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Our next stop was the perfume and aromatherapy studios where we were all dabbed with over a dozen different oils to see which ones we liked best. Bill and I didn't buy anything but we had two favorites. We loved the Five Secret blend which they say is the oil Chanel buys as the base for Chanel #5 and the gardenia oil essence but they were $50.00 a bottle so we didn't purchase either of them.
What a nice surprise when our tour guide presented me with a nice big bottle of each once we were back on the bus!
I promised Ron, my hairdresser, that I would bring him a tunic from Egypt but I hadn't been anywhere to shop for clothes. I told Nemmo, our tour guide that I needed to take home a long Egyptian tunic and he told me we had to stop at an Egyptian cotton factory anyway.
At the beginning of the tour yesterday Nemmo had passed around a list of shirt styles and sizes for anyone who wanted to order a nice t-shirt or polo shirt with their names in hieroglyphics and it also had color choices for the shirts and the embroidery. We didn't order one as we try to stay on a budget and that budget was taking a beating on this cruise.
He told us he had to stop at the cotton factory to pick up shirts for those who ordered them but usually everyone waits on the bus for 5 minutes. However, if I wanted to go in I could what I wanted to take home. Or if everyone wanted to go in we had a spare 45 minutes because we were ahead of schedule.
Everyone got off the bus and I think we just about bought out the store! Everyone was buying shirts and tunics and shawls and other authentic 100% cotton Egyptian items. Everyone was thrilled because so far on this excursion the only things we had the opportunity to buy were post cards and cheap t-shirts and poorly painted replicas of the pyramids. We were all glad to have a place to buy nice souvenirs and gifts to take home.
$45.00 and a nice tunic later for Ron, we were back on the bus.
Then Memmo had a surprise for all of us. He said we had all been on time this morning and were in and out of the oil factory, the mosque, the museum and the cotton factory in a good time frame with nothing holding us up so we were still ahead of schedule. We had loaded and unloaded from the bus very quickly each time so we would have enough time to do something else that none of us anticipated!
He told us that we would be having lunch in a restaurant right on the Nile which was on the schedule – no surprise there! However, the plans were originally to take the bus to the “land side” of the restaurant to get to the restaurant and eat while looking at the Nile.
However, since we had extra time he took us to a dock on the Nile where we boarded a small boat which held our group very comfortably. We were going to travel to the restaurant by boat, cruise down the Nile and enter the restaurant from the river side. Much better! (Our bus would be waiting for us on the land side of the restaurant after we ate to take us back to the ship.)
The boat had a flat deck on front and he had each single or couple sit or stand on the bow of the boat and he took pictures of each of us with our own cameras. We were all thrilled that we were going to get pictures with the Nile in the background! To make it more fun he took at least one picture of each couple kissing. It is one of my favorite pictures of us – the romantic photo of us kissing while going down the Nile.
After lunch we left the restaurant and got back on the bus - this time to take the long ride back to the ship which was waiting for us in Alexandria.
Memmo then presented me with another present which was totally unexpected! He gave me a bright pink polo-shirt with my name embroidered in hieroglyphics on the front! What a surprise! Especially after he gave me the papyrus painting and the 2 big bottles of essence oils.
It is gorgeous! He had placed an order for me when he ordered them for everyone else and picked it up in the cotton factory with the others.
About halfway back to the ship he asked the driver to pull over at a small store. He disappeared for 5 minutes and returned with ice cream bars, ice cream sandwiches and soft drinks for everyone!
We made it back to the ship with an hour to spare before we had to be on board.
Two long days but two of the best days ever!
No products have been added to this project.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
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