The shopping mall at Kingdom Centre is very upscale and does have a lot of shops one would find at such a mall in any other country. I wasn’t there to shop, but rather to look, and so wasn’t even attracted to anything except this handbag. The store was closed for prayer for quite a long time, but I was determined to learn the price so made a point of going back when it was finally open. To my shock, it was SAR 19,700, or something more than $5,000. I was floored.

It was a designer bag by Dolce and Gabbana, and I did check at home online, and that indeed is around the going price from what I could see, although a bit cheaper from some company in Italy. It would have looked great with my abayas, but needless to say I’ll be sticking with my much less glittery but nice enough looking shoulder bag from Washington, which I had to buy because I can’t wear my usual backpack with these garments.