Shopping in Africa
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Sidi Ahmad Gabaz Stucco
Like any visitor with 20/20 vision, you may already be awestruck by the stucco detail up the street at the Ali ben Youssef Medersa - and this is your chance to take home a piece of the stucco action. Sidi Ahmad carves traditional geometric and floral designs right in his shop as well as sweet nothings in French, but with a day's turnaround he will very graciously carve your house number or whatever you like in English…just don't get any four-letter ideas, you naughty people.
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Centre d'Appui à l'Autopromotion Féminine
The Centre d'Appui à l'Autopromotion Féminine women's cooperative outlet has a huge selection of interesting tie-dyed cloth. The numerous vendors opposite Hôtel Camayenne sell all the usual crafts while the shops around the CAAF have a smaller selection but higher quality. In general, it's better to buy baskets, textiles and other crafts upcountry, as quality is as good or better and prices are lower. Several woodcarving shops are found around town.
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Streetwires
The motto is ‘anything you can dream up in wire we will build’. And if you visit this social project designed to uplift young blacks and coloureds to see the wire sculptors at work, you’ll see what that means! It stocks an amazing range, including working radios and chandeliers as well as artier products such as the Nguni Cow range, which you’ll also find sold at upmarket craft shops such as Africa Nova.
reviewed
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Linéaire B Cosmetics
Flowery descriptions in French effusively promise therapeutic effects from organic local ingredients and superconcentrated essential oils here. Basics such as savon noir (black soap) cost three times what they might in the Rahba Qedima, but the speciality items are worth the premium: rich argan oil balm scented with jasmine, after-sun lotion with Barbary figs and healing herbs, facial masks with white mud from Fez and geranium-flower essence.
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Souq Ibrahimiyya
Souq Ibrahimiyya is a favourite little market in town for peeking into daily Egyptian life as it goes about its business. It’s packed to the brim with bright fruits and vegetables, piles of still-wet seafood, and stalls selling all kinds of clucking poultry and meats, both before and after they’ve seen the butcher’s block. It’s best in the morning, when the vendors are at their most vocal and enthusiastic.
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clothing boutiques
Hurghada has a good selection of clothing boutiques in the small malls along the resort strip, as well as the obligatory abundance of overpriced T-shirts, hookahs, Pharaonic memorabilia, stuffed camels, etc. However, please avoid anyone selling marine curios - stalls in the souq have been known to sell everything from stuffed sharks to lamps made from triggerfish - these are illegal, and quite frankly, would probably clash with your furniture anyway.
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Grand Marché
If you're patient and peruse the nether regions of the Grand Marché you'll find a fine selection of goods, including Tuareg and Hausa leatherwork, silver jewellery, batiks and tie-dyed cloth. Look out for les couvertures Djerma (known locally as a kountas) - large, bright strips of cotton sewn together into a large blanket, which are truly spectacular and unique to Niger. As always, friendly negotiations are in order!
reviewed
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Tresors De Mille Et Une Nuit
An antique-hunting couple from Philadelphia wander through the unmarked door of this family riad for a quick snoop, and within minutes they're earnestly discussing shipping containers. Happens all the time to Said, whose family has been in the décor and antiques business for generations and has the stockpiled treasures to prove it: sand-worn Berber doors, rare Tuareg amulets, Deco lithographs, and a striking armoire inlaid with camel bone.
reviewed
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Mohammed Rida Ben Zouine
Saville Row tailors would bite their thimbled thumbs with envy at Ben Zouine's custom hand-finished men's shirts, curve-skimming linen dresses with handmade silk closures, and snappy hooded jackets in 'Moroccan cashmere' (thick combed-cotton flannel). Sidi Mohammed keeps tabs on the latest men's' suit styles from Belgium, and can make you a slimming, bitter chocolate brown suit with a sneaky orange lining that Dries van Noten might admire.
reviewed
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Chez Mahfoud
Tucked away behind the florists and butchers at the farmers market is this unexpected silver jewellery boutique. As at any Marrakshi jeweller, about half of Mahfoud's selection is imported, but the other half is worth a look: designs range from auspicious enamelled hands of Fatima to chic silver-inlaid wood earrings. Mahfoud doesn't bargain much, because he knows what you'd pay for that onyx cocktail ring on nearby Rue de la Liberté.
reviewed
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Shopping Centres
About the only interruption to the hectares of apartments, hotels, restaurants and bars comes in the form of the shopping centres. In them you can buy everything from children's wear to electronics. A good tip is to keep on looking, despite the enormous temptation to buy everything as soon as you see it - you may well save even more money if you shop around. The main Shopping Centres are north of the centre in San Fernando and Bellavista.
