Mall shopping hours are generally from 10am to 10pm, but shops on the street are often closed between 1pm and 7pm. Most shops and malls are closed on Friday mornings and will only open after 2pm. During the Islamic holy month of Ramadaan, daytime hours will be reduced, but shops then close at 11pm or midnight.

As every shopping enthusiast will know, shopping is an extremely broad term that covers a variety of disciplines, each with its own etiquette:

Retail Therapy
This involves the random act of wandering through shopping malls. There are lots of clothing stores that cater specifically for men, women or children. There are all the well-known fashion names and many intimidating stores with anorexic mannequins in their windows. Something you may want to remember in order to avoid 'Changing Room Panic' is that there are no standard sizes — they can be UK, European, USA or Italian.

Gold stall in Muscat souq

Now, you would think that bargaining in a modern marble and glass mall is taboo, but shops with personal attendants (jewellery stores in particular) are the exception. I’m not suggesting that you haggle over the counter, but a courteous ‘Is that including a discount?’ or ‘Is that your best price?’ works quite nicely, and you should see the price drop by ten to 20 percent.

We went into a Rolex store the other day where I enjoyed a lovely few minutes draping my wrist in 22ct gold watches. The watch I thought looked best was priced at dhs34 000 (R68 000), but after a ‘discount’ it came to a ‘reasonable’ dhs27 000. To cover our dismay, we did some impressive nodding and frowning, asked for a euro conversion and left.

The Gitex Computer Shopper — the largest and the most popular IT consumer event in the Middle East — is the best place to purchase electronic goods. Once again, while the event itself is in Dubai all the stores participating will have the same specials in Abu Dhabi. It can be harder to get electronic goods at better-than-advertised prices though. Most shops are actually owned by the same company, so you may find that they all have simultaneous specials on the same product. It’s actually the supermarkets that have the best prices. They usually offer a good warranty and deliver for free.

You may be surprised to find the ladies toilet on the opposite side of the mall to the gents. Most of ladies bathrooms have traditional and western ablution stalls, so if you open a door and there is a hole in the floor, don’t worry that they aren’t all like that – just try the next door.

Bargain Hunting
Souks (or souqs) are Eastern-flavoured flea markets on a professional scale, and are great places for finding odd souvenirs to take home. The government keeps a strict eye on the markets and the quality of their merchandise is randomly checked.

You can bargain at souqs, but I must confess that we have never been very successful at it and usually end up feeling rather ripped off, especially when you find the same item mass produced in a supermarket at a lower price. Anyway, it is an experience worth trying and generally ends with the offer to compromise over coffee. Accept the coffee. It is a rather bitter, small cup and you can refuse the next one by twisting your wrist in a side-to-side movement. If the storeowner can speak English, he will probably want to chat about his country, the weather and his knowledge of South Africa, which will almost certainly include Hansie Cronje and Mandela. You will however also be mistaken for a Canadian, Briton, American or German…

The Abu Dhabi Souq is unfortunately a rather miserable place. Over 20 years old, it has survived two fires this year and is destined for demolition in November 2003 to make way for a new air-conditioned souq. While it is being built, the shops will move to the fish market – which is not an ideal place for a hot summer’s day!

Batinah fish market

We did, however, have an enjoyable visit to the Muscat souq (in Oman), which was a sprawling labyrinth of narrow passages with countless tiny stalls. As a tourist you are targeted and after a couple of hours all the polite smiles and head shaking gets a bit tiring. We also went to the fish market on the beach, which looked like an entire aquarium washed up on the shore. We saw fish we had never seen before and others that we had only heard about — all very freshly caught.

Grocery Shopping
This really comes into a class of its own in Abu Dhabi. It is a long-term activity and involves many new experiences that impact your daily living. As most items are imported, there is no guaranteed stock; so what you find this week may disappear off the shelves for the next three months.

The shelves are packed with exotic foods, shiny packaging and new ranges. The fridges hold delights like Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough, while the whole Hershey chocolate range lines the sweet shelves. There is delicious Dilmah tea from Sri Lanka and cans of cheese amongst the canned goods. Anchovies dipped in batter and deep-fried are placed next to chips in the savouries section.

As most of the fresh produce is imported, the prices are generally exorbitant and there are no seasonal changes in the fruit and veg. We land up with Dutch vine tomatoes, Kenyan peas and South African apples. Bread is not subsidised, so a sweet white loaf is dhs4 (R8), whole-wheat dhs7 (R14) and imported American sandwich bread dhs17 (R34).

The price difference between local produce and imported is vast: Locally produced 125ml yoghurt is dhs1 while imported 125ml yoghurt will go up to dhs4.25.

We have only found one shop with a pork section, and bacon is dearly priced at dhs25 for eight rashers. The red meat is usually Australian beef or New Zealand lamb. While you do get local chicken, it can look a bit see-through and we usually buy Dutch chicken breasts.

The meat deli is full of the unexpected. Between the neat lamb cutlets and tenderloin steaks and roasts, there are displays of vacuum packed rabbits, lambs tongues and liver. You wouldn’t believe how incredibly huge a cow’s hoof is until it’s lying, shaved, next to a pair of delicate sheep ankles. And there is an off-putting similarity between brain and mincemeat!

While there have been some welcome additions to our grocery cupboard, there have also been some rather devastating changes. When unable to track down Bovril, I was quite delighted to try out Chicken Bovril. While waiting for the kettle to boil for tea, I enthusiastically smeared it onto hot buttered toast, and took a bite… 'Salty chicken blood!' screamed through my head and I have since crossed over and joined Terry as a Marmite-eater.