Taken for a Ride

This blog is supposed to document lowpoints as well as highpoints, and here's our first one: the ultra-touristy camel ride. Esther always wanted to ride a camel. Donald was less enthusiastic. But a combination of peer pressure -- look, even the people who didn't enter the pyramid are doing it -- and the opportunity to rely on the tour guide to haggle with the camel drivers convinced him to say yes. Well, let us tell you that it is pretty darn scary when that camel stands up! Particularly if you got the camel that doesn't have stirrups, so you are just holding on to the saddle horn for dear life. Once you get comfortable (well, less uncomfortable), it is amusing to imagine yourself riding through the desert approaching the pyramids. But still, you are mostly looking forward to getting down. Until, of course, it comes time to negotiate with the camel driver about letting you down. In our case, the driver very nicely let Esther down, but then started demanding his tip while Donald was still aloft. Esther made clear, however, that no tip would be forthcoming until Donald was safely back on the ground. Happily, our tour guide had told us how much to "tip", so we could ignore the ten-fold exaggeration of his opening request. (According to our guide, standard tip is one dollar. His request: ten dollars.)