Shopping in Middle East
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Educational Bookshop
East Jerusalem’s best bookshop has an impressive range of books and DVDs pertaining to the Arab–Israeli conflict, as well as a good selection of magazines and Palestinian music CDs. It also boasts a reading balcony, cafe and function room. Journalists, aid workers, activists and other politically aware people make this place a regular stop on their East Jerusalem wanderings.
reviewed
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Al-Burgan
A selection of crafts and souvenirs with knowledgeable staff and reasonable prices. It’s behind Jordan InterContinental Hotel.
reviewed
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Gold Souq
This pageant of glorious design and spectacular craftsmanship is fun to see even without the intention to buy. The souq comes alive later in the evening, especially before a holiday, when men traditionally express the value of their relationships through buying 22kt gold bangles, or a 'set' comprised of earrings, necklace and bracelet for the women in their family.
Qatari bridal jewellery can cost thousands, but sometimes pieces can be traded back after the wedding for something more readily usable, or even just for cash.
reviewed
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Haret Jdoudna Complex
The Haret Jdoudna Complex sells an extensive range of crafts including mosaics, ceramics, textiles and clothing. Look out particularly for some exquisite embroidery; many of these items are sponsored by the Arab Cultural Society, which supports Jordanian war widows. Indeed, most items come from local non-profit organisations, including the Noor Al-Hussein Foundation.
reviewed
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Silsal Ceramics
Has a small showroom of superb modern pottery with price tags that are surprisingly reasonable. If you’re coming along Zahran St from 5th Circle, it’s the third small street on the right.
reviewed
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Carmel Market
Passionate free-marketeers pedal everything from fresh-cut flowers to piles of cumin in this frenetic market, squeezed between the old Yemenite Quarter and Nahalat Binyamin St. This bubbling cauldron of commerce starts at Kikar Magen David, where hippies strum guitars for shekels. You need to push your way past the first few metres of clothing (Sponge Bob Square Pants boxer shorts and knock-off Nikes) to reach the more aromatic and enticing stalls of fruits and vegetables, hot breads and spices.
When in form, the stallholders have an amusing sales patter, singing songs to promote their goods and often joining in with one another.
Each of the narrow sidestreets specialises …
reviewed
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Dubai Mall
With around 1200 stores, this is not merely a mall but a small city unto itself, with an Olympic-size ice rink, a huge aquarium, indoor theme parks and 160 food outlets. There’s a strong European label presence here, alongside Galeries Lafayette department store from France, Hamley’s toy store from the UK and the first Bloomingdale’s outside the United States. It’s a ginormous, daylit mall with wide aisles and lots of open spaces, atriums and even a fashion catwalk. The four floors are divided into ‘precincts’ with clusters of product categories: search for high-end designers on Fashion Ave (which has marble floors and silver resting divans), high-street fashions on the g…
reviewed
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City Center-Doha
The largest of the Middle East's shopping palaces, City Center-Doha is a veritable pantheon of the shopping world. The food halls in this shopping complex include all the usual Westerin fast-food outlets in opulent surroundings. Also the best cinemas are located in City Center-Doha. They show the latest Hollywood blockbusters and the occasional film from Iran or Europe.
With its 350 shops, from Debenhams to the Family Development Centre (top floor, selling local crafts); tented architecture, marble flooring and glass-fronted lifts; its ice-skating rink, bowling alleys and climbing walls; its congregations of juice-sipping Qataris and huddles of homesick expatriates; and t…
reviewed
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S*Uce
This is the original store of women-owned S*uce (pronounced ‘sauce’), a pioneer on Dubai’s growing indie fashion boutique scene. Join the style brigade searching for top-tier denim, flirty frocks, sassy accessories, sexy sandals and deluxe tees. Look for such key contemporary designers as Karta, Tsumori Chisato, Vanessa Bruno, Isabella Cappeto, Alice McCall and Philip Lim, as well as local labels such as Essa, Bil Arabi and Sugar Vintage. There’s another branch in Dubai Mall.
reviewed
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Tehran Bazar
The maze of bustling alleys and the bazaris that fill them make Tehran Bazar a fascinating, if somewhat daunting, place to explore. Traders have been hawking their wares on this site for nearly a thousand years, but most of what you see today is less than 200 years old; it’s no architectural jewel. The bazaris are a conservative bunch and there will be far more chadors than bleached hair.
reviewed
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Souq
Starting at the top of El-Bishara St and occupying a maze of steep and narrow, winding alleys, the Souq is a lively place to haggle over a dayglo Jesus for the car dashboard. In the lower part of the town, local authorities have taken steps to clean up the white-stone streets of the souq but it still retains a somewhat authentic Arabian air, particularly on Fridays.
reviewed
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Auditorium Mall
Auditorium Mall , Located in the Carmel Centre next to the Cinematheque. It's small, but handy if you are staying in the area, and contains a Steimatzky bookshop, supermarket and pharmacy.
