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“Into Jordan we go” |
So we finally got out of Egypt. After sunning at Ras Shaitan we drove with some new Israeli friends to the tip of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea, entered Israel, had a guiness and a burger for dinner and then left our friends behind to cross into Jordan. It didn't take long since Israel only has about 10km of land sandwiched between Egypt and Jordan. In fact you can also see Saudi Arabia from this point so the 4 countries all stare at each other from a close vantage point here.
We were really able to let our guard down in Jordan after coming from Egypt. The streets are clean, you don't get a 1000% tourist markup price and people give you useful info about how to get to places instead of trying to redirect you to their cousins [insert business here]. Also prices are listed in many places so we don't have to bargain for everything.
After spending a night in the Red Sea town of Aqaba we headed for a tour of Wadi Rum, a fantastic desertscape that has huge rock formations rising out of the flat desert. It looks kind of like pictures of Utah. This was an area that Lawrence of Arabia spent a lot of time in and where the movie of his life was shot. Our Bedouin guide took us around the desert in a 4x4 stops where we could climb up the hills just for fun. We also spent the night at a camp in the desert. Probably the quietest night we've ever spent, as there are no animals, trees blowing in the wind etc. to make any noise at all. Complete silence.
Silence that is except for our camp manager (we were the only guests there), an Iraqi refugee who had led quite a comfortable life in Saddam's regime and left his family behind to flee the Americans and live a lonely life as a manager of a desert camp that is often empty. He told us stories about the 2 years he lived in North Korea and we talked politics. We heard quite a few interesting conspiracy theories which are accepted as fact here, such as the fact that there have actually been 35,000 American deaths and that Americans are responsible for all the Sunni vs. Shia suicide bombs in Iraq and Lebanon so they can divide and conquer. It was definitely an interesting night, and why I love travelling, to see how people interpret events across the planet.
previous travel blog entry
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