On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Today arrieve takes us to Jordan. If it wasn’t for all the beautiful blue skies, I would think these were photos of another planet! A good reminder that beauty takes many different forms. ~WaterGirl
arrieve
One benefit of all this free time has been the chance to go through old photos of journeys past, and finally process and organize the hundreds of old pictures. I miss traveling, and I wish I believed that it will be possible again soon. On the other hand, I’ve been incredibly lucky to have seen as much of the world as I have.
One country I would love to return to is Jordan. I wasn’t supposed to be there. I had a two week tour of Ethiopia booked in early 2017, but it was cancelled at the last minute because of a State Department advisory. I had planned to spend a couple of days in Abu Dhabi on my way to Ethiopia, and I’d already spent $500 on the necessary shots, so I started looking around for a place that was reasonably close to the Emirates and required the same vaccinations. I ended up spending a week in India — and because it was more or less on the way home, a week in Jordan.
I got to see Petra, which was a lifelong dream, but the real surprise to me was how much I loved Wadi Rum. It’s at the top of my list of places I’d love to go back to.
The red sands of Wadi Rum make it a reasonable cinematic substitute for Mars, and a lot of movies have been filmed there.
Some spectacular red sand.
The Um Fruth arch
This is Suleiman, my Bedouin guide in Wadi Rum, when we stopped for a picnic lunch. Maybe because it was January, I had the guides to myself during the entire five-day trip from Amman. Suleiman was by far my favorite — he was eager to improve his English and wrote down any word I used he was unfamiliar with, he asked my advice about his love life, he told me a lot about day to day life in Jordan, and his racing camels, of which he was very proud. After lunch, he got cushions from his truck, said, Now we take a nap, and promptly fell asleep. I didn’t sleep but I still remember how magical it was lying there in the desert, far from everything, listening to the birds sing.
Ruins of a Nabatean temple (the same people who built Petra) at the base of Jebel Rum, the highest mountain in the Wadi.
Another desert view
After the day spent driving around, I spent the night in a Bedouin camp. I loved the sci-fi look of these tents, which allow you to see the stars, but I opted for the cheaper traditional tent.
The inside of my tent. It was the middle of winter, so although the temperatures during the day were comfortable, it was freezing at night. But there was a heater, and heavy robes to wear — much appreciated when trekking to the toilets in the middle of the night.
Emma
Very cool! I only wish that you had shots of the food you ate, haha, that’s my #1 interest on big trips. Curious to know if there’s a lot of Nabataean architecture, and if it’s well-preserved. I don’t know anything about architecture, but I love looking at classical Greek, Roman, and Islamic architecture, and I wonder about Nabataean influence before and after the Romans made them into a province.
Cermet
Nice pictures – a good example of what many more parts of the Earth will come to look like in the years ahead – worse, places that currently produce living space and food for many millions.
OzarkHillbilly
The desert is a magical place. Great pics.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: It is, headed out to Joshua Tree Thursday evening.
satby
What a wonderful trip that must have been arrieve! Great pictures. Did you use a tour service or did you arrange your tour yourself? I’d love to go one day to a Bedoiun camp and sleep under the desert stars.
debbie
Beautiful!
Amir Khalid
For a moment, I thought the modern tents were a Covid-19 field hospital. Jordan is awesome.
arrieve
@satby: It was a tour service. They picked me up at my hotel in Amman and deposited me back there several days later. Every day I had a different driver, but all the hotels and guides (and the Bedouin camp) were arranged for me. Friends of mine went to Jordan the following year and used a different company but had a similar itinerary.
You never know how these things are going to work out with small tour companies so I was really lucky that all of the drivers and guides were wonderful. And they all treated me like an honored guest — no worries about being a solo woman traveller, even when sleeping in the desert with a strange Bedouin.
arrieve
@Amir Khalid: Here’s a picture of the traditional tents, like the one I stayed in. http://www.travelswithkathleen.com/2020/06/flashback-jordan.html
Jordan is awesome. I want to go back.
arrieve
@Emma: What Nabatean architecture remains is pretty much like this picture — some stone walls, a few columns. Nothing like Petra.
