Sunday, November 15, 2009

Tegukan Susu Unta Yang Pertama

This is the land of desert. And here, the king of desert is camels.

Camels are even-toed ungulates, meaning 'hoofed animals'. There are several groups of ungulate mammals whose weight is distributed about equally by the third and fourth toes as they move around. Camels are native to the dry desert areas of western Asia and central and east Asia. The name camel comes from the Greek kámēlos from the Hebrew 'gamal' or Arabic 'Jamal'.

There are two main species of camel, the Dromedary Camel sometimes called the Arabian Camel which has a single hump and are warmer climate dwellers and the Bactrian Camel which has two humps and are rugged cold-climate camels.

Fossil evidence indicates that the ancestors of modern camels evolved in North America during the Palaeogene period (a period of geologic time that lasting 42 million years and is a time when mammals evolved) and later spread to Asia.

Originally, the camel came from North America some 10 million years ago, where it became extinct about 2 million years ago. All Arabian camels are domesticated from a process that started about 5,000 years ago. Now there are no wild Camelus dromedarius in North Africa and the Middle East.”

Ok, enough story about camel before this blog turn to another wikipedia page.

I have been hearing about the camels milk drinking activity since I 1st came here about a year ago. But, I never have a chance to try it myself, or actually.. drinking fresh, warm bobbling bubbling milk not really my taste of cup.

Anyhow, last weekend together with my friend, Mohd Raznan and his family (his father was also here for short visit),we went to this small open place  near to Dammam highway road that said to be selling the milk of this amazing animals.

And, here we are.. having the first sip of camels milk…

IMG_3828 Camels at the “Camel Milks Market” near to Dammam highway.

IMG_3830 Sipping his mother’s milk while he can..

IMG_3832

Milking the camel not much different than milking your wife cow, you just need to squeeze, pinch a little bit, pulling gently or.. roughly, as you like, hmm.

IMG_3837

Fresh and warm bubbling camels milk!! Dare to have a sip?

IMG_3833

“Whooaaaaa…. why you’re taking my milk?!!!”

IMG_3839 Kids are trying it too…

IMG_3842 They put a “bra” to the mother camel to prevent the calf having a milk.. kind of cruel for me.

 IMG_3850 Up close and personal with one of the unfortunate camel calf.

 IMG_3836 It is said that drinking camel milk can improve men virility.. more power!!!

IMG_3848That’s may be why this man is buying 5 gallons of camel milk when we were there. He said “Susu unta ada umphh…..” 

 

Overall, this is a good experience for us. The taste of the milk is a bit tasteless, and I’m supposed not to have any problem drinking it if only I do not see and imagining and know the fact that the milk that I’m drinking coming directly from ..errr… the breast of she-camels? Not to mentioned with the surrounding areas, with the strong smells of camels and their … hmm.. liquid and solid waste, makes my cerebrum corpus callosum  couldn't really translating the signal it received into something nice!