Below is a pleasant and short video from the WorldNomad’s blog aptly entitled ‘Travel Safety Tip – Riding a camel!‘:

Too bad the gang I traveled with back in ’07 didnt’ see this one first. I wasn’t with them at the time, but the account goes via Diana Scimone is that at the saddle broke on the lead of three … at Petra they tether together trains of camels lead by 10 to 15 year-old boys.

What makes the account even funnier is that the two ladies on the loosed camels were ‘automagically’ led back to the Treasury at Petra by said, unattended animals … whom then refused to let them down until the young owner could get back to them and extract payment on the agreed-upon price.

Good for them as I’ve heard some other accounts where even with the guide along the way, the price negotiated to get on isn’t the same as the price to get off – which is why you agree up-front for such rides on the getting on AND off price!-)

p.s. – thanks Diana for the hat-tip via my Twitter account.

The first day started off with a three hour camel ride in Lawrence’s old stomping grounds, Wadi Rum. Yes, camel riding is the iconic Middle Eastern experience (not to mention Lawrence’s preferred method of transportation) but believe you me, we could have lived without the angry, farting camels and all the leg and back pain associated with being perched atop them for three hours.

The above description come courtesy of a couple of best friends studying the Arabic language – who took some time off to visit the desert T.E. Lawrence described in his famed ‘7 Pillars of Wisdom‘ as ‘Vast and echoing and god-like.‘

A landscape whose plains are challenging by camel as its numerous jagged and jutting rock structures are for rappelling and ‘trad climbing‘ . The latter explained by Ben Heason in his RockRun.com post entitled ‘Tales from Wadi Rum:’

Whilst the climbing is often of a serious nature, there remains an air of convenience when climbing in Wadi Rum. More akin to alpine climbing than UK cragging, Wadi Rum offers some long and memorable outings, of all grades, but without the arduous approaches, slogging up long steep hills so often associated with alpine climbs…

… After a couple of days familiarising ourselves with the climbing style, which is often of a slightly crumbly nature, repeating delightful classic shorter routes such as Inferno (E2 5c) and The Beauty (E2 5b, 5 pitches) we decided to go for our first big route of the trip – Inshallah Factor …

After repeating the super classics of Merlin’s Wand (E1 5b, 5 pitches), Star of Abu Judaidah (E2 5b, 7 pitches), Les Rumeurs De La Pluie (E2 5c, 3 pitches) and the less traveled, run-out and technical Neige Dans Le Desert (E5 5c/6a, 7 pitches) my appetite for a return trip to Barrah Canyon had been sufficiently whetted.

…  I have rarely had such a feeling whilst climbing, of elation and fear combined, and for such a lengthy period. For almost the entire day I remained petrified, yet in my element at the same time, thriving on the experience.

Of course one not need be an expert climber to enjoy some if the heights and sights offered in this amazing landscape.  An experience nicely described by this GW student of Arabic and history:

The above picture of the Rock Bridge is one of the famous sites at Wadi Rum because it forms a natural bridge. To climb up it, we had to scale the face of the rock to the right of it, which was an exercise in conquering your fear. The nearly vertical climb up was not for the faint of heart, and I would be lying if I said it was easy. Once atop, I quickly walked across the bridge and descended (which was even more difficult) to the safety of the ground below. On the way down, as I’m slowly making my way, some Bedouin tour guide is calmly and confidently walking down the rock face as if it’s nothing. It was a pretty funny sight: I’m doing a crab walk next to someone walking normally.

Uncomfortable with climbing? Not a problem, there’s always camping:

We stayed the night in the Bedouin camp and traveled to Petra the next morning. What a spectacular place. Words don’t do justice to treasure trove of amazingly preserved – Beholding the World

And while the ‘tent’ accommodations may not be entirely authentic Bedouin, it certainly makes for an entertaining experience:

Moving along in the afternoon we went to a “Bedouin camp” in Wadi Rum. Obviously most people visiting Wadi Rum want to spend the night in a “Bedouin tent” are not the authentic homes of the Bedouin, but are erected for the tourists. It is nevertheless a special experience to sleep out in the desert, several of them have “amenities” like toilets and showers.

