Day 18: Wadi Rum, Petra by Candlelight
Trip Start
May 14, 2008
1
20
42
Trip End
Jun 17, 2008
Wadi Rum,
Jordan
Monday, June 2, 2008
We walk over to the resident camel and try to get to know it. He seems more interested in any food we might have in our hands and when there isn't any, he tries to eat my fleece hoodie!
We wash up and one of the young men must have heard us stirring, because he has made hot tea and laid out our breakfast. We sit and eat our pita, hummus, hard boiled egg, and jam. Harvey and the young man review Arabic words together.
Right on time, our Bedouin guide arrives
Our Bedouin Tent
. We get our backpacks together and are ready to go. Fortunately before getting in the car, Harvey asks for bottles of water for the day. If we had not asked, we would not have had any water until reaching Petra; it turns out our guide did not have any for us! So lesson learned: always make sure you have enough water before starting any outing! And drink a LOT! We wave goodbye to the lively friendly young men of Camp Kutaish. It was a good time.Just a short distance from the camp, our guide, Defalah, shows us a concrete stanchion that he says is the border of Wadi Rum. He says that only Bedouin of Wadi Rum can guide in Wadi Rum now. He proceeds to denigrate the nice young men who have cared for us. "They are uneducated trash from the Dead Sea. They are not Bedouin. They spend all the money they earn on nonsense and never succeed in school." Apparently there is some prejudice among different groups of people in this country. By the end of the day we realized that the "uneducated trash" are definitely good guys.
Defalah takes us to some really neat rock formations and desert landscapes. We see canyons, mountains, a very old olive tree, red sand dunes, and ancient camel inscriptions. He did some tracking of ibex, fox, lizard and snake (fortunately, we didn't see the snake)
Dawn just outside our camp
. Defalah seeks out shade and suggests some good photo ops and exposures. I am really enjoying the larger than life landscape. The sandstone being a soft stone has taken on all sorts of shapes from the driving wind mixed with sand. Standing at the base of these rock formations, we feel so small. Defalah is more like a driver than a guide. There's not much commentary that is volunteered. He offers some brief comment and then points to where we should look. Sometimes he walks with us from the car to a particular spot, and sometimes he points the way and lies down in the shade and waits for our return. We ask questions and Harvey engages him in a political discussion. We gather that Bedouins are very clan oriented and look at issues from a clan perspective, not a broader one. They are a culture in transition. Some live in tents, others in towns like Wadi Rum whose paved roads morph into desert (see photos). They are not farmers but have goats and camels. By only allowing Bedouin of Wadi Rum to guide in Wadi Rum, there is the potential to grow tourism as a means of income. Defalah asks questions about the camp we stayed in last night, which is evidently just outside the border of Wadi Rum; he is not very complimentary of the owner whom he says is a Palestinian from Aqaba who doesn't pay his staff.
About 10:30 AM, Defalah asks us when we want to go to Petra
Rock glyphs
. He says that we set our own schedule. He says usually people come to Wadi Rum for a few hours around 10 or 11 AM, after passing through Jordan customs in the morning, on their way to Petra. He is basically done with us. It is at this time that I realize that our itinerary is not in my backpack but with the driving maps that we left at the Eilat tour office; I had used the itinerary on Sunday morning to find the car rental location and I had not put it in my backpack when we returned the car. I had failed on our check-check double check when we put the bags in the tour office! This is a lesson that I appear to need to relearn: always have your itinerary and confirmations with you! We ask Defalah to call Desert Eco Tours who has made our arrangements. Desert Eco Tours tells him that we are to be meeting the driver to Petra at 3:30PM. Defalah now has to figure out what to do with us. We make another stop and then go to his camp that is under construction by his son and some other men. We now understand his questions about last night's camp; he was checking out the competition! He shows us the sitting & sleeping area in the shade in an open cave and shows us the toilets and showers that are under construction. Thank goodness Desert Eco Tours didn't book us here last night.
We are invited to sit down in the shade of the mountain
Very old tree
. Defalah goes off and yells at the men doing the construction. It's noisy and dirty. At some point, he comes back and asks if we want lunch. We say fine. After some time, a lamb dish with rice, fresh cucumbers & tomatoes is brought over to us. No offer of tea or anything to drink with it. We sit some more with the construction noise in the background. Someone finally offers us tea. Defalah joins us, eats and then lies down to take a nap. Maybe this is what you do in the desert in the heat of the afternoon? The young men at our Bedouin camp last night also told us that they stay up at night and nap during the day. Maybe this is the way of the desert? But we're tourists with limited time here. Harvey & I are just looking at each other in wonderment. After some time, we start to walk around and talk, figuring that Defalah will get the message that it's time to move on.He finally does, and he takes us to a sand dune and then a canyon, that is evidently on everyone's itinerary as it is so close to the Visitor's Center that we never visited. Here we hear an Abercrombie and Kent private guide explaining the history and the glyphs. This really highlighted the weakness of our guide. We are not sure how it is that the A&K man was guiding, since he clearly wasn't a Bedouin...maybe he couldn't go further into Wadi Rum? Anyway, we continue on to meet our driver at 3:30 PM in the town of Wadi Rum. At Defalah's home, there is a driver waiting for us to take us to our hotel in Petra. John is his name and we are very glad to meet him.
