Camping in the Bedouin Tents in Negev Desert
Who are the Bedouin tribe people? I’m still not all clear of their history. But they are known as a small population of Arab people who are the wanderers of the desert. They stick with their tribal traditions, are strict Muslims, roam the desert with their Camels and Goats. Most are not really educated. A saying goes “a Bedouin man says if he kills a goat, he will feed his family for 3 days. But if he milks the goat, he will feed his family for a year.” So they are known to eat bread and cheese, and whatever they can scrounge up. On special occasions, certain rites of passage, they will sacrifice an animal. Here in Israel and other parts of the middle east, there is a popular marketing trend for tourism which is to ‘ride camels and camp with the Bedouins’.
I have been looking forward to riding camels for a very long time! Visions of me rockily riding through the desert with a tribal man leading it, occasionally stopping for a sip of water out of my tin can. So Tuesday morning, after a city night life out in Tel Aviv, we hopped on a bus to the Negev Desert. First it was a hour and a half ride to Beer Sheva, then more south to Mitzpe Ramon in the Negev Desert. The bus driver was not aware of the camp ground we were going to “Beerot Camping” so he dropped us off at the main city center around 5:30pm.
The sun was starting to go down, windy air and less people around. We asked a lotto kiosk about how to get to Beerot camp site. He didn’t know much English, but luckily a local man walking his dog came by and helped. He said it was 15km away and there were no taxis or busses to take us. And that we had to hitchhike. Uh. Terrifying!! We were freaking out a bit and not sure what to do. After some worrying, the stranger local decided to calm us down and help. He asked an old couple who were buying their daily lotto ticket if they could give us a lift. They seemed to be well respected and known In the community. They made a call to a local hotel manager of “Hotel Ramon” and that man, David, by coincidence was headed to our camp site to drop stuff off as he use to manage that site. We felt much safer and the old couple dropped us off with him. There at the hotel we met a young pretty black girl who had perfect English. Of course then we asked for her story and she said that her parents were from Alabama but she was born in Israel and have lived here since. Interesting.
Finally David allowed us in his desert rugged pickup truck and took us through windy mountain roads and 5km desert road to this camp site. First off, there were no camels at this site. Boo. Secondly, it was almost empty, with 4 Bedouin male workersl (not in traditional garb as we expected and hoped – they couldn’t even pretend for us!?) There was an israeli family with their young toddler offsprings and another 2 guys from Tel aviv just camping for the night. The sun was setting and we knew there were no way out of the place that evening. Since we didn’t prepare tents, the Bedouin worker, Soleiman, gave us an area slightly walled off by fabric, and a few mattresses to sleep on.
For once in my life, I started to believe one could die from boredom. But of course, moments later, Marissa and I agreed this was a test and that we’d have to make the most of it, as we always had in the past. We ordered a hookah and a few dark lager beers and a backgammon board. Too bad we didn’t know how to play backgammon so we just stared at it. Then Soleiman started to ask us questions and hang out with us. The Bedouins are known to be very hospitable groups. Another saying goes “a man kills a Bedouins brother. He will kill the man in revenge. But if the man comes in his tent, he will offer him tea because he is in his home. Then kill him outside.”
Soleiman was certainly very hospitable. Making sure every 20 minutes we weren’t hungry, needed more tea, blankets, more beer, etc. Marissa and I started to wonder if he was creepy & sleazy, or if it was just lost in translation because of language barrier. Until about midnight, we leaned towards the belief that he was not sleazy and just curious of tourists. He served us dinner at 8pm which was flat bread, hummus, tahini, spiced eggplants, chopped cucumber/tomatoes and more yogurt. He was bbq’ing chicken with the other Bedouin males, and after seeing us eye the meat for some time, finally offered us some. Hours went by, a few more beers consumed just to pass time and hopefully help us sleep earlier.
Around midnight, the camp site quiet and most asleep, Soleiman came to sit with us and ask us more questions about our lives. A very common thing when traveling. He had asked us a few times if we were married, which is pretty standard too. Then he wanted to go through our pictures, which we allowed. Eventually we started to get tired and had the impression that he was either still up waiting for us to sleep, since he was the only one working, or that he was simply sleazy. He started to sit closer to us, which I had been adamant the whole time of having my bag and blankets by me so he couldn’t get too close. Eventually we insisted aggressively he could go sleep and not wait up for us. He asked a few times where we were sleeping which made him creepier. I got up to our mattress tent area to take off my contacts and get ready for bed, which was about 100 ft away.
When I came back, Marissa had a frightened disgusted look on her face. She pointed to the next couch over from where we were sitting. (We had been in the outdoor main living/dining area with low tables and cushions for smoking hookah) And there, laying under his blankets, eyes closed, was Soleiman touching himself under the blankets. Fucking disgusting! That couch was within 10 feet from where we had been sitting! I highly doubt that couch was his bed and he had no reason to be there! We were about to scream, but instead kept our composure and packed up our stuff to head to our sleeping area.
