This weekly wrap-up covers our journey from November 3 to November 9. We left our desert camp in Wadi Rum on Monday to head to Petra, then spent the night in Jerash (a Jordanian city north of Amman that is famous for its Roman ruins) on Thursday before flying to Alexandria, Egypt, on Friday.
Favorite thing we ate: In Jerash, our host recommended a sweets shop and it was amazing. The staff was so friendly; they gave us free samples and took a selfie with Jonathan, all while excitedly welcoming us to Jerash and chattering nonstop despite speaking no (or very limited) English and us speaking no Arabic (besides thank you!).
Favorite thing we drank: Bedouin whiskey! Just kidding. The Bedouins don’t typically drink whiskey, but they do drink very sweet tea, which they jokingly call Bedouin whiskey. This was available pretty much 24/7 at our desert camp in Wadi Rum and widely in Petra, where many Bedouins also live. (And we were apparently so focused on guzzling all the Bedouin tea we could find, we didn’t get a single picture.)
Favorite thing we did: Jonathan loved our three-hour Jeep tour with Bedouin Lifestyle Camp in the Wadi Rum desert [pictured above left]. Megan was happy we decided to visit Jerash at the last minute; it was a pleasant surprise after being underwhelmed by other cities in Jordan, and the people were so hospitable. (Sadly, there was a violent but non-fatal attack at the main tourist site in Jerash just before our visit. The afternoon we were there, a group of students from a local community college passed out free coffee and roses–pictured above right–to welcome tourists to Jordan.)
Biggest oops: This isn’t necessarily something we oops’ed on, but it’s still an oops that happened. We booked a “Bedouin EcoHouse” for our stay in Petra. When we showed up to check in at 3 p.m. on Monday, we were told we had to wait until 5 because another tourist had our room key. Um, okay. We left to see Petra by Night, and when we got back around 9 p.m., there was no room for us at all. Our host arranged for us to stay with a friend the first night. The room was fine, but there were two donkeys tied up outside our window who were braying all night, occasionally accompanied by a dog (or two). Fun times.
Biggest splurge: After our lodging mishap and trouble communicating with our original host, we decided not to go back to the EcoHouse for the next two nights of our reservation. Luckily, we hadn’t paid yet, so we booked a hotel right outside the Petra Visitor Center instead. It was nice to have a private bathroom, strong WiFi and air-conditioned room to return to in the afternoons after walking 10+ miles in the mornings through Petra.
Best deal: After paying $20-$35 USD for almost every meal in Jordan (even though we shared food!), it was a relief to arrive in Jerash and have our host recommend some local shawarma places. He asked us if we wanted traditional food or a fancy place, and we said definitely traditional! The menus were only in Arabic and no one spoke English, but the food was affordable (less than $2/person per meal) and delicious, and one shop gave us free French fries just because. Oh and all those sweets pictured at the top of the post? They cost us just 1 JOD total. (Pretty sure we got a tourist discount.)
What we’re reading: Jonathan is reading Recursion by Blake Crouch and enjoying it so far. Megan finished We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman (highly recommend!) and Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai (meh). She is currently reading The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.
Total walking distance: 45.43 miles
Up next: Exploring more of Egypt.
Featured image: The Treasury at Petra from the panoramic viewpoint
