The desert gets cold at night!
While the eastern desert is stony the southern desert is sandy with high limestone cliffs, this is the land of Lawrence of Arabia and at the southern tip of Jordan is its only port, a bit of sea coast about 18 km long.
The desert gets cold at night!
The Wadi Rum is an expanse of sandy desert, home of the Bedouin tribe Huweitat and the location of the Arab Revolt and
Lawrence of Arabia. Trips to the Wadi Rum can be organized from almost anywhere in Jordan or you can just show up at the Visitors centre and get the next guide in the queue. From the Visitors Centre you can view the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, which was also the title of Lawrence of Arabia biography. Day trips can be organized into the Wadi Rum but most books recommend an overnight stay to full experience the desert but remember it gets cold at night in the desert.
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All trips start from the Visitor Centre but we made arrangements with our hotel in Petra so the guide picked us up in Petra and he had a female companion from France with him. Never got her full story and since he is married I will only mention that he was recommended by the Lonely Planet. After some spiced tea our guide turned us over to his assistant for the trip to visit some of the sites in the desert; he disappeared after explaining the sites we will be seeing and showing us some pictures of himself with the former and present king of Jordan. It was only myself and my wife, the French woman was not to be seen as the assistant took us to see the sites.
But the desert gets cold at night!
Although it was late November it was quite hot and we soon removed our sneakers and pants bottom as we drove around the desert. The standard tour takes you to several sites around the Wadi Rum which should include; the Abu Aineh or Lawrence's Spring which is a permanent source of water in this desert region, the Khazali canyon with its Nebatean inscriptions, a climbable rock bridge (although a person has fallen to their death), the Alameleh inscriptions which marks the ancient route to Mecca for the Haj and probably Lawrence's house. Its slow going on the sandy paths and you will probably see some locals using camels. We had a boxed lunch in the desert and our guide served us spiced tea. We wonder what the story is with that French woman? We knew this was a return trip for her and she was planning on spending several days here.
It might be hot during the day but boy does the desert get cold at night!
After spending many hours driving around the desert we arrived at a
traditional Bedouin encampment with large goat hair tents. This was suppose to be a luxury camp but it was no Selous which is our standard for camping. The tents were huge, 30 people could probably party in one of the tents but facilities were sparse but it was only for one night. Small cots were provided with plenty of blankets because it gets cold in the desert at night! We also noticed a small tent pitched inside one of the larger tents, strange.
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We explored the immediate area around the camp and waited to view the sunset. Suddenly the French woman showed up to view the sunset. The small tent was her tent, guess she wants her
privacy and she arrived before us. I guess the main guide must be picking up some new guests? As the sun was setting you can feel the heat
dissipating, it was actually getting chilly. We quickly put on socks, sneakers and pants legs. After the sunset we noticed that the main guide was also in the camp but no vehicle had arrived. Hmm, and he a married man.
It got chilly quickly but it was a cloudless sky with a full moon, you could see your shadow. It was getting late but we were waiting for some quests to arrive before supper; 3 young Americans, one who was
studying in Amman and two friends visiting and doing a whirlwind tour of the Middle East. We had a
traditional prepared meal which is cooked on racks buried in the sand. The food of fairly plain but there was plenty of it. The main guide was present during the meal. The young Americans were also wondering about the French
woman's story. She did not look well or that she was enjoying herself and she was planning on spending several days here. It seemed a long way to come to have an affair with a married man.
We had an early bus ride to Aqaba in the morning so it was early to bed but then after the stories there was not much to do in the desert at night, except to wonder about the French woman's story. Did I mention that it gets cold in the desert at night? I've been in several desert environments before but never experienced this level of rapid chill before, in the winter there can even be frost at night.
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After a chilly night and a quick breakfast it was a mad dash across the desert to catch the bus to Aqaba with our guide pointing out features of the desert along the way and the door of the passenger side door of the jeep refusing to stay closed but we did make the 7 o'clock bus.
It was a local bus not a tourist bus with the sexes seating in separate parts of the bus. People made room for us, they try to
squeeze as many people as possible into these buses.
Aqaba is Jordan's attempt at a resort town. Despite some resort hotels Aqaba is a port city not a resort. For people who like resorts visit Eilat in Israel or Taba in Egypt but Aqaba is not without its charms although it is also a stopover during the Haj so avoid the town during that period. All three cities are close to each other and can easily seen from each other, I realized I could have seen the explosions in Taba from our hotel room. At a restaurant we ate at one night the owner told us he lived in Aqaba so he can view the homeland that his family was kicked out of in 1948. You'll hear many stories like that in Jordan.
The sites in Aqaba are few, most of the sites are below the water. Its only a
small city and the main sites are close to each other near the shoreline which
include the Mamluke fort which contains the museum and located between the Royal Yacht Club and a high end resort hotel is the original town site called Aila. Not much remains of the original town site but the area is well marked and teams from Chicago still work the ruins for a couple of weeks every year. There is a public beach in Aqaba but foreign women will probably fell uncomfortable here since young local men hangout hoping to see foreign women in their swimsuits.
If you can't go to the public beaches in town then where? There are the private beaches of the resort hotels but your best bet are the private beaches south of town along the road to Saudi Arabia. The Royal Diving Club was the area we visited, it has its own change rooms, pool, cafe and 
rentals of equipment. There are about 30 dive sites between Aqaba and the Saudi border with about 25 which can be snorkelled from a jetty. The coral reefs in this area of the Red Sea start at the shoreline. Its not the Galapagos Islands but the reefs are more impressive than reefs I snorkelled in Mexico, Zanzibar, or Florida. You will see plenty of fish and no boat trip is involved just walk to the end of the jetty and enter the water.
Even the shopkeepers in Aqaba are friendly, one of them told us he was Omar Sharif's body double during the filming of Lawrence of Arabia, there was a picture of him with Omar in his shop. Most people in Jordan, where a lot of Lawrence of Arabia was filmed act as if Omar Sharif was the star of the movie with some British actor. Actually in real life Lawrence probably did
exaggerated his importance in the Arab Revolt
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