Isn’t it amazing?  5 years in this country and I’ve never been!  Yep, I’m sticking with “amazing”.  It feels right.

This is Dragon Mart:

It’s almost 3/4 of a mile long!  And has almost 4000 shops!  So of course I need to do some research.  I know myself.  If I walk around in a crowded THAT all day and do not stumble across the kitchen supply stores…  Well, that’s the sort of thing that will break me down.

Simon and I went to Paris a few years ago and we stayed near the Lourve.  We walked from the Lourve to the Eiffel Tower.  Then from the Eiffel Tower to Notre Dame.  

We had a few challenges along the way.  

We had to scurry past a very drunk Russian man who was standing amongst the abundant trash on the sidewalk, somehow never spilling his open bottle of vodka.  No problem.

 We had to walk further than expected when we found out that the credit card and paper-money (?) parts of the “Métro de Paris” ticket-machine were both out of service and the attendant refused to give us change.  No problem.  

We endured rude French people everywhere we stopped for something to eat.  No problem.  

It was absolutely freezing cold.  The kind of cold that makes your feet (because of course you’re not wearing appropriate shoes) feel like marble.  No problem.

After many hours of walking and taking pictures and gawking at couples making out (because living in Dubai makes me forget PDA exists), I was fine.  No drunk Russians or rude French people or amount of walking in the cold could deter me!  I was in France!

 Then we stopped at this cafe for a warm drink.

 I paid the equivalent of $14 for some hot water, a tea bag, a lump of sugar, and some milk.  FOURTEEN DOLLARS!  Then, I had to pee, likely from drinking said tea.  

The cafe “bathroom” was down a skinny, steep spiral staircase.  At the bottom of the spiral staircase, there was one stall, with a door, and a urinal.  ”Wow, that’s not a very private urinal”, I remember thinking.  I went to open the stall door.

There was a coin slot on the door.  €0.20 to use the bathroom.  After I had just spent $14 on tea.  I had no coins.  Simon had the change from the tea, but he was upstairs, outside waiting for me.

That was it.  That’s the moment I went from smiling-at-strangers happy to “I hate this freaking country with it’s STUUUUUPID drunk Russians and I’d rather walk back to the hotel then go get a coin from Simon and come back in this douche of an establishment and HOW DARE THEY LET MEN PEE FOR FREE!” 

I’m happy as can be until I reach that point and then I just bawl.  It’s not pretty.

So yes… definitely planning out my trip to Dragon Mart.  This shop looks like it might have potential:

…but I don’t like how casually “kitchen supplies” is mentioned.  I mean, if they’re saying they have “antique decorative items such as motorcycles, airplanes, frames, and trucks used for display purposes”, I’m skeptical.  I want somewhere kitchen-specific!

There are a lot of places on the website that are described like this:

Look, Jinda Enterprizes with a ‘z’, saying you have “household goods” is not good enough!  What do you have?  Curtains? Rugs? Towels? Blankets? Antique decorative items such as motorcycles, airplanes, frames, and trucks used for display purposes?  OR KITCHEN THINGS?

Nowwww we’re talking:

Knives! Pots! Pans! Pressure Cookers. Spoons! Etc!

Wait… What’s this one?

Does that say…