25/2/22
Had a hotel breakfast, which got bonus points for having birthday pancakes (a home tradition!), before we loaded up our minibus with stuff and heading across the road to a huge, blue mosque. We (us ladies) got dressed up in black cloaks and hijabs. Six weeks in Somaliland and Asha’s teaching gave me the best hijab tekkers out the group! Nancy wore a brown cloak with a hood and looked like some kind of vicar, which I enjoyed! Then we were ready and we headed inside the main building to start the tour. The mosque was very open and had a very elaborate domed ceiling with fancy lights and carvings in the walls. Husam, our guide, explained a lot about Islam, most of which I had heard on my previous mosque tour, but he also explained that alongside the Qu’ran, which says what you should do to be a good Muslim, there is another book which says how you should do it. For example, the Qu’ran says all Muslims should dress modestly, and the additional book breaks it down and says that for men, that means no shorts nor vests, while for women it means everything should be covered except your hands, face and feet. Husam emphasised that nowhere in Islam does it say that your face should be covered and that that is more of a cultural preference as supposed to a religious one. After the mosque, we headed to a square which Nancy and I had already been to for the others to see the Roman theatre there and we ran off to a cute cafe overlooking the square for coffee. When they were finished, we ran down to the square before we headed to the desert in the van.
It took around five hours to get to the desert so we made a couple of stops along the way. I had forgotten that when you go on tours/day trips on tourist buses, you stop at super pricey places for loos and drinks. At the first stop, I had a glorious karak chai, but at the second one, a small packet of crisps was £2 so I refrained, even though I was hungry! Luckily I remembered that I still had stocking snacks (cashews and cranberries) from ‘Santa’, which I munched on instead! There was a bronze coloured model camel the size of a cat for sale for £750, which our guide told me was a good price if you liked nice things! Ahahaha… Unsurprisingly, it’s still in the shop! We switched from our bus to two jeeps at the visitor centre and headed for our camp.
The desert was insaaane, with loads of red stone ridges meeting red, orange and white sand. The camp was very cute. We were each allocated a hut between two and there was a large chill out/dining room where sage tea was served. After tea, we headed out across the rocks to watch the sunset over Wadi Rum.
Back at the ranch, we were shown the traditional way Bedouins cook. They make a charcoal fire in a barrel, cover it with a steel lid and bury it in the sand. The food that came out of this was truly delicious!! After dinner, we played a game which I realised was the same as Avalon, but without the box!! When we headed back to the tent to sleep, the stars were insaaaane! I spotted Oriens Belt and my favourite which I had been looking for for the past two months but could not find, The Sosban.
26/2/22
Attempted to wake up for sunset – I ran out from the tent to survey the scene but the sky was not very impressive, so I headed back to bed. We woke to a knock at the door to say the walk was leaving in half an hour. We hurried out, breakfasted and then dressed up and brushed teeth! We set off on our walk at 09.00 and headed on a loop through multiple ridges of rocks until eventually we turned a corner to find one of the Bedouin camp hosts had set up a fire under an overhanging rock and had laid out a picnic mat and had prepared tea in a metal teapot. It was glorious. Husam brought out more Jordanian snacks and we tucked in to seconds of both tea and snacks before the fire was extinguished and we continued on on our walk. Each rock has a specific name and the Bedouin people use these rocks as meeting places since there are no cafes or shops to identify places. On returning to camp, I had a surprisingly glorious shower before we had lunch and then I read in the sun in a jumper or two, since it was so darn windy!!!
Our next plan was to do a jeep drive through the desert, which I thought would be tedious and I was tempted to say in the camp and sunbathe. Luckily, I gave it a chance and it was more like a desert jeep tour with lots of stops for panoramic views, canyons and ancient inscriptions in the rocks. It was most definitely worth it!!
We also stopped at the bottom of one the viewpoints at a cafe which served complimentary tea and did henna for free. The guy that did the henna refused to do the boys since henna is ‘not for men’. He also talked about how women should dress and how his wife wears a long black baggy dress (abaya) with a hijab and a niqab (veil) because he was worried that otherwise other men would look at her and then he would get jealous. Nancy and I both separately pointed out that this was a male problem which was not acknowledged at all. The guy said that to be fair to his wife, he would also not look at other women when he was out with his wife so she would also not get jealous – fair is fair, right?!?!
Back at the ranch, we chilled out for a bit before we headed back to our sunset rock and then had another desert feast. Husam told us about the following day and then Nancy headed to bed, before someone asked Husam a question about marriage and everything got a little intense. Husam was trying to convince us, and then more specifically me (after I disagreed) that being a Jordanian housewife was a good deal. Somehow we ended up talking about marriage and essentially division of responsibility across the world and I pointed out that even in Western culture it was typically the woman that took on more of the ‘work’ both around the house as well as regarding childcare. At this point, the Kiwi guy strongly disagreed with me and pretty much called me sexist for saying this and I had to reference maternity leave vs parental leave, the wage gap, the fact that fewer women are in higher powered jobs because they take more time out for their children. I was pleased that Lina, the American backed me up. Husam was also saying that Western men take women for ‘a ride’ since they date only for ‘one thing’ and have no intention of ever being committed to one woman. I also disagreed with this which did not go down well. Somehow the conversation ended not too badly and Alex, a friendly 18 year old smoothed things out for the group!
27/2/22
Tried again to get up for sunrise only to be underwhelmed from our bedroom window. Then we breakfasted and piled into the jeeps to drive out of the desert, meet our minibus which would then take us to Petra. We had a coffee pitstop on the way and one of the guys there promised the best coffee in Jordan. I was skeptical as services normally have dodgy coffee. I was pleasantly surprised with a good strong Americano. We stopped for a couple of view points on the way. It was a very windy affair!!
wanderingwelshie travels 