A Nomadic New Year's

With Jessica's encouragement, I agreed to spend New Year's Eve camping with the Bedouins in the desert region of Wadi Rum.  When she first told me her plans, I thought she was crazy for wanting to sleep in a tent in the desert at the beginning of January.  I mean, I know from experience how cold it is to sleep in a lodge in the Himalayas in the beginning of December.  Still, I decided it would be a fun adventure and a unique way to spend a holiday that has never seemed to be able to live up to my expectations.  Besides, it was only one night outside in the cold as opposed to a dozen.

Hans and Mari were headed to Wadi Rum as well so we all rode down together in a pickup truck.  We were supposed to take a bus, but I guess maybe the bus was full because we went in the truck the whole way down.  The annoying thing was that the driver charged us each one extra dinar for our luggage, which for some reason we didn't think to protest.  I, meanwhile, was trapped behind the driver who felt the need to move his seat all the way back.  I felt like I had barely room to breathe and it was a struggle to extricate myself from the seat every time I got out of the truck.  It was definitely not the most comfortable journey ever.

We left the hostel just after 6:30am so it was still pretty early by the time we arrived at the Wadi Rum Visitor Center about two hours later.  Mari had made a reservation at a different camp from Jessica and I so just Hans remained with us once we got into the reserve.  Our guide met the three of us at the visitor center and brought us to his home in the village where we all had a cup of Bedouin tea.  We were still waiting for a fourth person to show up later from Petra so Hans, Jessica and I spent the morning exploring the area around the village.  Hans and I decided to rent camels to take us out to a few of the sites while Jessica struggled to keep up on foot alongside us.  We stopped first at a small Nabataean temple that was built around the same time as Petra, but was much smaller and less well preserved.  It was still really interesting to see this ancient ruin just sitting in the middle of the desert with no signage or any sort of fencing to protect it.

From the temple, the camels brought us to the base of a spring that we had to hike up to reach.  The spring is really just a small pool of water, but it was interesting to see how there was greenery just around that spot while everything else was bone dry.  There were also really nice views of the desert floor down below.  Once we got to the top, Hans cupped his hands and tried a bit of the water that was dripping down from the face of the cliff.  Even though it was probably not the best idea due to my stomach problems, I then decided to stick out my tongue and try a tiny bit just to say I did.  I'm not sure if this spring was Lawrence's Spring (named after Lawrence of Arabia who once lived in the area) or if it was another one that we saw, but didn't hike to, later in the afternoon.  Either way, this first one seemed to be a bit more impressive than the latter.

Once we had hiked back down to the bottom, we had to walk back to the village since the camels and their minders had already headed back.  Once there we drank some more tea and played with the camp owner's children while waiting for one of our guides to bring us our lunches.  Just before our meal of pita bread (a daily staple), tomato, cucumber, cheese and sardines (eww!) was delivered, the fourth member of our group arrived from Petra.  Goncalo told us he is from Portugal, but currently lives in Austria.  He was quite an animated person and we had a good time all getting to know each other over lunch.

After we ate, we headed into the desert for a Jeep tour with one our our Bedouin guides.  It was a pretty cool feeling the first time we went off road and into the sand.  We didn't go far before stopping at the site of the spring (either Lawrence's or someone else's), which was next to a big rock with Nabataean inscriptions.  Once we had snapped some photos, we piled back in the Jeep and drove to the Red Sand Dunes, which hence the name, were big piles of red sand.  The way up was a challenge because our feet kept sliding down and our shoes were completely filled with sand, but the view on top was worth it.  We had a 360º view of the surrounding cliffs and valleys.  The way down was actually pretty fun as we felt like we were almost skiing on our sneakers.

From the sand dunes, we went into a small crevice in the cliffs that reminded me of a mini-Siq in Petra.  The walls of the cliff faces were covered in inscriptions depicting a camel caravan from the Nabataean era as well as Arabic writing.  After checking out the Anfashieh Inscriptions, we drove first to the Little Rock Bridge, which we hiked up and walked across, and then to the Big "Umm Fruth" Rock Bridge, which we also hiked across. This second rock face was a bit more of a challenge to climb up as there were not very many footholes.  Luckily we got there right on time because as soon as we came down a number of Jeeps carrying tourists showed up all at once.

By this time, it was only about an hour before sunset so our guide drove us around to check out the clouds and watch the sun go down behind the cliffs.  Our guide is apparently a famous Bedouin musician and he had been playing one of his recordings in the Jeep all day long.  When he stopped the car as we got ready for sunset, he cranked up the stereo and we all got out and danced the traditional Bedouin dance.  I got some of it on video, which I will post at some point as it is quite amusing.  It was really amazing to watch the sun set on 2011 in this beautiful spot populated by nomads in the middle of nowhere.

As it started to get dark, our guide drove us to one of the larger camps where we were going to have dinner and spend the evening before driving to our own camp a short distance away.  Once the sun went down, it got chilly pretty quickly so it was nice to get inside a big tent by the fire and drink some hot cups of tea.  We met quite a few tourists from all over, including the US, Canada, Holland and Spain, who were staying at this camp.  We first enjoyed a buffet dinner, which included traditional chicken and potatoes that had been cooked underground in a contraption buried in the sand.  We then sat around the fire and listened to our Bedouins hosts play, sing and dance to some traditional songs.  A few of the other tourists were brave enough to join in on the dancing, but most of us were too tired to do more than sit and watch.  After the singing ended, the owner of the camp came and sat with us to answer questions about the Bedouin lifestyle.

Many of us had wanted to stay up until midnight, but as the night wore on we realized that just wasn't going to happen.  We decided to do a countdown at 9:00pm and then everyone at the camp went to bed and the four of us drove to our own tents.  Jessica and I shared a tent and decided to set our alarms for just before 12:00am so that we could formally ring in the New Year. Jessica's alarm didn't go off and I felt bad about waking her so I decided to do the countdown myself under the stars outside.  Unfortunately, I was pulling on the door instead of pushing it and couldn't figure out how to get it open.  I whispered the countdown inside the tent and then burst out the door just as we were entering the New Year in Jordan.  It had been cloudy earlier in the night, but by that point the sky was clear and the millions of stars above were absolutely incredible to witness.  However, since it was freezing cold I decided to just quickly go to the bathroom in the sand next to the tent and then head right back inside.  Just as I was finishing up, I heard a loud boom and thought it was someone else approaching.  I freaked out and ran around to the other side of the tent where I saw that it was just some fireworks exploding off in the distance along the horizon.  Jessica must have been awoken by the sound as well because I heard her say, "what?" from inside the tent.  I whispered back "Happy New Year!"  Once again, I heard a soft, "what?"  A little louder, "Happy New Year!"  "Oh, Happy New Year!"  I then watched the fireworks go off before crawling back into the tent to warm up inside my bed.  Even though there were no fancy dresses, crowded bars or drunken debauchery, it was one of the best New Year's Eves I think I've ever had.