This is where the world
comes to shop. This is where the best brands on earth are on parade,
for the best prices on earth. Dubai and shopping have become synonymous,
and with good reason. The City of Gold has very successfully leveraged
all the advantages that international trading gives it to satisfy
any and every shopping need. From glittering mega-malls to exclusive
little antiquities dealers, Dubai is all you've ever dreamed of
for a single-stop shopping experience.
Nine tonnes
of gold in a month, 300 jewellers to sell it, and 100 pounds of
the precious metal given away free. This is what has earned Dubai
its best-known alias: the City of Gold. It all happens in the Gold
Souq, a setting straight out of an Arabian Nights fairytale, with
its intricate wood carving, glittering shop windows and eagle-eyed
traders.
The world-famous souq is, quite simply, the densest concentration
of gold in the world. It showcases in Dubai the best goldworking
talent available anywhere, which ensures for the shopper superlative
value for money.
Spice! If you
have visions of piles of exotic powders and fragrant barks, strange
dark oils and wondrous herbs, the scents of the Orient and the flavours
of the East, this is where you'll find them all. There, within sight
of the Al Khor of Dubai, is the spice souq. Narrow, very narrow
alleyways hemmed in on both sides by piles of spice, this is part
of the larger cacophony of Murshid Market. The
atmosphere here is pure Middle Eastern. Making your way through
the bales and stacks of spice from all over the world, you will
almost expect to see a heavily-laden camel with a pair of robed
men haggling over its cargo. In fact, turn the corner and that's
very likely what you will see!
Hugging the
west bank of the Al Khor, Dubai's creek, where it is narrowest is
the textile souq. Here is one of the oldest parts of the trading
city, and one that thankfully has much of the atmosphere of the
old days preserved and alive. Within the souq, the shops are literally
cheek-by-jowl, the bolts of cloth from each spilling out and running
into rainbow stacks along the old walls. This is Dubai's textile
souq, one of the city's treasures. This
is where the persevering visitor will also discover another characteristic
of Dubai - that of Arab hospitality with its old world charm.
Here the canny shopkeeper will not drive the customer away with
the announcement of a fixed price: seldom in fact will you encounter
such a concept in Dubai. He will instead sit the client down on
a comfortable cushion, offer a small cup of excellent coffee and
ask the client's opinion of the wares on display. These will be
fantastic silks, the softest cottons, and exquisite woolens. When
they have been suitably exclaimed over, the bargaining will commence,
to be followed with patience and without rancour, and will almost
invariably end in a deal satisfactory to both sides.
Fishing is an
ancient and honourable business in the Gulf: its waters are home
to dense schools of fish. That's why you'll find a fish souq in
the heart of most Gulf towns. Dubai, for all its glass and chrome,
is no different. Its fish souq is solidly Arabian: busy, colourful
and full of the best deals. Of course, it helps that locally caught
fish are a great view, almost like visiting an aquarium.
You'll see
blue lobsters from Fujairah, baby shark, Iranian prawns, parrotfish,
red snapper, 1.5 metre-long kingfish and stacks of sardines, all
glistening fresh and guaranteed to make for a great dinner.
So you like
shopping. And you've decided on the Emirates. Where do you start?
There's an enormous range of inner spaces just waiting to be discovered
in the UAE. Call them malls. They're actually more like worlds on
their own. Very very premium brand outlets (Versace, YSL, Christofle,
you name it), exciting playspaces for children, food courts brimming
over with all sorts of cuisine, amusement arcades, convenience stores,
gyms and health centres, cinemas too, books and magazine kiosks,
coffee shoppes, delicatessens, and of course shops, shops, and more
shops, all in perfectly climate-controlled comfort. And
that's just the average mall for you. In line with the firm objective
in Dubai, a cue that is earnestly followed elsewhere in the UAE,
prices are extremely competitive, which is why shoppers spend
many happy hours hunting for bargains. Walk into any mall and
you'll find curio shops next to sellers of Persian rugs. Next
door meanwhile might offer coffee-pots made of hand-beaten copper
from Hadramaut, tea-chests and khanjars (the traditional Arabian
dagger).
"The world's
lowest prices," they announce, and no, that's not just another
outrageous sales pitch. Dubai Duty Free is among the best known
duty free facilities in the world. Remember that famous "fly,
buy, Dubai"? This is where it comes from. At Dubai's international
airport the Duty Free complex stocks an amazing range of 60,000
products. No
wonder then that it is perhaps the most decorated duty free shopping
complex in the world - from 1985 it has won 42 international awards.
To keep the excitement up and buyers happy, the DDF churns out
special offers and rich raffles with unfailing regularity - spend
500 dirhams and you could win a top-of-the-line car. From hi-tech
electronics and cameras to Waterford crystal to smashing sunglasses,
the DDF assembles the best deals from around the world.
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