\n\t\t\t\tInside the Souk\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\nAside from the surreal gold shops, with their huge necklaces that seem unwearable, but great for pictures, and the spices \u2013 they have the cure for everything, tea for all tastes, and dates galore. The colors are what\u2019s most attractive about the place.<\/p>\n
As I walked and looked at the stuff on sale in stalls and shops, I realized they all had something in common: there were no price tags in sight. I caught a glimpse of a shoe store and asked how much for a pair. The shopkeeper told me to come in and try them on.<\/p>\n
I hadn\u2019t realized yet that this was the local MO. Merchants in the souk will try to get as many items as possible, and only once you\u2019ve picked everything will they tell you the price and bargain. That\u2019s how it works in each and every store. They won\u2019t give you the price up front; they\u2019ll ask where you are from and get you talking. These are natural-born negotiators. Until you\u2019re really interested in something, they won\u2019t let you know how much. And when they finally do, you need to bargain.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be afraid to ask for a discount. This is how they work: they\u2019ll set prices real high and are willing to discuss them. You\u2019ll often end up paying as little as half the starting price.<\/p>\n
The same happened at the spice shop. I was transfixed by the colors and the availability of stuff outside. I asked more about it, walked inside to ask for prices and wound up looking at other spices. Spice team, cardamom (which is often added to Arab coffee), saffron and two varieties of turmeric were my picks. I bargained some more and then got walking the souk\u2019s streets.<\/p>\n
Many of the merchants knew a few sentences in Portuguese, a natural outcome of growing Brazilian tourism in the UAE. They\u2019d ask me if I was from S\u00e3o Paulo, Rio or Curitiba, and one of them even said he had a cousin in Brazil.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a memorable trip to say the least, and worth it even if it\u2019s just to look around and take pictures. But in one of the most expensive cities in the world, this is the place where you\u2019ll manage to get a few souvenirs and trinkets at more reasonable prices.<\/p>\n
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\nBruna Garcia\/ANBA<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The souk best known for its profusion of gold and spices features countless other items, like scarves, shoes, ceramic and souvenirs. It can provide a memorable cultural experience, to say the least.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1466,"featured_media":210276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[208],"tags":[7557,139,7895,156,7896,228],"class_list":{"0":"post-211269","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"tag-deira","9":"tag-dubai","10":"tag-old-town","11":"tag-souk","12":"tag-spice","13":"tag-uae"},"wps_subtitle":"The souk best known for its profusion of gold and spices features countless other items, like scarves, shoes, ceramic and souvenirs. It can provide a memorable cultural experience, to say the least.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1466"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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