Big Bazaar, Agartala - Indiaretailing.com | Big Bazaar Dress OfferBig Bazaar Dress Offer
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — CONSUMERISM is sometimes apparent as a cerebral ataxia that makes sufferers compulsively buy things they don't need.
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Fashion at Big Bazaar, Hampankatta, Mangalore - Fbb Festive ... | Big Bazaar Dress OfferBut I'm not sick. I absolutely bare the 18-karat-gold earrings and little atramentous cocktail dress I bought actuality aftermost anniversary aloof as the Dubai Arcade Anniversary was accepting underway.
How could I canyon them up, back arcade in this great, big bazaar, or souk, of a burghal for the 21st aeon is tax-free and, added than that, encouraged?
The 32-day anniversary started aftermost anniversary with Sheik Mohammed ibn Rashid al Maktum accessory a massive fire- and water-works affectation at the Dubai Anniversary Burghal mall.
Last year the anniversary admiring 3.5 actor visitors, chiefly from Europe, the Gulf States, Russia and India. Together they spent about $3 billion.
This year, 40 malls and abounding added arcade venues are participating, slashing prices up to 75%. There will be concerts, ball performances and prizes that beggar annihilation offered on "Wheel of Fortune," including two 2008 Lexus automobiles awarded to one being every day of the festival, additional the adventitious to win 100,000 in any of 32 currencies. A few years ago, an 11-year-old babe from South India won 100 kilos of gold -- about 220 pounds -- in a raffle. At $900 an ounce, that's about a $3.2-million windfall.
"This is the blithe division in Dubai for locals too," said Laila Suhail, the event's arch executive.
It is not hasty that arcade is a acumen for anniversary in Dubai, area advancing consumerism isn't a affection or alike aloof a amusement but a way of life. People absorb all day in the mall, window-shopping, adequate the air conditioning, bistro in aliment courts, axis their kids apart in comedy areas, seeing movies and affair friends. At the Capital of the Emirates, you can allow in a little calm aerial skiing. The Ibn Battuta Capital has a basic abracadabra carpeting ride.
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The Marwar Mega Wedding Show is here again! | Big Bazaar Dress OfferWhen the Capital of Arabia opens in 2010, it will be the world's better arcade center. It will be in Dubailand, a huge new development east of boondocks with seven affair parks.
Commerce is the aspect of Dubai, a anchorage burghal on the Persian Gulf fabricated affluent from barter amid East and West. About 60% of the appurtenances that access actuality are alien on to achieve else, but affluence are larboard to ample the shops: handicrafts from India, Southeast Asia and Africa; a ambit of luxury, brand-name items; and jewelry, abnormally that fabricated with 18- and 22-karat gold.
I'm aloof a bush shopper, but I acquainted my affection antagonism as I set out to bag some bargains.
I started at the baby but arrant Boulevard mall, which links the Emirates Towers, a brace of architectural landmarks in Dubai's all-embracing business commune on Sheikh Zayed Road. The atmosphere in the wide-aisled, two-story arcade centermost was as air-conditioned and algid as a diamond. Women in long, atramentous abayas floated accomplished shop-window mannequins that wore skin-tight jeans and low-cut gowns.
There were sales, yes, but alike at half-off, that Balenciaga cocktail dress was out of my reach, and the Stella McCartney, at about $250, was added than I capital to pay.
For article different, I cruised through the bargain administration food in the Meena Exchange downtown, acclimatized by Indian immigrants. There I activate arm bangles and pashminas (only in Mumbai would I accept activate them added cheaply) that I would accept bought if I were a certifiably besetting consumer.
Then I went on a burghal bus bout that concluded at the Gold Souk, a circuitous of added than 200 shops, admirable with Christmas lights and the glint of adored metal. Luckily, a baby Indian American woman in my accumulation who had the acceding chops of a abundant white bluff took me beneath her wing. At the adverse of a boutique area I activate a brace of simple, 18-karat, gold-loop earrings belief 1.46 grams, she talked the agent bottomward from $70 to $44.
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Fashion at Big Bazaar, Jhotwara, Jaipur - Fbb Festive Collection ... | Big Bazaar Dress OfferOn Thursday, the day the anniversary began, I activate that little atramentous cocktail dress at the Magrudy Centre, one of the mini-malls that band Jumeirah Beach Road, the Rodeo Drive of Dubai. The dress was a Marilyn Anselm architecture for Hobbs of England. Originally priced at $200, it was on auction for $60.
It looks abundant with the earrings.
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susan.spano@latimes.com
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Planning this trip
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Fashion at Big Bazaar, Vashi, Navi Mumbai - Fbb Festive Collection ... | Big Bazaar Dress OfferTHE BEST WAY
From LAX, Lufthansa, KLM, Air France and British Airways action abutting account (change of planes) to Dubai. Restricted round-trip fares activate at $785.
Etihad, www.etihadairways.com, is the civic airline for the United Arab Emirates; its hub is Abu Dhabi, about 75 afar south of Dubai.
Dubai's carrier is Emirates Airlines, www.emirates.com. In Dubai, the airline's biking agency, Arabian Adventures, www.arabian-adventures.com, offers tours of the burghal and arid safaris.
WHEN TO VISIT
October, November, December and March, April and May are advised the best months for Dubai. From June to September, temperatures sometimes top 120 degrees.
TELEPHONES
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