Week 1 in Jordan: From the capital to the desert, ancient ruins and into a snowstorm in the mountains
As I’m doing this on my phone, it’s pictures first (in random Order), text below :-)
Wow, it’s been a while. Nearly 2 years since my last blog. Since then I had amazing 3 weeks in Malawi and Tanzania (including Zanzibar and conquering Kili), went to Corse for a week and 3 weeks in the US (New Orleans, Nashville, Grand Canyon, San Francisco). And never managed to write a blog again. I can tell you, this builds up a barrier to start again! But here I am again backpacking. Finally again solo backpacking and out in a country where the culture and nature fascinate me. I think the last week at work people got a little bit annoyed about my constant happy “I’m going to Jordan” shouting. And then finally I’m in the plane to Amman, the capital of Jordan. I had booked a hostel for the first two nights and researched how to get through border control and into the city at 3am. And I have to say it all went smooth, except for finding out later that the taxi driver overcharged me massively. First lesson learned...
After a couple hours of sleep and a great breakfast at the hostel I started my exploration of Amman. I wandered towards the two main attractions: the Roman theatre and the Citadel. That took me a lot longer then expected as Amman is built on hills and therefore you are going up and down constantly.
The Roman theater was nice, you could climb up to the top and look down. In the smaller auditorium next to it, a Local demonstrated to me the “Roman telephone”. A clever architectural feature that carries sound from one side to the other. Very cool!
Then I moved on to the citadel, with its highlight: the Hercules temple. To be honest: there is not that much left of it and it reminded me a bit of the ruins I’ve seen in Athens. Still a cool place and with amazing views on the city. It was really a lovely relaxed day wandering through the city and way warmer than forecasted. The sun was shining and it felt like 20+ degrees.
After trying some super sweet local dessert I went back to the hostel to rest a bit. There I met Vicci and Jayke, two other travelers that tried to figure out how to get around the country. The local busses are very sparse and it all seemed a bit complicated. So I decided to follow a friends advice to rent a car. The three of us decided to start the next day together to Wadi Rum, the famous desert. We booked a bed in a Bedouin camp there and went to pick up the car. It took us a lot longer than expected due to traffic, but it was good to have the first drive not alone. The traffic in Amman is a bit crazy and like in Asia drivers don’t really care about lanes, but drive more in a flowing line, depending where there is space. I mastered the challenge to adapt and we went for dinner with another traveler from the hostel. My first falafel, so yummy.
The next morning we left early to be around noon at Wadi Rum. The navigation was soso, and I ended up driving once around Amman before getting in the right direction. 1,5 hours later we are out of Amman and on the desert highway :-) It was an easy drive, but felt quite long, especially as the Bluetooth of the car didn’t work and there were not many western music channels. Some learnings: people usually stick reasonably well to the speed limit, also due to the murderous speed bumps. The desert highway is one big roadwork, half of the time they were working on one of the lanes. And last but not least, yellow signs (the ones at roadworks) are completely voluntary. Along the way we passed plenty of road controls, but the moment they saw that we are foreigners, they waved us through.
When we arrived at Wadi Rum we were directly picked up, as we had booked a 4x4 tour through the desert. So we loaded all our luggage into the car, as you need 4x4 to get to the camp, and off we go. The tour was really great. We made 5-6 stops, at some sand dunes, rocks we could climb on, rock bridges to stand on and going through some canyons. It was a little bit touristy, but so unbelievably beautiful. The whole tour we were sitting on benches on the back of the car, so we could fully enjoy the desert. It was very different from what I had expected. There were some sand dunes, but also a lot of really cool rock formations. And the desert was full of beautiful little purple flowers. Of course we passed quite some camels, but none of us were interested in riding a camel as we had done it before.
The end of the tour was watching the sunset from one of the rocks, where they even served us some tea as it started to cool down a bit. At some point someone started to play the flute which gave the beautiful sunset a somewhat mystique feeling. Very cool.
