Nicole schreibt...

Once in a while I need to do something crazy as I believe it's good for the soul and the ego to venture out and push your own boundaries outside your comfort zone. In this case a week in Jordan with the main feature being four days of horse-riding in the famous Wadi Rum desert like some imaginary Lawrence of Arabia. I have gone to far-away places before, but never alone to an islamic country, so I admit that I was pretty nervous when I headed out to Jordan now, knowledge of the immense hospitality there mingling with worry about tales of young men's attitudes towards western women in other islamic countries where tourism is a big industry. And as so often I found my worries and prejudices completely unsubstantiated, for the Jordanians, not suffering from the influx of cheap mass package tourism and the people that style of tourism brings to the beaches of Egypt and Tunisia, were among the loveliest, kindest people I have ever encountered.

I got up very early to catch the morning flight from Cologne to London and got stuck on Heathrow for five hours which wasn't that bad really since it was "my" London after all - I bought a few things still needed for the trip and look around at all the changes in Terminal 1 since my Britsh Airways days (who have since left to move into their nifty and trouble-ridden new Terminal 5). Note of warning to you who like your airport shopping: Don't take a Wii with you in your cabin luggage if you need to transfer at Heathrow. Some poor guy had his Wii package completely picked apart by some security woman who ran each part and cable through the scanner separately.
Finally it was time for my flight to Amman, courtesy of British Midlands, who had a decent arrival time (unlike Lufthansa whose only flight arrives at 2am!), a decent price and I get miles with them. Apart from a few obnoxious kids the flight was fine though it was not a nice thing of the pilot to force people to stay in their seats just after dinner when everyone's bladder was full :) As soon as the seat belt sign was switched off, a huge queue formed for the loos in the back, that had me worry about the plane tilting upwards with the shift in weight (and yes, I was a bit queasy about flying after this week's Air France crash into the Atlantic). Got to Amman alright though and met the guy who was to pick me up, then queued for my visa. There should have been two others from the group on the same flight, but they didn't turn up. Oh and while my worry about going to Jordan had already dissipated on the plane, there was a lovely example of honesty that's just what a nervous traveller needs on her first day. When I met the guy he said something about me needing money for the visa, and I said I had already got Jordanian dinars in London (zealous me!), so I went to queue and paid for the visa myself. Before he bundled me into my car and said goodbye, he gave me a 10 dinar note, saying that the visa was already part of my package. Well, what can I say, I really appreciated the honesty because I had never known of course and it's good when your first encounter with a new country is something like this.
It was dark already, so I didn't really see anything of Jordan's capital Amman, though I noticed several groups who had parked their cars along the highway and just sat there on the grassy knobs, some with camp fires, some without. It does make me wonder if there's no nice central square with cafes to hang on out or at least a park - the main highway sounds like an iffy hangout to me.
Once we reached the hotel Toledo, I was received by a Dutch writer who had been asked by her friend Jessica (The Dutch lady who runs the horse-riding tours with her Jordanian husband Rami) to tag along and write about the tour through the Wadi Rum and who had become something of an unofficial travel guide. After a chat and a little dinner I headed to bed, glad to have arrived safely and being made felt so welcome.

Petra, the ancient town of the Nabateans hewn out of the mountains there, is Jordan's most famous tourist draw (if nothing else, you will have seen it featured in Indiana Jones) and while everyone knows the facade of the treasury, the best-kept monument, the whole ancient town is frigging huge, covering several miles and some hikes up the mountains. If you can, stay for two days to get a full impression of Petra. Above are some photos of the impressive As Siq gorge, a mile-long walk that leads to the actual city of Petra hidden in the mountains and the most famous of all Petra buildings - the treasury (left). Actually it was not a treasury but the tomb for some ancient Nabataen king and totally empty inside. Our guide Sami was an archeologist, who loved talking about "his" Petra and overall we spent more than three hours wandering around the main area. It's a pity that so little is left of Petra really, because it must have been absolutely awesome. Here are some regular dwellings of the Nabateans and their theatre, which started small and was later expanded by the Romans who loved their entertainment big. There are also fascinating remains of the ancient main temple... and modern life as souvenir sellers try to cash in on the Indiana Jones fame.

Next morning we were finally off, being taken to Jessica's stable outside of Petra first to meet our horses. I got a lovely brown mare called Gloria who was really lovely to ride. After a while something became clear that would sadly sour the whole horse-riding tour for me: We were only ever walking - which made sense in mountaineous terrain or treacherous sands, but there would have been plenty of occasions on which to trot or gallop. But while I feel bad about writing to my travel company to complain and ask for some of my money back, because Jessica was so lovely and made us all so very welcome, this just wasn't what I had expected, much less wanted, long gallops across the desert being my main fancy, when I had booked this expensive trip.
Another thing I hadn't really been aware of was that "sleeping in camps" didn't mean nice comfy camp sites with toilet huts and everything, but really roughing it outdoors, the only water supply to wash with a plastic jug and the big wide outdoors for your toilet. I could have dealt with that too, but when we arrived at the camp site, the sun was already setting (and it gets dark quick once the sun's gone) and very windy. And we just had packages with camping tents handed to us and a cheerful "Well, here's your tent!" - Great. I've never pitched a tent in my life, much less in a windy dusk in the Jordanian desert (Yes, you boy scouts out there can snicker at me now and in retrospect it was probably pretty funny, but with all the things that had come together that day, I was mad as hell and just wanted to go home). Granted, it was pretty awesome when I crawled out of the tent around 2am for certain business and found the whole vast area bathed in the silvery light of a full moon with no civilization to see at all except our tents. But right then it was cold comfort.

