I woke up really early at around 6 am since we all slept outside. After changing my shirt, brushing my teeth and using the toilet, I sat and wait for about an hour before our camels arrived. Our plan was to do a camel ride to see more of the Wadi Rum early in the morning before the blazing heat arrived. The temperature in the desert rose very quickly. At 6 am, it was about a chilly 65F/18C, and by 11 am, the temperature was at least 95F/35C.
At 7:30 am, our camels arrived. The Bedouins eyeballed our weights, and appropriately sort us into different camels.
On a camel (plus bluest sky ever)
The Bedouins basically walked us deeper into the desert and then made a U-turn back to our camps. The sights of the desert was pretty much the same as yesterday because we didn't travel very far (plus, since I was on a camel, most of my pictures were blurry). However, the camel ride was very strange. So the camels themselves look as though they really couldn't care less (I can't say they don't give a sh*t because all they do is poop randomly as they walk). Their eyes are always half shut to shield against sand and they only walk slightly faster than a turtle. Here is a video of the ride:
And... here are some pics that weren't blurry:
Loved how the light added contrasts
Two toned sands
If only I use Facebook.......profile pic for life
Baby camel
My camel after the ride
After the camel trek, we ate breakfast at camp and found out that one of the pickup trucks couldn't start. They tried to jump start the truck for about half and hour before giving up. Thus, since we were running late (we had a boat cruse to catch later that day), they just packed half of us in one truck and then sped off. I chose to stay for the second round so when they picked me up, they were really speeding. It was basically a roller coaster ride because they were driving up and down the sand dunes at around 40 mph/65 kmh. We then got in our van and then from there we drove about 70 km to Aqaba.
Of course, in every car ride, we hear a new story. This time, the tour guide was talking about the camels. So the first thing about the camel is the camel's milk. He said that it was magical, that it can even cure Alzheimer's ("There's your cure for Alzheimer's", I told my roommate, who's a doctor). Now this was the point where I stopped listening to any of his facts because nothing cures Alzheimer's! Well, on a more believable note, camels are actually expensive. A camel is about $1000 and a pregnant camel is about $3000. So if you own a herd of camels, you're quite rich. The King of Jordan also sponsors an annual Camel race, where the grand prize was a brand new car. Racing camels can actually run up to 30 mph/48kmh! Camel races are popular in the Middle East apparently, but most likely because they can't race horses.
We arrived at the visitor center of the Wadi Rum Desert at around 3 pm. Here, we get to use the toilet and take pictures of a mountain (or hill) called "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom". I'm not sure why it's called The Seven Pillars of Wisdom because I wasn't paying attention, but it has to do with Lawrence of Arabia's book of the same name.
The 7 Pillars of Wisdom aka welcome to the Wadi Rum Desert.
By the way, Wadi is Arabic for Valley, so Wadi Rum = Rum Valley.
So, from the visitor center, we drove to a camp in the middle of the road, and there we saw 3 pickup trucks with seats in the back. We were told we were going to be riding in Jeeps, but this was much, much better!
We rode in the pick up trucks for about 20 minutes and then we arrived at a large Bedouin camp. Here we rest and were served tea with sage, cinnamon and a bunch of herbs. The tea was amazing and here we get to see a rock with Lawrence of Arabia's face carved in it. I don't really know much about Lawrence of Arabia and so if you're interested in history, then feel free to look him up.
Lawrence of Arabia (not Jesus)
From this camp, we continued deeper into the desert to go to our private camp. On the way, we stopped for a quick viewpoint.
A view into the desert from a cliff
Behind the cliff.
A short drive later, we arrived at our private camp. There's a water tank for the toilet and a small generator for light bulbs here and nothing else.
Our 5 star rooms.
However, only 1 person (the nerd) slept in these tents. Everyone was sleeping outside in the desert to see the stars. Here was where we talked, ate, and slept:
Our actual beds. Very comfy to sleep on the sands.
At this point, it was about 6 pm, so we had to wait two and a half more hours until dinner. I left with my roommate to explore the desert a bit and tried to climb one of the mountain/hill. I'll let the pics do the narrative at this point. Wish I could show them all because this place is stunning!
Orange sands, unique hills and very quiet due to the absence of insects, birds and people. Mars or the Wadi Rum?
I love walking barefoot in these sands! Soft and cool since it's in the evening
These grass were spiky.
