8 CultureShock! Egypt
On the way out of the airport, don’t forget to stop by the
duty-free stores, both inside and outside the Customs area of
the airport, if you want any of the items sold there while you
are in Egypt. Otherwise, you have 24 hours to go to one of
the duty-free stores after you get into Egypt. For those who
smoke imported cigarettes, they are sometimes cheaper at
the duty-free outlets. If you want to have imported liquor
while you are in Egypt, it is best bought by the bottle at duty-
free. Otherwise, you can only get it by the drink at specifi c
locations and it is very expensive. The local spirits stores
typically sell products that have been bottled and labelled
to look almost exactly like imported liquors. It is hard to say
just what is actually in those bottles without a chemist, but in
addition to appropriate food colouring, some are rumoured
to contain formaldehyde and perfume. You probably want
to avoid these products.