Day 165 - Wadi Rum - Bedouin Camp

I guess we have a new member in the tour.

Saturday, December 15th, 2018.

Today we took a taxi Wadi Rum. I have to say that I’m actually excited to spend the night at the desert in a Bedouin camp. Today, of course, the day we left, I got an email saying that they had my package. Luckily, our taxi driver -- the same one who had taken us to South Beach -- agreed to take us from Wadi Rum to Petra and he will bring the package. I always worry so much for nothing. You'd think I would have learned the lesson by now, but no.

Anyway, we arrived at Wadi Rum and the taxi driver stopped outside a house. We were not sure why but then he told us that it was his friend (they all have a "friend") and that we could stay in their camp. We explained to him that we already had reservations with another camp that we had made online. We had an interesting time at the house. They invited us to negotiate in their courtyard.

TIP: do not reserve ahead of time unless you have free cancelation. Go directly to the visitor's center. Do NOT let the driver go in for you! At the visitor's center, the staff can arrange accommodation, tours, etc. for a better price than you can get.

We sat on carpets and cushions and drank tea. Daniel was thrilled to get refills of sweet sage tea. We honestly didn’t know what to do but we decided to go with our driver's recommendation because we just trusted him more than booking.com but these guys were having a heated discussion. Even if the chief said it was “no problem”, I noticed how mad the other guy was for offering us to stay with them when we had already booked with them.

In the end, we told them that we wanted to do the right thing and not fight and we went back with our original booking. While the negotiations were going on between Gregory and the Bedouin, the chief offered me a camel for Sunshine to marry his 17-year-old. Sunshine thought he was kidding. I'm not so sure.

The adventure started. I thought they were going to take us to our camp first to drop our suitcases and get ready for the excursion. That's not the way they do things here! [Gregory's edit: They loaded our suitcases in the back seat of the old pickup truck and we sat in the bed where they had installed cushioned benches and a metal rack, like the police cars in Mexico. Sounds backwards, I know -- isn't the luggage supposed to go in the bed and the people inside? Well, I guess it's more exciting to sit in back to get the full experience and a better view.]

The driver, Abdullah, took us on a three-hour tour. We bumped up and jostled our way to see different sites like Lawrence's Spring, a hidden Nabatean spring, a huge red sand dune, the White Desert, and more. We were fascinated to see the beautiful landscape, the camels, the mountains. It was all breathtaking and fun, especially when we climbed the dune of fine, red sand! [Gregory's note: the sand here is so red, they filed The Martian here.]

We stopped for a break and to eat our lunches (that we had bought in Aqaba) in a Bedouin tent by a natural bridge. There, we met two Mexican girls traveling by themselves. Both of them studying masters in different countries, Israel and Berlin. I’m just so happy that Sunshine is seeing all the different choices that she can make in life and not settle and marry young! [Gregory's note: huh???]

We continued the tour. I have to say that I was done after two hours and all that bumping in the back of the car was making me sick. I was also worried because Gregory hit his head really hard on one of those bumps and had a big bruise. I was thinking, what will I do if he has a concussion? He was calm and said that everything was OK. [Gregory's note: of course, if I'd had a concussion, I probably would have been saying that I was OK, too. Luckily, its hard to get anything through my thick skull.]

We arrived at our camp around 3:30pm. They showed us our large family tent, simple but cozy. Inside they were dark and warm -- the wool kept out the cold and wind but the windows were just flaps of wool and they only turn on the lights for a few hours each day.

The bathrooms were actually very decent and clean! They were stone buildings built into the living rock. I got prepared for the night, took off my contacts, put more layers to warm up and then I caught up with my family, who had climbed up the side of the cliff to watch the sunset. It was so peaceful and magical. We didn’t see the sunset because a large rock blocked it but we saw the colorful sky, After that, it really got chilly and started to get dark.

We sat in the dark in the main tent, waiting for someone to make a fire or turn on the electricity. We told each other silly stories. Finally, by 5:00pm, some Bedouins arrived to start the fire and turned on the electricity. Dinner was served at 6. We had typical Bedouin dishes, including the hot dishes that were cooked underground: chicken with potatoes and vegetables. It was delicious. We also ate cucumber with yogurt, yellow rice, eggplant, hummus, baklava, and hot tea. It was a feast.

Afterward, they played music on a mandolin and a drum. There were 2 other couples, from Lithuania and the Czech Republic, 1 solo traveler from London, and 6 Chinese, who sat by themselves and excused themselves right after supper. After the music was over, we had a good time chatting with other guests. The lights went out at 10:00pm and that’s when we went to bed. I was happy to finally use my cocoon (light sleeping bag) and my pillowcase. It didn’t seem dirty but just in case.

Oh, I almost forgot to say that the sky was incredible. Not as many stars as I had imagined because the moon was so bright, but in the dark, you could really see a starry night! It was magical to sleep in the desert!