Crossing Jordan: From the City to the Wadi (Rum)

Saturday morning was our last morning in Amman.  Our packing process before checkout required some extra planning for this stage of our trip.  Our next three nights would be spent in tents in the middle of a massive red sand desert known as Wadi Rum, the location in which Laurence of Arabia traveled with the Bedouin and helped battle the Ottoman (the movie was actually filmed on location here as well).  When we ulimately "checked in" to the camp, we would need to get to our tent via a truck driving some distance through the desert from where we would leave our car, and the tent would be relatively small, so it would not make sense to bring all of our luggage with us.  Therefore, we separated three days worth of clothes and critical toiletries and placed those in separate bags to bring with us out to the tent. The rest of our luggage would remain in the car at the parking lot of the entrance to Wadi Rum.  (While this may seem risky, know that petty crime such as vehicle break ins, robberies, or theft are highly uncommon in Jordan, as with many countries in the middle east.)  We intended to start the day by showering, but unfortunately turned the "hot" water on and found it to be cold.  After realizing it was not going to improve an idea popped in my head.  There were 3 switches for the bathroom and we only determined what two of them did.  I examined the hot water heater, which was suspended up near the ceiling, and saw a red light on it.  I flipped the last of the 3 switches, and sure enough, the hot water heater light went out.  Yes, we had turned off our hot water the night before.  Now we had to make a decision.  Take a cold shower, or skip it and hope we can get a decent one at camp.  We decided to skip the shower. 

So with all of our luggage pre-separated, we packed up the car carefully to ensure that our bags for Wadi Rum were on top, and that we didn't accidentally shove anything into the other bags that we needed.  On our first trip down the elevator with the luggage, as soon as the door opened and we were about to step out in the tiny lobby, we realized the doorman was mopping the floor, and we had on dirty shoes. There was no way out of the elevator without stepping in his work, yet he of course urged us out of the elevator.  The result was a couple sets of muddy footprints across the floor.  We loaded those bags into the car, and went back for the remainder.  We continued to make a mess Walking across the floor on the way up and again on the way down, which the door man diligently cleaned each time.  One thing we noticed about Amman: while some of the aging infrastructure, and rocky landscape, and some broken sidewalks give the impression at first glance that it is not that clean of a city, after being there awhile you notice that there are city workers sweeping all over, and there is not much actual trash around, aside from a few dark alleyways or corners of vacant lots.  Furthermore, any of the shops that we walked into were continuously mopping up every stray footprint that people's wet shoes brought in with them.

Street Outside of NuFiftyTwo

After checking out, we headed over to a breakfast restaurant behind our hotel, and enjoyed some apple waffles, an omlette, and avocados and toast.  

Breakfast at The Bake House

Unfortunately, heading out into the city Saturday, the weather was only slightly better than the day before. It was still cold, still rainy, but at least it wasn't windy.  Our schedule was exceptionally tight with lots of driving, but only a few activities to see.  

Our first activity was to see Mount Nebo. This was the mountain that Moses was exiled to after shepherding the Israelites to the Promised Land. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, because he had let his faith waiver and doubted God. Instead, he was sentenced to live atop Mt. Nebo, looking over the promised land.  A memorial now sits on the top of the mountain. I had anticipated this would be a bit of a "check the box" site.  With the weather still raining, I began to think that we wouldn't be able to see anything with all the rain and clouds. However as we drove up closer to it, the clouds began to break apart, we were overwhelmed with the splendor and majesty of the view from atop the mountain.  The landscape swept far below us to the right on the Jordan side down to a valley called "Moses Spring".  Ahead of us we could see even further out to where the rolling hills of the Jordan Valley which led to the shores of the dead see which stretched far into the distance to the south, and across the dead see, the shores on the Israel side were visible with mountain ranges beyond.  The view was beyond incredible, and words can't describe it.  

Jordan from Mount Nebo

We pulled our selves away from the vantage points of the Promised Land, and went inside the tabernacle/memorial.  The original tabernacle had been built in the 5th Century, over the following years, it was added onto several times, enlarging it.  At one point, mosaics were created in the flooring throughout as well.  There is still a monastery that utilizes and maintains the grounds.

