So, we are in the city. The first walk around the center on foot will take half an hour. Then you can go shopping.
What can you buy in Hurghada, or, as we like to say, what should you buy there? The selection is small, but quite interesting.
Let's start with food products. The fruits here are wonderful. For example, we have not seen such sweet oranges and tangerines anywhere. And considering they cost 1.5-2 pounds per kilogram, they have no competition at all. We recommend trying ripe dates. What a treat! Also buy drinking water in a plastic bottle – only 1.5 pounds for two liters. You can wash fruit with it and even brush your teeth, because nobody is responsible for the quality of tap water. Another personal tip. If you see a small stall where a cheerful Egyptian is busily squeezing juice from ripe oranges, mixing it with pomegranate, guava, strawberry, apple and sliced banana juice, immediately go over and for three pounds buy a liter mug of this super-vitamin drink, and ask to add a little ice cream to it. After such an energy 'hit', you break out in a sweat, just like after a handful of vitamin C tablets, with only one difference: it's all natural and made before your eyes.
You will probably have to buy alcohol (when yours runs out). Having a drink in bars is not a problem. But it's a bit expensive. Egypt is a non-drinking country, and you can only buy alcohol in one of two duty-free shops with a passport, where a corresponding purchase note is made. You are entitled to two bottles of spirits and a pack of beer (24 cans). If you buy less, the note is made and there is no return to the shop. However, there are known cases where our people bought alcohol without a passport: a small bribe (without witnesses) satisfies both buyer and seller.
You can't do without beer in Hurghada. Egyptian 'Stella' is quite acceptable. All beer is divided into 'local' and 'export'. The former costs from 5 pounds in the store, 9 in a bar, and the latter up to 15. The advice of experienced people: 'local' is much better than 'export', even though it's cheaper.
And now about more serious purchases. 'One hundred percent discount for Russians!' You will hear this loud cry on every corner of the old town. And especially from shops selling gold, silver or leather goods. Our tourist cannot be fooled by such cheap tricks. But the mysterious persistence with which our compatriots buy precious metal jewelry abroad never ceases to amaze.
If you lose sight of your wife or female companion, she will undoubtedly be found in the nearest jewelry store. There are many such outlets in Hurghada, they are in every hotel and near them. The selection is quite diverse. Some attractive items are found. However, it is difficult to find a masterpiece.
Gold here is usually 750 local hallmark (which corresponds to 18 carats), with admixtures of other precious metals. It looks nice. But buying jewelry in Egypt is simultaneously entertainment, work, and sport. You always have to be on your guard. For example, you enter a shop. You choose a gold chain, ask how much it costs (everyone understands English explanations, and many may suddenly start speaking Russian). They answer: 'three hundred'. You may take out and pay three hundred dollars, even though they meant pounds. That is lesson one. Lesson two. You always have to bargain. Always! The price is usually inflated by double. Surprisingly, this is not done just to deceive you. The seller offers in advance to play a game with him called 'let's haggle'. In Egypt, trade is a national sport. Without it, there is no pleasure from selling the item. And you must accept the rules of this game. Only after 15 minutes will it be clear who got the better of whom.
To emerge victorious, know that 1 gram of gold in Hurghada costs on average about $13; if you are told that a gram costs $8 (a frequent offer), it means the gold is substandard or the weight of the item is significantly less than stated. Precious stones – diamonds, sapphires or emeralds – are imported (although they say they are local), and prices for them are set arbitrarily; diamonds here are of medium clarity, and you are unlikely to know their real value.
About leather. Here they buy jackets or coats, as well as leather footwear. The clothing models are not great, but some are quite decent. Prices have dropped somewhat now, and you can buy a jacket for $60 if you bargain it down from an initial price of $120. Boots, quite tolerable in every sense, are extremely cheap.
Here and there they offer you papyri with pictures, which are made using ancient technology from palm. In expensive shops they cost from 10 to 500 pounds, depending on size. However, on the streets they often offer to buy 10 papyri for 10 pounds. Tour guides assure tourists that these are not papyri, but fakes made from banana trees. However, what difference does it make? They are absolutely identical. You can tell the difference in one way: if you crumple a sheet in your hands and then put it on the table, real papyrus will straighten out as if nothing happened, while the banana one will have creases and even breaks. It's a pity to spoil a work of folk art.
Stones, scarab beetles, which were sacred in ancient times, small vases and plates, figurines of basalt and onyx – everything is in abundance here, and the farther from the big shops, the cheaper.
"Perfume." There are also many shops with that name. It's hard not to enter – the aroma will lead you. Actually, perfumes are not produced in Egypt. But they persistently prove to tourists that they produce unique oils here, from which French perfumers later make the most famous perfumes. The shelves up to the ceiling in "perfume museums" are filled with blown glass colorful vials. They will let you smell. And they will smear you, wherever you want, with any varieties, so that you can enjoy the scents of "1001 Nights", "Laguna", "Nefertiti", "Opium", "Kenzo", "Lotus", men's "Tutankhamun", sweet "Habibi" and women's sexual "Musk". Fifteen milliliters of such liquid can be bought for $10-15.
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