Camel Souk

I couldn't explain to the taxi drivers that I wanted to go to the camel soukh, so Chel and I went on New Years Day. In my overactive and deluded imagination it looked just like a cattle auction in Australia, neat yards, numbered animals, orderly, you could walk around and have a look.

Another trap for young players! When we found the market an Afghani guy got into the backseat of the car, after fighting off about three other potential guides. After we realised this guy wasn't going anywhere no matter how much we protested we just went with the flow. What could go wrong? A strange man in the back of the car at a camel market, and us with no language skills? Anyway he pointed out the different types of camels, milk, meat or racing and it was great to watch business being done - without speaking the language you could completely understand what was being said and haggled and argued. These are the last remaining camel markets in the UAE.

Anyway, when it came time to say goodbye to our happy camel trader guide, he gave my cheeks a good pinch, felt how much meat on my arms and offered Chel 10 camels - don't know whether they were racing or milking! It got up to 25 before he left. We then went for a cruise through by ourselves. When we were leaving he pulled us over again - 1 minute! 1 minute! Chel got him up to 200 camels. How to make a girl feel special.

My New Years Resolution is to stop eating all the baklava as I think more meat on the bones equals more camels!!