The third day finally took us into the proper Wadi Rum, where all the tourists head to. We saw the amazing rock formations and finally stopped for the night at a bedouin tent. The bedouin guy was doing a roaring trade with tourists during the day, serving tea and selling some gadgets, clothes and jewellry, and we spent the evening in his large tent to have dinner together, hear some tales and learn some new party tricks, but I slept badly that night because temperatures didn't really cool off here in the desert and I couldn't sleep for ages. And by now I was longing for a shower so badly, I knew I wouldn't have lasted another day like this. On the other hand, having seen how that bedouin family lived in their tent, I felt almost silly to be so whiney about a shower and toilet as their lifestyle was yet another lesson in humility, making me realize just how overheated consumerism is in the west, always the hunt for the latest gadget and quick trends when so many people don't even have regular access to a shower and toilet, much less to all the fancy stuff we consider "necessary" for our daily lives. Overall being out in the desert where nothing has changed for centuries and you see those goatherds thinking Jesus could have seen exactly the same on his wanderings, it was just like Burma again or the Venezuelan jungle and it gets me to think that we who live so crazily are really the minority, burning and wasting the Earth's resources like there's no tomorrow, while these people make do with so very little. But don't get me wrong: I'm the first to admit that I couldn't do without my Macbook, my iPod or my flat-screen telly anymore.

I was pretty jittery by now, knowing that there wouldn't be exciting gallops anyway, I just longed for the "proper" desert camp we'd reach in the evening with proper sanitary facilities and tents already set up and waiting for us. The extremely long lunch break was really the worst this time, since I just wanted things to be over. Don't get me wrong though, I do not regret having gone on this trip (well, except perhaps the fact that I paid so dearly for a proper "horse-riding vacation" that then consisted of dull long walks only) because the desert was such a fascinating experience and I'm quiet proud that I managed to do this.
Once we got to the Oasis Desert Camp near Disi, there was a little official "We did it!" speech by Jessica with gifts for everyone, then I was the first in the shower, though frankly, sanitary facilities were a mess there, with one of the two showers not working and one of two toilets clogged up. Still it was great to be properly clean again. We had one last dinner together, then said goodbye to Jessica and I went into my tent and the first proper bed in days (but still lots of dust and heat). It amused me to think that for most tourists this camp would be "Egh, OMG, how awful it is here, shared showers? All dusty in the tent? No electricity?" while for us it was a huge improvement. Here's a photo of the desert camp and of our lovely hosts Jessica and Rami.

Still I was really looking forward to the last day at the 5*-Resort at the Dead Sea - so not surprisingly by now, things didn't go as well as they should have. Because of the usual babblers who couldn't get their shit together on time we left at 9.30 instead of 9.00, the drive took +4 hours instead of three and to top it all off, some (those in the other car) wanted to have a longer lunch stop before checking into the hotel (too cheapskate to eat there, no matter that some of us were really longing for the pool and the proper accommodation). Our car proceeded to the hotel then, leaving the others to stuff their faces at some restaurant, but there was still some hassle with the luggage that was partly in the other minivan and our poor driver had to return to the restaurant to swap minivans there.
In the end it was nearly 3pm when we were ready to swim - certainly not the great "last day of relaxation" we should have had. Not that it mattered so much really because it was incredibly hot here, the lowest point of the earth (400 metres under sea level) with temperatures around 39 degrees and the pool water lukewarm and not very refreshing.

I was picked up very early the next morning to return to Amman airport where my adventure had begun a week ago. The lovely people and the fascinating experiences have definitely encouraged me to go back to that area some time soon as I'd really love to visit Israel, Syria and Iran (and yes, I know I need to do Israel the last, as Syria and Iran are exactly the hardcore fanatic countries that won't let you enter with an Israeli stamp in your passport). But I'm honestly not sure if I'd do another horse-riding tour like this again - the one in Ireland was nice, but this one with the lack of gallops and the three nights camping out in the desert wasn't really something I need to do again (and pay alot for). And I just realized once more that I don't do groups well, especially the enforced "companionship" at meal times and the ceaseless verbal diarrhoea some people suffer instead of just soaking up the atmosphere for once and letting their thoughts roam. But I guess that's something in our loud modern world people have almost forgotten how to do.