Souvenir Bought Ashore

[Louis De Sousa]

We here have shared all those lovely souvenirs of what we bought onboard but what about those that we bought ashore? Tell us what you bought and where.

Here is a giraffe i bought in Mombasa during my first World Cruise


Giraffe by Louis De Sousa, on Flickr

[cunardqueen]

On a Med cruise calling into Alexandria. I took the very long overland tour to the  Pyramids, Along with heaps of others we got caught in the heat of the moment and bought several of the wooden sculpture things,really we should have all had our sensible heads on, but they were long since left behind on the quayside, But anyway  carted them back to the ship,I put mine on my porthole shelf for display and felt quite pleased. Only when packing up did l realise they were made in china , l also fell into the trap of buying those bits of jewellery, they are supposed to have your name on it, but we discovered later on that we had all paid and the bits of silver all bore the same name. I guess they spelt out sucker    Also discussing what we had bought and just how much we had paid was also a bit of a surprise.. Looking back it was fun.
On a Nile excursion on a later QE2 cruise it was the cuddly camels  (they squaked) and they seemed to be a hit with the passengers, along with the Fez. sorry to say my Egyptian collection of tat all came from there.l like to think they came home in style...     



 

[Andy F]

Aha!  Mrs F also bought one of those Eqyptian cats together with a sphynx but bought them on the ship rather than at the pyramids (which contained a veritable selection of tat from what I could see).  I used to buy a fridge magnet of each place visited but having run out of space, I don't bother anymore so nowadays my sMy shoreside purchases are usually confined to a guide book (assuming I've not visited previously - and useful when trying to remember what the heck it was I photographed), and maybe the odd glass or 2 of the local brew/vino  

Welcome back btw and hope you had a great time

[Louis De Sousa]

Sail ship i bought in Manila it stayed onboard for 2 years until i got it off.


Sail Ship by Louis De Sousa, on Flickr

[Pat Curry]

We bought loads of things ashore on our 12 cruises.  

Yes I bought all the gear from the traders outside the Pyramids.  Didn't notice 'made in China', but who cares?  They still have sand in the bags.  I remember I kept our coach waiting while I was haggling over a sphinx with the trader.  Lunch was looming and because I was last to baord (way last) all the other coaches had departed and our coach was now destined to be last to arrive.  So moody pax.  

Best was in the shed at the Durban docks,  There were always loads of stands selling rather super goodies.  

From the most gorgeous female from the Massai tribe aged what?  who knows?  guess 50+ we bought a hand carved chess set.
She was dressed in red with a stupendous headdress.   She spoke perfect English.  

I am ashamed to say I waited till the final ship's whistle (ie get on board now or get left behind) before I bargained with her and got it for peanuts.

Why are we (well me anyway) so reluctant to pay a decent amount?  I bet she had travelled miles.  Mind you she was smiling from ear to ear, so she probably got the better of me.

Cape Town was good for those artistic 8' high carved giraffes.  Over the years (I think four different times to Cape Town on QE2) we have acquired a tribe of giraffes, from eight inches high to eight foot.  Fifteen of them.  They're adorable and each purchase has a memory and a story and it's always QE2.

In Cochin we bought a spice chest and had it delivered on a tuk tuk.  Huge it was but you could bring anything on board providing you kept it in your cabin

That's the tip of the iceburg.  We must have bought things in every port (well not S'ton).

Today we have been packing up our Cookery School Kitchen for its annual deep clean and repaint.  All the gear has filled around 40 boxes.  The contractors come tomorrow and the kitchen is decommissioned for at least a week.  (It's a bit like the annual QE2 refit.)

Dominique told me we can never move house.  What she meant was that we would need an artic to move us.  (Only one? ).  
And we only live in a weeny house.  We are both magpie collectors and cannot bin anything. Our QE2 memorabilia must account for dozens of boxes.  

Oh but we love our souvenirs bought ashore.  What a way to keep the QE2 memory alive.

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Thank you, Pat. What a wonderful story you tell!

Yes, Louis, you are right, those souvenirs bought ashore remind us just as much of QE2 as those bought on board  .

[Louis De Sousa]

My lovely 2 Masai i bought in Kenya


Masai by Louis De Sousa, on Flickr


Masai by Louis De Sousa, on Flickr

[Pat Curry]

Sumptuous.  That Loius is exactly what the woman who sold us the chess set looked like.  Except she had rather more clothing on and a higher headdress.