With some mixed feelings we drove towards the border of Jordan. Leaving Saudi Arabia went smooth and fast (here they are used to overland trucks). We drove some kilometers of “no mans land” before reaching the Jordan border post. What a different approach! In Saudi it is all big, beautiful and new, here we reached a “squatters” camp. Old buildings where the paint falls off the walls, rusty gates and fences and garbage, lots of it. Big potholes in the road and no signs with English texts. A mixture of uniformed men, walking and hanging around as if you are on a market place. When our truck rolled in the small passage area, all eyes were on us. (It turned out, the truck has exactly the same color as the vehicles of the Jordan army). A man with a leather jacket approached us and asked for our passports. We had follow him to the immigration office. Since we had the so called “Jordan Pass”, the Immigration procedure went pretty fast, and with big smiles.
Now the same man gave us directions to go to customs. And mind you, those buildings look like shady houses with no readable signage on it. We entered the place, which had a big carpet on the floor where some men were praying. There was also an office with a big window, which was probably the office of the big boss and here we saw those huge couches. A few guys were waiting in line and some guys behind us tried (and succeeded ) to get in front of us. When it was our turn, we were informed that we first needed to buy insurance for the truck. This was in another building, a couple of minutes walking again. An old grey, man in a rag tag office, sold us the insurance, while he was watching an Arab news channel showing the war in Gaza. Now I wondered how he was looking at us. How would we be received in Jordan, knowing that Jordan people have close ties with Palestinian people?
Insurance paper collected, we could now finish the customs. For that we needed our CdP to be stamped in and we got a separate temporary import permit for the truck. The moment we thought we were done, a soldier came to us with the intention to check the truck. However, after asking about cameras and drones, he was satisfied with our answers and we were now okay to enter Jordan.
Driving into Jordan, we did completely unprepared and open minded. We didn’t want to know what people say, think or show about Jordan, we wanted to be objective.
The entrance of Jordan from the Red Sea is a bit of a shock. We knew we were driving towards Aqaba, Jordans only harbor and only sea access and expected hotels, a city and beach. Nothing of that. A huge dirty, dusty and raw industrial complex is the first mayor welcome into Jordan. The main highway goes straight through this area, followed by the Aqaba container harbor. Only after a couple of kilometers, you see Aqaba town and the first hotels. Aqaba is besides the only port, also the only beach resort area of Jordan. Aqaba is on the end of the Golf of Aqaba and shares that honor with Israel, which has a resort town on the other side of the end of the Gulf, with a city called Eilat.
We saw the first beaches and one was a public one with a big parking. We also noticed a big overlander truck parked there. Since there was – according to IOverlander – a water fill station at the same location, we decided to stop and go there as well.
There was no water filling station, but a public bath building, where an old, toothless woman was in charge of the female section and a toothless, old man for the mens section. I saw a hose outside the building and I asked the old lady if I could top up our water tank. She was a bit confused, didn’t speak English, but gave the impression that it was not a problem. I drove the truck to near the building. Now a whole group of young Jordanian men and boys were waiting there. It seems they took control over my water filling operation from the old lady. One by one they kept the pieces of hose together, but still most water was waisted. And they talked and talked, wanted to see the camper inside and asked our opinion about Gaza. The filling went dead slow and I started to loose patience. In the meantime I already had the two pieces of hose connected with duke tape. After a while the water stopped flowing completely, so I stopped the filling. Now one of the guys told me that I had to give the old lady 5 JD (local currency, which is about Euro 7.00), which I found a lot for a little bit of water. But I just arrived and was not in the mood for a discussion. I gave it to the old lady, who over my shoulder looked at the guy who told me to pay her. He came to her and took the money! I learned a lesson.
We parked not far from the other overland truck and the people came to us to have a chat, very nice people from Germany. They had their truck shipped from Greece to Israel and had travelled through Jordan for a couple of weeks.
The beach here at Aqaba is not what we are used to. The sand is grey and filled with millions of sigarette butts. We saw some Western tourist (often very white) and wondered why the heck would you choose this place as your vacation destination? There was nothing fun about this beach. When we spoke with some guys from Belgium we understood why. A return ticket with Ryan-Air from Brussels to Amman (direct flight) was only Euro 100.00 and the hotels and restaurants were cheap as well. On the beach different local guys try to rent you snorkel gear or a trip on a glass bottom boat (it seems the underwater life is great, but I had my doubts after passing the huge industrial area and all the development along the coast).
