Monday was our second morning waking in Wadi Rum. We had fixed some of the issues with our bed setup from the previous night to try and keep ourselves comfortable, and honestly though the temperature in the tent was no higher than the low 40s, and quite possibly only in the upper 30s, we were actually exceptionally comfortable and warm under all the blankets. When the alarm rang, it was incredibly difficult to pull ourselves out of bed. We ended up hitting snooze several times, and waiting until the last minute to awaken. Once we did, we scrambled to get our morning tasks done, get breakfast and get ready for the day's adventure. At a few minutes before 10, we headed to the entrance of the camp to prepare to head out on today's tour. As we walked over there, Mousa came to us and asked we could move our things out of tent 6 and into tent 4. His explanation was that 4 will be better for you. We were honestly a bit annoyed, especially as we had just figured out how to get comfortable in our tent. Nonetheless, we gathered up all of our things in our tent, and moved them over to the other tent.
Our tour on this day was one we were fairly excited about. We didn't know a lot of details, but in summary we would be heading out to a more remote area to a Nomadic Bedouin family that still sticks to many of the traditional ways. (We also found it was the family of Mousa's sister). We were told it would be a fairly relaxing day, especially as compared to the previous day.
Aimee and I loaded into the truck along with Adrian and Danka from Poland. As we were driving through the cold desert air we engaged in small talk to learn a bit more about each other. Adrian ran his own business consulting to other corporations, and Danka worked for a multinational vehicle company. As we talked, our conversation quickly went to the events occurring in their neighboring country of the Ukraine. As it turns out, Adrian's family has actually opened their houses to refugees from the Ukraine. He stated that it was only women and children since all of the men have stayed behind to fight. It was also interesting that Adrian stated that there was not much of an expectation of Russia taking action prior to the announcement from the USA that Russia was planning an attack. He said that ultimately this was a tremendous boost to the credibility of the US. Hearing their perspective as their neighbors to the southeast get attacked, and the neighbors to the northeast have offered support to the attackers paints quite a frightening picture. Whereas life in Poland has been peaceful for many decades, they now face uncertainty in their future as Russia illustrates the extent of the brutality they will go to in order to flex their muscles. Adrian had an interesting take on the situation, speculating that Putin has had people telling him what he wants to hear for so long, that he really didn't understand what we was getting into and has sorely underestimated Ukraine's willingness and ability to defend itself. This was a fascinating discussion for me, but we were approaching the family's house with whom we'd be spending time today.
As we pulled up to a tent with the signature Bedouin black fabric with white stripes, we were greeted by an older Bedouin man named Mohammed that walked out of the tent with an exuberant "Hello, welcome, welcome, hello" with his hands outstretched towards us. As we all began dismounting from the back of the pickup truck, Mohammed continued to welcome us to his home. Mousa approached us and quietly began to provide some guidelines for the day. Men will stay in the front, only women in the back of the series of tents. Do not take any pictures of the women of the family. Meanwhile, Mohammed was doing everything he could to shut him up by talking over him from several feet away, "Enough, enough, I speak English. Everyone into the tent and its time for some tea. Let's go let's go. Who want's some Bedouin whiskey! Welcome to my home, welcome to Jordan!" If ever there was a living definition of 'gregarious' this was it right here.
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| Welcome to Mohammed's Tent |
Our entire group entered into the tent. We sat down, around a metal fireplace that took up the center of the tent. Mousa did his best to give us instructions of the Bedouin traditions around accepting coffee and tea. First the coffee was offered, in a tiny glass that held about an ounce. Then came the tea in what we were learning were the standard glasses in all Bedouin households: a small clear tea glass, (some with a small handle, some without) that held about an ounce and a half, maybe two ounces of tea. Mousa explained that you extend your cup to the host to request a refill, and when you have had your fill and emptied your glass, you extend the empty glass, and wiggle it side to side with your thumb and forefinger to indicate that you are done. He also explained that its important that you have at least 3 glasses.
After some relaxing in the tent, and quite a bit of tea, Mousa gathered us back into the truck to head out to the wide open desert in front of us, to check on the heard of goats and camel that were out there. Loading up into the truck, we noticed while there was a small rock formation behind the camp to the right and left was open desert about as far as the eye could see. Straight ahead of us and beyond the open desert, was a mountain range that seemed to span from the left to right continuously. A mile? maybe 2 or 3 miles? from where we stood.
We drove for only a couple minutes a little bit more than half way to the mountain range. Out here was a heard of sheep and a few dogs being tended to by a teenage boy. Mousa talked to the boy, and we got out and took some pictures of the animals. After a few minutes, we moved only about an eight of a mile to the west to a small herd of around 8 camels.
As we got out of the truck, and one of us approached the first camel, it adopted an unusual stance. As it was being petted, we realized it was peeing. We didn't think much of it until one of us went to a second one and pet it, and it began peeing. Third camel, same thing. One by one as each of the camels made its first interaction with us, it would urinate. I'm not sure the biological reasoning of this, but it did seem clear that this was the instinctual response to interacting with us.
While we were standing here, Mousa gave us a bit of a geography lesson of where we were standing. He pointed to the distant mountain peaks and told us that is Saudi Arabia. For some reason this really hit me. From the political standpoint, the diplomacy standpoint, and the cultural standpoint, Saudi Arabia has always had a bit of an untouchable mystique around it. I never imagined I could be so close that I could see it. And literally so close that I could actually physically walk there from where I was standing. (though there would likely be some sort of law enforcement that would make this an ill advised and futile endeavor where I to actually attempt it, even given the remote nature of this border.)
