If you ever find yourself in the city of Hurghada, Egypt, along the resort lines of Aladdin, Pharaoh Azur and Ali Baba, there is a small perfume shop that will change the way you experience herbs and oils.
An unassuming man awaits you as you enter his shop, Master Perfume. He is tall and welcoming, and his smile is all we needed to enter the premises.
The quaint space is sectioned into sitting areas with small couches and mini tables decorated with glass bottles of varying sizes.
Arabian Night and Sandalwood are just some of the scents you can smell while making your selection for the perfect bottle to put your chosen oils in.
They vary in size, colour and shape. Some are used to measure the oils and others to make creams and soaps.
The bottles look like they just walked out of a fairytale, as though if you rub the bottles enough, a genie may come out.
“I like you guys, where are you from?” Mohamed Adam asks us curiously. He has already whipped up a story of how he will give us the best price because we are the first customers of the day.
Mohamed Adam gives an experience like no other at his perfume shop in Hurghada City, Egypt.
He offers us some Cleopatra cigarettes. “No nicotine here,” he says.
Many Egyptians smoke a lot. In Cairo there is the smell of tobacco in most places. Hurghada City was literally a breath of fresh air as a weekend break from the 52nd Union of African Journalists programme.
Adam’s oil-matching skills have been honed over the years.
“What do you like? Fresh or sexy?” he asks, making sure he secures some Egyptian pounds from me.
I go with fresh and fruity even though he insists I should go with sexy, mistaking my colleague from Namibia, Abed Ashipala, for my boyfriend.
Adam explains the different types of products he has. Our Botswana fellow, Boago Ramaphane, gets a taste of his magical hands with a massage.
“The sandalwood is good for healing pain and relaxing the muscles,” he adds.
After taking us through everything, he offers us that "best price" he was talking about that we will "not find anywhere else".
We leave the shop with three oils: one a scent and two massage oils.
“What’s your favourite colour?” Adam asks. “I’ll say green, I guess,” I reply.
He offers me and the two women I am with each a gift bottle in our favourite colours to say thank you for allowing him to take our pounds and offer us an experience we will never forget.