When we returned to the truck, we met our German neighbors and agreed to have diner together in the only beach restaurant near us. It was actually a nice local restaurant, really Arabic. The food was great (served with a burning piece of charcoal in foil on top of your food) and there was some nice music. However, the owner was very religious and had a speaker on the roof of his place, which every 10 minutes repeated the same Koran tekst. That was very annoying. (How do I chase customers away) Still we had a lot of fun with our new friends.
Since it became a very late night, we woke up late in the morning and therefore decided to stay another night at the beach. Was very relaxing (did some office work and blogging) and we spent more time with our neighbors. Again we visited the restaurant that night and again we had a lot of fun. (And of course again every 10 minutes the speaker with Koran verses). It’s strange in a way, that if you meet “people like you” only on rare occasions, you connect faster, than if you see more of them and more often. Maybe driving similar camper trucks helps!
Another goodbye to nice people the next day. We went through this before and it will happen again. It always remains a bit emotional, also because you both know, you go on your own again into the unknown and have the feeling that you feel more vulnerable (even though it does not have to be that case). We drove through the town of Aqaba, which has a nice little old down town area with cozy little restaurants. We stocked up at the supermarket and drove towards one of Jordan’s tourist highlights, Wadi Rum. The Wadi Rum area is a big desert area, with beautiful red sandstone rock formations (like the ones in Al Ula in Saudi Arabia). We wanted to go via the “back road” in stead of the tourist entrance, but the turn off on the highway was blocked with a big pile of dirt and rocks, so we were “forced” to take the “official” route, the tourist route. First there was a big military check-point, where they wanted to see inside of the truck (strange because the border crossing was not far away and they had us checked there already). Of course all was fine and we drove towards Wadi Rum. The high way was in a bad shape, trucks drove mostly left, because the right side was in a very bad condition. The roads in Jordan are bad, compared with Saudi and the driving of the Jordanians was, well to say, interesting. Along the roads, the huge amount of garbage was disturbing. A country which depends so much on tourism, you would expect the Jordanians to be more aware of their environment.
Not far from the main entrance into Wadi Rum, we saw parts of the old Hajez railroad (parts of this railroad we also saw in Saudi). An old trainstation nearby had an old steam locomotive and some old train wagons, from the Ottomans. It was the first time we saw the group tourists, that we would expect in Jordan. Busses full of tourists who in a week or so, cross through Jordan to see the main tourist high lights. It feels strange when you come from Saudi where you see hardly any tourist (at least at the time and places where we were). Funny thing was that most of the tourists had more interest in our truck than the old Ottoman train.
The arrival at the main entrance of Wadi Rum, was a bit overwhelming. Many cars and buses parked near the visitors center, two armored vehicles of the tourist police flanked the main gate. Local guys tried to get our attention (hustlers for tours), but I passed all of them, including the police and was in Wadi Rum (normally you have to go inside the visitors center to get tickets and maybe you are forced to take a guide and that we wanted to avoid). A long road lead us to the village of Rum (would be a perfect name for a village or town in the Caribbean). The village was one of the most horrible and disgusting places we had seen so far. Garbage, cables and pipes everywhere on the ground and low over the roads (Marja had to climb the truck often to lift up electric and telephone cables). After entering through the main entrance with its visitors center, you wouldn’t expect this. The truck had to navigate very narrow streets and slalom cars and car wrecks , before we were out of this village.
A large open “field” between sandstone mountains opened up in front of us. Hundreds of tracks were visible in the sand and multiple tourist carrying pick-up trucks (and looking at the way they have modified these pick-ups and the road conditions, I wouldn’t like to spend a couple of hours in such vehicle) were coming and going into the wadi. For first 5 to 10 kilometers into Wadi Rum, we saw many tented Bedouin camps, where tourists can spend the night and “experience” Bedouin life. Actually too many camps and too close to each other. Every nice spot, seemed to have been taken by these little camps. We stopped at a few photo op stops (according to I-Overlander). At some of these spots, tourists were waiting in line to make a selfie, something we really want to stay away from, waiting in lines. Luckily the scenery was as “promised”, really stunning.
