Tea, Tea and More Tea

Our next destination in Jordan was south so we left the comfort of the Petra Marriott and caught a cab to the bus station. The bus driver informed us there would not be a bus today as there were not enough passengers but we could pay $20 (double price) and the bus could leave immediately. Sensing that something did not feel right we told him we would wait until the scheduled departure time to see if any other passengers showed up. We were erring on the side of caution showing up and hour early so why would one expect more passengers to already be there? Our wait in the hot sun was actually quite entertaining. Numerous taxi drivers and others approached us inquiring about who we were, where we are from and what we were doing. Most tourists in Jordan book packaged tours that put them on large buses which cart the them from site to site. Those who choose to go at it alone usually book private taxis. Then there is us trying to catch the local bus from destination to destination, not in a huge hurry and trying to stay on budget. Locals find this peculiar but it gives us time to see different sides of the country which we would not experience from a tour bus or a private taxi. While standing curbside and drinking a Turkish coffee at the bus station (no building present just an empty parking lot) we heard the following ring tones from locals (everyone has at least 2 cell phones) phones:
1. Bryan Adams - Please Forgive Me
2. Britney Spears - Oops I did it Again
3. Shakira - Underneath Your Clothes

Mind you that all of these came from grown men's phones who themselves hardly spoke any English. An hour later we had a total of 5 persons and yet the bus driver was reluctant to leave and still wanted each of us to pitch in an extra dollar to get the bus moving. After a bit of negotiating we were on the road and by the time we reached the southern port city of Aqaba 2 hours later, the bus was nearly full.

Aqaba sits on the shores of the Red Sea. It is the nearest thing that Jordan has to a resort town and it does a fair job at holding this title. The city sits on a sliver of land that existed after the middle east boarders were drawn and re-drawn multiple times in the mid 20th century. From the city center, Saudi Arabia sits 10 miles to the east and Israel sits 3 miles to the west. As with the rest of Jordan, there is a very large Palestinian population and influence.

We settled on a hotel situated about a block from the water across the street from the main Mosque (call to prayer wake-up calls each day at 5AM) with an ocean view balcony for $21 USD. We then set about trying to find next day departures for the local bus to Wadi Rum. As is usual, none of the hotels seemed to know departure times and even told us that the local buses did not exist. The usual response was to ask us which tour group we were with or to refer us to a local travel agent around the corner. After speaking to numerous people we settled on showing up at the bus station early in the morning and just waiting to see when the first bus left, a couple people had said one one would be leaving around 8AM. We then grabbed some falafel, hummus and babba ghanoosh and called it an early night.

We awoke the next day and headed tot the bus station at 7AM only to be told that there would only be one bus that day which arrived at 8AM but would not leave until it was full or 1PM, whichever came first (strange how information changes from day to day). It is hard to get concrete answers because most drivers are looking out for their own personal interest and there are not actual stations or ticket booths in Jordan in which to buy tickets. We figured we would cut our losses and get a taxi the 30 miles to the Wadi Rum desert. Our driver connected us with a friend, Mohammed, who was a tour operator and offered a fair price for a 2 day camping trip into the desert.

Mohammed operates his business out of his house where he lives with his wife and has raised 11 children. We drank tea and discussed options for our trip. He had one other couple scheduled to arrive that day so we decided to team up with them and share a 4WD. After a couple hour wait the other couple arrived and we were happy to find them outgoing recently married Canadian/Americans. David was studying to be a rabbi in neighboring Israel and his wife Rebbecca was studying through a fellowship in Jerusalem.

We headed out in the jeep with our local Bedouin guide. The Bedouins are the native nomadic desert persons of Jordan. A few still live traditional lives as nomadic herders while others have moved away to the city or have taken up jobs as guides. We toured the Wadi Rum desert and took in the sites, essentially raw desert and rock formations as far as the eye could see. They claim it to be the most beautiful desert landscape in the world and we could not argue. Many of the sites were related to Lawrence of Arabia who actually spent time living there while helping to lead the Arabic revolution while also expanding British influence in the region. Our drive ended at our camp perched on a hillside with great views of the landscape around us. We took in a quick hike just the two of us and then took in an amazing sunset. It was nice to be reminded how many stars exist when you are in the countryside far off from any city lights.
Once the sun was down the desert cooled off very quickly and we found ourselves in the round communal tent with some of the local Bedouins drinking tea fireside. The Bedouins love their tea, even calling it Bedouin whiskey, and I had no less than 20 cups of it over our 2 day trip. The camp cook, a friendly Sudanese man, cooked us a small feast of rice, potatoes, stew and chicken. We later learned from Mohammed that the cook had left Sudan a few months ago in search of work and had ended up in Jordan. He was now living in the desert on an 18 shift (the only permanent resident of the camp) and sending money home to his family. The food was wonderful.

We topped off the night with some more tea (Colleen was actually drinking it at this point) and retreated to our tent. The tent consisted of multiple layers of canvas outer and nothing inside but some thick blankets and two mats on opposite sides of the tent. We pushed the two mats together and pulled out our sleep sacks and called it a night. We actually slept very well and found ourselves awake the next day at 6AM and enjoying a delicious breakfast. David and Rebbecca had already left in the 4WD as they had to catch an early boarder crossing back to Israel and we had arranged to trek the remaining 11 km back to the village by camel. The Bedouin say camels are easier to guide than a horse, which proved true, and the only hitch we had was Colleen's camel constantly attempting to eat at the dry brush we passed. Camels surprisingly move very gracefully with little sound and it was amazing to take in the landscape in this fashion. A little over two hours later we were back in the village. We settled up with Mohammed and caught a taxi back into Aqaba where we checked into the same hotel and room we had previously stayed in.

Now we are in Aqaba with 2 days of relaxing before heading the 5 hours north back north to Amman. From there we plan to take a day trip to the dead sea and then it is off to Barcelona!