(Reuters.com) - Egyptians love to shop and bargaining is a national art form. Everything can be bargained for, from carpets to gold to trinkets to bottled water, cigarettes and popsicles. Join in: It's a great opportunity to get to know local people and their ways.

Here's how: First, you ascertain cost. The shopkeeper gives you the ‘first price'. Depending on the product, this may be as much as 500 percent what the shopkeeper expects to get. More expensive items tend to have a lower mark-up.

Next, you can try telling the vendor you were "just looking". At this point, he will typically either ask you what you are willing to pay or give you a second or ‘good price'. If you really don't want the product, tell him so. If, after several attempts, the shopkeeper won't take no for an answer, you can offer an ‘insult' price. This is a price so ridiculously low that you know and he knows you do not expect to get the item.

If, on the other hand, you actually would like to purchase the item, offer a price of say 20 percent of what the first price was. This process can have several iterations, so that before you finally agree on a price you may go through second and third or more prices before you get to a ‘best price'. Some sellers will go directly to a best price after the first price if they feel you are a seasoned bargainer. Others just like the game.

Shopping in tourist areas can be traumatic. Even if you are an expatriate living in Egypt, in tourist areas you are fair game. This is where you will typically run the gauntlet of vendors accosting you with all kinds of come-on statements and queries.

If a vendor grabs your arm, feel free to pull it away and tell him, firmly, not to touch you. Vendors know they should not do this and would never consider it proper to grab an Egyptian, especially a woman.

The best way to walk through tourist areas, such as the famous Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, relatively un-hassled, is to develop a posture that gives the appearance you know where you are going and what you are doing. Impossible at first, but easy to distinguish by shopkeepers after you have been there a few times.

Don't answer queries made as you walk among the alleys (unless of course you actually want to go in to price or purchase merchandise). Foreign women often hear comments such as, "Darling, I've been looking for you all my life". Do not give in to the temptation to make a curt response. If you give any acknowledgement, you will be followed for ages, with the vendor sometimes increasing the suggestiveness of comments.

If you want to somehow politely acknowledge a ‘nice' shopkeeper's plea to look at his goods, you can refuse to make eye contact or speak, but with your arm by your side and hand facing the ground, wave the hand back-and-forth keeping the palm facing the ground. I sometimes say "la' shukran", which translates to "No, thank you". Most will leave you alone after that.

TAKEN TO DRINK?

Like many other Muslim countries, Egypt does allow alcohol purchase and consumption within its borders, but public drunkenness is not acceptable behaviour under any circumstances.

Most Muslims do not drink alcohol. Seasoned foreign business professionals neither drink alcohol in the presence of their Muslim associates nor serve alcohol in their homes when entertaining locals unless they know the person drinks alcohol.

If you drink alcohol, it is most prudent to do so in the confines of your home, hotel room or in a cabaret in the absence of your non-drinking Egyptian colleagues and friends. You will gain more respect from your Egyptian colleagues if you follow this behaviour (even though it is certainly not required in all situations) due to your perceived understanding and respect for their religion and ways.

Sometimes my Egyptian friends who have travelled outside the Middle East think all Westerners drink alcohol and wish to show their knowledge of Western behaviour and cultural practices. To make visitors feel welcome, a few Egyptians will offer you alcohol or even serve it with dinner. Again, although it is not required, you will gain more respect if you politely decline - unless the host partakes also.

("Culture Shock! Egypt", published by Marshall Cavendish International, can be ordered at )

(Editing by Peter Myers)

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