Visiting the Valley of the Moon (Wadi Rum) in Jordan
My journey to Jordan did not end with one of the seven new wonders Petra. I believe that if someone wants to visit Jordan, apart from Amman, Jerash and Petra there are other must-do/see things that will amaze almost everyone.
A bit further from Petra, not that far my car is Wadi Rum.Basically, the name means the Valley of the Moon and it is a desert landscape with strange-shaped rock formations that covers an area of 183.352 acres. Due to that scenery, it is named the Valley of the Moon as it resembles another planet. Many movies have been filmed there with Alien-like stories but another one you must probably know is the latest John Wick!
Now in that area, many prehistoric civilizations left rock inscriptions and this is one of the reasons the whole area is currently protected under UNESCO World Heritage. Many different tribes lived there with the majority now being the Bedouins who arrived in 1980.
Currently, the area is mainly used as a tourist attraction and as a filming place for movies. Ofc there are Bedouins who actually live there in tents but even they are trying to "take advantage" of the tourists but in a good way. From what they told us, most of them live in a nearby village but depending on the season they may live in the desert for many months as it is cooler and ofc there are more tourists.
They have even built whole camps with awesome small tent-like houses where tourists can stay and do some activities depending on the package they have purchased. Now let me tell you about what we did there.
First of all, the guy that we stayed within Petra had friends that had these types of camps. We had not booked prior any camp as i read online that if we go there we may find better opportunities price-wise. So we wanted to stay for 1 night and do some specific activities. I don't remember the exact prices but i remember the price difference.
So let's say that if i booked it online i would pay 100 per person, when i emailed them directly they told me 80 per person, and we did this process to over 10-12 camps. The guy in Petra managed to find us for the exact same things we want something like 50 per person. As i said i don't recall the exact prices but literally the price difference was 50%.
So when you arrive at Wadi Rum, you need to park your car, a guy from the camp comes and takes you with a pickup truck and takes you to the camp which is 10-20 minute drive. During that time you got to experience the whole desert safari kind of thing which was cool.
Then we left our stuff in the tent-house which was extremely awesome by the way, had a camel ride to see the sunset and enjoy some tea in the middle of nowhere. We returned to the camp to eat at a buffet and had another drive in the middle of nowhere again to see the stars.
The next morning we ate breakfast, we had a 2-3-hour tour in the desert and in different spots and because the guy liked us, he had a sandboard with him and let us play at a specific spot. Freaking awesome experience.
That didn't stop there he also invited us to his house, in the nearby village to eat with his family. At first, we thought that he would ask us to pay him or something for this, i thought that i am part of a movie where everybody dies :P, but we were all wrong.
Turns out the guy really liked us, we actually went to his house, all of his family members including his mom, dad, brothers, and sisters came together and ate some traditional food they had cooked for us which was amazing by the way. Then he drove us back to our car and we left the desert.
That was actually an amazing experience. Besides the cool sceneries, the awesome camp, the hospitality of that guy and the local side of things that we managed to see is an experience that only a few people get in my opinion and i will cherish and remember it forever!
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Such a nice location peace and quiet
thanks for stopping by!
Ok bro
me encantan las rocas son misticas.
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It's a great experience. The rocks look huge and fascinating, how was the camel riding like? I have only seen camels in photos, it is one of the animals I would like to see in real life. I think it would be an advantage for us as tourists to have someone familiar if we want to visit this place.
yeah if you ever go check my posts and ask me anything! The camel ride was pretty cool, seemed to be higher that i expected but do some flexibility exercises before you take the ride :P
Btw i have been in Norway this April, amazing place!
Yes! I have been there! And I loved it. Love your photos. I stayed with friends in Aqaba for a month and we would explore from there. But this is 20 years ago so it's exciting to hear that there's more new wonders. The desert is a special place. Thanks for sharing about the fascinating Wadi Rum @filotasriza3. It felt like I was back there
ohh awesome, i have been to Aqaba as well for a day, pretty different city than the rest i must say! thanks for stopping by!