We spent quite a bit more time at Mt. Nebo than anticipated, and were now late in getting to the city of Madaba to do some wandering there.  We had a tight schedule since we needed to get to Wadi Rum (which was more than 4 hours away) and do so before it got dark.  Our plan in Madaba was to run through some of the "must see" items quickly, grab a nice lunch, and then head south. 

There is a large visitor center which has all sorts of resources for exploring the sights of the city, which are all close to each other, in the center.  Madaba is a center for the Christian population of Jordan.  When we stopped at the visitor center, I took a moment to run to the bathroom, and noted once again that its ceramic floor, was spotless when I walked in (tracking muddy footprints, as it was wet from the rain in Madaba).  

We began walking towards what seems to be considered the main attraction: St. George's Greek Orthodox Church, which has an ornate mosaic map on its floor.  We only made it a few feet from the shop however, when Aimee spotted a store selling mosaic art work.  We decided to stop in for a second.  The store was filled with hundreds of handcrafted pieces from small pictures to very large pictures as well as table tops and other pieces that used the signature mosaic art of Madaba.  The owner began talking to us and showing us how the pieces are made. 

Najd and Shahd Mosaics

This of course seemed to be a great place to find a piece of art that was clearly Jordan.  After spending quite a bit of time in the store, we ended up identifying a large beautiful and unique three demensional mosaic of Petra.  Unlike most of the others that had tiny pieces of stone making up the mosaic, this piece actually used polished large pieces to build the picture.  After lots of discussion we decided to purchase the item, and have it shipped to us.

Our New Mosaic

We mentioned to the shop owner that we were heading to Wadi Rum this evening and we had to get moving. He affirmed that yes, we would be cutting it close. We left his shop, and did the fastest tour ever of both the Church of the Beheading of St. John, as well as St. George's and the Mosaic Map.  

The Beheading of St. John the Baptist Church, Madaba

St. George's Greek Orthodox Church

Inside St. George's Church

Mosaic Map at St. George's

Unfortunately, we also did not have time to eat.  We tried to identify some food we could take with us, but didn't see anything and decided to hit the road and hope we'd come across something on the way.  As we headed out, we exited the city, still without finding any food.  After dozens of kilometers, and slowing down as we drove through every small town and populated area to try and find a store front that had food, we finally drove past a sign where I saw the word "grill".  Of course this far off the beaten path, and outside of the major city, English was not spoken at all.  We did what we could to express we were looking for something with chicken, and they pulled together two boxes of fresh chicken shwarma for us.  That hit the spot and was the perfect finger food for the next hour in the car.  

We had one quick stop planned for a picture at the edge of Wadi Mujeb, which is essentially the Grand Canyon of Jordan.  There was a vantage point for panoramic views that I had identified, and we drove there and jumped out to take a few pictures.  It also was breathtaking, though very different than the Mt. Nebo view.  It was mostly the gray color of the rock, but was incredible in its sheer depth and size.  After viewing it, we now had to snake along the highway which went from the top to the bottom on one side, and then up the other doing the same.

While I attempted to manage the complex twists and turns without causing the car to plummet off of the edge, Aimee was excited to come across several massive heards of sheep that were also maneuvering the narrow highway, with each herd we came across being led by a bedouin shepherd or two and a pack of dogs to help keep the sheep in line.  (It was ironic, as we were on our way to learn more about the traditional wasy of the bedouin to see so many of these shepherds looking at their iphones while managing the sheep along the road.) These flocks of sheep (or sheep parades as Aimee excitedly referred to them) may be the highlight of her trip so far.  Unfortuantely, each time she saw one, she would exclaim with such excitement that she almost scared me over the edge of the cliff.

