I have a TON of pictures from the three places I went. I'm going to post them separately, or these posts will be forever long.
Thursday morning, I woke up after a really rocky night. It appeared I was going to be
sick the whole weekend. This weekend was the trip to Wadi Rum/Aqaba/Petra, and was
the last big deal that we were giong to experience as a group. I was really excited right
up until Wednesday night when I was up repeatedly with varying levels of sick.
Thursday morning, I met a couple of people from my building, and went to UJ to meet
the rest of CIEE. While at school, I started to feel a little bit better. I got on the bus, and
off we went.
We went first to Wadi Rum. This was a five hour drive from Amman. Part way through
they brought us to their favorite tourist trap, where we could buy trinkets and "old
stuff." After that, we continued on the journey for another twenty minutes before
we made another stop. They told us one of the other buses had a "minor" mechanical
problem. It was an oil leak, and after waiting a few minutes, they kept us going while
supposedly the other bus waited for more oil. As we passed this other bus, I saw a long
trail of dripped oil. I turned to my friend and pointed out that this bus is garbage, and
they had more serious problems then they were letting on.
When we arrived in Wadi Rum, we had lunch. It was going to be a long lunch while we
waited for the other bus. The other bus, however, didn't show up. They herded us into
4x4's with no bus in site.
They called these 4x4's Jeeps, but I don't think even one of them was a Jeep. Most were
Toyotas with som Nissans, and none were SUV's. They were all little tonka pick up
trucks, which had benches and shade set up in the back. They were old, and suprisingly
running, especially since our truck's driver door didn't even close. The guy was holding
the door for the first part of the drive while he tried to steer and shift.
We saw what looked like Moab or Coral Reef Canyon, combined with Little Sahara in Utah. It was beautiful, but really hot. They had described it as a 4x4 ride, but really it was a 4x4 stop every couple
minutes and sit around in the hot for half an hour. I was not really enjoying this part
of the trip because I was pretty bored. The only highlight was when we drove by the
Petroglyphs. They were 6k years old, and that was a timeless moment to imagine some
guy, as bored as I was, trying to etch into the mountain.
***
The 4x4 ride ended with an arrival at the camels. The camels were so cool. Many of the mother's had calved, and so there were adorable babies running along beside our little caravan. Most animals make really loud protesting noises when they are not happy. Camels make a noise like the velociraptors on Jurassic Park.
They didn't give us any instruction on how to ride them. They only told us to get on them, and then
the camel's stood up, ready to go. There were groups of camels tethered together, and
the front camel was led by a guy in Bedoin attire. All of the groups, except mine. I was
on the front camel and he handed me reins. Then he just chased after our little group whacking at the camels
with a stick. The saddle was really uncomfortable. It was more like a pack saddle with some blankets thrown on it. Camels move totally different than horses, with more of a pace then a normal walk, and the trot on a pack saddle was agony. it turns out, you are supposed to ride it like a side saddle, and it was only in the last minute of riding that we saw this. It was far more comfortable.
This tribe makes it money through tourism, and they clearly are so at home in the desert. Our guy started singing songs, and taught us one. He'd sing it and wait for us to repeat it, like when I was a kid in grade school.
The camels were so affectionate, and would drink from our water bottles. We waited at
the end of the trail for the sun to go down, and for that people from that other bus to show
up.
Hours had gone by since we left the other bus, but they still had not arrived. It turned out that a truck had overturned on the road to Wadi Rum, so they had been stuck in traffic for a very long time. It is unlikely they got to spend the time we did
experiencing things. I think they got to just be rushed through things when their bus finally
showed up. I'm really glad we had picked the bus that did NOT break down.
They finally caught up with us at sunset. It was beautiful.
Dinner was served at our campout site. This was a bunch of tents set up with
questionable wiring. I know it was questionable because when we wanted to go to
bed, we wanted to turn out our light. There was no switch, so we tried to unscrew the
lightbulb. In so doing, all the lights on our side of the camp shorted out. I don't know if
it is like Christmas tree lights, where one bad light screws everything up, but it will be
fun for them to try and redo the wiring.
The dinner was pretty good, but it was not the highlight of the evening. They had a guy
playing an Arabic mandolin, and a couple guys with drums. The live music was so cool.
