Camel Market

Trip No: 2
When:  6h March 2009
Where:  About 20km from Riyadh 
GPS Coordinate:
Kambing Rating: 6/10
Total Trip Time: 2.5 hours 

It’s will never be complete if you’re in Saudi, but never be up, close and personal with the animal that symbolize the desert which forming 85% of the country size, the camels.

Last weekend, Mar 6 2009 we decided to pay a visit to the camel market located about 20km from Riyadh on the road heading to Dammam. Our kids are very excited, no less for their mother as this is the 1st time for them to get closer to the animal. Before this they just have a chance to see it from far, the closest was on our way to ‘Diamond Hunting’ trip last week.

According to my Saudi friends,  the camels price could be from a few thousand SAR to as high as a few millions SAR. Imagine… you’re chewing 1 million SAR camel meat.. but no, that kind of camel of course not for eating. Its for ‘modeling’ and ‘humping’!!

The camel in Saudi is of dromedary type, or also known as Arabian camel, which has one hump. The one hump camels could weigh up to 650kg. The average life expectancy of a camel is 40 to 50 years. Camels can run at up to 65 km/h (40 mph) in short bursts and sustain speeds of up to 40 km/h (25 mph), wauu…

Piles of dried grass, the main food source for the camels here.

Proud faces, 1st time taking picture with camels ;-), now can show off to uncles, aunties, grandpa, grandma, villagers, cows, goats and chickens in Malaysia.

Very friendly animals… peramah?

Another proud face.. (just now he need to take our picture).

Hmm.. welcoming position??

Having a good time..

‘This is dromedary camel, camel that have one hump. Long time ago camel are coming from North America, during the Palaeogene period, before its spreading to most parts of Asia. Bla.. blaa. blaa..’

One of the biggest camel we saw that afternoon (well, it doesn’t look big in the picture, but it is. Usually the owner will separated the prize camel from the other camels.

They also have small size camels..;-P

The champion, may be could fetch SAR 1 million? The tallest and most ‘handsome’.

Camels are very vengeful animals. One friend told me a story about the camel. There is one guy got in accident with a camel with his car. The camel is dying, but the man is lucky, not having any major injury. So he went down to see the camel’s fate. As he get nearer, the dying camel bite his neck… and he died because of that. In the end, both were dead. What a tragic accident. So, beware of camels my friend.

We went back that afternoon with pictures to show to cows and chickens in Malaysia as the testimonial that we already passed our camel get together sessions… may be they will get jealous…