a covered Muslim woman hence the reason she’s photographed behind the pole. Note that rope was featured in many aspects of Bedouin life.
Get a new pal, Al!
Rope again! This time the woman who was cooking had reached the end of her rope and told “Al” and his camel (or possibly other wife, not sure which) to leave because she didn’t want to hear one more time that her cooking wasn’t as good as Al’s mother’s.
Early man cave – before the invention of flat screen TVs and Barcaloungers
Bedouins were legendary for being hospitable so “Al”, and the beast accompanying him, went to his friend Bakhit’s man cave (now the 7 star Burj Al Arab Hotel). Bedouins were expected to boil their last rice and kill their last sheep to feed a stranger.
Who among us can deny that if we were all willing to kill sheep for strangers the world would be a better place?
History isn’t clear on this point but it appears that “Al” had arrived well into the evening when the other men already had their nightgowns and sleeping caps on and had been enjoying some beverages and a smoke. It is important that the Bedouin men shown here are given fashion credit for not wearing socks with their sandals. This is because they discovered oil, not technology.
Boys’ day out!
The following morning the men went out for Bakhit’s bachelor party. This Dubai Museum diorama shows the popular and manly sport of pearl fishing with a rope around your neck. The rope facilitated being able to still harvest the pearls if the diver died. There is no official information on the number of pearls typically found under a table such as the one shown here.
OMA!!!
While “Al” and his best buds were pearl diving, someone else discovered oil. Al sure was having a run of bad luck! Sometimes timing really is everything.
New money exists mainly to be spent on extravagance and excess so this modern building was built while “Al” was under the water. Imagine how astounded he must have been when he emerged!
In the picture above “Al’s” wives are leaving him for the man who discovered the oil.
In summary, do not miss the Dubai Museum as, by attending yourself, you may learn something a little more truish about the history of Dubai and its people. But then again, we sure didn’t!
Big Buddha, Phuket, Thailand
Do you think a caption is necessary here? Seems to be self-explanatory.
Blonde and Brunette were in Thailand recently and cashed in our last stash of beloved SPG points to stay at Le Meridien Phuket Beach Resort. In a rare case of us being sensible we had chosen not to rent a car for our time in Thailand. We had chosen our resort in part because it was an out of town, quiet destination. We didn’t want to stay in the crazy cacophony that is Phuket.
That meant that when we wanted to go anywhere we had to hire a driver. Easy enough – the resort had a small fleet of cars and drivers. And they, unlike other men in our lives, would take us where we asked and not complain about how long we spent there (or how much money). What was not to like?
Truthfully we don’t remember the driver’s name but we think it was Steve and that’s good enough for accuracy by our lax standards. We told him we wanted to see some pretty natural areas along the water. He mentioned an idyllic nearby town where we could stroll, take in some sights, see a few shops and have dinner along the water. Sounded lovely!
Then he went out the property gates, turned in the opposite direction to what he had described and took off. We assumed that the direction issue was language confusion until he pointed out a giant Buddha on a hill above us and asked if we wanted to go see it. We wanted to go see the idyllic town on the sea but stupidly mumbled polite “Oh, OK if it’s really nearby and will only take a minute” unenthusiastic comments.
In seconds we were roaring up the Nakkerd (no, not Naked, although that would have been a lot funnier) Hills between Chalong and Kata. The Big Buddha (BB for our purposes) sits at the top of one of the hills. There is a nice 360 degree view of the surrounding areas. It wasn’t the path to enlightenment, more like a rather awkward walk through a construction site as the Buddha is still being completed.
Masked Buddha hanging out amid the construction
The BB is being built entirely by donations. The project has been underway for more than ten years due to bureaucratic red tape, raising the needed funds and getting the materials to the top of a hill in a virgin (self-described) forest. No effort is made to shame you into contributing – you have to look around to find somewhere to even leave a donation.
Clearly not an outpost of the Vatican
Although you probably assume we are very knowledgeable about the myriad belief systems and religions in the world, we aren’t. Not at all. Don’t really care. Blonde is faintly pro-Buddhism because Buddha didn’t think he was a god or that there necessarily ever was or is a god. He basically thought people should be decent and remember that their behavior has consequences. He didn’t get his knickers in a knot over details and wasn’t a vengeful chap. Seems reasonable.
However, he (or someone who spoke on his behalf) proclaimed the five commandments on the sign below to be important. OK, don’t kill people, don’t steal, don’t be “unchaste” (um, how are we supposed to get more Buddhists?), don’t lie and don’t use “intoxicants that cause heedlessness” (see prior comment as to how are we supposed to get more Buddhists?) At least he got the commandment count down to 5 from the 10 of Christianity so he deserves some credit for brevity.
Some suggestions re YOUR behavior.
There are officially two Buddhas at this site. The big dude and the mini-me version shown below. The “small” one is made of 22 tons of brass and cost 8 million Baht or 2.7M USD.
There are many other lesser Buddha statues on the premises including this one that we deduced to have been either Cleopatra during her Buddhist phase or Blonde waiting for a massage.
Even Buddha liked a lay-down every now and then
As by now it was nearly sunset we decided to wait another 15 minutes to get some awe-inspiring photos for you. However, those require an awe-inspiring sunset and we had a nice one but not one that is likely to haunt you for the rest of your life.
As soon as we’d snapped a couple sunset shots we scurried back down the path, through the little building that’s a sort of casually assembled museum and back to our car and driver. The driver then informed us that if we went where we planned to go in the beginning it would be in heavy traffic and we would have to pay for several more hours of his service.
We had him take us back to Le Meridien and had dinner there (again). We also put him on our Drivers To Not Use Again list.
Perhaps we would have had more enthusiasm for the BB if we’d gone there intentionally. After all, one of Buddhism’s major tenets is that a purpose of life is to end suffering – our own and others. And we “suffered” from being sidetracked by a driver who clearly wasn’t worried about karma.
In summary, if you have some free time around sunset, an interest in Buddha and aren’t hiring a private driver at a high hourly rate you may want to check this sucker out. Otherwise, maybe go to that mythical small town by the sea. Don’t hire “Steve” to take you there.
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