Category Archives: Jordan

The Call of the Desert (Part 3)

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After spending 2 days in Aqaba taking it easy and updating this site, I thought it was time to resume the visiting and took the closest spot on my list and go there.

It turns out it was a visit of Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a famous canyon located close to Dahab so this would be my third night in the desert.

As I said I would not do and I should never do again, I used the service of a travel agency in Aqaba to setup the tour for me. And I got ripped off! :(. Well, hopefully, this will serve as a lesson.

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Anyway, around 11AM, a driver took me to Wadi Rum where I met with Abdullah that would be my Bedouin guide for the afternoon and the night. He was very nice and as we were talking, he told me very fast how much he got for taking me and that if I had gone directly through him, I would have paid half…. That done, and me going over it, I was able to enjoy the greatness of the place.

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Abdullah drove me around the canyon stopping at many of the famous sites so that I could take pictures. It is quite an amazing place but since it is quite similar to Wadi Araba in Sinai, the novelty factor was a bit off and I did not enjoy it as much as I did last time. Still, it is a great place and I enjoyed it a lot.

There are some cool natural formations like bridges and funny shaped rocks. We also drove through the main Canyon.

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We finally arrived to the camp around 6PM and after some roaming and useless dune climbing, I ended up finding a cool place to watch the sunset. It was nice.

Dinner was served soon after. Taking the risk of sounding (reading?) spoiled, it was not as good as my 2 previous times in the desert.

After dinner, Abdullah played of a one string instrument while singing traditional Bedouin songs.I sadly don’t remember the name of the instrument. It was played with a kind of small bow and was producing a high pitch (almost crying) sound. It was quite interesting even if I did not like it too much after all.

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Finally, the best time of the day came and I retired to my private room with queen bed, sand carpet and star-ceiling to enjoyed the silence and peace of the desert while loosing myself in the unclouded, stars sprinkled, dark night. No needs to tell you I fell asleep like a baby :).

Morning came fast and we were on our way out by 8AM with the firm intention of getting me on the bus to Petra. Unfortunately, the bus had been cancelled and I had to find another way to reach Petra. The Bedouins got me to the main road where all the buses pass by and I was left on my own to catch the right one! After much waiting, hand waiving to buses that would not stop and buses that would stop but were not going in the right direction, I was joined by a British couple that was in the same situation than me. Once 3, it was easier to find transportation and very soon a mini-bus stopped and offered to take us there for 20JD(Jordanian Dinar). It was a fair price and we were not really in a situation of power so we accepted gladly and were on our way to Petra.

Welcome to Jordan

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Yep, I finally did it, after lingering and enjoying everything the red sea and Dahab have to offer for 18 days, I left and found my way to Jordan.

I left yesterday morning at 10AM. It took me 1 hour to reach Nuweiba where I bought my ticket for the fast afternoon ferry that was scheduled for 3PM.

I went through the police control inside the port and found a place to seat while I was waiting for the boat. Around 2PM, I started to kind of wonder if I was at the right place since there was not that many people around especially no foreigners! I started walking around the docks and found a policeman that told me the boat would be here in 15-20 minutes. Once it got there, I waited outside and came aboard once everybody coming from Jordan had debarked the boat.

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The immigration agent that controlled my passport was not happy since I did not have a departure stamp… Well, nobody really told me about that at the first place and since I could not read any of the signs, I did not end up where I should have been and I did not get the stamp. Anyway, we are in Egypt and police has its way so they stopped one of the big empty tourist bus that was driving by and ordered the driver to take me to the right place, once there, an agent filled the form for me and stamped my passport in less than 30 seconds without much questioning, then another policeman stopped another of these empty bus that took me back to the ship. All in all, it took 5 minutes to get this stamp while I am sure it would have taken me an hour in line to get it if I had known I needed to go to a specific place before boarding the boat! In place, I had plenty of time to read the Jordan section of my Middle East Lonely Planet and listen to my IPod. I also stroke a conversation with one of the guy moving stuff in between the trucks and the boats.

The boat trip went very well. I gave my passport to the Jordanian immigration agent early in the boat and recovered it once we had debarked in Aqaba. I found the way to forget it in between that moment and the bag check though but I realized it and got it back without much trouble. It might not have been a good day after all since I usually do not loose or forget things!

Anyway, I found a hotel in Aqaba. The first thing to know is that things in Jordan are way more expensive than in Egypt. The country is way more developed. Looking around at the type and quality of the cars that Jordanians drive is just one example of that development. It really looks like a European city.

I am now planning my trip through Jordan. I will report about that later :).