Stacey’s Mini-Extravaganza to the Middle East

Wadi Araba Desert

Expedition Wadi Araba minus Audi who is taking the picture

Desert

The original itinerary for this trip had me set to visit the protected area of Wadi Rum in the desert between Aqaba (the port of entry) and Petra.  The problem with Wadi Rum, indeed in all of Jordan, is that it’s not very well set-up for solo independent travelers.  There is very little public transport within the country and since Jordan is so small it’s easy to taxi around (though that can get very expensive when traveling alone).  In Wadi Rum, the standard tour is private and there are no group tours to be joined.  The procedure is that the Bedouin guides will pick you up at the visitor center and take you on a jeep tour, maybe do a hike or some camel-riding or rock-climbing and then you spend the night under a traditional goat-hair tent.  Sounds fun right?  Or at least something interesting to do for one night?

Flowing water in the desert?  Who knew?

Sami and Ali making the dam for the swimming hole

Chantel enjoying the swimming hole

Unfortunately, since I was traveling alone it was prohibitively expensive.  I could’ve offered to pay the rate for two people but that would’ve meant spending about $350 US for two days and that doesn’t even include transport costs to the site.  I was really hoping to find someone in my hostel who wanted to share a tour but that didn’t work out and when I polled the local travel agencies they were asking for over $500 for a day and a half!  So, I resolved that I would not get to spend the night in the desert after all until Sami and his friends said I could instead go to Wadi Araba with them.  To be sure, Wadi Araba isn’t as scenic as Wadi Rum but it’s much closer, has many fewer tourists and since I mostly wanted to sleep under the stars and a full moon I didn’t really care about the scenery.

Lunch: cheese, hummus, tuna and some unidentified meat.  We tore off pieces of soft bread and used it to pick up the food.

Fayed enjoying the water while Audi plays the flute in the background

After our hike we stopped for tea with some guys that Audi and Sami knew

I think these flowers are oleander?

A Bedouin family washing in the stream

Playing with the super macro setting on my camera

Goats are funny

So that is how I found myself on an expedition into the Wadi Araba desert with four Bedouin guides and one Belgian woman.  I met Sami about 9 am and while he went for supplies I hung out at his family’s house drinking tea and observing the Bedouin life.  Now is as good a time as any to return to the history of the local Bedouins so here is some background.  As we learned earlier, in the 1980s the Jordanian government removed the Bedouins who were still living in the caves in Petra and put them up in free housing near the village of Wadi Musa.  The houses are all quite large with lots of rooms as the families are big with lots of kids.  There are still 25 families that live in the caves and though I saw Sami’s personal cave I get the impression that pretty much everyone splits their time between the Bedouin village and their caves in the hills of Petra.  Sami said that the families are still allowed to remain in their caves as long as they’re not in the main tourist part of Petra and since the city is so large it is easy to find places far enough away from the tourists.  All the local Bedouins were given jobs within Petra mostly as tour guides, donkey drivers and the women and children sell jewelry and other goods.  Further, the men are likely to conduct longer tours and treks for tourists.  For example, the following week would find Sami and his friends on a 7-day trek with a group of Australians.

The moon over the mountains in the desert

Interestingly, the Bedouins all speak multiple languages: Arabic, English and their own dialect for sure but often French, Spanish and German as well from working with the tourists.  Even more interesting is that the vast majority of them are completely illiterate…they can’t read nor write in either Arabic or English.  This is starting to change as the younger kids attend the Bedouin school but Sami is 25 and says he’s never attended school.  He says he never wanted to attend school because afterwards you have to get a confining job and he wanted to be free and work in nature.  I wanted to point out that Ali (our jeep driver) could read, write, attended University and still ended up being free and working in nature but instead I said nothing.

So back to the desert trip.  While Sami and Ali were off getting supplies, I hung out drinking tea with Sami’s mom and sister.  I so wanted to take pictures of the house but it just seemed too rude.  The houses are quite large which really accentuates the fact that there is nearly no furniture.  There was a TV with stand in the main room but other than that the house was empty save for some gaudy silk flower decorations and a few family photos.  When they want to sit down they grab a thin mattress to sit on and everyone sits on the floor and drinks tea or eats.  I suppose if you never had furniture in a cave why would you need it in the house?

Sunset in the desert.  Unfortunately I never got a decent shot of the moon once it was dark.

Sand dunes

More sand…

By mid-morning we set off for the desert and our first stop was near some free-flowing water where Sami and Ali built a little dam to create a small swimming hole for everyone to cool off in.  Now, I imagine if you grew up in the desert then this body of water would seem like a reasonably significant swimming hole though to me it was little more than a puddle.  Since it was only big enough for one of us at a time I opted to just stick my feet in.  Still, it was cool and refreshing and we had lunch there and took an afternoon hike and relaxed into the afternoon on our little mattresses.