… I sleep with socks, gloves and my jacket and hood on. The bed is just full of sand, as we had to change tents last minute due to the kerosene spillage…it was quite cold and the bed very uncomfortable but it beats sleeping on the ground. Thank god i only had to walk once to the bathroom before going to bed, but it was a pain to have to walk the distance through sand … – Judie’s Travels

Sure it gets a bit chilly at night, but there’s nothing like seeing Wadi Rum for the moonscape that it is … by way of full lunar illumination:

Last weekend I went to Wadi Rum and Aqaba for a conference sponsored by the Rotaract of Amman-West. It was incredible! Wadi Rum is a desert canyon area, and Aqaba is the little bit of coast that Jordan has with the Red Sea. We got down to Wadi Rum after the sunset unfortunately (it is supposed to be spectacular), but it was close to a full moon which was also incredible. We stayed at a camp called “Beit Ali” and went up to the top of the hill for a breathtaking view of the moonlit desert.  – Greg Sheppard’s Blog

Personally, I’m conflicted – as I found myself more impressed with Wadi Rum than Petra after my first visit to Jordan in my post: Wadi Rum: vast and echoing and god-like, magically haunted.

“… the award-winning sustainable tourism and eco-tourism projects, which are helping us to both protect and promote the things that are most precious to us …

… From Yarmouk in the north to the southern mountains of Aqaba, these parks will create wildlife corridors and sanctuaries for endangered plants. They’ll be looked after by local communities, who know the landscape better than anyone, and will offer visitors unique cultural experiences, …”

… said Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah while addressing hundreds of CEOs and travel industry leaders this past Tuesday her keynote address at Conde Nast Traveler’s 2nd Annual World Savers Congress in New York.

For a description of one of these “sustainable ecotourism projects” one need only visit my recent post about the Jordan’s initiative to re-invent the Shaumari Reserve.

Of course, there’s more to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than eco-tourism, as Her Majesty enumerated while promoting the Middle East an attractive travel option for prospective tourists of all ilks:

• “If you’re looking for a place to relax, the Dead Sea will make you feel more alive than ever,” she said. “It’s the lowest point on earth, with the highest oxygen content in the world… and is home to the region’s biggest spa.”
• “If you want adventure, you can abseil down waterfalls, paraglide off sandstone crags, navigate Red Sea reefs, then cook supper deep in the desert sands of Wadi Rum,”
• “If you’re a history buff, we’ve got Roman ruins and desert castles from the Umayyad times to explore, and our famous Nabataean city of Petra, carved out of red stone cliffs – where Indiana Jones’ escapades ended when he found the Holy Grail.”

Yes, this is sort of a fluff piece … but having been to Jordan twice … all I can do is verify that what Queen Rania states is true … in fact this very blog is a testament to that.

That and I was just speaking to a neighbor who was going to the Middle East on business … so hopefully he reads this after bending his ear all afternoon about how he should take an extra week to experience the journey that is Jordan.

Here are some related articles on the above topic:

• Keeping Up With Conde Nast Traveler’s 2nd Annual World Savers Congress – Traveling the Green Way
• HuffingtonPost – Can Travel Change the World?
• Queen promotes Middle East as attractive tourist destination – Jordan Embassy to the US
• Jordan Times – Queen promotes Middle East as attractive tourist destination
• CNT’s World Savers Congress: Shout-Out to Fellow Travel Bloggers
• Update Blog – Conde Nast Savers Congress – Day’s Agenda
• Diplomats, Environmentalists, and the Power of Travel – Nerd’s Eye View

Update – 30Sep08 – So How WAS that World Savers Congress Anyway? You can ask Matt Damon whose YouTube video is posted over at Conde Nast Traveler’s on Concierge.com.

Wadi Rum speaks a beauty that is universally understood – as demonstrated in this at SobreTurismo, a Spanish language travel blog whose title in English simply reads “Jordan: The desert of Wadi Rum.”

Berenice Lomont, the author of the article, expresses the universality of Wadi Rum’s “vast and echoing and god-like” magic in a sentiment coined here, “if Petra is Jordan’s gold, then Wadi Rum is its silver” as the travel blogger writes:

When we think of Jordan, the spectacular lost city of Petra comes directly to the memory, but this country offers us more, much more, so it is worthwhile to venture into [Jordan's] wonderful … Wadi Rum.