The main thing I remember about the food is hummus for breakfast every day. The picnic in the desert was a can of tuna, a tomato, and a cucumber, eaten with pita. It was scrumptious.
MelissaM
Wow! I never thought I would put Jordan on my wish list, but now it’s there. What was the price difference between the tents? Because seeing the stars! How could you sleep with so much to see?
Jon Marcus
OzarkHillbilly et al, I never really understood why people love the desert until I went to Wadi Rum last summer. (Yes, Jordan in July. Mad dogs…and fathers with kids studying Arabic for the summer.)
I was blown away by the beauty of the place. *Definitely* on my “Wanna go back there” list.
Auntie Anne
Thank you. Oh, those pictures are gorgeous – adding Jordan to my list!
SkyBluePink
Wonderful window into another world!
Thanks for sharing, arrieve.
Have seen a documentary on Petra- fascinating!
montanareddog
Newly-married, my wife and I spent a year in Jordan 18 years ago, when I did a project there. We loved the country but we had to leave in a hurry in early 2003 due to the insecurity when Shrub’s Mesopotamian Adventure started. Jerash, the Dead Sea, the Desert Castles are all fabulous spots but Wadi Rum was definitely the number one site for us, even more than Petra – WR is just too beautiful for words.
And the people of the whole country are outstandingly hospitable and kind.
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Visited Joshua Tree for the first time last year and loved it, too. Agree with you and OH on how great deserts are.
Denali
I have always wanted to visit Petra. Now I understand the appeal of Wadi Rum. Now not only politics but also the pandemic is keeping us away. Sigh.
Wag
reminds me of the area around Moab, including arches NP and Canyonlands NP, Very similar geology. Beautiful.
BigJimSlade
Great pictures- Wadi Rum is really special! I think I’ve been on that sand dune – ran down it. That was so great because I have bad knees and can’t really run, but running down the sand dune was freeing. As for the arch, you climbed up on top of it, right?
The Bedouin are very self-reliant – can cook, sew, fix cars… someone (a college aged woman) asked our 19 year old guide how they go about getting married. He said they would ask permission to talk to the woman, and start the process that way, with the families involved. ‘What about if another man tried to talk to her while you were (in this process)?’ He said calmly, as if it were the most natural thing, ‘Well, I would kill him.’ So, yeah, some old ways are still around. I should say that the guide was very kind and good-natured, and maybe a little full of himself – a 19 year old showing (mostly) white adults around for a couple days.
daryljfontaine
Tangentially related, one of the tiniest of the most recent Tinykittens rescue births is named Wadi Ramm, desert-themed because their mother’s name is Sahara. Named in part for this region, plus a supporter of the rescue with a similar name.
D
Kattails
Very, very cool pics and stories including comments. Never thought I’d have any interest in going there, but now…
J R in WV
Also reminds me a little of Navajo Nation… Monument Valley, other rocky near desert places you see driving in NE Arizona and NW Mew Mexico. Chaco Canyon, so many of the early stone pueblo structures. Less ambitious, but that was a culture hanging on by their fingernails, they couldn’t afford monumental stone carving, so they gathered stones and learned how to make a perfect flat vertical wall with no metal tools.
I first saw slides of Petra and Jordan taken by school teachers, two sisters, Miss Eva and Miss Ethel, who traveled every summer, were good friends with my parents, learned much later wife and her dad were close with them too. The sisters went everywhere in the world, together, and were good photographers… I believe recalling the color saturation they probably shot Kodachome, the God of color film.
You guys are all correct, On the Road just adds to the bucket list, and much faster than I can cross ambitions off that list. Jordan would be on the short list… I worry about the strategic political situation.
But Jordan and Egypt, talk about diving into living Archaeological Reality !!!