I had an interesting weekend helping Lonely Planet TV and National Geographic with an episode of their upcoming 13-part series of travel programs. They are producing each show with Lonely Planet Authors. For the Israel/Palestine episode, Amelia Thomas was the host.

I met the video crew a little south of Be’er Sheva in the Negev Desert, and brought them to a friend of mine, Khalil, in the unrecognized Bedouin village of Alsera. We spent two days there, with Amelia doing a variety of activities including making pita bread with the lady of the house, and helping feed the goats. It was a little awkward at times since the concept of the show is to be spontaneous, but the nature of making a movie requires a certain amount of pre-planning. I even managed to have a couple of cameo appearances on-camera in coversation with Amelia and Khalil.

It was quite exciting to be helping these famous organizations and as an added bonus ToursInEnglish.com will be featured in the new edition of Lonely Planet due to be published later this year.

The highlight of the trip was a visit to the traditional Bedouin animal market on Saturday morning, where I have been conducting occasional tours. Visitors rarely visit the market which is for Bedouin by Bedouin, with not a woman in sight. The production team contained three women so we had to make sure that they were appropriately dressed in order not to offend the conservative Bedouin men.

All in all it was an interesting time and I look forward to the final video.