Now when you go to Dubai there's the pressing need to shop. The experience is cray on another level especially if you go during a sale period like I did. I'm talking 75% discounts, buy one get one free type shit!
If it's ever your first time be careful how you spend at the Dubai mall. Things are soo expensive. I was actually going to start shopping there but being the Naija babe I am, my calculator was with me as expected and as I started doing conversions I'm like nah son. In many cases prices in Lagos were even cheaper. Mba.
Deira City Centre is preferable price wise. There is also the Emirates mall, Wafi mall and a few others. These malls are huge so depending on how long you're staying you may not even get to finish one mall. I did 2 days of shopping and only went half of Deira City Centre. There is also the open market which can be good for things like fabric, abayas, jewellery, etc but I would advise not to buy named brands at the market cos you could be buying fake products. It's best to do your shopping at the mall so if you need eg a pair of reebok sneakers go to a proper reebok shop.
Shopping really is cardio. Sweet cardio. No jokes. Went to sooo many stores. Can't post all of the haul but here are a few purchases I really liked.
Buy one get one free at next was the bomb. Bought the purse and go the shoes for free.
Found this lovely laptop sleeve and sneakers at Bershka. I thought they went well together.
Walked a little further and found a white pair of converse which honestly was what I was looking for initially but found the Bershka first. Oh well. Yeah let me add this. Before you buy any pair of converse sneakers from a dealership ( it's better to buy from converse but they may be out of stock for what you want) be sure you're very familiar with what to look out for. I'm telling you there are so many fakes and they look and feel like the real thing it's sad. Google and YouTube will serve you well for this.
I also loved these from Sketchers.
H&M was live mad sales plus new collection in. This structured bad had my name all over it. It's from their new collection. . Got the black but the other bone colour still haunts me as I type.
Crazy mark-downs at Balmain had me feeling all type of ways. You know that feeling after you buy something and you don't mind leaving your receipt and change.. You just want to run before they change their mind like "sorry mam it was a mistake, this one, not on sale" gag!
Splash! That's the name. This store had like the best worded tshirts I've ever come across. I really do miss my pre-internet brain. I google everything now even spellings. Makes me a little sick sometimes. I've taken up reading books againto help with that. If you go to Dubai you have to visit the store.
I also went to the open market/Souk. When in a foreign country you need to be careful about going to the market. People can always tell you're a foreigner and there are lots of bad people all around. I'm used to this although I have to confess living in Lagos makes you well prepared and sadly more paranoid. In my experience Dubai is pretty safe. I only encountered one shady guy. He approached me and said he had original LV purses for sale but there were in a stall upstairs. I looked at where he was pointing to and it was a back staircase. I just laughed! Ode! Oh yeah and there were some Ibo guys who'll walk up to you selling Brazilian hair lagos island style. I burst out laughing!
The Souk was amazing. I loved these bejewelled Indian purses
Buy an Abaya was on my to-do list. Ended up buying two cos I couldn't decide between the white and yellow. Always look out for the hand stitched ones as the jewels tend to stay on longer as opposed to the glued ones.
I might need to stop here. So much happened in so little time and time was not enough cos I had only 4 days. I thought it would be enough but it wasn't and I want to go back!