It took about 3 minutes to gather everything quickly, but by then, he was full on masterbating right by us!!! We were really confused by now, 1am, what to do, where we would sleep, as our sleeping area was farther from the camping area and it’d be frightening to be that far if anything were to happen. So we remembered the friendly 2 Israeli guys from Tel Aviv who had invited us to bbq with them, and hoped dear lord they were still up. We went over to their camp ground and thankfully one of them was still up! He had a fire going and was wasted out of his mind, but still coherent enough to understand our situation and talk to us. He shared his Arak (same as Ouzoo or Raki) and we relaxed under the stars, staring at the fire, and throwing in whatever wood we could find. When we told the guy what happened, he laughed and said “what do you expect, he’s in the desert all day!”
By 3am, he went to his tent to sleep, and Marissa and I just slept on some rocks with our heavy blankets with one eye open throughout the night. I have to say that even with the nasty incident that happened, I looked out to the shining bright stars and appreciated the wilderness. Its rare to be able to enjoy the stars unless you’re out in the desert.
In the morning, Soleiman treated us as if nothing happened, and offered breakfast, etc. He tried to hand us some bread they had just made and I almost vomitted in his face wondering if he even washed his hands after last night. Dror (Shohams cousin) had agreed to pick us up from our camp around noon, but we weren’t sure when exactly since our phone connection was being weird. The other 2 parties who had been camping had left, and in came a bus and 2 jeeps of about 30 disabled people. It was their organized field trip day, I’m not sure what organization it was exactly, but certainly a lovely Jewish one. They came and had lunch the same area we were last night.
After lunch, they all started to gather and leave, I guess they weren’t camping! So we asked a long-haired hippie man who looked like a manager (like a native-indian) if he or the bus could take us into the city. He turned out to be the manager of the desert and said he would ask the bus driver. For whatever reason the bus driver was being an ass and didn’t want to let us on, said it was full. And the manager didn’t offer us on the jeep. Marissa said either way, we needed to get out of there because once they leave, we’d be left alone with Soleiman. I knew that also. But a lightbulb came on as well. I told Marissa to hurry and gather ourselves and to start walking. We needed to start walking with our heavy huge backpacks on out to the desert road (which was 5km to the main road, and even after that another 10km to the city). We would secretly manipulate and guilt trip them into taking us in their cars! How could they let 2 girls walk in the desert like that!?
We started to walk up the road, and of course within minutes later when they left the camp site, the manager picked us up and crammed us into his jeep with 6 disabled middle aged people. At this point, driving away from the Bedouin camp, I knew it was all behind me and it was time to laugh about it. Smile that we came out alive and safe. And laugh at this very moment that I’m in a desert in Israel, in the middle of no where, in a car with friendly people who barely spoke the language, getting driven into the city that tourists rarely see. But that we were brought there out of my curiousity of camping with Bedouins and the vision of riding camels in the middle east.
When we were finally dropped off at the city center where we first were the evening before, I thought I’d report to the desert manager about our incident and expected him to be outraged and promise to teach the man a lesson. Instead, after the story was told, he didn’t have much of a reaction and I quote him “what do you expect? He’s a Bedouin. He’s muslim. He sees an inch of a woman (and points to the tip of his finger) and he goes crazy.” We were so shocked he said that! He was obviously israeli and making a biased joke, but oh well. We had another hour and half before Dror would finally pick us up since he was coming from Jerusalem and had an overnight work shift. Marissa and I shopped in the supermarket and bought some fruits and cheese for lunch, sat outside on the benches to eat.
Everywhere in Israel you go, you see young soldiers. They are community leaders. We saw a group by us, and on the other table, a lone soldier. We befriended him, name was Daniel, and apparently is Jewish, grew up in South Africa but decided to move to Israel 2 years ago and serve the army. We chatted with him until his lunch break was gone, and gave us much insight into life in the Israeli army, politics, culture and everything witty in between and out. It was cool talking to someone who was not born there but now living there for his perspective.
We told the story to a few other local Israelis and their responses all similar. I think it has a big part to do with their Jew vs Islam war and so it wasn’t surprising to them. Of course I know most muslim men are not like that, especially because I have muslim friends and have read a part of the Quran. I know they are a peaceful religion and would never promote what Soleiman did. I also know that the Bedouin people are not like this for the most part and that our incident was something rare that happened to happen to us. What the locals do say though is that they are mostly uneducated, and wanderers, their view of life way different from ours.
Either way, that’s another travel experience. Life experience to learn and look back to laugh upon. Another adventure I say “at least I came out alive and safe. Next!!” Off more south to Eilat we go!
