the giza pyramids, me and a camel...

i have been living in cairo for about a month and we finally made it to the giza pyramids. incredibly this was the second time i have been in my life...i seriously never thought i would go once to the pyramids much less times two. simply stated, they are just so...........BIG and to think that they were built thousands of years ago...an utterly spectacular work by humankind. this website really aided me in beginning to grasp the complexity of a structure so elephantine and ancient.





i love this picture of this family.





oh no big deal...just a close-up of THE SPHINX...what a life i get to live.



the magical lyrics of van morrison's "caravan" kept slipping into my thoughts...."and the caravan is on its way...i can hear the merry gypsies play...la la la la la la..."



this time to the pyramids, sarah and i decided to partake in a camel ride. it just seems like such a touristy thing to do. but as everyone else tells us, we can't live in egypt and not ride a camel. so we supported some local businessmen and businessboys and now i can say, "i have ridden a camel at the pyramids in egypt." and quite an amusing experience it turned out to be...i'm definitely glad i played the role of the tourist.





now if sarah and i are participating in an active adventure, may it be scuba diving, mountain biking, camping, body surfing, hiking, horseback riding, etc. (and our stories abound from all of these activities), we have learned to go into the new event expecting something odd to happen. we cannot just DO something and everything happen normal. now we can add camel riding to that list. there were about 10 of us in a caravan and of course sarah's camel was the one with the issues. all of the other camels traversed through the sand, obeyed the camel in front of their noses for the whole ride. on the other hand, no matter what sarah's little boy "guide" would do, whether it was whacking the camel with a reed, pulling on the reins, hitting him, yelling at him, the camel would not choose to comply. it was rather independent, which i don't blame him because i sure would not appreciate being swatted continuously by a little boy while carrying foreigners with flashing cameras in the cairo heat all day long. the boy tried to leave sarah and her camel to figure out their problems on their own more than once to go back to find more foreigners with money. "here are the reins, just kick him, he will catch up with the group. no problem." good thing sarah can be a firm girl (while scolding him in arabic) telling him that we have paid him, he must stay if he wanted his money. who could pass up a chance to make some good money so he stayed to struggle with the animal. well this experience provided me with ample amounts of laughter and some really terrific pictures of her in the distance behind our group with her little boy "guide" playing the human part perfectly in the classic theme of human versus nature. in the picture below, you can see sarah as the dark speck by the road. oh goodness, i sure wouldn't even want a life of normalcy if i could have it...