Egypt/Jordan part 7: Wadi Rum

Part 6: https://medium.com/@timothyteoh/egypt-jordan-part-6-petra-7cc7d92712f6

Jordan — Day 13&14 (1 Nov, 2014)

Hello everyone no updates recently because I was in the desert without running water or electricity or phone reception. The days were largely the same so I will be doing a combined post for my 13th and 14th day.

Took a wefie with my host in Petra Maryam before I left. She had been very accommodating and prepared breakfast without fail every day. Kind old lady.

I’m damn bad right asking a lady to pose for pics at 530am

Boarded a tourist minibus to my next destination Wadi Rum. It was spick and span and professionally run as Wadi Rum is very important for ecotourism.

The bus was mostly filled with Asians!! Felt at home somehow. Tried to make small talk with a couple Japanese dudes next to me but they seemed sleepy.

First glimpse of the wadis.

Wadi means valley in Arabic. Wadi Rum is also known as Valley of the Moon (Indy fans would recognize this reference) and its majestic sandstone and granite mountains have been the backdrop of many movies eg Transformers, Lawrence of Arabia, Red Planet, Prometheus etc. It is a popular spot for ecotourism.

If you look carefully at this pic you can see that some sand has entered my camera lens T_T

Following the theme of my trip so far I had booked a homestay in Airbnb with Eid Hamdan here. I would be staying in a traditional Bedouin camp that his mother still stays in permanently and that he had grown up in.

Eid actually maintains a separate tourist camp for big groups. Teo years ago a Scottish tourist who was eager to try a “real” Bedouin experience had asked around Wadi Rum to stay with an actual Bedouin camp.

Eid was recommended and liked the experience so he started his Airbnb listing after that.

Here he is bonking his phone on the ground because the screen wouldn’t work. It cooperated eventually.

I went out by jeep on the first day and on camel the second. The agenda was largely the same which was seeing the sights of Wadi Rum before returning to the camp in the evening.

First stop was Lawrence Spring which involved a climb to the top with a great view.

The spring itself wasn’t so great though. Lawrence Algae Filled Puddle would have been more apt.

Bumped into the other Asians here. The Japanese were now wide awake and a lot more friendly.

Did I mention that both of them were in Indiana Jones cosplay getups wtf. There were as kawaii as you would expect Japanese to be and loved making cute poses

Our next stop was a sand dune (I stopped remembering the names of the sites. You can refer to them as Awesome Site 1 and Awesome Site 2 etc). Bumped into the Asians again here.

With the Japanese being Japanese

It was nice to have people around to take shots for me though.

And yes my sneakers are no longer white :(

There were lots of other sites I went to which I’ll just post here. Have never seen such scenery. Chiseled red mountains rising from the ground everywhere. No wonder they often use this place to stand in for Mars.

The Nabataeans tried, but they could never quite compete with the Egyptians when it came to hieroglyphs

Making the most of an emergency situation. What you think desert trekking very glam? I hope Dayre doesnt choose this as the post thumbnail though.

We would take a couple hour break in between jeep/camel touring for simple lunches.

As I mentioned earlier, Eid owns a separate Bedouin tourist camp which looks something like this. They are a common sight scattered around Wadi Rum. They have brick foundation and iron poles and proper lavatories etc.

Tbh I did feel that it could be a better option for some as although the “more authentic” experience is great, because of the language barrier there can be long periods of silence. That said I did plan out my trip with a “stay with locals” theme.

I would be staying with Eid’s family at their “family home”. Eid and his family shuttle around both this camp and their brick-and-mortar home in the main village, but his mother still prefers to stay here. She built this camp herself.

As Bedouins she used to move camp every few months depending on where the grass was for their goats. But now they move less often — the most recent move was eight months ago.

As native land owners of Wadi Rum, Bedouins and set up camps anywhere they please as long as it is for personal use. Tourist camps need a permit from the government.

The Bedouins number about 1.8mil compared to Jordan’s population of 6.5mil. Still plenty of land to go around. Most Bedouins are in tourism now and know the land like the back of their hand. They navigate by recognizing every mountain — the mountains all looked the same to me!

The brown building is the kitchen and on the right are the water storage cisterns.

Eid has many children through his two wives. Aayat here was the most playful.

Its fascinating how kids can find fun in anything. She would bounce around on the tent ropes and put sand on the tent flaps.

I guess for them every day is like being on the beach. Minus the sea.

Aayat was very jovial but would be shy if you actually came close.

They had a pet dog too (insert jibe against Msian govt here) who didn’t seem to do much but sleep and bark at passing jeeps.

This is Eid’s mother who is a sprightly lady of 63. She was only in on the second day because she had been off visiting her daughter who had just given birth. By now she could speak a bit of English and promptly set me to work tightening the tent ropes and cleaning the carpets.

Suddenly Aayat’s antics on the tent ropes didn’t seem so cute!

She seemed very proud of her camp location and would constantly remind me to take pictures. “Sun. Picture *gesture* Good”

I had to agree though. She had a good taste in views!

She was also very interested in seeing other pictures I had taken around the area and would look at them while naming each one. Great how smartphones are so intuitive now.

They kept goats for milking and occasionally for meat. In the early days life revolved around whether their animals could find enough to eat.

There was goat poo everywhere too. Something they seemed used to and didn’t seem to mind stepping on, even barefoot.

I always expected deserts to be hot but they arent because there is nearly always a breeze. At night especially things get really chilly and I would have to bundle up! same for Eid’s kids, but Eid’s mother didn’t seem bothered.

As night fell everyone would gather around the fire (they had a solar powered lantern too but it wasnt working).

Many Middle East meals come in a big plate to be shared from. Used to think it was for the communal aspect but gathered around the fire I could see another reason for it too.

They always had tea ready. Note that it isn’t a good idea to have too much when you are staying in a place without normal sewage and drainage! That and there is a field of goat poo all the way to the small outhouse.

Eid was very busy both nights as he had a big group of tourists who came into his other camp, but he would make it a point to drop by after and talk then spend the night. He would play the lute too.

Just some leftover pictures.

Their water cistern had wooden beams to indicate how much they had remaining.

Eid and I before he sent me off to the village to catch a cab to the airport. He said I was welcome back anytime for free! I think he felt more affinity for me being from a Muslim country. Even with my slit-eyes and lack of facial hair. More in common than Westerners, he said.

That’s it! Boarding the plane back to Doha and then Malaysia now. Protip: do NOT plan desert stays
- especially a homestay — as the last item on your schedule. I still had sand everywhere and hadn’t bathed since my last blog post. Travelling doesnt feel glam when you are in the airport washroom giving yourself a bath of wet wipes. On the bright side I smell like lavender now.