Time to go deeper in the desert of Wadi Rum, away from the “crowd”. The scenery was for sure as “promised”, stunning. Amazing red sandstone rock formations with white and red sand dunes. Getting stuck in the sand was of course part of it, but with that we felt we were really back in desert land. On top of a plateau, with a 360 view over valleys and mountains and sand dunes, we noticed that also Bedouin were living in the wadi which is officially a nature reserve. In the morning we hiked through the wadi and encountered a group of tourists, dressed up like Lawrence of Arabia on camels. It’s all about experience!
Driving around the reserve the next day, we started to appreciate Wadi Rum more, but at the same time, we realized how difficult the balancing act is of local authorities, to protect its valuable natural resources and let the local population profit from it, without destroying the very thing that generates the much needed income. How many camps and touring trips can you have in a reserve? Can you have locals farming with their animals in a reserve? How to deal with all the garbage generated in the reserve?
We drove back through the horrible village of Rum and looked in a different way to this village. It reminded us of the town of Maun in Botswana, the tourist entry into the Okovango delta. A magnet for tourists and therefore a magnet for people looking for jobs and business opportunities and a government who is unable to manage the growth in a sustainable way. When Saudi Arabia will completely open up, with a better approach, I wonder how it will effect the flow of tourists to Jordan.
Our next stop was the main tourist attraction of Jordan, which is the old Nabetanean capital of Petra. Jordan is not so big, so distances are easy to overcome. To get to Petra you will go through Wadi Musa, a big town which is the main entree into Petra. A long winding road from the plateau, goes down into the valley where the center of town and Petra is located. The road we were driving is called the Kings Highway, a road going back to the Iron age. Its one of the oldest still used roads/routes in the world. They say there is so much history on and along this road, that every bend has a story to tell.
From fellow overlanders, we knew that you were allowed to park and sleep on the main parking near the entrance of Petra. We saw another camper truck from France (though we never saw the people of it), and we parked near it. Some children from the town, came straight to us and asked (and were very persistent) to have a look inside the camper. We didn’t see the need to show some children our house just like that, so we refused. It was late and on the way down we had seen some nice restaurants on the main road towards Petra. We walked along the street and one restaurant was trying to lure in (western) clients, by saying that they had beer and wine (can you imagine that in Europe, wouldn’t be a strong sales point). Having a nice glass of wine or a real beer for a change, did work for us. Now, we couldn’t sit on the terrace along the road, with a bottle of beer or wine, unless, we used coffee mugs (reminds me of a terrace in California, where alcoholic drinks were only allowed inside the establishment, but which was dodged by using coffee mugs.) A good Jordanian meal with a good wine and beer was a nice way to start our Petra experience.
We woke up a little late and started a bit too late with our visit to Petra. The first bus loads of tourists with their guides were already dropped off. We noticed that Petra is very popular with tourists from France and Italian. We heard so much French and Italian spoken by guides around us. At the entrance you are approached by the first hustlers, who want to be your guide (warning signs at the entrance state that you should only use official guides) or offer you a trip on a horse. (The horse trip only takes you for a short distance to the entrance of the gap, which leads you to ruins of Petra. Then you can take a trip with a donkey to a certain point and from there you have a stretch reserved for camels rides and then there is a ride with a donkey card). We walked and passed the first groups, who were busy listening to their guides. When you enter the gap, a new world awaits you. Partly paved with raw concrete, a beautiful narrow gap, caused by millions of years of erosion in the sand stone rock formation, opened up for us. Besides the nice cool temperature it amazes me again, how beautiful our planet is, how creative and artistic nature is.
We regretted a bit that we started so late, since these kind of places you should enjoy and “discover” in private. We also passed several simple souvenir stands (which for us didn’t fit in an Unesco site, same as what we say in Wadi Rum). Young boys approach you, to be your guide to bring you higher up to see the “Treasury” tomb, Petra is most famous for and that is part of a background in many movies (like Indiana Jones). The Treasury is indeed a gem of a monument, if only for how/where it is located. Coming through the narrow gap, you reach an open area surrounded by sand rock cliffs and in front of you, there is that huge piece of artwork, carved in the sandstone rock cliff. We have seen these huge tomb facades already in Saudi Arabia and were familiar with what the Nabetaneans are capable of, but this was even more impressive.