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Yahya
These fabulous filigree lamps take the play of light to the next level: flip the switch and beams of light wink and flirt all around the room. Pity those geometric chandeliers aren't more portable, but the lozenge-shaped wall sconces and egg-shaped table lanterns add instant intrigue to dark corners. Shipping can be arranged, but insurance from Morocco isn't yet available from most shipping services - better to buy a bag and carry it on.
reviewed
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Olive Green Cat
At the studio of Philippa Green and Ida-Elsje, you’ll find the work of two talented young jewellery designers, both of whom are catching international attention. Green’s signature pieces are her chunky Perspex cuffs, hand-stitched with patterns and graphic text, while Elsje specialises in delicate earrings and necklaces. They also collaborate on the striking Situ range of diamond jewellery.
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Masroure Abdillah
It usually takes decades to earn the title maâlem (master craftsperson), but young Masroure earns the title the hard way, pounding wool with savon noir (black soap) into felt. He then moulds it into seamless slippers, baubles for necklaces, and sturdy tote bags. Masroure's felt flowers come in snappy shades of natural brown, bright orange and splashy hot pink, and make groovy brooches, hatpins and everlasting bouquets.
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Cape Union Mart Adventure Centre
This impressive outdoors shop offers practically everything you’d need for anything from a hike up Table Mountain to a Cape-to-Cairo safari. The shop includes a café, climbing wall, hiking-boot testing station and cold-weather chamber (to assess those thermals!). There’s also a smaller branch in Victoria Wharf, at the Gardens Centre and at Cavendish Square.
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Abdelatif Instruments
Musicians make pilgrimages to the lute-maker's souq to watch beautiful music in the making, and here you can glimpse maâlem (master craftsman) Sidi Abdelatif carving lutes, tambourines, ginbris (two-stringed banjos), and ribabs (single-stringed fiddles). Since you're buying straight from the artisan himself, you can customize yours and get a better deal, too - music to every starving musician's ears.
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Créazen
CréaZen's got your back stylishly covered with modern linen tunics with geometric embroidery and djellaba-inspired hooded silk shirts. Snap up pants and kaftans off the rack or made to order in linen, silky combed cotton or 'Moroccan cashmere' (cotton fleece), and don't miss reasonably priced designer accessories: jewel-toned silk necklaces, sassy tasselled belts and lucky leather slippers embossed with a hand of Fatima.
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Market
The Market is excellent for fresh fish, meat, fruit and vegetables, and particularly throngs on Monday and Thursday, when people come from outside Chefchaouen to sell produce.
Several local specialities are worth checking out, particularly the fragrant mountain honey and soft ewe's cheese - both served up at breakfast. Add fresh dial makla (a type of bread) and you have all the ingredients for a heavenly picnic.
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Likhweti Kraft
In addition to the scenery, the Piggs Peak area is known for its handicrafts. A good place to check these out is at the Peak Craft Centre just north of Orion Piggs Peak Hotel & Casino, where you’ll find Likhweti Kraft, a branch of Tintsaba Crafts, which sells sisal baskets, jewellery and many other Swazi crafts. There are also numerous craft vendors along the road up from Mbabane.
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Nomad
This gem of a place specialises in jewellery and traditional Bedouin crafts and costumes, particularly from Siwa. Items include appliquéd tablecloths and cushion covers, dresses made in the oases, woven baskets, silk slippers and chunky silver jewellery. To find it, go past the Egyptian Water Works office to the 1st floor and ring the bell. There are smaller branches in the Cairo Marriott, Grand Hyatt and Nile Hotel.
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Kissariat
The kissariat (covered markets) at the bottom of Talaa Kebira have dozens of tiny shops selling babouches in every colour, fabric and design. Here, you can get yourself a top-quality, hand-stitched pair of leather babouches for around DH120. Only men wear yellow or white. Venture further into the kissariat to discover a wealth of bright yellow-gold wedding jewellery and superb fabrics.
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Mustapha Blaoui
The next best thing to taking your riad home would be to take home all those fabulous furnishings - and with Mustapha Blaoui's generous shipping policy and stock of everything from hand-embroidered coverlets to inlaid rolltop desks, that's actually possible. Some items are imported from India, so if you want to bring home a Marrakshi specialty, just ask the easygoing staff to point you toward the locally produced goods.
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Waterfront Craft Market
Also known as the Blue Shed, this eclectic arts and crafts market, between Two Oceans Aquarium and Musica Megastore, harbours some great buys. Search out the colourful textile products of Ikamva Labantu; and Township Guitars, which makes and sells the all-electric township ‘blik’ guitars made from oil cans, wood and fishing wire (from R2900).
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Kulchi
Now you know where Marrakshi clubbers get their chic looks. This local designer mixes trade-route African influences with a Marrakshi sense of humour: mod cocktail dresses in Senegalese Pop Art prints, sleek handbags made from recycled signage, and come-hither kaftans in diaphanous fabrics. Prices aren't cheap, but less than you'd pay for original designs back home. Check out the sister boutique inside Le Comptoir.
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Bedouin Market
Much livelier is the Bedouin market, held at the southern edge of town near the main market – note that it’s signposted in Arabic and in English as the Souq al-Hamis. It’s fascinating to watch as Bedouin come in from the desert in pick-up trucks or occasionally on camels, with the veiled women trading silver, beadwork and embroidered dresses, while the men sell camel saddles.
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