Tintin au pyramides (how i was kidnapped and released in Egypt)

Another major adventure screened on Porcarorama picturescope!

This time I was not resisting to the temptation of the Faraon and I left the sparkling shopping malls of Cairo to head to the big pyramids in Gizah. I was there back in 1999 when I was travelling for my first time outside Europe with the Peace Cruise (www.peacecruise.com) but back then i missed all the experience to enter in the site and fully enjoy not only the breathtaking view but also the other minor "attractions" for the tourists.

Small parenthesis needs to be done here. I have always associated the pyramids in my effervescent childhood fantasies with Extra-terrestrials, Indiana Jones, the Sphinx, Mummies, Camels and Beduins. Later on, I added some musical comments to these images, in particular the "Dark Side of the Moon" (with the special imagery coming from its cover sleeve), the "Aida" from Giuseppe Verdi.

Very recently I have started to be excited about the tourists which goes there every year, and I started to think that that the pyramids have been really turned on into a special reserve zoo where packages of people where being transported in ugly buses coming from the most absolutely unrelated places in the world, with the most absolutely unrelated dressing codes, all seeking (like me) the charm of the extra-terrestrials, Indiana Jones, the Sphinx, Mummies, effervescent camels, Beduins, "The Dark Side of the Moon", etc....

So I was at the pyramids with Yohanna and Jovana, which are not the same people. The first is a man from the World Students Christian Federation who helped a lot during the mission in Egypt, thanks to him there were "no problems" on the way and actually he brought us to the pyramids. The second character of the story is my colleague and friens Jovana Bazerkovska, bureau member of the European Youth Forum which which I shared the adventure pictured in the photo on the left.

What do you see in the picture?
A smiling western couple who wants to portray in a genuine "local" way at the pyramids.... W R O N G

This is the image which proves that I was kidnapped in Egypt.

I was walking on the edge of a small pyramids where my curiosity (which as explained before included the "camels") was trapped by a lonely camel which was resting on the sand.

Which better opportunity to take a "genuine" and "original" picture to post on porcarorama blog?

Suddenly the kidnapping happened. The beduine slowly trapped me on the Camel and the Camel started to ride high in the middle of the pyramids. Jovana's kidnapping followed steadily, documented by several pictures like the one which is uploaded here. When I attempted to go down from the Camel I was forbidden by the Beduin. Without money I would not have been allowed to go down from the Camel - Dollars, Euro, anything but Egyptian Pounds.... which was the only currency I had on me. Followed minutes of panic which seemed hours and days. But at the end, like in Tin Tin Stories I won the battle, and as a good negotiator I managed to be released... 15 Egyptian Pounds (1,5 Euro).

... Beware of Camels!