Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum is a huge desert in south-eastern Jordan that is famous for it's surreal landscape. The only way to experience Wadi Rum is to arrange a trip into the desert that normally involves taking a 4x4 into the desert and camping under the stars. There are dozens of tour operators that can arrange this since Wadi Rum is arguably the second item on the "Things to see in Jordan" list. For Teena and I, Abdullah had arranged to have Mohammad take us down to Wadi Rum were we would meet up with some more Bedouin and then head into the desert for the night.

 

After getting used to buses and trains to get around the Middle East, I was a little surprised to see Mohammad drive into the village in a 3 series BMW. Granted, it's not new, and in fact the door paneling is sort of falling a part inside, but still, it's kind of funny. Teena and I piled into the car and as we headed out of the village, we picked up a friend of Mohammads, conveniently named Mohammad as well.

 

The trip down to Wadi Run lasted a few hours, though at times Mohammad, here to referred to as "Momo", since that's his nickname, seemed to drive like he was in some sort of hurry. No idea what the fines are for speeding in Jordan, but they must not be that high given how fast Momo was going at times.

 

The desert of Wadi Rum is essentially a national park with controlled access. I'm not sure what Momo said to the park ranger at the entrance, but somehow we just drove in without paying.

 

Just inside the entrance is the local Bedouin village. Much like in Petra, this village is also permanent and of a decent size. As we headed into the village, we experience what most BMW drivers around the world dread... Speed bumps. Turns out a somewhat lowered 3 series with running boards doesn't clear the speed bumps, let alone when it's loaded down with 4 people. Sadly, while we eventually did clear all the speed bumps, parts of the body were left behind... Sorry Momo!

 

In the village, we met up with Kaled, a local Bedouin that was friends with Momo. After the customary tea around the campfire ritual, we loaded up a 4x4 and the five of us set out into the desert.

 

While Momo drove fast on the paved roads in his BMW, Kaled drove almost as fast in an old 4x4 through the desert. There are no roads here, only tracks of where others have driven. Never have I just placed so much faith in the phrase "Well, he *must* know what he's doing..." then when Kaled was driving through the night time desert and breakneck speeds.

 

It wasn't long until we reached a large open sided tent, where we unloaded our gear and setup a little fire. Kaled drove back to the village to pick up dinner that I guess was cooking back at home and the rest of us just enjoyed being outdoors.

 

As Kaled returned, we all enjoyed another Bedouin meal consisting of rice, bread and a slightly different chicken based main course. Again, it was quite good.

 

There's not much to do out in the desert other then sit around a camp fire and send text messages on your mobile phone... What??? Yeah, that's right, in the middle of some desert in Jordan there is cell phone reception. And not only that, but all three of our hosts have cell phones (or mobiles, as they call them) and all three of them were sending text messages most of the night. Text messages of course lead to actual phone calls and for the rest of the night we were greeted with the sound of three different ring tones.

 

The other funny thing is that the three of them had the stereo in the 4x4 cranked playing some Arabic music. As usual, the volume was way louder then the speakers could handle and to my Western ears it just sounded terrible. I eventually suggested that maybe they should turn down the volume, which they did, but it was still flooding the campsite.

 

It wasn't as bad as it sounds, but experiencing Wadi Rum with ringtones and loud, distorted Arabic music wasn't exactly what I had in mind... ;)

 

The following morning, we had a quick breakfast then loaded up the 4x4 and drove around the desert for a bit. Normally this is the time when you really explore Wadi Rum, but it was clear that the others wanted to get back to the village and frankly, after being in Petra for a few days I was sort of ready to get out of the desert as well, so I didn't really complain when we started to head back earlier then I would have expected.

 

Back in the village, it was time to tackle another problem with the BMW... It was out of gas! Kaled went and fetched one of those huge jery cans filled with gas while Momo tried to build some sort of funnel system for getting the gas into the tank. They tried using a water bottle cut in half with a stick in the middle of it to hold the flap to the tank open. This resulted in a bunch of gas leaking out and down the side of the car. No matter how they positioned the bottle or stick, gas leaked everywhere. Rather humorous I have to say. I just stood around and took pictures.

 

Finally, someone decided to pull the 4x4 alongside the BMW and then place the jery can up on the roof. Coupled with some tubing, gravity did the rest and we had gas flowing from the roof of the 4x4 into the BMW. As luck would have it, just as I was taking a picture of this setup, some camels wandered across the street in the background. The irony of trying to fill up a BMW in the Jordanian desert while some camels just passed by pretty much made my day.

 

With a somewhat full gas tank and a little less of the body, we headed out of Wadi Rum and back to the main highway. Momo dropped me off at the intersection of the main highway and the access road to Wadi Rum, insisting that a mini-bus should stop there on its way south to Aqaba, where I was trying to get. Momo headed back up north to Petra with Teena.

 

After about 45 minutes of waiting, a minibus did indeed come down the highway and stop, picking up both myself and two local woman. Being the gentleman that I am, I of course let them board first, which resulted in the bus filing and there being no more seats.

 

For some strange reason, I didn't really care and just sat on my bag in the rear door well. Wasn't even all that uncomfortable actually and the ride to Aqaba was not more then an hour or so.

 

One thing about riding any form of local transportation is to always watch how much a local pays for the ride. Most minibuses operate on a fixed payment system, meaning you pay a flat rate regardless of how far you go. (They will drop you off anywhere along the route.)

 

I saw the other two women that got on with me pay 1 JD for the ride, so upon arriving in Aqaba, I gave the driver 1 JD, which didn't go over so well with him. He kept insisting it was 1.5 JD and I kept trying to tell him that I knew it was only 1 JD. He didn't really speak any English, and I don't speak Arabic, so it was a little, uh, interesting as he got rather animated.

 

Ultimately, he started pointing at my bag and I clued in that he was trying to charge me an extra 0.5 JD for my "luggage". I'd heard of this before from other travelers and hotel workers. Generally, if you have so much luggage that it takes up a seat, then it's expected that you pay a little bit more. Fine, but in this case I didn't even have a seat for myself, let alone one for my luggage! After about 5 minutes of going back and forth, I finally just gave the guy his 0.5 JD, which really made his day because he had a huge smile after the fact.... /sigh

 

Of course, the second I finally got off the minibus I had a half dozen taxi drivers offering to help find me a cheap hotel and all that. Having just been taking for a ride in Petra, I wasn't about to just hop in any taxi so I just walked over to bench, pulled out my Lonely Planet and tried to get my bearings. One thing I had doing is taking a taxi when the hostel you want is just around the corner.

 

As I'm sitting on the bench, who comes over but none other then the bus driver that was just cursing me out for half a JD. I didn't really feel like dealing with him anymore and I sort of brush him off as he asks me where I'm trying to get to. He calls over his friend, who amazingly enough speaks really good English. Turns out he's also one of the more honest people around. One thing I like to do is to ask how far it is to a specific landmark, from which I can usually just walk to the hotel I'm after. Much easier to ask someone where a specific mosque is rather then a specific hotel. In this case, I ask him where the al-Hussein mosque is and amazingly, he tells me to just walk down the street, around a corner and I'll see it. I ask him "No taxi?" and he's like "Nah, you don't need a taxi, you can walk there from here..."

 

As I thank him and head on my way, the bus driver comes back over to double check that everything is ok. Go figure, Jekyll and Hyde if I've ever seen it. So, thanks to the bus driver I got ripped off half a JD but also got great directions to my hotel in Aqaba...

 

Kenny