Not mushrooms, but Camel poop. Still beautiful!
The rocks/hills here look like melting ice creams.
White sand near our camp
Please tell me how these rocks/hills were formed. Unreal.
After about an hour of walking, I head back to camp and then immediately, we climbed up one of these hills to watch a sunset. This is the first time in my life that I had actually sat down and watch a sun set. It was an unforgettable moment because I get to feel the Earth and my surroundings. The winds were really strong throughout the view and the temperature drops steadily from about 85F/30C down to about 70F/20C. The sunset took about an hour. Here are some more pics/gifs:
Someone took a picture of me. Stunning picture, thanks!
After the sun has set, we walked back to our camp and then waited one more agonizing hour for our dinner. The dinner was cooked in an underground oven. Basically, they dug a hole, put in hot coal and a metal rack holding the food, and then buried it to let the coal slowly cook the food. I felt bad that the Bedouins had to sacrifice a lamb for us, but the lamb was juicy, tender, and fall-off-the-bones good. Dinner was very good overall, and I think being really hungry adds to that. Here is a video of the guy digging our dinner out:
Dinner, yum!
After dinner, we took out our blankets and pillows and then went to sleep outside. The fire was put out but the generators was still on. We could see some stars at this point, much like the stars you see at home - just dots here and there.
However, when everyone was ready to go to bed, the generator was shut down and WOW. I saw the galaxy. The haze of the milky way, the stars, its planets, moons and everything you can imagine and more in space. It was the most incredible sight I've ever seen, all of which are hidden away from everyone due to light pollution. But there were no light pollution here in the middle of the desert. No lights, no sounds, just the stars. Too bad I slept early because other people saw shooting stars! Unfortunately, no one knew how to take a picture of the stars. Apparently you need special filters to capture the stars because one of the group member had like a $3000 camera but still couldn't capture it.
Sorry, couldn't capture it. Best pic I had. Not even close.
Well, the night was very, very cold. I swore the temperature dropped down to at least 50F/10C. Plus, it was very windy because I woke up like 3 or 4 times because my face was going numb. Great experience none the less.
We departed from Petra to go to the Wadi Rum dessert in the morning and then went to a dessert shop. We bought some fruits and baklavas, which are Middle Eastern sweets. Just a reminder, Ramadan had already started and thus no restaurants are open until sunset in places not named "Petra", since Petra is extremely touristic. Therefore, we won't be able to eat a real meal until about 8:30 pm and the only meal we had that day, and the days after were hotel breakfasts, which weren't of the best quality. During the daytime, we would just go buy snacks like chips (or what the rest of the world calls crisps) and eat them in the car or in our hotel room. Also, we couldn't drink in public because that is very offensive to Muslims who haven't drank since 3 am (hence, this is why all restaurants are closed).
The first stop on our way to the Wadi Rum was Little Petra. Since there were no chargers or access to electricity in the Wadi Rum desert, I decided to save my camera's battery and took only 3 pics of Little Petra. There weren't many interesting things about Little Petra because it basically was Petra, but smaller (duh!). There were tombs and stuff and a viewpoint that was alright. Here are the 3 pics:
Beautiful marble art in a cave
Little Petra viewpiont
More interesting rock formations of Petra
After Little Petra, we went to a souvenir shop/rest area. From here we get to see Petra one last time. We ate our baklavas here. Baklava is basically a ton of flour, oil, and sugar packed into one tiny bite. The first five bites of baklava was very tasty. However, soon, my mouth was drenched with sugar and oil so the rest of the baklava I bought was almost inedible. Well, now I know that Middle Eastern people do not eat deserts like Americans (and British as far as I know) do, because we eat deserts like a "meal", but they only eat deserts as a snack, which is 2 or 3 bites. Therefore, they make those 2 or 3 bites very sweet and concentrated so that they can be satisfied. However, the deserts that we eat are usually "medium" sweet so that we eat a lot more.
Overview of Petra. Very strange rock formations overall. I wonder how they were formed.
The drive to Wadi Rum was about 3 hours. In the car, we listened to more stories told by our tour guide. The tour guide loves to tell stories and at this point, most of people in the group are kind of bored of his stories because not all of them end or if they do, the ending would be disappointing or anti-climatic. The beginning of his stories are very exciting though. On this trip, we learned that he has 7 children. His secret? He doesn't put TV in his house....
