At home with my Bedouin Peeps (Wadi Rum, Jordan)

Well... with the title of this blog being what it is, its only appropriate that I spend at least one night out in the desert with the bedouins (or Jordanians posing as bedouins). I spent the first night of my Jordan trip out in the Wadi Rum desert with a bedouin guide in a bedouin tent. The wadi rum desert is famous because of its Lawrence of Arabia connection. The desert itself is beautiful, especially under the early morning or late afternoon lighting. As the sun sets or rises... the deep red color of the sand and the rock formations really comes out. Its truly one of a kind scenery. Here is a quick recap of my day in the desert.

9am: Arrive in Aqaba, Jordan... via boat from Egypt. Like all boat-people, I got stuck at the border for an hour with visa issues, but finally got through. Some slick cab driver actually got my visa processed for me, hoping that I would dish out $45 to have him drive me to the desert. I still dont know how he got it done... I was waiting at the docks for 30 min while the border patrol wasn't doing squat, then he drove me to some random building, took my passport in while I waited, then came out with a stamped visa. Of course the visa is in Arabic... for all I know it could say, "Arrest this retard when he tries to leave the country"


10:30am: Get to the bus station and find out that the next bus leaves at 12:30. Another cabbie offers me a ride for $30 this time. I leave in search of food while i think about it. The felafel guy tries to sell me a felafel sandwich for $35. I tell him to @%&$ himself and go the chicken place next door. For $3, I get a half rotisserie chicken with a huge pita... granted it was served sans silverware and on a nasty looking plate... but it was ooohhhhh so tasty.


11am: Get back to the bus station to find out that the bus is now leaving at 1pm... if full. I wait around for another half hour. The cabbie that offered me the $30 ride... gets desparate and offers a $20 ride. I bite, cuz the other options are looking bleek. Good thing too, cuz I later found out that the bus actually drops off 5 miles from the desert town... and you have to hitch a ride from the station.


1pm: I'm at Rum Village... looking at options for my night. I decide to forgo any hiking to sample the 4 hour camel ride out to the tent/camp.


1pm-4pm: Turns out the camel ride was only 3 hours, which was good... cuz riding a camel SUCKS. Its like having a fat, hairy dude with mucus dripping his mouth wedged between your legs. Ya, its funny for 5 min, then its just painful. Not to mention that camels are the most unruly beasts ever. Our ride started when all the camels ran off. My guide chased after two, while I chased after the other two. We rode out with 4 camels... one for me, one for him, and two others that we literally had to drag the entire way. All 4 stopped to eat whenever they wanted, even if my guide smacked the crap out of them. They pooped when they felt like it... and most importantly they just stopped completely during the middle of the ride.


4pm-6pm: Hung out in the desert, made new friends... very interesting peeps... and watched the sun go down.


6pm-8pm: Dinner around the fire and dancing with our bedouin hosts. Somehow I was only 1 of the few that were coerced into dancing around the fire... in what could only be described as the bedouin version of the chicken dance.


8pm: Fall asleep under the stars... before going back to my tent . It was one of those nights where the stars light up the entire sky. In my life... I think there are 3-4 nights that I can totally recall the sky and the stars and this is definitely one of them. Unbelievable...


Next morning 6am: Watch the sun come up. Everything turns a beautiful deep red under the mornng light. Not just red, but a million (literally...i counted all of them) shades of red. It was kinda cool to come from the red sea where I was staring at water that was a million shades of blue/green to the desert that is such a crazy deep red. I definitely can't imagine a better week for any nature lover or photography enthusiast.


Next stop... Petra. I would have liked to stayed longer for some hikes and more exploration, but the desert guides and the Wadi Rum park charge a ton of money for any guides, jeeps, or camels... so it was a bit out of my budget. BUT for anyone that makes it out to Jordan to see Petra... I highly suggest 1-2 nights in the desert. Its definitely worth it.