Egypt - Camel Ride

CAMEL RIDE
Recently inspired by an inspirational friend – I created earlier in the year a list of the things that I felt were absolutely necessary for me to do while I am still on this earth. One of them was accomplished when I rode a camel in Egypt. My safari (that is what I will call it because it sounds more exotic) was an adventure in deed. I, for some reason, wasn’t expecting that the moment I sat upon the camel it would immediately elevate itself. Therefore at my surprise, I went up squealing the entire way. My guide whose name I can’t repeat because it was too complicated spoke entirely too much English and seemed to have only been instructed in the area of “how to hit on foreign women” vocabulary. The entire ride he begged that I be his girlfriend and even to be one of his wives to which I repeatedly denied. He insisted that “Egyptian men are strong” and that he could “make me happy” His invitations escalated as he offered to give me a leg massage and kept pinching my heel (it was all that he could reach). He invited me to the discotheque to have some marihuana with him and other things that I will refrain from mentioning. I remembered the old commercials that would show women saying, “that is sexual harassment and I don’t have to take it” promoting women to defend themselves in such situations as I found myself in. I firmly and strongly threatened to break his nose with a strong kick to the face if he didn’t stop touching me and speaking provocatively. I don’t know if that was all part of his English vocabulary but he seemed to get the message.
Aside from the unwanted harassments, the camel ride was everything I would have ever wanted to firmly place a check mark next to my list. The ride lasted an entire hour (which feels like an eternity longer when you have a fifteen year old Egyptian boy hitting on you) and they took us through a village. The views were beautiful and the sun was setting on the Nile river. The best part was passing through the villages and waving to the little children who had left their homes to watch the odd American tourists pass by. It was fascinating to see into the homes and the daily ways of life.