In front there was a lively gathering of all kinds of people, the tourists of all kinds, influencer girls trying to have the best shots, camels with their owners trying to sell trips, donkeys and their riders, unofficial guides to hook up with single tourists. Maybe it was a reflection of how it was in the old times, people have not changed that much actually. The gap continues right after the Treasury tomb, but now the gap was full of little colorful market stands, and yes, it must have been like that during the times of the Nabetaneans.
When you finally reach the end of the gap, you reach the actual city of Petra. Surrounded by hundreds of tombs carved in the rocks, you see caves and simple tomb like openings, which used to be the homes of the Nabetaneans. A main street goes through the heart of town, which was flanked by temples, markets, bathhouse and other official buildings. The Nabetaneans had their architecture copied from the Greeks, Romans and Assyrians. The many round columns are testimony of that.
Besides the main trail through Petra, which is done by most of the visitors, there are some side trails, which required some extensive climbing through the rocky hills surrounding the old town. One brought us up to one of the highest points, which gives you a spectacular view over the area. A Bedouin woman lives up there in a tent with her two children. She sells coffee, tea and (not so cold) drinks. Her donkey was a means of transport to bring stuff up to her “home”. When you see that, you wonder, what will the future bring for these children? Are they going to school, how would they in the future make ends meet? Are they aware of all the technical advances made around them? Would they ever be able to keep up (if they already know and understand the present?) But we have seen already so many people like that during our travels. What will their role in life be in this world, besides just trying to make it to the next day?
Another beautiful, but heavy hike, is to one the “Monastry” another great tomb like facade. A lot of climbing and still a popular one, looking at the amount of little coffee places and market booths. Again when you arrive it’s really a magical moment, to see such grandeur. It’s funny to see the competition between the local coffee shops on the spot, of having the best view on the monument, from different points. Again too much too many!
Returning to the main track, there is a modern restaurant bar from a hotel chain, the only place inside Petra selling alcoholic drinks. Service was not existing and after getting a drink from the bar, we were told that they were now closed (at 3 in the afternoon, so much for getting tourist revenues). Walking back along the main road I looked at all the market stalls and the stuff they try to sell. (In some cases the centuries old temple columns are used to hold ropes to hang merchandise) A lot was rusty and dusty, some sellers try to clean by using a blower to get ride of the dust. We saw many tourists (though far less than normall according to the locals, due to fear of the war in Gaza), but hardly anyone of them bought something. The times that people buy silly souvenirs to bring home, seems to be gone. Especially the younger generation is much more into collecting memories (mostly with film and photo, which are limitless nowadays), than gathering stuff. Besides that, there is so much the same in all these stalls, that the items lose their uniqueness.
We returned to the truck after 20km hike this first day in Petra and felt satisfied with so much exercise and seeing so many beautiful things. A good dinner “at home” a nice shower and early to bed, because we decided to stay another day in Petra the next day, but now with an early start!
Before 6:30 am we were at the entrance and because of our Jordan Tourist pass, we could go in without buying tickets (the ticket booth was still closed). Now, this was a complete different experience. We were all alone, no hustlers, markets stalls were still closed (they just put a carpet or cloth over their merchandise, mind you, we are still in the Arab world, were theft is almost non existing). We now really could enjoy the beauty of Petra without being distracted. A less used side track was our hike for the morning. It let up to a high spot where there used to be a large temple and the remnants of a huge altar are still visible. We met a local man, who, by his appearance, looked as if he belongs to one of the mountain tribes who live in this mountain area. They have beautiful, long, curly, black hair and use specific eye liner around their eyes. (If you remember Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean, you know what I try to describe). He was a very nice man and he showed us some wonderful areas. He also told us that away from the tourist routes in Petra, there was a large section of Petra with tombs, caves and carved out homes, (still) used by local people to live in or used to house their animals. This handsome guy was not at all like the hustlers below, where the tourists are. He was genuinely nice and a man of nature who didn’t lik the hustle and bustle in the lower area. He pointed us in the direction of a secret place, not many tourist visit, which brought us to the former “Garden of Eden” of Petra. A temple in a small valley, which used to be a garden park for the Nabetaneans, with even a pool and a manmade waterfall. It must have been so beautiful, almost heavenly in their days. Nearby was a huge tomb, the tomb of the Roman Soldier. Nabetanears where once subject of the Roman Empire, and the Romans followed part of the Nabetatean traditions. It’s the only tomb facade with statutes of people (still) present.
