Jordan 2007: Rum the magnificent.... vast, echoin and godlike

A certain Lawrence of A. wasn't talking about his favorite alcoholic beverage when he wrote these words in his book "The 7 pillars of wisdom". No, he was referring to the area in which I find myself now. The desert area in the south of Jordan with huge sandstone rock amids the often reddish sand. One feels small between these giants and you get a feel of the distances by walking in the wadis (valleys) linking the mountains.

Wadi Rum, indeed vast

A mountain might look very near at first sight, but once you start walking towards through the often loose sand you find out that it isn't. I had this once when I had to walk back after a beautiful sunset. I was happy to accept a ride (even if it was only the last few kilometers) with some Bedouins in a 4x4 complete with a Bedouin Disco Sound System on board. When I get out of the car my legs where like jelly and I made some kind of spastic dance and it wasn't because I was still hearing the infectious camel stumpin' desert disco classics.

In the mobile Bedouin disco

After having camped at the lake of Galilee I left for the border with Jordan. Leaving Israel was a lot easier then entering so I was able to do the route (south down the Jordan valley) back up but then on the Jordan side of the border. I made the mistake to ask a guy who stopped me to ask if the time was the same as in Israel. He started a fierce full monologue about Israel, bringing in Afghanistan and Iraq. I just nodded and kept my mouth shut. The Israel - Jordan - Syria border is heavily guarded (it's a bit different then the 3 landenpoint in Limburg), you are not allowed to take pictures (which is to bad, because the scenery is beautiful), off course I managed to take a few. Apparently they have never heard of Google earth. Almost every few hundred metre there is a checkpoint.

Some things I noticed about Jordan are that most businesses seem to be garages and barbershops. There are plenty of both of them. The garages don't seem to do much good work though: many cars blare out thick black toxic clouds that I inhaled frequently.
Bicycles are virtually non existing partly because of the steep hills and possibly also because most people don't want to get tired. So as a cyclist you get a lot of reactions. Sometimes I wonder who is the tourist attraction here. Many reactions are positive: you hear a lot of "welcome to Jordan" and people sound there car horns (some have stupid melodies) and wave at you. I had one time that a car stopped next to me to look (on the highway!). However some reactions are not that positive: kids throwing stones for one thing. One day I was in a bad mood a got of my bike and just nailed the fucker to the ground (he was of course smaller then me), he didn't see that coming ha ha. Not that it helped though: his friends kept on going throwing stones. Luckily they are not so good at it then there colleagues on the other side of the Jordan river. Or kids acting coming close to your bike and acting stupid. I found a nice solution for that. Nowadays every time before I enter a village I clear my throat to make some ammunition in my mouth. But I have to say it has been a few days since I had any problem with the local kids, I guess it's a regional thing. In the south most of the kids behave in a decent way.

It is (was) election time and people get very enthusiastic about it. They put posters almost everywhere, also on road signs which made navigation sometimes a bit difficult. Also they go in convoys with their cars and make as much noise as possible, hanging out of the car, holding posters of the one they want to get elected. Often young people, even preteens do this. They can't vote and I wonder they know where this man is standing for of which they hold his portrait.

Election time in Jordan

So Jordan is more or less a democratic country. This however doesn't mean there is freedom of religion. You cannot openly criticise or question Islam. You can do this among your friends, but you will loose many of them. This is what my host in Amman, a brave and kind man, found out. He dared to question his (ex)religion and talk about this with his friends and because of this lost many of them. The social pressure on issues like that is really big. Also like in many Islamic countries the Saudi funded Wahabism sect of Islam is winning ground. These "Wahabi's" claim to be the "real Muslims" and basically want to go back to the time of Muhammed and everybody with them. Many of the women who wore western clothes, even mini skirts, are now walking around with a headscarf or a black bed cover.

I wrote about Jordan's bad mechanics, well also the people who drive the cars could do better. In some causes it looks that they passed their driving exam if they could find the ignition. Some of them don't seem to understand that when they pass me they should keep some distance, it's quite scary if a car speeds by only half a metre from you or cutting you off. I even had one car hitting my mirror. In the dessert you apparently don't need a driving license: I saw many Bedouin kids driving a 4x4.

On the issues with dogs I can report that I haven't been bitten yet, although I came close to it a few times. Normally if a dog approaches you it's enough to to raise your voice, look at it or stop cycling. However one time it came close it would have been a big mistake to have stopped cycling. I had to put all my energy in keeping in front of 3 big, bloodthirsty hell hounds of which 2 came as close as half a metre. I think I will get rabbis shots in Thailand. I can however also report a cause where a dog turned overnight from a going-crazy-when-he-sees-a-cyclist kind of dog to a I-walk-quietly-with-you-while-I-wag-my-tail kind of character. I however went downhill in Wadi Mujib (Jordan's grand canyon) so it didn't last long.

Wadi Mujib, downhill in about 10 minutes, uphill about 3 to 4 hours

Jordan's nature is beautiful especially the scenery around the Kings highway. Beautiful scenery however also equals hard work to get from place to place since it involves climbing many steep hills and wadis.
Off course I also visited Petra, the famous Nabetian capital cut out of the mountain which is accessible through a siq. A siq is a gorge at some points only 1 metre wide. Amazingly strong natural forces just broke the mountain in 2 and the flow of water did the rest, making the walls very smooth and at some places it looked like the slides of swimming pools which they can easily become if you are there in the rain season and a flash flood occurs.

The small Siq through which I crawled

Hotels in Jordan are quite expensive. Like in Karak I paid 10 euro for a room with a shower in which the previous tenant apparently shaved of his/her pubic hair. I don't mind staying in sleazy, dirty hotels but the price should correspond with it. So I do as much (wild) camping as possible to keep the costs down. Food is quite cheap, except of course in the tourist restaurants.

Between writing this mail and sending it there was quite some time, I'm now in Dahab, Sinai visiting a friend who I met there 3 years ago and enjoying the Bedouin hospitality.

Kurt

More pictures of Jordan can be found on my flickr site