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Published: February 15th 2014
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Jordan – the rest.
12
th february
Yesterday we had a nice lie in as didn’t have to leave until 10am. Packed our cases and also had to make sure we had our day pack with suitable things in as we were going to stay for a night in Wadi Rum desert! So had to take lots of layers and our alcohol! 1st stop was this Bakery around the corner from our hotel in Wadi Masa (Silk road hotel). This bakery was incredible. They were making flat(pitta) bread by hand and there were so many delights, boths sweet and savory. I then nipped into a small shop for water and tried to pay with a 10 dinnar note – they don’t tend to hold much change and prefer dealing in 5 or 1 dinnar notes and change – and she didn’t have enough change, and I didn’t have anything smaller so she gave me it for free! I ran in the bus and got some change and ran back to give her that! Such a nice culture here. They will literally do anything for you.
We stopped at a
Bedouin camp which is a more commercialised camp and ate our bakery delights. It was a large woollen tent with seating and tables in a big circle. The Bedouins are a tribe that are extremely interesting, might be worth looking up. We left our large luggage and set off on a jeep ride safari in the desert. It was brilliant, stopped a couple of times along the way to take pictures including two natural bridges and to see some native carvings in the stone. Near the carvings was a tent where Bedouins were living and they made us tea and used an original instrument made of a string of hair from a horse’s tail. After which we went to an area to watch the sunset over the desert. Got some good pictures. So serene and peaceful, silence in the desert and the sunset, just perfect. We then headed to the G camp, which was just us. Literally. It was the day before a full moon and it reflected on the sand to the point where it looked like snow. Felt completely privileged to be in such a fantastic spot. That was until I realised I had forgotten mine and Sophie’s
wine! Gutted! Luckily we had befriended a fellow alcoholic who supplied us with a spare of his and we will give him ours when we get back. Legend, aka Kieran. We had a beautiful dinner which was cooked in the main camp as there is no cooking facilities in our camp, it’s literally just a campfire surrounded by one big square tent that is divided into rooms almost, they each have actual beds in and a coat hook on the woollen wall! And there are actual toilets and showers also. Very comfortable. We ate dinner and cracked open the wine, some were drinking ‘Petra Beer’ which is 10%, had a few sips, tasted like strong Stella. Our guide, Ayman, had never had it before so he was pretty merry after 3. We went on a late night walk into the desert and started another campfire and had tea on it, we were gone from about 9.30pm to 11.30pm, it was so bright we didn’t need our torches. Kept drinking sips of Petra Beer, Sophie was drunk and was doing cartwheels on the way back, also rolled down a massive sand dune. Nutter, I love it! We then sat around and
talked until about 1.30am, Sophie and two others had to be up at half 5 as she was going to ride a camel.
February 13th
We were up an hour later to meet them in the desert on the jeeps. We then headed back to the main camp for breakfast and my wine was still there, which we gave to Kieran, but we carried it for a bit. Then back in the bus to Aqaba where we were staying for the night, waiting to check in and Sophie knocks the wine bottle over and it smashes all over the marble floor! Not doing well! Looked like someone has just been stabbed. We then hung out in the room for bit before we headed out to get on a boat which some of us had paid extra for. The weather had been very cloudy and window the day before but it was beautiful sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. It was a posh boat and we had the chance to snorkel over the coral reef. It was beautiful, such a gorgeous and relaxing day. Just what was needed after a busy and exciting
week.
We headed back to the hotel and nipped out for some water had become celebrities in a sweet shop, the three men in the shop all took pictures with us. They were really sweet, and wished us a happy Valentines for the next day. As a group we went for dinner for seafood, I had king prawns in batter, and we paid for Kieran’s wine. It was very nice, however when it came to paying, there was an incident. There was 17% to go on top of what we paid and the waiter came round each of us to take payment after we told them what we had, mine came to 24 JOD. One of the group questioned the price and it turned out the waiter had duped us all by 3-10 JOD each! After that some of us ventured to a bar, which was more of a club but there was no one else there and we had waitress service. Had three ‘Liquid Marijuana’ cocktails. It was a good night, we went home around midnight.
February 14th
Up the next day to head back to
Amman thus completing the tour, it’s emotional. Got back around 2 and had a wander around a mall and had some lunch. Then headed back to the hotel and chilled until 6 when we were going out for our final group meal. We went to a place that you could tell was treated as a nice place that the locals go to. Had delicious appetizer similar to the first night and then onto a main dish, a mixed grill, which was three types of kebabs and mansaf which we had in Wadi Rum. Me and Sophie were so full form lunch so shared a mixed grill. We headed back to the hotel to do our goodbyes and swap email addresses. Some of us then went out to a bar, me, Sophie, Kieran, Jo and Adrienne joined our tour guide, Ayman and two of his friends to the same bar as the first night, the one above the book store. We had lots of drinks and shisha! At about midnight we headed to the G Club which was very busy, one of Aymans friends bought a bottle of Absolute vodka from behind the bar and it got even messier. Throughout my
trip I had decided that there wasn’t going to be any messy nights, however I broke the rule as I was with people I trusted and also if anything at all went wrong then the Guide was there. I did however brake my glasses, one of the plastic nose bits has come off.. grrr!
I had made a mistake and I don’t have a hotel booked for Saturday but I have one for Sunday night. In the same hotel. So Sophies mum had booked us into the hostel she was in before for Saturday. Silly me! But neither I or the Round the world travel expert person noticed that there would be a gap. Good job I met sophie really, she’s alright I spose. (there you go sophie, don’t say I never say anything nice about you!)
February 15th
So we hung around to say goodbye to some of the group and headed to the Jordan Tower hostel in a taxi. Sophies mum was there already so we dumped our stuff and headed out to have a look around Downtown. I bought a rather lovely pashmina for 4 JOD, (£4) and
ate street food of a falafel wrap, a Sharmwa. We have had dinner tonight in the same place as the first night with the tour.
I am getting nervous about being on my own in Kuala Lumpur now, I have gotten used to being around people. Hmm. So I have a day now to chill out and I think I’ll just do nothing and sit and research my next stop. I will just day this – I have absolutely loved this trip and tour, really has been a highlight of my life to date.
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Laura Isherwood
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keep em coming
Really enjoying your blogs xx take care and enjoy Kuala Lumpur xx look forward to hearing more xx