Then our driver brought us to the camp. We had a little hut for the tree of us and luckily there were plenty of warm blankets on each bed. It really started to cool down. We went to the common tent, which was a super comfy area with a fireplace and the obligatory free tea. We hung out there and shortly after, dinner was served. It was a super yummy dinner, which they had cooked on coals and burried in the sand, the traditional Bedouin way.
After dinner the three of us went for some star gazing together with another traveler we had met, Guy. He is actually a photographer and was so nice to teach me how to make beautiful pictures of the stars. It was just wow! We walked 30 minutes to a nice rock formation and while Vicci and Jayke star gazed, Guy and I took photos of it. Unfortunately I missed the shooting star, but apart from that it was a perfect night. And not as cold as I had expected (I still was wearing all my layers though). Unfortunately I didn’t sleep well, but it was definitely not because of the cold, the huge blankets were amazing!
The next morning Vicci left us and Jayke and I started with another German traveler we had met to a day tour in the desert. We thought we had booked two hikes, but in the end we drove quite a bit by car, which was amazing as the desert changes from really red sand to completely white sand. Then we did a little walk uphill to a beautiful view point. I wouldn’t really call it a hike, although our third guy really struggled. He never went on a hike before. To be honest: no clue why he went to the desert, it really didn’t seem to be his thing and he was very vocal about it. Anyways, after we were back to the car our guide cooked together with 2-3 other guides and it was delicious! We met some other travelers, a lovely couple from Ireland and had a good time in the sun. After this our tour continued. After driving crazy fast through the desert we came to a dune we could walk up and had again an amazing view. We were however surprised when the guide told us that this was it and 15 minutes later we were back at camp. We were quite disappointed, because we had booked a full day tour and I expected a real hike. In the end he drove us around a bit longer and brought us to another rock for sunset. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so there was no real sunset and also not many stars that night. We had a relaxed evening in the common tent again, played some games and sang some songs. Jayke was asking for a guitar at every place, but none had a guitar. Here one of the guides just went and bought one :-) not the best, but it was fun anyways. At the end of the evening one of the guides let me drive his car so we did a little night drive through the desert. No clue how they can orientate there, I would have been completely lost!
The next morning they drove us back to my car and off we go to Petra. The weather was getting worse and worse, it was getting cold and cloudy. We still had some amazing views and I enjoyed the drive through the hills. When we arrived at our hostel in Wadi Musa, the village next to Petra, it was really cold and windy. So Jayke and me decided not to go to Petra today and relax a bit. While sitting there the couple we had met at lunch in Wadi Rum walked in and the four of us ended up making a trip to Little Petra. It is for free and was a great start to exploring Petra. The buildings/caves are not as impressive as the ones at Petra itself, but if this would be anywhere else (not next to its big brother) this would be a major attraction and certainly free entry. It was a beautiful walk along the canyon and you could walk/climb up a path to get an amazing view of the canyon. We even had some sun and overall I had a great time!
In the evening we met again Guy, the photographer from Wadi Rum at the hostel and Jayke and me decided to join him the next evening to Dana. We had a great barbecue on the rooftop of the hostel and I finished the night with my first chess game since probably 20 years. And I won :-)
The next morning Jayke and I got up at 5 to be at the gates of Petra when it opens at 6. I would have liked to get a taxi to the end gate so we would have saved one way (especially as rain was predicted), but Jayke was cheap and the couple we had met wanted to leave later. As you needed minimum 3 people for the taxi I decided to join Jayke. We left with 2 other people from our room and were really amongst the first ones in Petra. You walk through a canyon for 45 minutes until you arrive at the main attraction: the treasury. The walk reminded me a bit of the canyons in US :-) At the treasury there was nearly no one, which was really cool, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Maybe because I already saw so many pictures of it. So we took 1-2 photos each and then continued walking. You come through a full villages, with a theater, houses and huge tombs that look like temples in the rocks. It was a really nice walk and after 600 steps up into the canyon we reached the second highlight: the monastery. Another really impressive building in the stone. There we made a little break and realized we already made it once through Petra in about 2 hours. We were nearly the only ones up there and enjoyed our break. Unfortunately it was super windy, so I decided not to go up to the little viewpoint and rather turned around to explore some of the buildings a bit more in detail and go to the viewpoint of the treasury, the most famous picture spot. The others went up to the monastery viewpoint and we planned to meet up later. Somehow we missed each other though and I spent the day alone. I really enjoyed walking back and exploring some of the sites. It was super windy, but luckily still dry, so I enjoyed my stay a lot. I went up the viewpoint and met another German there. We had a tea at the little hut on top and enjoyed the view. After relaxing a bit up there I made my way back down and back to the hostel. Now only I realized how glad I was that we had started so early. It was crazy! Petra is full of market stands, donkey/camel rides, cafes.... which were not open yet when we came past the village the first time. Also it really started to fill up and bus loads of tourist groups had arrived. It took me an hour back and I was completely exhausted from going uphill when I arrived at the hostel. It was around 2pm and I noticed that in the last 8 hours I had walked about 20km.