Located in southern Jordan … we are surprised by their reddish sands, the lack of a classic horizon, for its mountainous structures rounded by the action of continuous wind.

Citing Wadi Rum as the location of the films Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Red Planet (2000), the authoress goes on to describe the recently build visitor center where one can hire guides and 4×4 vehicles and …

… for the more adventurous there is the option of multi-days tours via Dromedary camels.

Ms. Lomont goes on to write of the places one often stops to admire while in Wadi Rum including (translated):

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: the most famous mountains of Wadi Rum, which owes its name to book TE Lawrence was inspired during their stay here. His vision is really overwhelming, seems out of a fairy tale.

The stone bridge of Burdah: this is an impressive natural arch 35 metres high. One of the highest in the world. Spectacular and unique.

Cave paintings (petroglyphs): It is said that this desert is a huge blackboard full of rock art made by the civilizations that inhabited (Tamudo and nabatea). A symbol that certainly deserves a visit.

The writer also recommends Jordan’s highest mountain, Jebel Um Adaami … suggesting while its 6000 foot (1830 meter) elevation doesn’t pose too much difficulty, the difficult path is best traversed with a hired guide.

Berenice ends her post as poetically as she begins describing a once-in-a-lifetime experience that transcends all languages, borders and cultures when she opines:

It is an enigmatic place, haunted, is so enormously beautiful that for centuries has left mute those who until then had been approached…. And without a doubt I am one of them.

She’s right, of all the sites I’ve visited in Jordan – Wadi Rum is my favorite as well as reflected in the following past posts:

• Wadi Rum: vast and echoing and god-like, magically haunted
• Two bloggers experience Wadi Rum to Aqaba, just like Lawrence
• The Hidden Petroglyph Ledge, Wadi Rum, Jordan
• Visiting God in a 1978 Toyota Landcruiser

That’s what I wrote last November in my post ‘Wadi Rum: vast and echoing and god-like, magically haunted.’ I meant every word of it.

Which is why I enjoyed these to posts on the same – first from Whiskey Tango Farley – call letters to an acronym which I’ll let someone else explain in some other context.

Which is also why we read Alden Pyle’s post “Aqaba, Wadi Rum, Dana, Dead Sea, oh my!” he was citing … and shouting … from the 1962 film classic as follows:

Hike up to above the Treasury (aka the Indiana Jones building) for some stunning Alpha-Male poses. Pictures to be sent very soon, Inshallah! Then drive “TO AQABA!” (If you haven’t seen Lawrance of Arabia, you might not understand the hilarity of screaming that quote every 15 minutes so or in the little POS Hyundai Alden rented…)

And probably shouting something a little bit different after a tussle with an ATV he describes:

Then- To Wadi Rum! This was Lawrence of Arabia’s hide-out during the Arab Revolt. Stunning place. Alden and Mother found housing at “Beit Ali” and promtly rented ATVs to go dune bashing for a couple of hours.

Lesson learned: If you are going too fast on an ATV (Alden discovered they top out at nearly 60 mph) and you find yourself nearing a dune’s drop-off of unknown height, don’t go down it. But should you fly off a dune at a very fast speed, make sure you are able to roll faster than the ATV.

I’ll take the advice, if I can ever get back there … though I hadn’t thought of an ATV … but I digress

JJ from NJ offers a slightly different account entitled “Wadi Rum and Petra!” that yet again the famous Jordanian hospitality; yet again via a taxi driver:

Patrick and I hired a taxi driver named Moosa to take us from Aqaba to Wadi Rum. He was a really nice guy, but a bit too talkative at times. He took us to his brother’s restaurant for breakfast and we ate virtually for free.

The drive to Wadi Rum was great. It was through the desert and very scenic. Once we arrived in Wadi Rum, we went into town and Moosa dropped us off at our guide’s house. We then met a Swiss brother/sister duo and they joined us for our night into the desert.

Then after describing a somewhat terrifying evening abseiling adventure, JJ describes something I experienced my first trip to Jordan – an amazing view of our solar system from the lightless desert floor.

We decided not to sleep in the tent and so we dragged our mattresses outside and slept under the stars. Apparently there are rather large spiders and snakes that wander around but we didn’t see any. Sleeping out there was beyond awesome, but there was no chance of sleeping through the sunrise and the swarms of flies that accompanied it.