We doze in the two hour car ride to our Petra hotel. Along the way, John honks and waves at a truck driver that is his cousin. He stops the car at a scenic overlook where we see Petra in the distance and the King's uncle's estate
Treasury Building at Petra by Night
. We arrive at our hotel and John says he'll be back to pick us up for the Petra by Candlelight tour at 8 PM. We check into the Taybet Zaman Hotel and are relieved to see a nice room and learn they have a Turkish bath. We make reservations right away! We haven't been to one, but the idea of getting the sand out of our pores is very appealing.
The Turkish bath is just like the movie in Akko but co-ed. This is just so cool! This is the real thing and we're here doing it! We walk in with our bathing suits on, covered by our robes. The young twenty something male attendant uses hand gestures and smiles to show us to the changing room where he hands us wooden sandals and we put our stuff in the lockers. We follow him to a lounge room that has upholstered seating with a Bedouin motif and big pillows. We wait until he comes for us and takes us into the steam room. I'm following behind Harvey and it is so steamy it's hard to see; he holds my hand as we follow the attendant. There are these side rooms off the master steam room. In the corner is a built in sink with running water and two brass bowls. We're getting really hot, which is the idea, when Harvey figures out that we can use those brass bowls to pore cold water over us. Luscious! This moist heat just feels so good
Bedouin flutist at Petra by Night
! After some time, we wonder if we are supposed to wait until the attendant comes or come out after a certain period of time. We wait and cook some more. The attendant does come and waves us to follow him. We're now in another room, fully tiled with marble, and he directs Harvey to sit on the floor facing him. He has this big brass bowl filled with water and suds. He takes his sponge and directs Harvey to hold out his arms. For the next ten minutes, Harvey is rubbed, dubbed, scrubbed and massaged from finger to shoulder, chest to toe, and on his back and neck. I'm next! Afterward the attendant takes us to a cold shower. In a short time, the attendant comes back for us and we stand as he dries us off and wraps a fresh dry towel around each of us. We are escorted to the original lounge, this time the fountain is going and we are offered tea. We just melt into the cushions! Now, this is heaven! What a discovery! If you have an opportunity for a real Turkish bath, jump at it! It's more of an event than simply having a massage.When we return to our room, we notice that the temperature is not cooling down. We ask to have the air conditioning checked while we are out for the evening. Dinner is in an old candlelight room with a beautiful décor and good food and service. It is a very romantic setting, and just perfect.
We are on time to meet John, our driver for our 8 PM pickup for the Petra by Candlelight evening. We learn that there is another couple who is also going to be with us, so we use the time to call Mohammed at the Jordan tour office to find out our pick up time for the morning. While on the phone with him, he mentions that there is a change of plans and that we will not be camping tomorrow night but we will have another night at Taybet Zaman. Harvey & I are glad to hear this because we really like this charming hotel and prefer it to camping. We have seen the desert skies and although they were the best we had ever seen, we are happy to have our creature comforts!
We meet Bob and Barbara, also with Desert Eco Tours, on the drive to Petra. They also had spent the day with a guide in Wadi Rum. We compare notes and we both had a similar experience in that there was very little conversation or information unless they asked. We come to the conclusion that it's possible that the laws really had recently changed to give the Bedouin exclusive guiding rights in Wadi Rum. If this is the case, I'd pass on that section of the trip until they adapt to western expectations. It's fine to experience local customs, but when you are paying for a private guide they should provide some information (and in our case, not take care of personal business and take a nap).
We had specifically scheduled our trip so that we could be in Petra on either a Monday or Thursday night when they offer the two-hour Candlelight Tour. And we are so glad that we did! The walk to the Treasury is completely enshrouded with the dark of night. The path is marked by dimly lit candles that are covered with paper bags. It's quite a long walk on an uneven surface and it is hard to see, so you need to be sure to wear comfortable closed toe shoes. In front of the Treasury building, there are multiple rows of candles and colored subdued lighting on the building itself. We are directed to sit on mats, given tea and before long the performance begins. There is a Bedouin singer playing on a traditional string instrument and then a flutist. As we listen, we lie back on the mat and stare up at the evening sky that is filled with stars. It is exotic, romantic, beautiful, mysterious, hypnotic, mystical, sensational, calming all at once. At the end of the performance we are asked to be silent for three minutes. I don't want to break the spell! We start the walk back through the canyon. It was an exceptional dinner and evening experience! A real highlight. Magical.
When we get back to our room, we find that the air conditioning is not fixed. The front desk attendant, who is due to go off shift in a few minutes, is very accommodating and switches our room. We only have our backpacks, so it is very easy. In our new room, the air conditioning is cool and we were ready to climb into bed! It becomes clear, however, that this room has a problem toilet that doesn't want to stop. It is also next to the main air conditioning unit for the hotel. Harvey plays plumber, as in turning off the water to the toilet, and we are able to go to sleep.
At 4:00 in the morning, we can hear the call to prayer from multiple mosques. That is a new sound for us. It is something that we would need to get used to.
Click here for today's photos!