Once on the other side, I noticed our GPS getting to Wadi Rum 45 minutes later than originally planned.  I did not know how well I could trust the GPS in its estimation, and feared that it may actually take much more time, so I did my best to, safely, increase my speed to get to our destination quicker and carve off a minute here and there.  Unfortunately, Jordan has a lot of large speed bumps every time you get into a residential area.  Some of these are mild, and some of these will just about launch you into the air when you accidentally hit them at 90 kph, and unfortunately many are completely unmarked.  I hit many of these pretty hard through our journey, and one time actually fishtailed a bit when I landed on the other side of one.  All was not for naught however since throughout the last 3 and a half hours of the trip, I noticed our estimated arrival getting earlier and earlier, ultimately getting us to Wadi Rum on time.  

We met up with our guide from Arabian Nights Rum at the appropriate spot and two young bedouin in their twenties or so grabbed our bags, threw them in the back of a pickup truck, and then told us we could climb up in the back as well.  Wadi Rum is warmer than Amman, but it is still unseasonably cold, and was probably in the 50s at that point.  While the scenery around us was stunning as they drove us through the red sand to our campground, it was quite cold  (Though still much less cold than the Citadel was the day before.  When we arrived at camp, one of the two guides jumped out of the truck and asked "did you survive?"

Apprehensive Aimee

Riding to Camp

At camp they quickly unloaded our bags showed us our tent, and asked us to accompany them to the main dining hall and community tent.  There the other campers slowly wandered in after their days' activities.  Some from Canada, a bunch from Manchester UK, Colorado, Austria, and a few other

Our Tent

places.  Shaker, who runs this particular camp also walked around and mingled with each of us and offered us tea.  A bit later, they announced that dinner would be removed from the zorb outside.  A zorb is a traditional Bedouin underground oven/pressure cooker built by digging a large hole in the ground in which coals are put in the bottom, racks of meat and vegetables are placed in racks over the top, the hole is covered with a metal pan and covered with sand for 2 hours. Once they removed all the sand, and a blanket that was also covering the lid, the zorb created a loud poof as the pressure inside released. 

View from Our Camp

When the chicken, potato, zuchini, and onion from the zorb was served, it was incredibly tender the Arabian Nights team laid out several dishes of bread, some cold cucumber dishes, (some with yogurt, some without), rice, and a few other items.  After dinner one of our bedouin hosts brought out an oud, which he had plugged into a small amp, and had a rhythm machine on his smartphone that provided some arabian beats for him to play and sing along with.  Several of the other hosts began dancing.  One of the hosts in particular who seemed to be much younger than the rest (perhaps 19-20) refused to dance, even with the rest of our hosts egging him on (most of the group here seemed to be in their 30s. I would guess that Shaker also was in his late 30s) he still refused to dance and was clearly self-consious from the attention. Our hosts tried to encourage several of the guests to come up and dance as well, which some of them did.  At one point, I believe it was Shaker, said to the several people from Manchester, "how about we now do your Euro-dance" at which point he and a few other of the Bedouin hosts began to do some awkward dance moves making some odd geometrical shapes with their arms, which brought out some laughter from everyone.

Zorb (Covered)

Zorb (food coming out)

Dinner Music on the Oud

After dinner, we headed back to our tent.  They had left us two very thick duvets, as well as a think fuzzy printed blanket.  Coming from the warm dining hall, walking into our tent provided a bit of a cold slap to the face.  It felt as if it was in the low 50s.  We climbed in, and bundled up under the blankets and did what we could to keep warm.  Aimee had a small knit cap which she couldn't get to keep on her head, so she tied a scarf around her head.  I opted to take her hat, as cute as it was, and used that myself.  Over the next hour, the tent got colder and colder.  The blankets actually did wonderful keeping us warm, as long as we didn't accidentally kick our feet out or let any space open between the blankets and the bed.  Our noses however grew exceptionally cold from breathing in the cold air.  

We both fell asleep and actually slept pretty well, until we woke up around 1 in the morning and we both had to use the bathroom from all the tea we drank.  The community bathroom unfortunately was about 50 yards from our tent, and required bundling up and going through the cold.  We both tried to convince ourselves we really didn't have to go and could wait until morning, but eventually we gave into our biology and had to make the cold journey.  Upon returning, we carefully reset the blankets to minimize the chance of any of our bodies not being insulated, climbed in and fell soundly asleep until our alarm woke us at 7 in the morning.