WADI RUM!
Wake up early, fix up car and head off for Wadi Rum. The car ride was suffocating. There were 6 of us in the long
long drive, and I sat squished beside a pregnant lady.
We arrive at the visitors centre dirty and exhausted. I'm not going to retell what happened but a sympathetic man
offered us his "hostel" for a cheap enough price so we accepted.
He drove us in his cool truck (which had shelthered seating in the trailor where he sat) to his home where we picked figs
and he avoided to take us. We asked a few times if we could go and he said we couldn't go there yet.
We just wanted a shower and bed.
Evntually he takes us, and I can barely appreciate the exquisite scenery of Wadi Rum. Oh my God, like nothing else. But
I'm so dirty.
We stop in a beautiful location, deserted in the desert beside incredible rocks.
We realize why he'd avoided to take us. In the middle of the desert, the camp has no shade.
The series of tents are rooms, and they're boiling. The loung room tent is all packed up, still very hot, and like the
tents very dark without lights. The place was closed down, it seemed. We discovered dirty beds.
'Clean sheets?' we asked him. He took us from room to room. The layers of dirt on the sheets
became increasingly worse. 'Changed them yesterday' he said. We shook them and said "dirty!". 'Changed them last week,
no tourists since then'. We left it; he was using language against us and it was draining.
The toilet had no toilet paper, then it stopped flushing, and the bucket had a hole.
'Yes. Yes.' he said as we explained it to him. I don't think he owned the place, honestly, but I think he thought
taking us would both help us and him. Altogether not a bad idea. He was just not very hospitable.
But we had an abandonned hostel to ourselves, and that was pretty chill. Enjoyed the sun set, pinks and blues. His wife
we'd met the day before cooked us dinner. Mansaf! So he had lied when he said he knew what vegetarian meant.
For the fifth time that week we ate chicken. I actually really liked it.
So beduins have lived out in Wadi Rum for centuries but now, like Petra, they live in the village and it's a tourist
attraction.
The village seems quite poor and no shops offered fresh food.
The guy who took us to "his" camp offered us a cheap tour of Wadi Rum which we accepted. After waking up to no
shade, we schedual the drive for as soon as possible. You have to hire a car (or a camel) to tour Wadi Rum,
see. Don't think us lazy. We climbed up a canyon, admired many Nabatean inscriptions
(camels, feet, a map etc), and watched Andrew climb up sand dunes. But the rocks. Holy Moly. and the blue! The sky was vibrating with the bluest
blue I've ever seen against the hot orange sand. I also visited Laurence of Arabia's house. Oooohhhhhhh.
Back at the camp we wait for dinner and play games lazily on our mattresses, relocating with the shade of the rocks
every so often.
Same dinner Tonight but this time the chicken was cooked with the rice! Oooooooh. We laugh. We've become very close friends.
The friendships made been a real highlight thus far. The stars here are incredible and I've learnt quite a few constallations
now, more than I know from Australia's side of the sky anyway.
Next day
Wake up at 6 for yesterdays breakfast leftovers before we take the 7 oclock bus to Aqaba.
The bus is already packed, with three people on two person seats, when it stops. I lower my gaze as we drag huge bags in
and block any traffic along the aisle.
The bus driver's very casual about it all and seems to be having many conversations at once with the men around him.
We arrive, find the cheapest hostel and as everyone sleeps I sit here updating my bloggaroo.
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