reviewed
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Al-Hoda Supermarket
This is good for provisions or picnics, or if you're just hankering after Western goodies, such as chocolate or bikkies. It also stocks shampoo, sanitary towels and - usually - nappies.
reviewed
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Carpet Bazaar
The wobbly, wooden-ceilinged old carpet bazaar is more commercial minded but slated for eventual demolition if the shrine’s expansion continues.
reviewed
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Nabeel Fouad Salka
At the entrance to Souq al-Hamidiyya, Nabeel Fouad Salka sells high-quality ouds, along with mother-of-pearl decorated drums and other instruments.
reviewed
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Natural Pearl Palace
The owner of Natural Pearl Palace is particularly knowledgeable and has some priceless pearls in the shop's collection.
reviewed
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Arts & Crafts Lane
The products here are mainly Judaica and of excellent quality. It's open daily except Shabbat.
reviewed
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Safeway, Shmeisani
There is an outlet of Safeway, Shmeisani around 500m southwest of the Sports City junction.
reviewed
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Animal & Bird Market
Located behind the colourful Wholesale Market (selling wholesale fruit, vegetables, meat and fish), this market may be of interest to anyone who hasn't seen pink, yellow and lime green chicks before. Why the birds are dyed is a mystery of the region. Fortunately, they leave the spotted guinea fowl, ring-necked parakeets, African greys and cut-throat zebra finches untinged - possibly because the plumage of the rows and rows of domestic birds is outrageous enough already.
The day before an eid (Islamic feast), the market is heaving with goat-buyers, camel-traders and sheep-shoppers, all looking for a suitable eid supper, but the animals are well shaded and watered, and resp…
reviewed
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The Walk at JBR
‘Nobody walks in LA’, as that old Missing Persons song goes, and the same could be said about Dubai. At least, until the summer of 2008, when The Walk at JBR opened. The city’s first outdoor shopping and dining promenade was built to meet the needs of the 20,000 people living in the Jumeirah Beach Residence development, a cluster of 40 yellow towers wedged between the beach and Dubai Marina. But right from the start, The Walk’s attractive mix of over 300 largely family-friendly restaurants, cafes, shops, supermarkets and boutiques has also drawn scores of tourists and residents from other neighbourhoods. They come to stroll down the 1.7km stretch, watch the world on parad…
reviewed
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Deira Gold Souq
All that glitters is gold (and occasionally silver) at this colourful market. At any given time over 25 tonnes of gold is on display in jewellery shop windows in Dubai. Even if you’re not in the market for bling, a stroll through the covered arcades of the enormous Gold Souq is a must. Hundreds of stores overflow with every kind of jewellery imaginable – tasteful diamond earrings to over-the-top golden Indian wedding necklaces. It’s the largest gold market in the region, and one of the largest in the world. Bonus: the people-watching. Settle down on a wooden bench beneath the wooden-latticed arcades of the main thoroughfare (Sikkat al-Khail St) and observe touts hawking k…
reviewed
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Alukkas Jewellery
Alukkas Jewellery is also respected in the Gulf. While the sky is the limit with regard to the price of a pearl, a pair of cluster earrings starts at US$150, a gold-and-pearl bangle from US$200 and a set (necklace plus earrings) costs around US$400 to US$800. A discount of 15% may be negotiable, but prices for pearl jewellery are more or less fixed. An oyster shell with a growing pearl makes a fine souvenir from US$50.
Bahrain is the only country in the world to sell almost exclusively natural pearls. While the odd imported, artificial pearl creeps in, shop owners are very quick to tell you which ones are and which ones are not genuine, natural Bahraini pearls; when it co…
reviewed
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Global Village
The carnival-like Global Village runs from late November to late February about 13km south of Sheikh Zayed Rd. Think of it as a sort of World Fair for shoppers. Each of the 30-something pavilions showcases a specific nation’s culture and – of course – products. Some favourites: the Afghanistan pavilion for fretwork-bordered stone pendants and beaded-silver earrings; Palestine for traditional cross-stitch kandouras (casual shirt-dresses worn by men and women) and ever-popular cushion covers; Yemen for its authentic khanjars (traditional curved daggers); India for spangly fabrics and slippers; and Kenya for its kitsch bottle-top handbags. Dig the earnest entertainment…
reviewed
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Hope in their Hands
The National Women's Centre for Development Handicrafts and Hope in their Hands are two nonprofit organisations located inside the same building with the joint aim of increasing the financial independence of Yemeni women. This is done through workshops where the women, who are often widowed or divorced, learn skills such as sewing and weaving. The resulting products are then sold in the two downstairs shops, which together are the best place in San'a to buy souvenirs.
If you're lucky, you might be allowed upstairs to watch the women at work. Even without these centres the building itself, a renovated caravanserai (a traditional storage and lodging house for traders travel…
reviewed
