Going on from Egypt, four of us from the group went onto Jordan, to meet up with the new group that evening. We went out to dinner and then to the bottle-o, as we were going to Wadi Rum desert the next morning.
The only reason why I knew of Wadi Rum was because it was where the film ‘The Martian’ was filmed, where the character Matt Damon plays gets stranded on Mars. It was a four hour drive before getting to the camp, watching the sunset and having dinner cooked for us. It was cooked in a traditional Bedouin way, buried underground with coals, though every time the guide mentioned Bedouins, I thought he was saying penguins and I was trying to work out why penguins were in the desert.
In the desert we went on what was branded as a 14km trek, and there were a couple of people in the group I was thinking would crack the shits. As it was mainly flat, it wasn’t too bad apart from one uphill bit back to the camp.
The following day we moved onto Petra, and was told that the site was a two minute walk from the hotel. The two minute walk was to the entrance then a further 20 minutes from the treasury, with horses in carriages running up and down, proving to be very dangerous. I had quite possibly the best view with a lunch that I’ve had, in front of the treasury then had a guided tour around the whole site. For dinner we went to a lady’s house to have a homecooked meal.
After that, we had one full day to ourselves in Petra, where the group woke up early to hike up to the monastery with some cats and dogs following at times. People actually opt to ride donkeys to the top which is something like at least 900 uphill steps, a journey which took me around an hour. I think it’s incredibly cruel that these animals are used in this way, as though they are a price tag and not a living creature. I tried to make space for two people on donkeys, side by side on a narrow path on the edge of the cliff. Bearing in mind that health and safety here isn’t like back home, and had one of the people on a donkey saying “beep beep get out of our way” whilst I was stood on the side of a cliff. I did give a shitty reply, but I wish I asked them if they wanted me to beep beep out of their way off the side of a cliff.
I think we ended up walking 16km during the day, with a choice as to whether or not to go and see the Petra by Night. Most people could not be arsed to do the walk back up again, and therefore few people went, but by the sounds of it I’m glad I didn’t go. That night we went out for dinner, where for some reason our food came up on these big gold box platters, which were like a smaller version of King Tut’s tomb.
Following this, we went to Madaba, to stop in the Dead Sea. For me, it was something that I just could not be arsed to do, and I didn’t really feel the need to smother myself in mud that hundreds of other people have used to do the same prior, and then lay in water and get bored after not even five minutes. I just didn’t feel the need to do it. Instead, I had a coffee with someone else in the group and placed bets on who we thought would be first and last up.
During the evening we went to the Moses Memorial – perhaps a bit wasted on me considering my grade G in my GCSE RE exam, but is quite a nice site regardless of how into religion you are, and we had a really nice sunset. The next day we went to Jerash, with the largest intact Roman city outside of Rome, which is quite something.
For me, after Egypt, I felt as though Jordan didn’t really compare to it, and our Jordanian guide was not great. The history in Egypt is so interesting and so much more in depth – perhaps if we had another guide for this leg of the trip I’d think differently, I wasn’t too fond of the food, and the best things I ate were a falafel sandwich and a maccas at the airport. I’m glad I went, and chose to go straight after Egypt, and the group was great, but I think I’ll be satisfied going just the once.
