Ramadan in Riyadh ......... Part II

After our tummies were well and truly over-full, Jesse decided that it was off to the gold souks in an old part of town he knew, and there were so many over-the-top gold pieces that you just would never be able to wear. If you want to see gold this is the place for it. It is sold by weight not craftsmanship, and anything that takes your interest is immediately thrown on the scales and price is given - I must be the only female in the whole souk that was more interested in a shop selling really interesting and lovely mother of pearl and turquoise inlaid walking sticks than the jewellery :P must be showing my age.....hehehehe

Next day we lounged about until late afternoon again because during Ramadan the shops don't open until 8.30pm or 9ish and stay open until about 2-3am,so of course if you are going out late then you are coming home from shopping at about 2am so need your afternoon nanna nap. Jesse then wanted to go to look for Al Musmak the original clay mud castle in the old part of town where Abdul Aziz came and threw his spear into the door and overcame the residents by killing them and proclaimed himself as king of all of Arabia. He went on to unify all the tribes and this created what we now know as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

We wandered around behind Al Musmak and and were truly astounded at the very old gold souk and markets behind it – we thought the souk we had visited the night before was impressive but this one was totally unbelievable there are just so many shops with so many varieties of necklaces and bracelets and rings and beads that I just can’t choose – I become paralyzed and can’t decide…… although a lot of it is too ornate and heavy to wear - it must be for pure investment purposes. The pictures I have put in below are the investment pieces I am talking about – they also have lovely wearable gold as well and I do have my eyes on a few lovely pieces before I come home.

Did I mention that the jewellery shops here in the shopping centres are unbelievable? The gems and diamonds in rings and necklaces range from unbelievably beautiful to the grotesque in over-the-top bad taste in size and design. I have never seen such a huge range of watches and the same description applies to these as to the jewellery. Jesse bought me a beautiful diamond wedding ring and we have another ruby and diamond ring ordered – just waiting to pick it up :) It was then time to go back for our 6pm “Brekkie” then some driving around in Riyadh, then a fairly early night as we had to be up at 6am for the 3.5 hour drive back to Khobar for Jesse to go to work – Lucky for me I had another 2 days of rest :) :)