On Wadi Rum, sleazy guys, and why you shouldn't trust travel agency trips!

Some tourist destinations should remain as low-profile as possible. This was one of the conclusions I came out with after our family trip to the south of Jordan during the Eid Holiday.

The main purpose was to go camping in Wadi Rum. It had been ages since we went on a family trip, because it’s just very hard to find a time that works for eight people – with different school, universities, and work schedules.

Dad had been spotting a lot of newspaper ads for trips to Wadi Rum, in most cases including Petra and Aqaba, so he contacted a bunch of them to explore the options. The day before the trip all of us realized that it would’ve been better for us to get some 4x4 car and go on our own, but it was a little too late to organize such a thing, so we went with one of those tourism agencies.

We left Amman at 7:00 am, headed to Petra first where we spent a little over three hours, followed by lunch, then went on to Wadi Rum before sunset, had dinner along with a musical evening at the camp, and spent the night there before heading to Aqaba at 9:00 am the next morning.

I had a brilliant time. It was an interesting trip, with “interesting” being the loaded vague word it usually is ;) here are some of my thoughts and observations:

- One or two people told me Wadi Rum is overrated! That is not true!! It gives an absolutely awe sparking experience... hiking, rock climbing, watching the stars at 4:00 am and then the sun rise from atop a mountain in the middle of the desert… it’s all very serene, and the perfect getaway from everyday life in Amman.

- That said; DO NOT go with large groups of total strangers. Get your own car, and if possible your own tent and camping equipment. Well, at least take your own car if you don’t want to have to put up with unbearable obnoxiously loud music for three and a half hours while you’re desperately trying to either sleep or simply enjoy the desert highway.

- Our campsite had around 30 tents (if my memory serves me right), and it was one of four or five campsites set up around one of those big rock mountains. While you see many people going for the 4x4 rides in the desert, very few leave the camp vicinities to walk and climb. My sisters and I did run into some people while we were out in the desert exploring and watching the sunrise, but generally, most of the people in our camp attempted to sleep after the evening party and got up the next morning to have breakfast and continue to Aqaba afterwards.

- Why oh why do guys become such annoying creatures when they are within guys-only groups?? Why do many guys become sleazy jerks? Why is it that, for example, at the first sight of girls stepping on the dance floors, guys take out their phone cameras and start filming so 3ainak-3ainak, causing the girls to immediately step back?? The guy who was running the camp threatened to take the cameras and kick the person using it out of the camp. I felt I was in 1st grade, but it was somewhat effective. It was also amusing how this person who was running the show would give turns on the dance floor; first it’s for the “shabab” – the guys alone, and then it’s for “3a2ilat” – families, i.e. girls alone, groups of guys and girls, kids, and older people. This sort of categorization is very common place in Jordan, but I still find it amusing and odd at the same time… for example you’d have restaurants that say “families only”, but “families” means any group that includes a female. All-female groups are identified as families. Two guys and a girl are a “family”. Two guys alone would not be allowed. Sometimes I think this is very discriminatory. While I did just say that most guys have the tendency to become sleazy when they’re in all-guy groups, in many cases people are quick to incriminate all-guy groups simply for being.

At around 4:00 am, my sisters and I woke up. While walking towards the toilet, we ran into a woman and her daughter. The mother was a total wreck. She was like “I had no idea it was going to be like this, I don’t know what got into my head to bring my kids and my sister’s family on this trip. Never again!” She said was terrified when she heard some guys walking between the tents and being very loud. She couldn’t bare to sleep in the tents anyway, so she took her family and went into the big common tent (!!) She kept saying how she didn’t know this is what camping in Wadi Rum was going to be like, and I wanted to ask her “what exactly did you think it was going to be?? A hotel in the desert? 5-star tents?” When we tried convincing her that there is nothing to be afraid of because she was part of a big group here, she asked me “do you work? What do you do?” I told her I’m a journalist and she was like “aaahhh… that explains it!”

That explains what??? That I’m not terrified and hating everything about the trip?!!

When we told her that we wanted to watch the stars and that this is one of the most amazing things about being in Wadi Rum, she got all sarcastic about it, looking up at the sky and saying “oh look there are three stars aligned!! Since we’re here we might as well look at the stars.”

When we were leaving Wadi Rum, the trip coordinator pointed out to some construction taking place at one side of the mountain saying that this is a campsite that their tourism agency is building. They were building small cabins rather than having tents, I just felt sad. Obviously this was great business for them. But it got me wondering how well this whole thing is regulated?? What are the criteria for giving out a license to set up a commercial camp site? How many of those is it reasonable to allow?

While it’s a very positive thing to see local tourism on the rise and people wanting to explore different parts of their own country, it’s a bit scary to think that a peaceful quiet place like Wadi Rum might eventually become overcrowded with camps, bringing in lots of package-trips where people don’t really know nor appreciate what it is they’re going for. That woman we saw was not very much an exception. And that agency we went with was bringing in something like 400 people every day!!! Of course it’s just one of many travel agencies that do this kind of thing.



PS. The camera batteries died before sun rise, so I used a disposable film camera. I’ll share those as soon as they’re developed.