Camel ride was soo fun and interesting. It was a special request by me so only me and the doctor of our group went. We were led by 2 local kids (I guess its their part-time job). My camel had 2 names... Casablanca for Italians and Bob Marley for English; not quite sure why. The kid's name was 'Humpty Dumpty'... The kid talked alot and wanted my camera! He kept saying how poor he was. At first, Humpty Dumpty seemed like a nice kid, keeping me interested and asking how I was doing etc. Everything was going good and then he started asking me about MP3 players and cameras and if I brought these things with them. As he cont'd on, I realized this 17 year old kid was trying to ask me for my camera to give to him as a tip! I was like wtf??? He goes on to say how cheap it is, blah, blah, blah, and how I can spare it and how he has a sister and brother who needs pens and sh*t... I got worried when he asked what was in my bag. I swear if I had hold him I actually had money, clothes, pens and camera, etc in my bag, he'd probably would have taken my bag and left me on the camel! Maybe I'm exagerating but lucky I thought of an excuse behind my excessively heavy bag (I had 3 L of water in it)... once I told him that, he left the bag alone. Thank god, cuz the part I didn't mention to him was that there was easily enough money in there for him to live at least half a year in Eygpt! Don't we all love half truths?
The actual camel riding experience was well worth it though. The route we took had great landscape and it seemed like I was riding through some local farmland of a rural village (which I probably was). Unleashed donkeys, and camels just lazily chewing away at grass or sugar cane, kids riding donkeys transporting sugar canes, litle kids waving at us saying 'halo', and all this while I am on a camel...What an awesome experience!
At the end of the camel ride, we had hisbiscus tea with the owner of the camels. The tea this time was hot and with 2 teaspoons of sugar, tasted like hot '82 Lafite'... the kiddy version. The taste was very different from the cold hisbicus tea I had at the Nubian village; maybe hisbisucs tea tastes different when its hot.
By the way, a tourist camel costs about $3000-$5000 EGP ($600-$1000 CDN)... can you imagine, I can actually afford a camel..even now. One day when I am rich, I will buy a camel for my backyard haha! Then get kids on the weekends and get them to pay to get a picture with a camel. $5 CDN for 5 minutes of photo, I'd only need 120 kids for the camel to pay itself...lol... hrm... I wonder what the import laws're for camels into North America (since the export laws in Egypt will not be a problem as the tour leader had told me it's definitely doable)... Ah the possibilities!
Today's food:
Kedfa = Liver Sandwich - slightly spicy chunks of liver w/ pita bread (2 EGP)... note: tastes just like meat.
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