Aqaba Gulf Hotel

... to rest and warm up before taking the remaining steps up the mountain. Boyd&#8217;s T-shirt and fleece shirt are soaking wet and he changes into another outfit to stay warm. At 5:35, we make our final ascent and it takes about 10 minutes. We then position ourselves and wait for the sunrise for which everyone has anticipated and made the trek to see.<br> <br>The temperature at the top is very cold. There is frost on wooden chests at the rest areas and we estimate ...

... us to retrieve our passports. That part went pretty smoothly. We were waiting in line to fill out the swine flu health cards that are required upon entering all these countries and from way down the line someone comes to get me. I'd been on my best behavior, trying not to cough or look sick, I'd been feeling a lot better since the Red Sea but apparently I still had a fever because the heat sensing infrared device they were using pulled me out of the line ...

The Jordanians love their king &#8211; and I mean in a very obsessive way. They choose to have photos of him everywhere &#8211; shop windows, train stations, public buildings, houses, historical / tourist attractions, restaurants.... you get the idea. And speaking to the Jordanian people also shows how much respect they hold for the King &#8211; it seems both he and his father particularly have done a lot for the Jordanian people, and ...

... but for the carpets. An old man sat with us, and his son Nassar, maybe 15 years old, served us hot tea. After a while (and a trip to the outhouse--four cinderblock walls around a hole), we mounted the camels that awaited us outside, and the old Bedouin and Nassar led each of us on a long trek through a wadi (valley or riverbed) and up a hill to an amazing vista of the vast wilderness and the long line of mountains of various colors. We paused ...

... must have been at an ebb). We headed back down for lunch at Kherrad's mothers tent. She lives with his sister in the desert still. While most of the Wadi Rum Bedouins have moved from living in tents into stone houses in the little village, retaining their camps in the desert for occasional use - many older Bedouin prefer their way of life in the desert still. She had a typical large black tent made out of woven blankets, divided into the visitor's area, with ...

... my clothes that night!  The bathroom was a short hike but had running water and real toilets-no squatters here! I could now make it through the night and event knowing this.  Really. Dinner was grilled chicked, kebabs, salads, pita, and dessert.  All was very good and met a group of students from Austrailia that are studying Arabic in Amman, some locals and a few westerners.  By 9:30ish, we were dead tired so off to the room we went, read for a while and then zonked out.  What a day!!!!

... and camel treks in this area. YOu can even trek all the way to saudi arabia along the ancient camel trails used for the Haj to Mecca. It would have been a lot of fun to take in the desert at that pace for a week or so. But, as usual, we were on somewhat of a schedule and had to leave Wadi Rum to go back to Israel. We didn't expect to like Jordan, or the Jordanian people as much as we did, if we'd known we would have allocated more time. But then again, what would we cut out?

... the challenges of backpacking and while I've definitely encountered challenging circumstances so far, I'd rather go through the miserable lows in order to experience the great highs. This feels like a different trip has started and now I know why I travel. I want to go down by my own hand, and alternately, I want to earn my joys. There's a sense of personal accomplishment, accountability, and responsibility in both that leaves nothing but memorable experiences and times to grow from.

... immensity of the mountains produced a feeling of awe and we drove beneath them and through their shadows. As we contemplated the almost unearthly landscapes, the discussion in our truck turned from Lawrence of Arabia to the Sci-Fi book Dune by Frank Herbert. I didn't bring it up, but it was a favorite of mine when in High School, and I wondered if the inspiration for the book wasn't Wadi Rum. Our first stop was at a place where ancient carvings were ...

... its people, government or tourism policy and the political &amp; religious make-up of Jordanian society makes domestic terrorism exceptionally unlikely.'<br><br>Exceptionally unlikely. Now that's a lot more comforting than just a plain old 'unlikely.' So not only are you less likely, compared to Egypt, to die here as a result of getting run over by a maniac motorist, but you're also less likely to die as a result of any sort of terrorism or civil disorder. All of which is ...