Wadi Rum

            I’m back! I was originally planning on posting this last weekend but I got a little distracted with classes etc. Luckily I made notes for myself so I wouldn’t forget what I wanted to talk about! Thank you past me!!

            Once we arrived at Wadi Rum (and after a quick bathroom break) we unloaded from the bus and hopped onto a small fleet of 4×4 off-road vehicles for our tour of the desert. I sat with 9 other guys in the back of one vehicle and it quickly became obvious that we were the loudest and rowdiest of all of the cars. The Jordanians among us started a series of songs and call-and-response chants as we drove across the flat expanse of the desert. I’m still not exactly sure what I was saying, but it was fun. Or, well, it would’ve been fun but honestly I was pretty tired out from Petra and a little over-socialized and my introvert brain wanted a nice quiet drive, but that was not to be. Despite our enthusiasm and our chants of “Here we come! Here we come!” in Arabic, our vehicle ended up being the slowest and stalled halfway to our destination. No problem, we just hopped into a different car and arrived fashionably late.

            Our first stop was a big rock, which we climbed and took pictures on for 5 minutes before being summoned back down. Next stop: another rock! This one we settled down on for at least half an hour and watched one of the best sunsets in my life. It was beautiful to see the sky full of warm, vivid colors stretching over the deep red sands of the desert. I could have sat there for hours, given the chance. There’s so much space in Wadi Rum, it feels like everything has opened up around you and all of the pressures of life have less meaning there, it’s just you and the desert. What I wanted most in that moment was just to sit there by myself for a few hours, alone in the desert, and take in the calm and serenity. Even just sitting there for a half an hour had an impact, and not just on me: I noticed some teary eyes in the people around me as well.

            After the sunset, we took a short trip over to our camp for the night, right up against the cliff and facing the open desert. We slept in a series of shared cabins/tents with beds and solar-charged ceiling lights. By chance I was in the back of the group when we arrived and I got assigned a small cabin entirely to myself, unlike the larger 5-person cabins most people ended up with. While I might’ve missed out on some late-night socializing, I was pretty happy to have my own space to relax and collect myself.

            Once I was settled in I met up with some of my friends and we all laid down and looked at the stars together. I always forget just how beautiful the night sky is far away from the lights of the city, and tonight was no exception. As we laid there my friend Margot told us stories about the constellations (and not just Greek! But native American and Chinese stories as well). I wish I could share a picture of this one but it wouldn’t have shown up well on camera. Plus, it’s nice to ditch the camera sometimes and just appreciate the moment.

             We ate dinner outside in a courtyard of sort, with benches lining the edges. In addition to bread, salad, potatoes, and lentil soup we ate Zarb, a traditional Bedouin dish. To make Zarb you first dig a hole in the ground, put some hot coals in, place a rack filled with seasoned meet over the coals, then cover it tight and bury it with sand. After about an hour and a half, your meal is ready! It was truly delicious and it was accompanied by some of the sweetest tea I have ever tasted in my life.

            After we meal we brought the cushions down to the ground and sat around as our hosts put on a concert for us. (Side note: the campsite was run by Bedouins, an Arab ethnic group that traditionally lives a nomadic lifestyle. Nowadays, few live a truly nomadic life and many have begun administering camps for tourists such as us. However, many Jordanians who live in Amman are of Bedouin descent as well.) They played the Oud, an Arab fretless string instrument that is plucked like a guitar, and the drums, and we sat around and talked and danced and laughed until late in the night.

            At around midnight a group of us wandered into the desert to explore and stargaze some more. We watched the brilliant orange moon set over the horizon which revealed the milky way above us. I wanted to sit there and play with the sand and chat all night, but I was feeling quite worn out and my stomach was complaining to me, so at around 1 am I had to call it a night. My stomach had been a little upset for most of the trip, but on this night in particular I was thankful that I ended up with the single cabin because I required several trips to the bathroom. And, of course, every time I left I had to check my shoes for scorpions just in case. Not the most fun night I’ve had.

            That morning, after a quick breakfast and a few last pictures in the desert, we road our 4x4s back to the buses for our return to Amman. While I certainly wasn’t comfortable on the bus ride back, I didn’t have any accidents and for that I am thankful. We stopped for a late lunch in Amman before heading back to our apartments, which was one of the longest lunches I’ve ever experienced. That night I slept almost 11 hours, and that was after napping the entire 6 hours bus ride. Honestly, it’s been over 8 days since I arrived and today is the first day I feel more or less normal. Classes have been a little stressful and being sick hasn’t helped, but I’m feeling more on top of things and I am optimistic about the future.

            In conclusion, all three places we visited on our trip were wonderful and I would highly recommend a stop to anyone visiting in the region. My personal favorite was Petra, but most of my colleagues disagree and prefer Wadi Rum. I might’ve thought differently had I felt better at Wadi Rum, but even so it was a spectacular experience.

            As fort his week, we started our content courses and I’m very excited and nervous about them at the same time! I’ll probably take a break from my blog this coming weekend, but I’ll update you the following weekend after I finish midterms!