Trip To Jordan Pictures – As Promised

Sabah il Khier,

As you might have gleaned I’m the kind of guy that keeps his promise. Beginning of this month I had promised you folks to post a few pictures of my trip to the Coastal City of Aqaba in Jordan as well as a few other pictures taken during my trip to Jordan.

I will try to run a narrative so you can follow the sequence of events for each image. Please note that the images have been reduced in size so if you would like to view them at a larger size just right click on the image and chose view image:

1. After a bus ride that took 6 hours for a 4 hours trip we finally reached our destination in the coastal city of Aqaba on the Gulf of Aqaba which is connected to the Red Sea. Below is the view from our hotel window. We stayed at a hotel called The Day’s Inn Hotel (can an inn be a hotel?) Surprisingly this hotel probably had the best customer service I have EVER received in my life. And because of that I highly recommend you stay there if you decide to go to Aqaba.

2. We went on this trip with a tour group from Amman (the capital city of Jordan where we usually stay on trips to jordan) the tour group allowed us to check into our hotel and get some lunch then quickly rounded us all up so we can go to a Desert camp a few hours outside of Aqaba called Wadi Rum. Wadi in Arabic means Valley. As you can see from the picture we got there at around sunset. The people up on that dune are the local Bedouins just hanging out.

3. As Valleys go Wadi rum was pretty much standard. I was born in Kuwait so being in a desert isn’t a big deal for me.. its actually kind of comforting. But I can see the appeal for the European and North American visitors who might have never seen that much sand outside of a beach in their life. So anyway all around the camp there were these huge stone outcrops which were… massive!… but to get to them you had to climb this strange staircase made of stone cut from the mountain. And yes for those who have never taken a look at the about page… thats me.

4. Once you get up to the stone outcrop above you … you see this

I don’t know who the people in the photo are btw.. maybe from another tour group.

Here’s another shot of that massive outcrop.

5. Once you turn around you get to see a small amphitheater in the camp… at this point they were preparing for the night’s festivities… And at that point I was hungry and just wanted to eat!!… Alas food would be another FOUR hours away.

6. I took pictures that night of the festivities but unfortunately you can’t make much out of it… we’re in the middle of a desert getting electricity from a generator… so it wasn’t the brightest lighting in the world. Thankfully that worked to our advantage because I was able to show my wife the stars clearer than she had ever seen them by just moving a few meters away from the camp.

So anyway… at around 12 midnight we got back to our hotel and the next day woke up at around 8 for our breakfast. This is what I look like with a camera flash in the face at 8 am.

The breakfast we had wasn’t as amazing as the one in Turkey a few years back but it was enough to keep us going till lunch.

7. That day we went for a swim in the gulf and came back for the last leg with the tour company… we had chosen a 3 day trip package while the rest had chosen the 2 day (it was the weekend and not everyone was on vacation in a different country like we were) so as part of the trip the tour agency took us on a yacht ride around the gulf. Here are some shots of that trip. After the boat ride we parted ways with the tour group and spent the next day by ourselves … did a little exploring of the city then got on a bus and came back to the Capital. The following shot was a bit weird because it was in broad daylight so it shouldn’t be that dark… but I guess its the camera’s sensor dimming thing down so that it can make out details.

The boat in the following picture is what the call a Glass boat (at least I think its one)… its got a glass bottom so you can see the marine life beneath you. I wouldn’t have minded taking a ride in that thing except I had already gone snorkeling next to a reef that morning and nothing beats being that close to marine wildlife.

8. Back in Amman (the capital city) my uncle decided to throw a party for us (it was our last day of my 2 week trip to Jordan) and this was the view from his penthouse. The trees you see are olive trees. And yes that is an olive farm.

My uncle lives a little outside of Amman in the ‘burbs so the view is quite devoid of the skyscrapers of the city. Its also much quieter which is the way I like it.

That’s it folks… It was a nice trip and if you are into a slightly different terrain than you are used to … I recommend it.

Questions?