Thursday, February 12, 2015

A Whole New World: The Valley Of The Moon

This trip was planned back in July 2014. After the experience in Tunisia, I decided I should have a companion along and asked a few. Only Che Ta rose to the challenge. I browsed the tickets and finally bought them after roughly planning out our itinerary (to determine the number of days needed over there). Next, I booked accommodation – only to change a couple of them just prior to the trip. Finally the day came for us to set off on our new adventure together.

Friday, 30 January 2015

I took half-day off work and dad sent me to the LRT station. I changed for the KLIA Transit at BTS and dropped by Putrajaya station en route to perform prayers. I didn’t feel like performing prayers at the airport or at Salak Tinggi station after stopping there on my way to Seoul hence why I chose Putrajaya. There were a lot of people at Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (I dropped by as I was searching for Gardenia buns), all keen to make their escape from the city in view of the long weekend.

I reached the airport just after 8 and proceeded to counter F to check in. There weren’t too many people ahead of me but boy, was the process slow or what. Che Ta who arrived just after 7 pm told me she also experienced a similar long slow process when she went to drop off her bag. We agreed it could be the airline’s system that was causing the delay.

The plane took off on time and we had a brief layover in Bangkok (we didn’t go down because it was late and besides, we would stop again in Bangkok on our way back) before we resumed our journey.




Saturday, 31 January 2015

We touched down at Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, just after 5 am. The captain announced that it was 0C outside then. We had a connecting flight to Aqaba at 7 but took a while trying to figure out where to go. Turned out we had to go through passport control first - and to do that, you need to have a visa which we didn’t have. To get a visa on arrival, we had to have the local currency and as no moneychangers I asked in KL stocked any Jordanian Dinar, we brought USD instead. As it was a Saturday, we weren’t sure if the moneychangers were opened so we changed USD300 each. USD1 = JOD69 at the airport – before commission. After exchanging money, we queued up to pay for the visa and then go through passport control. After looking at my name, the chap asked if I spoke Arabic and I replied, very little. Well, my secondary school Arabic managed to get us through the week we were there, Alhamdulillah!

After passport control, we went down and passed the conveyor belts. We went out and asked for the way to connecting flights. Funny, I would have thought you needn’t go through passport control if you have a connecting flight but it doesn’t work that way in Jordan.

As we couldn’t yet access the domestic terminal, we went to the washroom to freshen up and perform ablutions. We then performed prayers and just in time too as it was breaking dawn shortly after we were done. It was time too for us to board our plane – but first we had to board an airport bus to shuttle us to the plane.

We were served juice drinks before take-off. We landed at King Hussein International Airport less than an hour after take-off. As there were no public buses to the city, at least not at that hour, we had to take a cab to the city centre. The cabbie quoted JOD15 and would accept nothing less.

The cabbie dropped us at Zahran Street and we walked around until we found a city map. Having established our bearings, we went down to the waterfront, Jordan’s only access to the sea (besides the literally dead Dead Sea) and walked to the Aqaba Flagpole (which I saw while we were circling during the flight’s descent). We spent some time here before turning back to Al-Razi Street. We walked up the street to the intersection where the Flea Market, turned left and walked to the bus station. At the bus station, we enquired and learnt that the bus out to Wadi Musa was at 12 noon, costing JOD3 per person. We asked if we could leave our bags in the bus and the driver said yes and even helped us carry our bags.

As we were no longer burdened by the bags, we walked down Yarmouk Street and browsed the shops. Some shops were only just opening while some were still closed. We walked to the tourist information centre then walked along Raghadan Street to the Vegetable and Meat Market (such fat, big and juicy vegetables!), up Al-Razi Street again and even entered the Flea Market.

We returned to the bus station at a quarter to noon and boarded the bus. The bus only left at 1220 and made three stops along the way. We finally reached Rum Village at 13:40 and got off. I had read that you’re supposed to pay JOD5 at the Visitor Centre; we couldn’t locate it though but some friendly locals enquired whether we had booked accommodation. We then sat to wait for the jeep transfer to the Bedouin Expedition Camp and while waiting, browsed on the tour options available (yes, they have a website!). We also took advantage of the free WiFi available. Finally we agreed on a combo tour with meals included and we then negotiated the price (the combo tour included accommodation for one night and meals and we had booked two nights so Mohammad agreed to charge for one night accommodation instead of two as accommodation for the second night would be considered in the combo tour).

We finally left at 3 pm and rode in the cargo area of the jeep to the camp, stopping en route at a Bedouin settlement to see their goats, sheep and camels. It was a bumpy ride as the desert ground was covered with small rocks and pebbles. I enjoyed it: who knew the desert was so breathtakingly beautiful? Gorgeous sandstone formations, the odd vegetation, the seemingly endless desert landscape, the blue sky unadorned by even a puff of cloud... They don’t call Wadi Rum The Valley of the Moon for nothing. We finally reached our camp almost an hour later. We’d been told back at Rum Village that it was a low season and we were the only guests at the camp. There were a cluster of ‘tents’ with traditional goat hair covering; ours was the nearest to the shared bathroom, a kitchen and a large tent that served as a communal hall and where breakfast and dinner are served.

We went to have a shower (it was so cold!) and after prayers, went out to view the sunset. It was so calm, quiet and serene, you could almost believe that you were the only soul around in miles. We declined dinner tonight and instead ate titbits. We turned in early tonight, me after finishing my novel.


To be continued