THE DAY THAT I RODE MICHEAL JACKSON

"what is your name, my friend?" i asked the kid who was manuevring the animal that i was riding on.

"my name is abdulla. and the camel's name is michael jackson." he said non-chalantly.

there i was, riding on michael jackson, trying to absorb what i was seeing in front of my eyes. i looked to my left - it was the pyramids. i looked to my right - more pyramids. amidst the clear blue sky, they look so majestic. in my mind, i kept on saying "chances are, you are not going to see this view again for the rest of your life. so absorb it, goddamnit! absorb!!!" but i didn't know how to absorb it. it was so surreal. and with me riding the camel (while clinging to my life as i held on to the small handle-thing in front of the pedestal) in between the pyramids, the view was just astounding.

the OTHER thing that was going on in my mind was whether the camel owner (the kid's boss) just ripped my off or not. 200 bucks for a 20-minute camel ride? what do these camels eat? caviar?

yeah - i'm in egypt now. it's the first time i've ever stepped foot in africa. i'm in my second league of my company-sponsored holiday (hehehe). since it's the weekend, i decided to do what every single visitor to this country must do (or forever hold their peace) - visit the pyramids. since i'm alone here, i decided to engage a tour guide to help me with my little adventure. spoke to the concierge last night and requested him to arrange for a tour guide. "make sure he's very good in english ok?" i said (i realised that the people in this country may not be as proficient in english as the people in lebanon, or dubai for that matter. so there was a need to stress that point). "yes, sir. of course".

so today exactly at 8.30 (i'm always punctual, i don't know why i'm ranked no. 6th as "the most punctual" in facebook! tipu betul) i went down to the lobby. i was hoping to meet a handsome young man who would be paying 100% attention to me (i arranged for a private one-to-one tour guide), guiding me to the tricks and turns of the city and the pyramids. but instead, what greeted me, was a handsome young woman. ceh..

so off we went to the first destination - the egptian museum. there was a whole lot of people there (which was a stark contrast from my visit to the lebanese museum where there had more staff than visitors). this place looked like jusco on a jcard day! most of the people came in groups (there was actually a group from malaysia, who looked like they were trying so hard to appear intelligent for no apparent reason) and accompanied by a tour guide. i on the other hand, looked like i was on a date with an egyptian chick.

the egytian chick's name, by the way, is margo. she was by far the prettiest tour guide in the museum. and she appeared quite knowledgeable too (she told me to be a certified tour guide in egypt, one needs to take a 4-year course. gila kan?). the only problem was, she spoke english with a very thick arabic accent that you really need to strain your ears and pay attention to understand what she says. whenever she spoke, i had to look at another direction and really concentrate to pick up what she was talking about. penat ok? and to make things worse, since i do not speak english with a arabic accent, she had a problem understanding me! so much for my special request kan..

the museum was interesting enough to me. it would have been a lot more interesting if a had more interest in history. the problem is i had very little interest in history, especially ancient history. i mean, how do we know that what the experts interpreted are actually true? could it be that the dudes back in ancient egypt just wanted to play a prank on us (the future civilisation) by inscripting purely bogus stories on the monuments? just because tutankhamun had a hole in his skull, does that mean he was killed because someone banged his head with a hard object? couldn't he have died from an overdose of viagra and THEN had his skull punctured for some unknown reason? if it could happen in csi, it could happen in ancient egypt ok?

but even with all the skepticism and ear-straining, i did learn quite a few things about ancient egypt (but i'm also quite sure that i'm going to forget most of it in a couple of years' time). so knowing that my memory may not able to serve me well in the later years, i concentrated on things that would be able to serve me a longer. that's right, photos. i took lots and lots of photos in the trip. and margo became my victim. she must be cursing inside (maybe even out loud - i wouldn't know. i couldn't understand her), but she pretty much obliged. unfortunately, she's not a very good photographer. i made her take SIX shots in front of the sphinx because she kept slicing the sphinx's head in the photo.

all in all, it felt like one of my dreams coming true. ok la.. maybe not a dream. just a vision. i had always wanted to visit the pyramids, had my photo taken with the pyramids as the background. and now i've done it. but it would have been much better if i had a friend accompanying me in the trip to share the experience. AND if i had a better tour guide. AND if i had not been conned by the camel guy (just found out from a friend that he paid HALF of what i paid for his camel ride a few months back). THEN it would have been perfect.