By late afternoon, we headed out again towards the sand dunes where the guides said the best sunsets are to be seen.  The sand dunes were fun to play in…kind of like snow but  warmer.  We climbed up them and slid down them and generally had a blast waiting for the sunset and for the guides to make dinner over the fire.  After dinner we sat around the fire drinking gin and orange soda before falling asleep on our mattresses under the full moon and the stars.  It was surprisingly warm in the desert at night…I expected it to be cold after the sun went down but it was probably 2 am before I needed the blanket.  We were up early the next day as Chantel (the Belgian woman) needed to catch a flight and I needed to meet Celestino as we were sharing a taxi up the King’s Highway to my final destination:  Madaba.  One last post from Jordan and we will finally be all caught up.  Stay tuned for the last and final post here on the Mini-Extravaganza…

Ali the university-educated-Jeep-driving Bedouin.  Any guesses on his age?  42 if you can believe it…Bedouin life can be harsh

Our meal made over the fire…chicken with tomatoes, potatoes and onions.  Yummy.

The Monastery

On Day 2 in Petra I got up bright and early to miss the massive tour groups and even though I didn’t begin my climb to the Monastery until 9 am I was one of only about five people at the top which was fantastic.  At the bottom of the hill the local Bedouins will try to rent you an “air-conditioned taxi” (or a donkey to the rest of us) saying that the donkey will get you there in 20 minutes and walking is 1 hour.  I suspect that’s a bit of salesmanship on their part as it only took me 25 minutes to walk to the top.  Admittedly it’s about 900 steps and straight up the mountain but it wasn’t too bad as Petra isn’t nearly as hot as Egypt is in May.

 An air-conditioned taxi

Views on the hike up to the Monastery

 Close-up of the Monastery

 The urn on top of the Monastery

 More close-ups of the Monastery: the doorway is about 2 stories high

 And again…

After finally reaching the top, the Monastery spreads out before you surrounded by amazing scenery.  The Monastery is considered to be the most awe-inspiring monument in Petra and while it is not as well preserved as the Treasury, it is much larger though less ornate.  The Monastery (a misnomer for sure) was likely a temple and the original complex probably had walls around the front yard to contain the crowds who would gather there.  If you walk past the Monastery a bit you’ll find some amazing views of Petra, Wadi Musa, Wadi Araba (the desert) and of Israel.  I’ve included some of those views here.

 Temple of some variety

 Views over the Wadi Araba Desert and Israel is in the distance

 Some cute goats across the valley…

 …who arrived to attack me 10 minutes later as I was eating an apple.

On the way down I ran into my new friend Celestino taking a mule to the Monastery with a Bedouin guide.  Sami, the guide would ultimately be my guide into the desert of Wadi Araba the next day but more on this later.  Here are Celestino and Sami:

 En route to the Monastery: Celestino and Sami

 Near the Monastery

I headed back up towards the theater to do the walk up the mountain to the High Place of Sacrifice.  The walk was steep but short and you are rewarded with more views over  the valleys.  I’ve included pictures here of the sacrificial area as well as the views over the rest of Petra.  Descending down the other side of the mountain you come upon quite a few interesting sites including more tombs and caves…some of the caves are still occupied by local Bedouins.  Of interest here is the one tomb in all of Petra to have ornate carvings on the inside…all the rest of the tombs simply have flat walls and no columns.  Also, a recent excavation yielded about a dozen graves in one of the tombs.  All of the graves had been previously looted but they did find bone fragments and other assorted items you might find in a grave.

 Views of the Royal Tombs from above at the High Place of Sacrifice

 More caves: just in case anyone is wondering, the caves and the buildings of Petra universally smell of urine.

 Place of sacrifice at the top of the mountain

 Steps down from the High Place of Sacrifice

 More examples of the rock coloring

 Soldier’s Tomb

 Inside the Soldier’s Tomb looking out

 The only building in Petra with carvings on the inside

 Tomb with graves found inside

After the climb to the High Place of Sacrifice I was considering if I should do the last climb of the day…one that is up to the mountain across from the Treasury so you get to see the Treasury from above.  As I was walking back towards the the Petra gate I ran into Sami again and he offered to take me up to the view of the Treasury.  As it turns out, his cave is on the hike to the Treasury overlook so I got to see where he lives and take some good pictures of the Treasury from a different angle.  On our way down the mountain we ran into a couple of other Bedouin guides who said they were taking a Belgian woman on a desert tour the next day and if I was interested I could join them.  This was fortuitous as I had at this point given up the idea of spending the night in the desert of Wadi Rum as it is prohibitively expensive when traveling alone.  More on all of this in tomorrow’s post.  After today’s third Petra post I have two more to share:  my trip to the desert of Wadi Araba as well as an assortment of items from northern Jordan including a float in the Dead Sea and a visit to the castle of Ajloun and the Roman ruins of Jerash so stay tuned for those as we wrap things up here at the Mini-Extravaganza.

 View of the Treasury from above

 Sami giving Stacey a mild cardiac episode on the edge of the cliff

The Treasury

The Siq

Caves and building from Little Petra

St. Katherine's Monastery

View of the garden and cemetery

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The Canyon