Bait Ali is the camp in Wadi Rum where I stay today. This compound has all the amenities you could want - swimming pool, showers, toilets, sleeping in either chalets or tents, great food, bar, evening music, quad bikes for exploring the desert, horses and great desert views. What they don't have within their facility, they can easily arrange (hot air balloons, airplane ride, jeep tour, Bedouin home stay,...)
The owners, Susie and Tahseen Shinaco are amazing people. I meet Susie but have yet to meet her husband. They married 30 years ago, raising their children in Aqaba before moving to this location 10 years ago. Among other things, Susie is a proficient equestrian, and her dream when starting this camp was to offer horse riding vacations. She discovered that the market for people riding horses was very small compared to those that want an easier vacation (jeep tours or driving four wheeled ATVs (quads) so horses are now a sideline.
Susie spends at least an hour with me, helping me plan my two days in Wadi Rum. She is full of ideas and suggests a good desert walk this evening and tomorrow a morning desert jeep tour with a Bedouin guide she recommends, Halil. We also arrange for Houda, an instructor with the Jordanian Aero Club, to fly at sunrise in two days and collect me. Stay tuned for this!
Susie is quite modest but if you get her on a roll, she'll talk about her husband's exploits, first explaining how his parents escaped the Causcuses on horseback, arriving penniless. Her husband worked his way up from nothing and ended up owning a salvage business. Many interesting stories about weird stuff they raised from the sea. She likes to do endurance horse rides in the desert and knows the area very well.
I spend the day "hanging out" around the compound, mostly catching up my journal, reading about stuff to do in the area and sleeping, not necessarily in that order. At 5PM, Susie gives me a ride in her 4WD to an area she reckons will be picturesque. Within minutes of being dropped off, a small gaggle of Bedouin children swarm round me, very excited. It's not everyday that a foreigner waltzes through the desert in their backyard!
They don't speak a word of English and I don't speak a word of their language. After many attempts to communicate, they resort to the only thing they know I will understand, they ask for money. Sorry kids, this big kid don't give no money to no-one (not quite true but they don't know that). After a few minutes a jeep appears and the parents drive off with the kids. Despite the fact that the parents speak no English, they are very friendly and we spend several minutes gesticulating, grunting, smiling, and speaking in a language we know the other cannot understand. The gist of their grunting, gesticulating and smiling is, "Welcome! Enjoy yourself while viewing our beautiful land." The gist of my grunting, gesticulating and smiling is, "Thank you!"
The low angle sun lights up the reds and yellows in the sandstone rock as well as the sand. It's beautiful. I spend much time photographing isolated plants and rocks before realizing that I have about 5 miles to walk before 8PM. I don't want to be lost in the desert tonight! To that end, I have water, compass, GPS and headlamp with me, in addition to 15 pounds of camera gear. If I do get lost, at least I can capture pictures of my slow dehydration and emaciation, not that anyone would be interested in viewing them...
I see a large French camp in the distance. Susie tells me that it is for a TV show which is trying to find the person most adapted to desert life. There are many, "survivor" tests like eating grubs, riding camels, walking in the heat of the day, finding water, etc. It seems this type of show has become popular around the world. I saw people watching similar shows in India, Nepal and Israel.
The desert in this area is characterized by colorful sand as I mentioned above, and large rock formations that rise up from the sand. They remind me of battleships, with all sorts of protrusions sticking up, and the general shape of these outcrops is relatively long and thin, having a prow and stern. The sand dunes even provide large colorful waves for my ships. Occasionally you see a mound of football-sized rocks. These are ancient burial mounds.
I make it back to the Bait Ali camp at 8PM and gladly swill down the brew Susie proffers. Beer always tastes better in the desert, especially when its been a hot day (41 C).
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May 31
Halil arrives at 5:30AM with a French couple who spent the night at Halil's desert camp (Bedouin tents, much more rustic than Susie's enclave). Philippe and Barbara rave about the desert experience with Halil and I arrange to spend the night at the same camp.