The reason why the tour guide took us to see Petra from the top first is because today is the beginning of the holiest month in Islam: Ramadan. If you don't know, Ramadan is a month of fasting and prayers. Muslims would eat breakfast at around 3 am, which is before sunrise, and then would not eat or drink anything until sunset, which is around 8 pm. At sunset, they would eat a large meal and a lot of times, go shopping. So, our tour guide, who's a Jordanian Muslim, went to the more difficult course first, and today, he's doing the "easy" course.
The day starts with going through the long curvy path, called the Siq,
early in the morning (to avoid tourists) and we then get to see the
Treasury as a group. The Siq is quite magnificent in and of itself. It
is a natural opening in the hills with Roman paved road.
The Siq
The Siq leads to the Treasury. The building was magnificently carved out of the mountain,
with its reddish hue perfectly reflecting the early light. According to
Wikipedia, the building could be as old as 312 BC! The building is in
extraordinary condition, with only a minor restoration done on the two
front pillars. One of the reason for its great condition is because
Petra was not rediscovered until the 1800’s when a Swiss man stumbled
upon this site.
The Treasury
Petra was a town that flourished by being a
center of commerce. There were camel caravans passing through Petra,
carrying spices, perfume, and stuff to and from far away places. The
place declined during Roman rule because the Romans decided to focus on
trading by sea.
We continue walking down Petra to see
its magnificent tombs. Much like the Egyptians, the ancient people of
Petra (I believe they’re called the Nabataean but not sure if the tombs
are all Nabataean) believed in building magnificent tombs to help aid
the journey to the afterlife.
Path to see the tombs
These tombs are for moderately important people
A theater
These are temples (I think)
This is the King's tomb.
King's Tomb
The location of the King's tomb is georgeous. As you can see, the rocks here are a blend of many different colors.
Interior of the King's Tomb
You can see that its walls are neatly and diagonally carved . Unfortunately, the King's tomb is empty. There used to be treasures surrounding a tomb but they were all sold by the Bedouins. Unlike the Pyramids, these tombs are just one big empty room without any traps or anything fancy.
After seeing the King's Tomb, the tour guide took us to a restaurant for a buffet, but no one ate because it was only noon and everyone had breakfast at 8:30 am. From here, the tour guide said that the tour of Petra has ended but we can, and should, go up to see the Monastery. The Monastery, however, as he futilely warned, requires climbing up 800 steps. No one really knew how bad 800 steps was so we all split up and then went up without much food or preparation. I decided to go with my roommate, which wasn't a very smart choice because this guy is a mountain goat. He climbed 800 steps up without rest, water, panting, or any signs of fatigue, while I was chugging my water, gasping for air, and massaging my numb thigh and calf muscles. I was still fit enough to follow him though and the climb was nothing short of amazing (and torturous).
The start
The steps, if you can see, are caved out of the mountains.
Up, up and up
The flag is our destination!
The climb up took 40 minutes but I believe it was well worth it. The first thing you see is nothing, but a shop on a flat surface. However, once you walk a bit more, you'll see this huge and glorious structure - The Monastery.
The Monastery looks like The Treasury on steroids.
Side story: During group dinner, we (my roommate and I) get to see a photo of a crazy dude doing a handstand on top of the Monastery. This happened when we were walking down (because we got there so fast and the rest of the group just arrived). Would not have the courage to do this.
Some crazy guy did a handstand on top of the Monastery!!!!
Anyways, since we were so high up, there are three view viewpoints that we can see. We can't decide on which, because each viewpoint claims to be the best one. The three viewpoints are hilariously and unofficially called "The best view", "The better than the best view", and "The more than the best view". My favorite is "More than the best view" and here is a video of "More than the best view":
More than the best view
Of course this picture does no justice. This picture was literally taken at the edge of the cliff and it was so high up that I didn't dare to look down.
Now here are some other pics of the area:
Huge cairn. I put a rock up there.
The dilemma
A view of the other views
So much humor up here!
Like yesterday, after this, we walked down and went for a dip in the pool, but then I realized that I couldn't swim because my muscles were cramping. I hadn't eat a lick since 8:30 but I was artificially full by drinking lots of water. So I just had a quick meal, and then I slept... almost missed dinner.
