Good day a and happy Friday the 13th! Hope you all are as lucky and blessed as I am! I am sitting at the window looking at the final preparations for the Red Bull X Fighters Motorcross event being staged here on The Walk. The music is blasting awesome classic rock n roll and motorcycles are revving and racing doing amazing stunts all over the track. The show tonight is going to be awesome!
Quick recap on the family visit- day one was the Mall of The Emirates and the penquins. Day two was the boat tour and the gold souq. Today I will post the gold souq visit. Let me start by saying Jimmy and I have 2 cell phones with lots of prepaid minutes. Jimmy programmed our numbers on the speed dial and I got my label maker and put the phone number and our apartment address on the back of each phone. This was a major life saver for keeping up with 3 very adventerous young ladies. We gave a phone to Ashley and one to Dara & Tara to share since they mostly stay together anyway. We were in charge of keeping up with my mom. We arrived at the gold souq and after a quick bite to eat we hit the shops. None of us bought any gold but we ended up with lots of other really cool gifts and momentos. My sweet, non confrontational, never argues about anything daughter Tara turned into a barracuda when it came time to haggle at the souqs! That child was ruthless with the vendors- I actually felt sorry for them. At one shop her and Dara were negotiating a deal; at first the two young men enjoyed haggling with the fresh faced, pretty, petite blonde American. They didn't know what to think when she went got serious about the bargaining. They got pretty close to her price where most people would have agreed and felt like they got a fair price. Tara wasn't going to settle for a fair price-she wanted a real bargain! The shop keepers turned to me to tell Tara she was getting a good price. I just laughed and told them they were on their own, I wasn't going to save them from her! They were beginning to draw attention from the other shoppers who taking note of Tara's bargaining skills. By this time Tara said "forget it, this is all I am going to pay so I will keep shopping. There are plenty of other souqs." She turned to walk out and they agreed at the last second. It was amazing! We laughed and joked with the two shop keepers as they wrapped Tara & Dara's items and they said Tara drove a hard bargain but she was great fun to deal with. Ashley turned out to be a really good bargainer as well. She got a fantastic purse for a dear friend at a great price-less than half the original cost and lots of other cool stuff too!
Main entrance to the gold souq.
Inside the main hall of the gold suoq. There are many narrow alleys and back streets lined with vendors all vying for your attention offering special prices. Some are pretty aggressive and will follow you a short distance. It was quite an experience!
First stop- food! There aren't alot of restaurants or food vendors at the gold souq. This was a tiny little hole in the wall place to eat but the food was really pretty good and the service was great. With only 3 tables we took up over half the seating!
Very pretty, colorful garments!
This is just one of hundreds of windows displaying amazing gold chains, bangles, braclets and anything you could possibly desire!
Tara's first stop was getting some blouses for herself and friends back home. She drove a hard bargain but she was just getting warmed up!
Tara & Dara negotiating with the two shop keepers (one is behind Tara). You can tell Tara is taking this seriously!
Tara getting down to business. You can see the young men are enjoying the banter and haggling. But Tara's hand on her hip is a clear sign she is digging in her heels and won't budge!
We had a great time and got lots of goodies. Next post- the Grand Mosque!!
I have to get ready for our guests this evening so I must end now. I hope you have enjoyed this journey so far. I still have so much more to post and share with you!
Much love to all!
M&J
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