When I decided to visit the Middle East, the likes of Iraq, Israel & the Palestinian Territories were my top choices but I felt they were probably too much of a big step for my first time in the region so I subsequently went for a safer option.

It may be surrounded by more news-prevalent countries like Syria, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia but Jordan is (was?) generally considered a safe destination. It proved to be a very good decision as it turned out to be one of my favourite ever trips full of adventure, stunning sights and wonderful people in a fairly unfamiliar terrain.

On my first day I took a one-hour bus ride up to Jerash to see the country’s second most famous ruins where I spent a nice couple of hours wandering around the well-preserved ruins pretty much all by myself. More details here.

The 50 km journey back to Amman wasn’t a straightforward bus-ride but instead involved sharing a taxi with three other randoms. I thought it was going all the way to Amman and that my price negotiating skills were great but we got dropped off somewhere in between. Thankfully, one of the guys in the taxi sorted me out with the right bus. I then inadvertently disembarked near the theatre but nearly missed the impressive Roman structure as it blended in so well with the sandy colour of the whole city.

I then climbed up to the Citadel using just my sense of direction which is never a good idea. It took me longer than expected to reach my destination but it was worth it in the end. More details here.

Petra has been recognised as one of the new seven wonders of the world since 2007 and is the jewel of the country. I went there on day two with a Japanese girl from the same hostel. She had low pre-intermediate level English but was travelling alone which was very unusual for a Japanese female. A 2-day pass cost 55 JD (a day pass was 50 JD!) and the siq was a 30-minute walk from the visitor’s center and that was followed by a vast area of tombs, stairways, theatres, sandstone mountains and high cliffs waiting for exploration.

The winding siq leading to the Treasury was amazing in itself and a great way of building anticipation for what lay in wait at the end. It really was just like the scene in ‘Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade’ (1989) as so little had changed over two decades.

We walked on to the theatre and a host of tombs before retreating and thus leaving something in reserve for a longer and more challenging trek the following day.

Our goal the next day was to reach the Monastery quickly (it still took about 90 minutes from the Treasury) before working our way back slowly. They both look quite similar but I was more impressed by the latter, perhaps because of the effort taken in getting there and the lack of anyone else around.

After lunch we slowly headed back stopping for tea with some old Bedouin women along the way. We then went a little off course and headed round the back of the tombs to climb up to the very top of some high rocks hoping to find a view looking down on the Treasury which often features in media coverage of Petra.

We saw some breathtaking views but sadly failed to locate the view we were looking for. Still, it was a nice detour, and we didn’t see a single person during that whole time. Back near the visitor’s center, we saw the oldest bar in the world set in a 2000-year-old Nabateab rock as well the Indiana Jones Souvenir Shop which didn’t sell anything related to the movies. More details here.

The desert at Wadi Rum was one of the things I really wanted to see so I joined a tour to go there the next day. After an early start (06:20) and lots of waiting around our 4WD finally hit the sand tracks at around 10:00 am and the building-site-town that is Wadi Rum was replaced by sandy desert and an awesome landscape.

We then saw Anfaishiyya mountain and some 2000-year-old petroglyphs featuring some interesting inscriptions depicting camels, hunting warriors and various animals.

What was left of Lawrence of Arabia’s house followed. Wadi Rum was used in the 1962 film adaptation as well as ‘Red Planet‘ (2000) where the surface was used to depict the planet Mars. It has since been used in quite a few others films such as ‘The Martian‘ (2015), ‘Star Wars Episode IX‘ (2019), ‘Dune‘ (2021) and ‘John Wick: Chapter 4‘ (2023).

The surrounding area of the Bedouin camp we were staying at was more fascinating than I’d anticipated, and I loved just wandering around, climbing rocks and interacting with the wild camels. Whoever knew they could eat their own poo!

Our accommodation was a camp-bed in a tent but I never used it as I decided to sleep under the stars. The reality is that the desert is a very cold, windy place at night and after seeing a few shooting stars I soon lost interest and pulled the blanket over my face for protection. After a long day I must’ve drifted off to sleep fairly quickly and typically ended up missing sunrise! The final thing I did before leaving this stunning area was to get a quick photo on a camel. I just paid a local boy with a camel a dollar or two to for the opportunity and he even took me on a one-minute tour! More details here.

En-route back to Petra I was basically dumped on the Desert Highway with a couple of random passengers we’d picked up after leaving the village behind. After about 10 minutes waiting for a bus, a car pulled up and the driver seemed to know one of the Jordanian guys and I was soon catching a lift to Aqaba in the very southern part of the country. It wasn’t quite plain sailing though as some authorities stopped the driver for speeding! There was quite an authoritative presence along the highway with a constant stream of military vehicles (with guns) going up and down the road.

Anyway, by 10:15 am I was in Aqaba and the driver very kindly dropped me off at the bus station to book my ticket for later that day to Amman. I offered money to the driver but he wouldn’t hear anything of it. I then flagged down another taxi and went to a beach near the Royal Diving Club on the Saudi border where I achieved my goal of swimming and snorkelling in the Red Sea.

There weren’t too many fish but the water was very clear and after an hour there, where I also saw a camel in the sea, I took the taxi back to the station and later endured a 4.5 hour bus ride back to Amman. More details here.

Another essential place to experience in Jordan is the Dead Sea and so I shared a taxi with a couple of Japanese guys. We were to have three hours at the Amman Beach Resort which we all thought would be way too long even with the inclusion of the resorts pool facilities and so on. Lying on your back floating at the world’s lowest point 423 metres below sea level really was an absolutely incredible feeling.

We then covered ourselves in black mud and let it bake in the sun for about 10 minutes before washing it off in the sea. It supposedly has special healing and cosmetic uses which are good for the skin.

Whilst washing it off in the sea, I got a splash of salt in my eye which was extremely painful but you just can’t exactly wipe your eyes! Similarly, one usually licks their lips when they’re wet but that’s something you must refrain from. More details here.

My original plan had included the possibility of going over the border into Jerusalem for a day or two but I decided against it and instead just chilled in Amman which is rare for someone like me who usually crams so much into trips. It was actually nice to just hang out with the Japanese guys, drink sugar cane juice, eat kebabs and kanafa (a sugary shredded wheat and syrup dessert), visit the remains of the Nymphaeum and go shopping in the secret backstreet stores.

On my final day, I decided some adventure was in order so decided to visit Qasr Al Azray in the Desert Castles area via a mix of taxis and buses which was admittedly a lot of effort but it was cheap and gave me something to focus on. The driver of the final bus spoke a bit of English and dropped me off right outside the castle where Lawrence was based in 1917-18 during the Arab Revolt against the Turks.

Very little remained of a once great fort with the highlight being a huge concrete door made of a single slab of basalt which he described as shutting with a clang and crash that made the castle walls tremble.

I think I was done after about 15-20 minutes and then had the nervous wait for a bus by the side of the road in the middle of the desert. The first two drove by me for some reason but the third one stopped and I was on my way back to Zaqer for my transit. I was just going to return to the hostel to chill before my nighttime flight but then decided that I may as well go and explore another castle.

Every time the driver stopped, I got a bit nervous as I thought he might just tell me to get off in the middle of nowhere which is exactly what happened! I had to walk up a hill to what looked like a building site. The castle was a bit under-whelming but ultimately a rewarding experience as there was a friendly, chatty guy there who showed me around the remains. More details here.

My time in Jordan came to a positive end thanks to the time, generosity and kindness of the locals who always did their best to point me in the direction of the right bus or rallied around to find an English speaker which left a lasting impression on me.

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