The Souq

Ok - so you all know, this and the last two posts are all about stuff I did on Saturday. I figured that since I have no life, I would milk it out over a few posts. Most days are just like today: I get out of work, go to the gym, get on my bike and find cheap food at a dirty little hole in the wall to take home and eat on the floor with my hands. Tonight it was a baked chicken in a massive pita thing-a-majigger.

So after the bike shop and the fort, I went to a large outdoor market in the center of town called a souq. As far away from a modern mall as you can get, it's a hot, dusty and busy maze of narrow 19th century walkways and streets with small outdoor shops selling toys, vegetables, meats, clothes, nuts, sheesha pipe tobacco and various colorful regional textiles. Smells are a mix of sweet tobacco and incense. Aggressive shopkeepers shout out how good of a deal they can give you - "very nice Rolex for you, boss. Special just for you today." Close your eyes and it's Tijuana. Many very poor people combing the area, enough where I had to be extremely aware of people around me. I took a couple side tours behind the stores to see that many people live in crumbling old stone and wooden shacks, probably with not much in the way of plumbing.

Visiting Saudis still drive their Mercedes' through the walkways, with inches on either side, so they don't have to walk in the heat. Though the temps were over 100 degrees, many women wore black full length abayas. Old men sat together in the shade smoking sheesha. I'm kind of, but not really, getting used to the call to prayer now, and men run to the old mosque at the souq when it sounds.

I spent about an hour in a big store selling Persian rugs of all sizes, some made from tribes and others made of silk by skilled artisans. I stopped in one of the many tailor shops that looked like it had a better selection of fabric than most, picked out a nice English cashmere wool and ordered custom-made blue blazer. They even walked me over to another shop that just sold buttons and I picked out a local design. The jury is out on the end product, but it was cheap, so I'll have to report back. Although there was alot of food vendors, I am ashamed to say that all I bought was a bag of cashews and a few bottles of cold water.