Love and a Good Price

I'll give everyone one hint on what they're getting for Christmas and every other gift-giving occasion for the rest of forever...

It starts with "Madame, I give you good price!"

The souks were my favorite shopping. Particularly the spice souk. But the competition is tough. Imagine being one of a hundred small stores selling the exact same thing, all in less than a 500 meter radius. Not that there aren't endless customers coming from cruise lines, tours and Trip Advisor.



Luckily, I had learned some tricks from an AWO friend here in Moscow who had lived in Dubai. 1. Always pretend that you live in Dubai and will bring people to their shop if they give you a good price, 2. Never take an item for more than half of their initial offer, 3. Don't be afraid to walk away. I was pretty nervous because I HATE haggling prices. Hate it. The only time I am good at it is when I don't actually want what they're selling.




I always took the metro to the Textile Souk, got a cup of delicious tea, sat on the creek and soaked up the busy, hectic energy of the place. From there, I would take an Abra ride across the creek to the Spice Souk. Abras were another favorite part of Dubai. For only 1 dirham ($.30), you climbed in a boat with a bunch of other people and took a five minute journey across the creek to the other side. The Abra boats are pretty primitive. The rubber is controlled with some rope and pulleys and the driver is in the center of the boat, literally on top of the engine. But as you're going down the creek, you get a cool breeze and can soak up the scenery and the fact that you're in another world.

Once you get to the Spice Souk, the smells and colors can be overwelming. You're instantly greeted with handfuls of spices to smell, compliments of the gentleman doing the selling. They try everything from explaining spices, offering taste tests and quizzing you on your spice knowledge. Teas, spices, oils, you name it, they've got it. When Hubs and I first went, we nearly made ourselves sick on taste tests. Seemed as though every shop we went into offered us a candy that was an almond inside a date covered in chocolate. I took them all, Hubs stopped. Mostly because he's way more polite than me and felt that he was taking from the venders who thought they would sell us with a treat we had never tried. I, on the other hand, love chocolate. There are no rules in obtaining it. So, I politely stepped in and graciously accepted mine and his share, practically eating my weight in the stuff.

We made some friends, too! Our favorite was a shop had quite a few men working and all of them were fascinated with Hubs. We took pictures with them and they teased each other for being so short. Their selection was fantastic and they answered all of our questions about how to cook with each of the spices and which teas were the best. It was better than Pinterest. Of course, mostly they said that you season your kebabs or chicken with it, but it was enough for me. And one sold me on cloves by saying it was best mulled with red wine and lemon peel. Can't wait to try it. Also, not sure how he knows this since Muslims don't drink, but those are the things you can't possibly think about when you're caught up in the moment. Or when you start thinking about red wine.

I went back often while Hubs was at training. It kept me away from the malls but still got me outside of the hotel. And I loved it. It really is a thing of beauty, the creek as a backdrop for bright, colorful fabrics and tantalizing scents. I felt like quite the world traveler and I was addicted to the tea and friendly people. Even if they were friendly just because they wanted me to buy their pashmina scarves...

And it makes me happy to think that ten years from now, I'll smell some of these spices somewhere, maybe a friend's kitchen, maybe the supermarket, maybe India or somewhere exotic and I can be taken back to this special time with Hubs. And, come to find out, I got to relive it already since I packed the spices between clothes in our suitcase. In fact, I may be still missing some spices, since we still can't fully unpack, so when we move into our permanent apartment, I get to relive it some more!

Cheers to the crazy places we find. Or that find us.