Wadi Rum Excursion

Another night of this trip was spent in the always quiet and ever beautiful desert. (The first was when I was in Morocco, before Marissa and I traveled to Turkey). It all started when a girl we had met our first night in Amman gave us the name and number of a Bedouin guide she knew that gave tours at Wadi Rum. She had such great things to say about her experience there that we started to think we should try it as well (even though it wasn't part of our original plan.) So when Sunday came around and we had to leave the apartment we were staying in, we decided it was a good time to get out of Amman and do some day trips. We called Freyes, the guide, and agreed on a time and (somewhat random) location to meet him at. We finally met him at the entrance to Rum village, and as Marissa and I were driving in his personal car and we past the empty Visitors Center I could already tell this was going to be a unique experience.

Wadi Rum and its famous red sand

Freyes took us to a house where we met our other guide, Abdullah, had lunch, and got prepared for our trip. Usually travelers get to tour the desert via jeep or camel and visit all of the special sites along the way. After a painful and quite recent experience on a camel in Morocco, I was quick to opt for the jeep. Our ride turned out to be something resembling a jeep, though looked more like a rusted and burned out 4x4 from 50 years ago. But, it worked! Or so we thought....

We quickly realized that it would just be Freyes, Abdullah, Marissa, and I for the next 12 hours, and it became a private tour through the desert. We headed out on the bumpy sand-paved trail and soon left all signs of civilization. It turned out great that it was only us on the trip, because we got to get out and stop whenever we wanted and take as many pictures as we liked...it was all up to us! We saw where the movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed, as well as the site where T.E. Lawrence supposedly lived. We also got to scale up a huge rock formation and climb to a natural bridge formed by 2 smaller rocks- a big scary at the time but it made for a great picture!

From up close and far away!

Finally we headed to camp because the keep wasn't working right (it already had stopped a few times and had a flat tire). We pulled at a camp site with 15 cabin/bungalows, a main tent, and bathrooms with actual toilets! and a shower! The cabin even had real beds and blankets...this was definitely not roughing it. After drinking tea and going for a walk, we did the only thing 2 Bedouin guys and 2 normal American girls would do in the desert: played Jenga! After game time we ate a huge dinner of rice, chicken, and salad, and went to sleep under the stars (yet fully covered in our cabin, of course.)

5 star cabins in the desert