Indeed, as he told us, we now encountered numerous tombs, caves and rock dwellings, where indeed people live and keep their animals. It looked primitive and as if the people were squatters, but for generations people have lived in these rock carved “holes” as their homes (and in the hot summer, these housing units can be a cool place to hide. Though in an official Unesco side, you would not expect people living in the protected monuments. On the way back a nice fresh Pommegranate juice at one of the booths and back to the truck. Since there is also a lesser known Little Petra not far from our parking location, we went there as well.
Little Petra is not a town but a distant tomb site of Petra, with some nicely decorated facades and of course hustlers and market stalls. Its a long straight walk with a little climb, which ends at a small shop annex coffee shop. Also here a very nice “mountain man”, who runs the shop. Funny thing, I found, he had reggae music coming from his sound box and with us coming from the Caribbean, that was great! Would not have expected that here in an Arabian coffee shop, in a moslim country (where smoking drugs is a no no). But still it’s very cool music and we took some coffee from him and relaxed a bit in his Bedouin tent on the big cushions.
Nearby Little Petra was a wadi where we found a good spot to camp for the night. However, in the early evening, somebody knocked on the door and told us, he was an official of the Petra Heritage Authority (or something like that), and that we were not allowed to park/camp where we were. I found that nonsense, especially since I saw some Bedouin people in tents in the wadi. Furthermore I had noticed that on our spot people had camped or at least had made camp fires. He wanted us to go to a paid camp ground (I assumed he was in it and had actually nothing to say about our presence.) I told him I am not driving in the night and that if he insisted I would leave Jordan tomorrow. He changed right away and “allowed” us to stay. Problem solved.
From Little Petra we took a small road winding through the mountains, which passed some abandoned and neglected historical sites. We passed a roadside shop with a big watertruck and water tank opposite of it. We needed to replenish our stock of water, so we stopped to ask if we could buy some water. A young Bedouin guy, well dressed, was the owner of the operation, including the water truck. He sells water to nearby communities and Bedouin. He was happy to help us. His Saudanese helper, brought a carpet, which he rolled out in front of our truck on the road in the shade and also brought coffee. While the truck was being filled up I had a nice conversation with him. He explained how bad Covid harmed his business and now the war in Gaza. The road I was now driving was a scenic road, used often by self drive tourists who stop at his shop, which has also an amazing view point from the mountain top on the low lands below. He told me about getting married and having a family, but not many children. I see that often there is a difference in thinking about family and especially family size. The older generation (my generation), especially the guys, are proud of the high number of children they have or even that they have more than one wife. The younger generation is more realistic and see their lives in a different way. They also want to make careers (especially the girls with education) and want to travel the world. But key in this thinking is education (for both genders).
With the watertank filled to the top we followed the scenic route to another Jordan highlight, castle Montreal or Shawbak. An old Crusaders castle (though originally built by Arab moslims and less then 50 years inhabited by the Crusaders). There we saw the big buses with tourists again (amazing, you don’t find them on the road or other places where we go, only at the high lights). We followed a group of Belgium tourists with their local guide, who – interestingly – compared the Crusaders with Isis. A bit far stretched and not very handy with Belgium tourists (Belgium is a country which presented in those days a lot of Crusaders.), who either felt offended or threatened. Although largely in ruins, the castle is still impressive. Strategically located on a mountain top, overlooking far distances. Earthquakes are the most common reason, for the destroyed castles, fortresses and old cities in Jordan., Often the structures are built with blocks, carved out of rocks and stapled on each other without mortar. A bit of shaking easily will bring these buildings down.
Camping nearby (although our parking spot would have been perfect with a view on the castle), was not allowed. So we focused on a nearby wadi site, which was also a tourist site. On I Overlander a wild camp site was popping up on the map. On the way to the wadi we passed a small village, where the navigation system sent us to a very narrow street with low hanging cables. Marja climbed on the truck to lift the cables, but some local guys did not agree with that. It was not clear if that was because they were worried about Marja or about their electricity and/or phone connections. Backing up was not really an option for me, so we still continued by lifting the cables. Half of the village was in the meantime alarmed and older women shaked their heads seeing Marja climbing the truck and holding up the cables. Its not something you see a lot of Arab women do.
We managed to get back on track and drove towards a great private camp spot on a small plateau with a beautiful view (although it was already getting dark, the lights of a town far away made it very pretty at night time).
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