Looking toward another long, uneventful weekend in this Middle Eastern country, I decided to spend several hours in the desert tranquility. Hiking and catching up on some reading seemed the perfect answer to pass the time of day. Because it was never wise to venture into the desert by oneself, one of the Filipino workers volunteered to accompany me.
Pulling off the main highway after driving for three hours, and going another thirty to forty minutes off-road traveling, we finally found a spot that appeared to be quite remote ensuring us we wouldn't be bothered by the local law or Arab families out for the day. After a few hours of lying around doing nothing, I grabbed my digital camera and began taking photos of the barren, desolate landscape. Joined now by the Filipino, he thought it would be a good idea if I were in some of the photos to prove I was actually there. Agreeing with him, I handed him the camera and stood back a few steps as he began clicking away. By this time, I had been out under that sun close to three hours – the thirty minutes shirtless in an attempt to get some suntan on my upper body. Luis had taken several more pics of me with different backgrounds when out of the blue he suggested I might want to take a few more exciting pics as I would probably never have the chance again and years from now I would be able look back and laugh.
Being more of a conservative guy, I tried to change the subject but the Luis wore me down plus the fact nobody else was around for hundreds of miles. Not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, he basically took over. As the sand below us was a very fine texture and soft, I was now having pics taken of me wearing only my blue jeans when several minutes had passed and he made the comment I should remove my jeans as I would still have my briefs on same as wearing swimming trunks. Hesitating momentarily, and with his continued prompting, I finally took off my jeans handing them to him, which he quickly tossed onto the seat in our jeep. With rocks, and sand piles, and various bushes as background, he was clicking away…he must have taken six, seven, maybe eight pics. Thinking we’re finished by now and myself perspiring from the sun and heat, I applied more suntan oil to keep from getting sunburnt.