Saturday, March 19, 2011

Souq and Ye Shall Find...



Shopping.....

Think Vegas with a turban....  

The malls here are nuts.... 

Multitudes of stores, some American retailers, many Arabic players 

and all of the luxury stores you can imagine....Jimmy Choo, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Fendi,  you name it... 


The Mall of the Emirates has a 20 story ski slope.....

it's  unreal....   

So as you roam the mall, you notice that the groups of shoppers are separated by gender...  

The guys shop with the guys and the ladies shop in their own burha'd pack....  

So much for the date at the mall!  

For my friends in the biz, the temporary leasing was a free for all...  

At one mall, the kiosk spaces were taken up with real live 15 foot tall tents.  

There go the sight lines....these things blocked out everything....  

Overall, the shopping centers were beautiful and you could find your heart's desire anywhere.....  

But on to the souqs!  

I should have hit the mall first for some comfortable shoes, 
because Tom decided a good mile plus long walk to find the souq might be fun.... 

hmmmm.....  

Downtown Dubai has the typical narrow, dusty streets with thousands of stores jam-packed together.  

It's a wonder these businesses survive, 
because there is so much repetition of electronics, burkas, textiles, crap, etc.  

We finally found the souq (traditional market).  

It was a long, covered marketplace, filled with obvious tours of Americans and Western Europeans.  

I am sure we had "harass me" tatoo'ed to our foreheads.   

Dozens of guys approached us hawking "Copy Rolex!", "Very good copy Patek Phillippe".....  

It was like swatting flies after a while...    

The gold souq was inhabited by dozens of tiny little stores, 
bursting with 22k gold jewelry, belts, tiaras and so much more.  


The windows gleamed with gold.  

Don't be fooled, though.  

It was expensive...

I haggled for a pair of earrings and purchased the smallest pair I could find that I liked.  

The salesman weighed the earrings and then named his price. 

I was able to talk him down to half of his original offer... 

Was it my years negotiating real estate or was it his built-in price?  

The latter, for sure!  He still made a good margin from me, most likely... 

After the gold souq was the spice souq... 

What a feast for the eyes!  

Large burlap sacks filled with dried rosebuds, sunflower stamens, frankincense, bay leaves, cumin, curries and things I could not recognize were in bay after bay.  

The scent was intoxicating...  

I could imagine some Food Network star, like hot little Giada deLaurentiis, taping an episode here, 
charming the men and then cooking some other-worldy dish from the spices... 

Back to reality and I was accosted by, let's call him Yusef...  

He said that was his name, but he probably called himself that 
because we English speakers can easily pronounce it... 

He was young, attractive and full of piss and vinegar, as my mom likes to say...  

He charmed every woman who walked by... 

As he was selling me some saffron, a pretty blond walked by and cooed....

"Hi Yusef...I'll be back!"  

Under his breath, he said she was his girlfriend before laughing and admitting he was married. 

"If she does not come back, I will kill her!"  he joked.   

Oh, he was a smooth talker...

I bought two spice samples and saffron before I knew it.  

He threw in chocolates made with camel's milk and two vanilla beans to seal the deal.  

That was really fun....  

Later in the week, Tom took me to the Hotel Mandinat, a super fancy joint, for a drink.  

In the hotel, they had a souk of their own, if you can call it that...  

It was more like a tiny mall with souq-like carts and kiosks.  

I mean what bonefide souq has a Vilebrequin store, I ask you?  

There were beautiful traditional belly dancing costumes, gorgeous pashminas and jewelry...  

I loved seeing this unique retail while sipping a cocktail in the shadow of the Burj Al Arab....  

If there is another visit in the future, hopefully I will have some bank to spend.....

Talk about a spree.....Look out!


Part Four: Sand Dance 2011....

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