Funny, on the plane over to Jordan this last time, I encountered two young Jordanian men living in the U.S., heading back for a wedding. I asked them if they’d ever been to Wadi Rum. They hadn’t. My response was simply:

Why wait?

dj.tigersprout of Aminus3.com shares with us this gorgeous picture as one of many he’s taken of the moonscape of Wadi Rum … describing the grandeur that inspired the likes of T.E. Lawrence, when DJ writes:

i happily leave you with another near monochromatic ochre desert shot i dug up the other night — it never made it into any of my previous slideshows for friends or work colleagues, and this is really the first time even i have set eyes on it, short of the minimal prepping i accomplished last night for the purposes of this evening’s posting.

If you’d like to enjoy more of this … as this 2 time visitor to Wadi Rum has … then visit DJ’s online photo album entitled “the Golden Lands of the Nabatene, Wadi Rum, Jordan”

Perhaps then one can understand the sentiment “… if Petra is Jordan’s Gold, then Wadi Rum is it’s silver.“

Quit ‘Bugging’ me about Wadi Rum!

Blogging Brit Tim Nunn reports that while traveling through the Jordanian desert that is Wadi Rum, Mel was worried about this part of the trip and expected to see creepy crawly bugs, but instead they made it through the night without any bites!

I never thought about the bugs when I was in Wadi Rum, but Tim’s Flickr photo set of his Jordanian experience proves that they do indeed exist. And a fast moving one it looks like at that!

Perusing Petra faster than you can say Indiana Jones!

As part of a Ken McFarland tour, the Wandering Bruces (gad I love that title) blog about their Jordan, with of course much writing and photos about ancient lost city of Petra. I think this quote from their blog best sums up the experience many of us have:

“What a fantastic place! The sandstone has been carved into beautiful shapes and colors by the various elements over time, and the Nabateans who lived here carved temples, graves, and homes into that sandstone. “

You can visually experience the rest of their Journey that is Jordan over on their Petra, etcera Picasa photo gallery (say that 5 times fast!-).

Toto, I don’t think we’re in Amsterdam anymore

Last but not certainly least of today’s international trio of Jordan tourist blogs, an entry from Hielke en Marlieke writing to us in annotated and fun photos about their 1st week in Jordan.

Y’know, the normal fare:

• getting up early enough and getting into Petra before everyone else (the only way to get tourist-free photos of the Treasury);
• remembering to bring a book along to read while floating about the Dead Sea; and
• capturing an incriminating photo of one’s significant other enjoying a bit of “hubbly bubbly” before or after some beer (I’d think preferably before?-).

So what about you, got a Journey of Jordan you’ve recorded online? Send me a link-o-love and I’ll see what I can do about getting it reviewed.

Even the aged aphorism of a picture being worth 1,000 words cannot do justice to the 10′s of thousand emotions one feels while drinking in the millions of colors, shapes and textures this arid ocean of beauty has to offer.

None-the-less, some images from Wadi Rum – with more posted in our gallery.

Dean standing in front of the 7 Pillars of Wisdom, from the terrace at the newly built Visitor’s center

Dean with two of the drivers of our jeep tour – each of the latter holding up the famed blogJordan.com carabiner.

Vast – (/vɑːst/) from Latin vastus ‘void, immense’ ^[3].

Echoing – present participle of the verb to echo (ˈekəʊ) Greek for ‘reflected sound’ ^[4]

god-like – having the characteristics of a god ^[5]

Note the huge square cut in this cliff, demonstrating the impact of the vast differences between hot and cold that range between day and night.

Some of the natural formations take on structures of animals, objects and faces.

In other stones are carved faces of famous visitors – this relief being that of T.E.Lawrence.

Ancient graffiti also dots this landscape – I suspect this one describing their camel caravan.

Camels – the Cadillacs of the desert, a primary source of transportation and beloved pet of many Bedouins.

Sa’hah – as the author enjoys some mint tea in a bedouin rest-stop along with other members of the tour.

I could get used to this cuisine. Heck, what do I mean “could” – I already pay good money for it in the States!

The hubbley bubbley – a common centerpiece of communal relaxation and conversation.

Of note, the author did see this land during a full moon back in 2004 – along with every star in the universe – which is why he is determined to go back when the timing is right!