January 23rd - Aqaba, Jordan

We had a beautiful sunny and cool day here in Jordan.  It was so nice to be on land in the sun for a change!

Aqaba is the only port in Jordan and is popular with cruise ships because it’s the gateway to Petra, one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world and on most people’s bucket list.  We spent two days in Jordan a few years ago and saw Petra along with some of the rest of the country.  Today there were 29 buses lined up on the pier to take passengers to Petra.  That’s a lot of people going to the same place.  Other tours were to snorkel locations and to a resort area to use their beach.  I don’t know if anyone took them up on those last two…

We decided to take an excursion to Wadi Rum a well-known desert area near Aqaba also known as the Valley of the Moon because of its resemblance to the moon’s surface.  A Wadi is a valley.

It’s famous as a filming location.  First, and perhaps most notably for Lawrence of Arabia.  T.E Lawrence was a British Colonel who led the Arabs in a revolt against the Turks.  He actually led battles in this area. It’s an interesting story to say the least.  The picture at the top of this entry is of the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which was also the title of Lawrence’ autobiography.

We drove through downtown Aqaba and it’s a very nice city, lots of stores and people around.  We didn’t get to explore the city last time and really didn’t get to see much this time either, but it looks like a nice enough place to walk around.

The Seven Pillars are at a newly constructed visitor center.  It’s so new the parking lot isn’t completed but we got in okay.  The buildings are the same adobe style structures you would see in most desert locations.  This is the starting place for 4-wheel drive tours of the entire Wadi.  Many people come here for rock climbing and star gazing.  As you can imagine a high desert like this, with no other light is great for looking at the stars. 

Huts, like the ones pictured below are rented out for about $250 a night so people can see the stars.  They make good use of solar power here and our guide told us they have air conditioning and all the modern conveniences.  Speaking of modern conveniences…and maybe this isn’t important to everyone, but the public bathrooms we used in Jordan were great.  I say this because it’s in stark contrast to Israel where no bathrooms we used (all at tourist areas) had toilet paper.  Most didn’t even have a place to put toilet paper had they had it.  Sometimes no sinks, never any soap.  Thankfully, years of travel have taught me never to be unprepared for just such a circumstance!  Anyway…loved Jordan’s bathrooms.

After seeing the Wadi, we went to a Bedouin camp to have lunch.  Now, we were under no illusions, this camp is set up to service tourists but it is actually run by the Bedouins or Nomads as our guide referred to them.  The pictures below show some of the reception and lunch area.

The food was great.  I’m not entirely sure what I had but it all tasted great.  They made a fresh bread, kind of like pita but on this rounded hot stove.  They took it off and tore off pieces to hand you, it was delicious. 

After lunch we were on our way to a souvenir store.  This was kind of controversial because it wasn’t on the itinerary and it was put to a vote.  About a third of the people wanted to go (including us) so it was decided that was enough and we went.  The shop was very much like ones we saw the last time we were in Jordan.  They had a lot of nice stuff and the exchange rate for $$ was right on the money (no pun intended) believe me I checked.  We bought a sand art bottle.  They are done by locals and it kind of shows but I liked it.

We enjoyed the tour well enough; it wasn’t the most exciting scenery but interesting nonetheless.  Our guide’s English took some getting used to and he was quite a talker but you get used to that on these tours, you just have to concentrate a little harder.  After that we were on our way back to the ship and got in around 3PM.  We could have gone back into town but gave it a pass.

Later on, those 29 buses starting coming back from Petra and the ship pulled out all the stops for their return.  They set up waiters with trays of champagne to wait for the buses and a number of officers were down there as well.  The bus would pull up, the crowd would disembark and they were be surrounded by waiters with champagne.  Fred and I watched the goings on for a while from above.  I guess those of us on the Wadi Rum excursion didn’t make the cut!  The Petra trip cost $210 per person, I guess for that the ship thought they could part with a little champagne.

We now have 6 days at sea until Dubai!  Yikes, that’s a lot of days.  We have a terrorism readiness drill tomorrow so I’ll wait to see how that goes before writing about the precautions being taken.