Diamonds are a girl’s best friend? Evidently that is very clearly the case after visiting the 12th jewellery shop at the Gold Souk, Abu Dhabi’s premier source of all that glitters and shines. Was there no end to the number of rings, bracelets, pendants and earrings one girl could try? How naïve. Of course there wasn’t.
Dozens of shops were housed in the souk in Madinat Zayet, downtown Abu Dhabi, all selling a spellbinding variety of jewellery, most if it, as suggested by name of the souk, gold. It positively dripped from the cabinets and window displays, some of it supremely elegant, but much of it splendid in its tastelessness. But we were scouring for diamonds.
Shop visit number 13 saw a breakthrough. Hours after entering the souk, my girlfriend spotted not so much her best friend glittering amid the array of diamond-encrusted displays, but more of a life partner. We emerged sometime later – time had long since become immaterial – with a small parcel containing a pair of earrings. It must be said, 40% off the original asking price seemed like a decent piece of haggling, an accepted – and expected – way of conducting business in the souks of Abu Dhabi.
Quite how all these small businesses survive is difficult to fathom, selling as they do, the same items of exaggerated beauty. But then Abu Dhabi and its citizens are not short of a bob or two.
It’s hard to imagine Abu Dhabi in its previous, natural guise – so far removed is it from today’s image of high rises and luxury yachts. But as recently as the very late 1960s it was a largely barren land with scattered communities trading in fish and pearls.
And then came oil. And that, as they say, was that. The offshore discovery in 1958 was the catalyst for Abu Dhabi’s startling transformation. But it’s over the course of the next few years that the city will really take on its diamond-like dazzle with increasingly grandiose ambition.
A new Formula 1 racetrack is under construction, ready for the green flag in late October, while incredible architectural wonders similar to those which you can see in Dubai are beginning to be pieced together. Elsewhere, a Guggenheim art gallery is planned that beggars belief in terms of its beauty.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