After a little rest Jayke, Guy and Taylor (another traveler with the same destination) stepped into the car. We all wanted to go hiking in the beautiful hills of Dana. The weather had gotten crazier and crazier during the day. At this point there was a sand storm going on and you nearly couldn’t see anything. So unfortunately the beautiful drive was a bit boring as we saw nothing. It even started to rain. When we arrived in Dana it was windy and cold and wet. The hostel was a really cool place - or would be in summer. Unfortunately it was really cold and so everyone just sat in the common room together. There were no games or guitars, so everyone just was on their phones and I read my book. Dinner was good and it was a nice evening with good company and funny stories from the Local. The highlight however was the sunset. Despite the freezing wind we went out to watch it as the fog had cleared up a bit. With some more photo lessons from Guy we shot some more great photos and could not believe how beautiful it was. The rays of light were perfectly illuminating the canyon. So gorgeous! I took plenty of pictures :-)
We had originally planned a little hike the next day, but when we met at breakfast it was still freezing cold and wet and there was 0 view. And it had even snowed overnight. What??? I still had my sunburn in the face from 2 days ago and now I’m in the snow?!? And Dana isn’t even that high, somewhere around 1000-1500m altitude. Well, we decided quickly that we would just leave as staying didn’t make sense, but then we learned that the roads were closed! So again everyone went to the common room and relaxed there. In the late morning the road was open again and we started the adventure. After just 5 minutes driving we really had snow on the road and it was going uphill. No 4x4 and no winter tires. Great! On top we had a view of about 5m ahead. So I followed a truck slowly. Suddenly the truck stopped and we realized that the minivan from another family that had stayed at the same hostel had got stuck. They pushed the van and in the end another truck pulled them up the hill. It was quite challenging to start again on the hill in the snow, but luckily my little rental Hyundai made it. Just a couple of meters further we had made it to the crossroad where we wanted to turn off. The route we wanted to take was closed so we followed all other cars on a detour. After 10 minutes driving without snow but still in the fog it finally lit up and we could drive normally. We made a stop in Karak where there is a huge ancient castle. We first walked around the village to get some food and Guy, who had been there before took us to a really cool bread shop where we bought bread fresh from the oven. Also the shoarma we bought after was really yummy.
Three of us the went into the castle, despite the rain and it was fun to explore the castle and its tunnels. Unfortunately the light system was out which should have given a great light effect. But I still enjoyed it. Also we should have had a great view from the castle, but due to the clouds we saw not really far.
After that stop we wanted to drive to the Dead Sea on the way to Amman. Someone had told us though that the Dead Sea highway is closed due to the flooding in Amman. We called the number and they confirmed, it was still closed. So we headed back to the main highway and skipped the Dead Sea. Back in Amman we had booked a hostel together. The four of us relaxed a bit at the hostel, showered and did some laundry and then made our way to dinner. We again had super yummy kebab and then went back to the hostel.
And so quickly half of my trip is already over! The good news: I’ve already done most of the things I really wanted. I’ve only skipped the Red Sea as my motivation for diving had really decreased with the cold temperatures and stories about really being cold during the dive. The other To Do’s I will most likely do from Amman as day tours. The distances are not so big and in Amman there are good and cheap hostels and you always meet new people. But more of that the next time!
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