Two Repeats – Lebanon and Jordan
Apologies I haven’t posted in a while; it’s been a pretty busy couple of weeks. After my first trip to Lebanon, I went back to NYC for 10 days for my 2nd flyback. My trip back to the states was refreshing in every way possible – I got to see my family and friends, enjoyed the best NY has to offer, and restocked on electronics and gadgets that I can’t get in the Middle East.
The week after my return, I traveled back to Beirut. This trip was a bit less exciting than the first, where we mostly explored the bars and restaurants of Gemmayze Street at night, and spent the days bumming around cafes on the Mediterranean. As always, the girls were beautiful, the music loud, and the streets crowded. Overall, a fantastic, although exhausting trip because my flight to Riyadh was at 4am on Saturday, and then I had to work all day on no sleep.
The party street of Beirut
Lebanese Eyes
Finally, last weekend I returned to Jordan, this time to see Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. This is where I’ll pick up my travel tale…
Riding camels in the desert at sunrise
Sunset in Wadi Rum
I arranged for Hani, the same driver who took me around Jordan last time, to meet me at the airport and asked him to find me a camping site in the desert in Wadi Rum. He had worked with a company in Wadi Rum to arrange a private camp near one of their larger campsites. After the 4 hour drive from the airport, I arrived in Wadi Rum just in time for sunset. Wadi Rum is the most famous desert in Jordan because of its amazing landscape and changing colors; it’s beauty led to Lawrence of Arabia being filmed there.
After arriving at my camp, I met my Bedouin guide, Salim, and his four sons running out of the tent eager to meet me. When I walked inside the tent, I was surprised to see his wife, wearing a full abaya and face cover. Southern Jordan is a bit more conservative than Northern Jordan, so while Amman is filled with tank tops and jeans, the south is much more like Saudi and filled with abayas. Salim had me sit down while he prepared dinner on the fire outside, which led me to get swarmed by the children. I didn’t know whether I could talk to his wife, so I waited to see if she would say something first, but after she started speaking to me a bit in broken English, I realized that it was safe. I spent the next hour playing iPhone games with the boys, and generally having a good time laughing with them. None of them really spoke English, but I managed to get by. What was pretty interesting was that I finally saw Arabs interacting with their kids. In Saudi, most parents have nannies that take care of children, so most of the children that I see in public are actually with their Filipino nannies. However, Bedouins are too poor for nannies, so this was a unique experience, with Salim and his wife playing with their kids the same way that any Western parents would. The only difference was that we were sitting on rugs on the sand in a tent in the desert around a fire, and that the wife was completely covered in black…
Inside our tent
Salim and his kids
My ride for the day and his Bedouin owner
After a nice dinner of chicken cooked on coals, Salim had to drive his wife and kids back to their village. His parents were traditional Bedouin nomads, but decided to move to the village nearby so that he could go to school. I accompanied Salim to drop his family off at his house, and was thrilled to find his baby camel in his back yard. We then returned to the desert, and enjoyed some shisha while hanging out by the fire. I ended up sleeping on a thin mat on the sand, covered with a couple blankets. Actually slept really well, except for when in the middle of the night, I heard some rustling, and when I turned my flashlight on, I found a fox exploring our tent. I think the fox was as confused by the flashlight as I was by his presence, so instead of running away, he slowly meandered out the door, and I fell back to sleep.
The following morning, I was woken up by another Bedouin, whose name I don’t remember, who had two camels waiting outside the tent. It was 5am, I was sleepy, and he looked a bit scary, but he had a camel ready for me, which was all I needed. We hopped on our camels and road off into the desert to watch the sunrise. After over two hours on the camel, I met up with Salim again and he took me to his house for breakfast. His house was simple, but comfortable, and we sat on the floor eating bread and olive oil.
He looked a little creepy, but he was really friendly and loved his camels. He kissed them multiple times so that I could get a picture
We stopped at a number of Bedouin tents in the desert for tea. Here's a sample of one on the inside
...and here's that tent from the outside. I guess it's all about the location...
After a 4×4 drive through the desert, I met up with Hani again and we drove 4 hours to the Dead Sea. First I visited Bethany Beyond the Jordan, where Christ was baptised. As you can see in the picture, it’s not quite as picturesque as I think most Christians imagine. Instead of a rich flowing river, it was more of a bog, with a dead fish in it. There were a couple churches built there, but they had all fallen apart. Interestingly enough, the pope was visiting the site the day after me, and I hope that he’s as disappointed as I was and throws some of the Vatican’s gold to clean up the area. What’s kinda cool is that I was about 5 meters from Israel, which is just across the river, but I was told that I would get shot by guards if I tried crossing.
Here's the Jordan river, with Israel on the other side. I was really hoping some tourist would stick their baby in this to baptize it...
Finally, I spent my remaining time relaxing in the Dead Sea. Overall, it’s pretty cool – you just walk into the water and lie down and you float. After some floating and covering myself in mud, I headed back to the airport, and my temporary home in Riyadh.
The sun sets into Israel and the Dead Sea
As for next trips, I’m doing another repeat this weekend and heading back to Jeddah with my Saudi friends to do some more diving. After that however, I’ll hopefully have some more new adventures from Istanbul, Oman, and eventually India!
[...] developed much deeper and more personal connections with people in more developing countries. In Wadi Rum, my Bedouin guide, Salim, cooked me dinner with his wife and children, and invited me to his house after camping to have [...]
Some Countries are Warmer than Others « Snow to Sand said this on September 16, 2010 at 10:39 am