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Published: September 29th 2006
Real Comfy
A dude just chillin' waiting for the negotiations to beginJust got back from the CAMEL BAZAAR about an hour outside of Cairo....and it was like, whoa. It seriously was like the floor of the new york stock exchange with the men waving sticks (to beat the camel of interest, unfortunately) instead of notepads, all encircling the petrified animal (which was hopping around on 3 legs because its front is bent and tied so it can't run off), and just yelling numbers at each other (yes, I know enough arabic to recognize that much!)--want a small camel? 4000 LE=$700. Other than a little bit of hassling at the door (we knew better than to pay them what they wanted to enter--and they didn't like that) we were generally treated alright. Though, I'm not sure if that was partly the doing of the tourist police that kind of escorted us around, the spirit of Ramadan (you aren't just supposed to fast from food but spiritually as well....which includes swearing) or what. I was pretty surprised that we weren't harrassed by the men other than a few desiring to be paid for taking pictures of their animals--there were only about 4 other women there, but they were selling tea and were definitely natives
The Clan minus 1
Think we stick out in our bright hijabs and sunglasses? Mumkin....
From left to right: Sarina, Elyse, Me, Liz of the area. It was also cleaner than I had imagined. Sure, it smelled slightly of camel paddies, but the animals themselves didn't smell too awful--much better than any rodeo I've ever been to. Maybe it was just the fact that we were out of Cairo and into "fresher" air--note the 'er' at the end.
There were HUNDREDS of camels there....some healthy looking, some very thin (and a few dead and rotting on the side of the road on the way in...that was probably--no definitely--the grossest part). If they aren't sold then they eat them. The meat is supposedly 'very nice' according to our taxi driver--Mohammed (surprise surprise! What an unusual name!). I have tried kangaroo...but for some reason that I can't explain I think I will skip the camel meat, thank you very much!
At one moment you feel like you've time-warped back 3 centuries......but then when a phone rings (the universal ring that we all have on our cells) and all the tourist are frantically searching their bags only to see the old man in a ghalabiyya (traditional Islamic dress for men...see pics) with a bamboo stick in one hand beating a camel into the pen
The Clan again
From left to right: Sarina, Elyse, Me, Liz and answering his cell phone with the other: "Allooo?", you can't do anything but laugh at yourself. This is CAIRO...this is where 'civilization' began!
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Katie
non-member comment
careful, they spit!
What cool pictures! I think you need to eat camel before you come home, I'm just saying, you won't find it here (I've been looking since I crave it.....?) so eat it there!!!!!!!!