Halil drives his 15 year old Nissan Patrol 4WD around the desert, taking us to a couple of large arches and other scenic locations. I climb up the larger of the two arches and Philippe captures me at the top. I can tell you it was a challenge to get back down! I'm in the front seat and I notice the large star on the windshield on the passenger's side. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out how it came to be. I keep my seat belt fastened.
After a couple hours of sight seeing, Halil takes us to his home in Disi, where his wife has prepared a traditional Bedouin breakfast for us. Hummus, milk (yoghurt), honey, olive oil, sliced meat, Bedouin spices all figure into the delicious meal. And tea with a healthy slug of goat's milk (Philippe is enjoying his in the photo.)
Halil goes to Amman in the afternoon and his son Joseph collects me for a late afternoon of sightseeing. This morning we toured the area around Bait Ali while this afternoon, the tour is in the heart of Wadi Rum. The rock outcrops (mountains) are taller and there is more red in the rock and soil. This is where most of the tourists come. There is a standard route they follow at the end of the day and we end up following the geriatric convoy. These folks don't waddle more than a few feet from the jeep when it stops at the next way-point. I find it rather comical to be trailing them around the desert. Fortunately we are about 10 minutes behind them so the dust kicked up by their jeeps has dispersed before we arrive at the next stop.
Joseph and his friend take great delight in showing me Joseph's new cell phone. It costs JD200 (about $380). It's a phone, internet browser, sms device, camera, camcorder, mp3 player all rolled into one. They took some video footage of themselves swimming yesterday and show me 5 minutes of video. Joseph then shows me pictures of his girlfriends which are stored in his phone. He has three girlfriends. One local. One further afield but still in Jordan and a real stunner who lives in Jordan. I ask if the Syrian woman has any sisters but he doesn't understand my question. Just as well.
Joseph is constantly sending messages and talking on his phone. It dawns on me that cell phones have captured the young generation, providing them with the entertainment device of choice. Nokia and the big boys are executing to their strategy and it is working. For 500 million people in North America and Europe, the center of the universe today may be the computer, but for the other 5.5 Billion people on the planet, a mid to high-end cell phone is the cat's meow. Bill Gates look out! (I know he is looking there too, but thus far he's not been successful.)
I recall making a comment to Sarah (Oren's friend) to the effect that I get pissed when I am talking to someone and they take a phone call on their cell phone while we are talking (ie, the remote person on the cell phone is more important than me, who is standing next to them). Sarah says the young generation is different and that I just don't understand. I can see this is true. It makes me feel old, but I think I will always be pissed if someone answers a phone while talking to me.
Another piece of Western technology has permeated life in Jordan (and Nepal, and to a lesser extent, India). It's called junk food, aka potato chips, fried onion rings and other convenience snacks packaged in mylar bags so they last several years. Joseph and his friend prefer these snacks to the wholesome chicken dinner prepared by their mothers. I see stacks of these mylar bags in the local convenience stores. The West will eventually win over the rest of the world, not through George Bush strong arming them, but through cell phones and junk food.
Joseph collects the chicken dinner from his mother and we take to his family's desert camp, two large tents that each hold 20-30 people. However, I am the only tourist this evening. After a quick dinner, he hauls out a few blankets for me to roll up inside. I sleep under the stars on a large foam pad. It gets cool in the night and I pull one of the blankets tight around me. I don't feel anything biting me but in 3 or 4 days I find myself covered with incredibly itchy bites. The only thing I can figure is that some desert bug had a field day that evening and left a slow acting itchy substance inside me.
The evening is very clear and the stars fill the sky. I feel bad that I can only identify the big dipper. I think the low latitudes, the time of year and perhaps the time of day prevent me from identifying any other constellations. In any case, the stars are great, I see some satellites and a few shooting stars before falling asleep.
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