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| Distant Mountains are Saudi Arabia |
After some commiserating with the livestock, we returned to the tent, and of course enjoyed some more tea. At this point Aimee and Danka went off to the women's end of the camp. While the men remained, Mohammed's son Abdullah joined us. He appeared to be in his late teens. Unfortunately, the conversations became segmented based on language preferences. Mousa and Mohammed (and Abdullah to a certain extent) maintained their own conversation in Arabic, while Adrian and I discussed various elements of business and politics in English and while we tried to avoid the dark and emotional topic of current events in the Ukraine, we drifted back into this topic a couple times.
Meanwhile, Aimee and Danka were in the women's tent. It turns out the mother of this family was Mousa's sister. She and her daughter Joelle began prepping the lunch for the entire group. Mousa's sister did not speak any English however Joelle was fairly fluent. Much of what was prepared came was canned food including sardines, and corned beef has which was mixed with some beans and heated up. Hummus and bread was prepared as well. Joelle talked a little bit with Aimee and Danka, but several times was distracted by phone calls on her cell phone. At one point Joelle while helping went to open a can of tomato paste. While they did not have a can opener, one was not needed as Joelle took a very large knife, held it with one hand pointing on the top of the can, and took the can and the knife and slammed them somewhat violently onto a rock, and carved off the top of the can with the knife, without missing a beat. A final addition to the meal was some fresh goat's milk in a bowl.
Aimee and Danka sat somewhat awkwardly not knowing whether or how to offer to help, as Joelle and her mother seemed to have the process under control. Both of them ended up returning to the men's tent, a few minutes before the food was served.
As we were all gathered, the food was brought out and we all began to eat. Aimee doesn't eat beef, and it turned out that Danka was vegan, so the two of them limited their tasting to the dishes that were within their range of ingredients. I tasted most everything (except the sardines) including the goats milk. I've only had goats milk once in my life, about 35 years ago. I hated it. Nonetheless, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try fresh goats milk. I will say I still didn't like it. However, it did not have the pungent bitter taste I remembered from years ago. It tasted a bit like cow milk with a strong sour tinge to it, somewhat similar to yogurt. Mousa had poured me about 3 ounces, and I did make sure to finish the cup.
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| Me, Mousa, Mohammed, Abdullah, Adrian, and Aimee |
During lunch we talked a bit more. Mousa again referenced the acquaintance of his with 36 children that we disucussed the day before. Mohammed corrected him and let him know there were 38 children. I looked at Mousa in wonderment and asked: "He had two more last night??" We all got a good laugh out of this.
After this Mousa talked a bit more about himself. He is studying to become a nurse. As part of his studies he was sent to Aqaba, and expressed his dislike of trying to live in the city. He said the lights and noise were far too much for him, and he had to come back to the desert. Fortunately he said transportation is such that he can go back and forth to Aqaba for his classes, but stay in the desert. He continued to discuss the changes that have come to the Bedouin communities due to conveniences such as cars, the internet, and prepared foods. What used to be long travel by foot, trading with neighbors, and lacking communication has now been replaced with much easier access. He said this has certainly made life much easier for the families out here.
After lunch, we were basically left with free time. Similar to that one uncle that we each have that lacks any self awareness at parties, Mohammed laid down and fell asleep next to the fire. The rest of us checked our emails (since our camp did not have wi-fi, however Mohammed's tent did). Over the next couple hours, Aimee and I, and Danka and Adrian wandered the local area, and did some 'mini hiking'.
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| Enjoying a Short Walk in the Desert |
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| Taking in the View over Mohammed's Camp |
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| Mohammed's Camp from the Rocks |
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| Wadi Within Rock Formation |
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| Large Rock on the Left Looked Too Ominous |
I eventually returned to the camp, and the rest of our group began assembling as well. There was a bit of boredom setting in, which Mousa picked up on, and he offered to do anything we'd like to, whether it be continue to relax here, return to our camp, or go out and see more of Wadi Rum. After discussing amongst ourselves, we decided to see a bit more of Wadi Rum, but head back to the camp. The next 45 minutes was spent wandering Wadi Rum as we meandered back to our camp.
Upon arrival, we went through the same evening routine from the previous evenings. Shaker gave us the option to upgrade to his new "deluxe" tents complete with heat, private bathroom, and much more space (for a fee). I went and took a look at these tents, but told him we had personally committed to experiencing more of the "real" Bedouin experience while out here. Nonetheless these tents were incredibly impressive. The beds appeared to be larger than a US King size bed. The front of the tents were tall glass walls facing the mountains, with a large curtain that could cover them up. The bathrooms looked like they were right out of a 4 or 5 star hotel, with ceramic tile on the floor and walls, and double vessel sinks and a custom shower. I asked Shaker if the electric could handle a hair dryer, to which he said "No, please, that would take down the electric for the entire camp." I told him I figured that would be the answer. Ultimately I told him we'd keep our tent.
After dinner, which was quieter than previous nights due to a lighter crowd (and the fact that the oud player didn't return), and some sharing of interesting stories with other travelers we returned to our tent. We quickly realized why they had us switch tents. The new tent had a single mattress over two twin beds (unlike the previous tents which was two separate beds pushed up against each other) and the bedding was king sized, instead of twin sized which we turned sideways for us to share. While the air felt like this was the coldest of the 3 nights, the larger beds and linens allowed for a much more comfortable sleep. For the most part we slept all night (except that I had to get up once to make the cold journey to the bathroom.
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