A beautiful desert island known for oil in all of its riches…and natural pearls.  The natural pearls are very small - .5mm to 5mm in size.  Vijay at Al Hashimi Pearls was very busy stringing these beautiful pearls on chains of 18kt gold.  The gold work here is also exceptional and pricing is very fair!

Street life in the souks…people are very friendly.      

The contrast is an ultra modern city with shopping centers, gorgeous feng shui buildings, an incredible National Museum and nice sandy beaches.  I found everyone to be extremely polite, a very safe atmosphere and some of the best customer servicing skills ever!  I was surprised to see many Asian’s in the service sector.