Bargains

The other night, we stopped at a hypermarket in our neighborhood to get deodorant and yogurt (two unrelated items needed for different reasons, obviously). Anyway, if you know Paul, you know we didn’t just go in, get the two items we came for and leave. Also, I rarely get to shop, since he does the grocery and errand shopping while I am at work, so I will admit to looking around for more than those two items.

We found the following:
The above glasses set us back Dhs 10 ($2.70 – not each, the whole set). There’s nothing in the picture to give you size comparison. These are what my family would call juice glasses, about 3 or 4 inches high.
The above dozen coffee cups (Arabic style) cost Dhs 39 ($11.00).
I kept looking and found these, which don’t exactly match the coffee cups, but are close enough. The set of 6 cups and saucers cost Dhs 35 ($9.50).

After I got them home, I proceeded to inspect them for chips, etc. I turned one of the coffee cups over and read the bottom. “24 carat gold” Oh, yeah. Gold covered porcelain cups for less than a dollar each. The cups and saucers are “24 carat gold” too. They were decorated by machine, so don’t exactly pass close inspection, but near enough for me. Just another reason to love Dubai.

Global Village

We finally got out to Global Village to see what it was all about. It is part carnival and part international souk. There are pavilions for several countries. We went through about half of them – India, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Europe (Turkey), Egypt, Philippines, and Palestine. We hope to go back to see the other pavilions before it closes.

We bought a jar of honey in the Yemen pavilion. The man asked Paul if he is Muslim. We said “no, only bearded.” Paul may need to get a t-shirt with that on it.

Here is a short video of the hand operated merry-go-round in the India pavilion. I don’t know what the charge was (probably only a dirham or two), but these kids actually got two rides.

We bought these beautiful, handmade Tunisian serving dishes. The flower shaped one is a dip set with a center bowl and six bowls surrounding that all on a plate – eight pieces.

The seller spoke very good English (spoke English well — apparently I don’t) and we had a good chat with him. He asked where we were from. He had been to California once for an eight day fair and sold all his wares in the first four days. Now, of course, he can’t get a visa to go to the States to sell his merchandise.
CONTEST: Guess what we paid for this set of dishes. I’ll even make it multiple choice.
A. $105.00 B. $78.00 C. $254.00 D. $45.00 (Bonus question: What would they sell for in the States?)