They were singing, and then they started dancing. They got almost the entire population of students in the circle dancing too. They had people holding hands and doing what appeared to be a really simple country line dance, but was instead a traditional Bedouin one. It was so fun. When the music ended we sat around a fire drinking tea and watching for shooting stars. Many people smoked hooka, and ended up with bellyaches. I'm not really a fan, so I didn't get that experience.
Thursday morning, I woke up after a really rocky night. It appeared I was going to be
sick the whole weekend. This weekend was the trip to Wadi Rum/Aqaba/Petra, and was
the last big deal that we were giong to experience as a group. I was really excited right
up until Wednesday night when I was up repeatedly with varying levels of sick.
Thursday morning, I met a couple of people from my building, and went to UJ to meet
the rest of CIEE. While at school, I started to feel a little bit better. I got on the bus, and
off we went.
We went first to Wadi Rum. This was a five hour drive from Amman. Part way through
they brought us to their favorite tourist trap, where we could buy trinkets and "old
stuff." After that, we continued on the journey for another twenty minutes before
we made another stop. They told us one of the other buses had a "minor" mechanical
problem. It was an oil leak, and after waiting a few minutes, they kept us going while
supposedly the other bus waited for more oil. As we passed this other bus, I saw a long
trail of dripped oil. I turned to my friend and pointed out that this bus is garbage, and
they had more serious problems then they were letting on.
When we arrived in Wadi Rum, we had lunch. It was going to be a long lunch while we
waited for the other bus. The other bus, however, didn't show up. They herded us into
4x4's with no bus in site.
They called these 4x4's Jeeps, but I don't think even one of them was a Jeep. Most were
Toyotas with som Nissans, and none were SUV's. They were all little tonka pick up
trucks, which had benches and shade set up in the back. They were old, and suprisingly
running, especially since our truck's driver door didn't even close. The guy was holding
the door for the first part of the drive while he tried to steer and shift.
minutes and sit around in the hot for half an hour. I was not really enjoying this part
of the trip because I was pretty bored. The only highlight was when we drove by the
Petroglyphs. They were 6k years old, and that was a timeless moment to imagine some
guy, as bored as I was, trying to etch into the mountain.
***
They didn't give us any instruction on how to ride them. They only told us to get on them, and then
the camel's stood up, ready to go. There were groups of camels tethered together, and
the front camel was led by a guy in Bedoin attire. All of the groups, except mine. I was
on the front camel and he handed me reins. Then he just chased after our little group whacking at the camels
with a stick. The saddle was really uncomfortable. It was more like a pack saddle with some blankets thrown on it. Camels move totally different than horses, with more of a pace then a normal walk, and the trot on a pack saddle was agony. it turns out, you are supposed to ride it like a side saddle, and it was only in the last minute of riding that we saw this. It was far more comfortable.
This tribe makes it money through tourism, and they clearly are so at home in the desert. Our guy started singing songs, and taught us one. He'd sing it and wait for us to repeat it, like when I was a kid in grade school.
The camels were so affectionate, and would drink from our water bottles. We waited at
the end of the trail for the sun to go down, and for that people from that other bus to show
up.
Hours had gone by since we left the other bus, but they still had not arrived. It turned out that a truck had overturned on the road to Wadi Rum, so they had been stuck in traffic for a very long time. It is unlikely they got to spend the time we did
experiencing things. I think they got to just be rushed through things when their bus finally
showed up. I'm really glad we had picked the bus that did NOT break down.
They finally caught up with us at sunset. It was beautiful.
questionable wiring. I know it was questionable because when we wanted to go to
bed, we wanted to turn out our light. There was no switch, so we tried to unscrew the
lightbulb. In so doing, all the lights on our side of the camp shorted out. I don't know if
it is like Christmas tree lights, where one bad light screws everything up, but it will be
fun for them to try and redo the wiring.
playing an Arabic mandolin, and a couple guys with drums. The live music was so cool.
They were singing, and then they started dancing. They got almost the entire population of students in the circle dancing too. They had people holding hands and doing what appeared to be a really simple country line dance, but was instead a traditional Bedouin one. It was so fun. When the music ended we sat around a fire drinking tea and watching for shooting stars. Many people smoked hooka, and ended up with bellyaches. I'm not really a fan, so I didn't get that experience.
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