At Birqash To Buy A Camel Or Two!
After visiting Pushkar, the largest camel fair in India, it was only logical that Farzana Contractor would check out the biggest camel market of Egypt. Here's her account. I have a fetish for all kinds of bazaars and markets, places where there is a buzz, lots of people, buyers, sellers, trading going on. So it was not surprising that I was heading straight from Cairo airport to the ancient camel market outside the city. Even before seeing the city sights I wanted to check out the scene at Birqash, Egypt's largest camel market.  Roughly a 100 kms drive from the airport, the road does not offer anything exciting and it takes almost two hours to reach the market. But once inside the gates of a large yard, the thrill starts. You see hundreds of camels, in various shades of beige and brown, with distinct looks, huddled together in groups, chewing hay, snorting, looking around as if bored with all the activity that's going on.And then you notice the traders. They are mainly Sudanese camel herders, come all the way up the Derb al- Arbayeen (40 Day Road) from western Sudan to just north of Abu Simbel with their beasts in tow. These days they also use trucks, so the number of days on the road have reduced and it has become a 15 day caravan. They first go to the market in Daraw and then the unsold ones are pushed into trucks for the 24 hours drive to Birqash.  At this camel market you find sellers and buyers - who comprise the rich Egyptian, haggle over prices, yelling on top of their voices. It's the seller who usually chases the buyer, who keeps walking away, shaking his head, going, no, no, no.I tried to make myself as inconspicuous as possible and sat aside on a brick wall watching the proceedings. Arabic is not a language I understand so I had to make do with interpreting the body language and whatever assistance I could get from my driver who spoke a bit of broken English. It was clear to see I was not welcome there. Pray, why? Simple, I was a woman and had no business to be there. This, in spite of the fact that I had taken the precaution to dress as conservatively as possible. The fact that I was abandoned enough to move around shooting pictures did not help any, but I tried to be oblivious to that. Apart from imbibing the atmosphere I had work to do. But I did stop smiling at them or trying to be friendly, strangely that helped.  So I saw that it took about 15 to 20 minutes for each transaction to be complete. And if the buyer went on to the next group for new discussions, the earlier chaps would follow him and eavesdrop. No business etiquette here for sure. The buyer on the other hand would walk around from one group to another with wads of currency notes in his hands, the ultimate temptation for the poor seller. It was funny and not so funny to see this form of bargaining. So what is it that they are looking for in the camel? Firstly that it is healthy, not diseased. Since they are buying these camels mainly to consume them. Male or female, it does not matter, though the female gives more meat. Good ones cost about Egyptian Pounds 5,000, even 6000, but it's the young ones called kaout that are most sought after for its tender meat. They cost about Egyptian Pounds 4000 and give around 150 kilograms of meat. What I did not do, is get out of my car to enquire how much a kilo costs in the meat shop that I saw on my way back to Cairo. Didn't have the heart to, it was bad enough I shot a picture of a carcass with my zoom lens.  The best local camel, I believe are the ones from Qena. That's because they eat sugar cane and brown beans. Outside Egypt, the ones from Sudan are considered to be good, then the ones from Libya and Somalia. Most camels however eat what the desert has to offer, bramble bush, leaves, dry grass, I would think. The fit and healthy ones, which means the ones with clear, bright eyes, the ones who don't look scared or nervous, whose coats look nice and shiny, whose droppings are moist and dark green and doesn't smell at all, are picked up for riding, particularly for tourists at the Pyramids, the older ones for general riding or working in the fields. The camel is a tough and a calm animal. I am told he sees the human form as being much larger than what it is and is therefore afraid of man and respects him, as master or enemy, who knows. But the camel also has a huge memory. He never forgets those who hurt him and can bite the person years later, this in spite of the fact that he knows it can mean more beatings, even death. The camel can be revengeful. Another reason a camel can bite is when he gets bored. All this tid-bit information on camels I culled through various sources, during my entire stay in Egypt and I must admit I was pretty satisfied with my half day excursion to the Birqash, though I was deterred from going there by my concerned minders. Having already visited the Pushkar Camel Market, the biggest animal fair of India, I knew what I was getting into. The Rajasthani colour was missing and so was the patience. I noticed the cruelty factor was more pronounced here. I wouldn't recommend this trip to the animal lover or the faint-hearted. It's just not nice to see animals being beaten, pushed and pulled, hobbling around, with their hind legs tied in order to prevent them from going astray. But as I observed the African camel is pretty smart. He not only managed to adapt to his hobbled condition but also did a fairly good hop-run around the market, scaring his masters, making them believe he is running away for life! |
Home Page