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| Colours of Australia: A crimson rosella (Platycerus elegans) enjoys some late winter sunshine. |
Just to eat a croissant in the morning sunshine.
It's funny the things you start yearning for toward the end of Ramadan. Its as if you have left on a extended camping trip, by the end of which you are pining for those small creature comforts of home. As we entered the fourth and final week, the adventurous had become the routine: the novelty of those early starts had entirely worn off, I was no longer scared about any dangers of dehydration and I knew that those mid-morning hunger pangs would pass eventually.
The exciting and new feelings experienced through fasting had now been replaced by a terrible longing: I wanted to live a 'normal' life again. How I envied commuters with their comfortable routines, stealing sips from their take-away coffee's and bites from their gap-filling museli bars. How I wished I could take advantage of the afternoon cups of tea and biscuits offered by generous clients. And oh how I yearned to stop on those beautifully sunny mornings when I was all of a sudden ambushed by the smell of freshly baked pastries wafting from a nearby boulangerie.
It was just those small and simple things that I missed the most. It felt exactly like being homesick, and yet I hadn't gone anywhere. Most people dream of escaping from their day-to-day work schedule, and here I was fantasising of being enfolded in that routine comfort. I became frustrated when I heard people talking about "eco-tourism". I wondered if the people interested in these kinds of holidays had ever tried Ramadan - if they hadn't, I wanted to tell them the good news: you can have a month long, fully paid holiday absolutely free. Ramadan has the advantage of reducing your carbon footprint because with limited feeding hours, you actually tend to eat less over the course of the month.
So even as Ramadan 2010 draws to a close, tickets for next year's voyage are already selling fast. In the southern hemisphere you'll be experiencing cold nights and even shorter days - ideal for first-time fasters and lovers of hearty winter stews and soups. Don't miss this once in 33 years opportunity to show Al Gore and company that you can take environmental action without having to fly around in an expensive helicopter! Take a month long break from your daily routine and get paid for it! Experience seasonal variation, lunar and solar cycles first hand!
Ramadan 2011: the affordable and ecological adventure get-away*!
*Enhanced Social Empathy® and Spiritual Enlightenment™ are sold separately as optional extras.
