Hands and Hippos

We stopped in at Aladdin's Hule to pay for the kilim and had no intention of spending any more money. But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions... So, four "hands of Fatima" and three hippos later...

The "white sheep" of the family is one I purchased in 2011 in a shop under the entrance to the Winter Palace. She has company at last!

Aladdin's Hule

We visited with our friend Badr in the suq yesterday, on a quest for carpets and kilims. But before one reaches the rug room, one passes through other parts of the shop. A real treasure trove! In fact, when I was checking the photos before uploading them, I noticed some silver metal "hands of Fatima" that are a regular  feature in the decoration of caleches (behind the collection of keys in the lower left of center in the first photo). I will be looking at them more closely when we return. Here are a few photos:

Saturday Stroll Through the Suq

The Saturday after Christmas I joined friends Ursula and Lena for a journey through the Luxor tourist suq. The sad part was the number of shops that were closed, as if their owners had given up. And there were fewer importunate vendors as well. Nice for us, but bad for the local economy!

Our shopping started with a lengthy visit to one of the spice shops. It was one I had not visited before, and I had a photographic ball! Color, color, color and some great packaging!

I bought some of the green label "Ostrish Fat" cream because it's supposed to be good for muscle and joint aches!

LOTS of karkaday at the bottom of the photo

The bright blue on the lower right is indigo

Al Suoad Cream = "To weaken the hair growth" = not for your head but for your mustache, etc.

Our next stop was at our friend Adel's scarf shop. We were so surprised to see it open! Adel was there with his two grandsons, and we had tea and a lovely chat while we shopped for scarves we didn't really need, but couldn't live without!

Ursula wanted some inexpensive scarabs to use as small gifts so we stopped at one of the sellers with a cart on the pavement. She did some hard bargaining, and I found one I liked and managed to get him down a little bit. I always feel a bit guilty when I do this, because of the economy, but it is expected!

After that, we shopped for belts and purses in a leather shop, another one that I had not been in before. We ended up both buying a nice reversible belt (black on one side and brown leather on the other side) for a reasonable 75 LE (just over $10). I will go back there to examine his purses more closely. After a brief visit to Habiba, we ended up in another shop selling scarves and galabeyas, etc. I "needed" a black and white arafat (scarf named after Yasser Arafat because he always wore one) and they had some excellent quality ones for 20 LE (less than $3). I had to photograph this sign on our departure!

I particularly like the part (lower left) that says "Here you will find a gift for someone you don't like"!

Then it was time for some freshly squeezed orange juice while observing the passing scene:

Just across from the juice bar was a bakery that was dispensing freshly baked "aysh balady" (country bread or pita as we would call it)

As we were leaving the suq, we passed a shop selling posters of General El Sisi, the new Egyptian idol. I had to purchase one with him and the hawk, although I have been informed that there is another one that I will have to hunt for that shows him with a lion!

All in all, we had an excellent time of it! Here is my swag:

Everything for just shy of $31.00 (exchange rate = 6.9 LE per $1)! And as the commercial says, "The suq experience? Priceless!"

Spicy!

Last night, one of our stops on the way to dinner at Sofra (miam-miam!) was a spice shop in the souq--Mutawkil, my preferred source. Here are a few photos: