The Abu Dhabi fish Market
Our taxi wound its way back off the island, past warehouses and office blocks and onto the Corniche. Our driver explained that the car museum was a long way out of the City and that he’d prefer not to go. We asked him instead to take us up the Corniche to the dhow docks and the fish market.
This lead us back towards the cruise port. At the fish market we thanked our driver for his patience and he left us at the side of the market. The market was a single story building with the row of cafes and restaurants along the side of the pavement.
We went into one of the restaurants to get out of the heat and to have a drink.
All around as the tables were filling up with both locals and tourists alike all having lunch. Our order of just drinks must’ve been down the priority List and we had a 30 minute wait.
After our drinks, we asked where were there were toilets and we were directed over the road to a square concrete block building. There were no separate rooms for ladies and they had to pass by the various market workers and queue for a stall. I only had to make sure that I waded through the shallow water that cover the floor. Thank goodness for hand cleaner!
Past the restaurants was a passageway that lead into the fish market. I was still concerned about taking images of people in the UAE without their explicit agreement. In the market my camera stayed firmly locked away in my bag.
In front of us stretched benches selling fish of all shapes and sizes. Around every bench were workers dressed in blue boiler suits. We walked down the central aisle pausing to look at the enormous cuts of tuna alongside shrimps of all sizes. At the top of the aisle were counters with more workers who looked to be taking money from the male shoppers.
On our right we passed a queue of workers dressed in red overalls. The ones at the head of the queue were all jockeying to be at the head of the queue. As we watched shoppers came to the queue with plastic bags overflowing with fish. The bags were taken by one of the red dressed workers and together they walked away and then down a row of workbenches.
The fish were then prepared under the watchful eye of the customer. The dressed fish were taken by the customer to the tills at the end of the hall and to be paid for.
The dhow dock
We then left the fish market and walked down the road to where we could see rows of dhows.
The security gate had a sign they gave notice that access would be closed in a day also for the demolition of the whole area. As we walked towards the dhows the buildings on our right were either closed or had large notices telling customers of their impending closure.
Further down the street workers were erecting fences in front of already closed shops or restaurants.
On our left were the dhows both big and small. Away over the water I can see office blocks and other tall buildings – the new Abu Dhabi.
The dhows were not all in a great state of repair and the water around them had lots of floating rubbish.
I watched a group of men playing cards on a dhow that was moored several dhows away from the quayside. These were the only people that we saw on the boats.
On the quayside were piles of nets and baskets alongside with lots of rubbish.
By now we were all getting hot again and we turned back to the fish market.
Lunch at the fish market
The restaurant where we have had our drinks was now full inside. We sat outside in the shade next to the pavement. At the recommendation of the server we ordered a shared plate of medium prawns. We then had a bowl of salad and a plate of flatbreads delivered to our table.
The plate of prawns when they came were delicious and we all enjoyed them. The prawns were prepared so all we had to do was to enjoy them.
The cafe was buzzing both inside and outside with both locals and tourists. We sat and watched the busy road in front of the restaurant as people went in and out of the fish market.