Backpacking is one of those things that rarely goes as planned.
Originally I planned on crossing overland into Israel from Egypt. To do so there are two routes: Through the city of Raraf in the north, or the city of Eilat in the south. Raraf border crossing is out of the question, because that is also where Gaza Strip is and as we all know it is essentially a war zone; crossing through the city of Eilat is possible, but I was advised not to visit the Senai Peninsula at the moment – So my original plan of crossing overland into Israel didn’t quite go anywhere. I ended up flying into Amman in Jordan instead and spent a week in Jordan.
Jordan is a very safe country and is a lot cleaner than other Northern African countries that I have seen. However the downside is that it is also quite a lot more expensive to travel in Jordan due to limited transportation options and high attraction entry fees. Nonetheless Jordan is a beautiful country to visit.
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Public transportation in Jordan is fairly inconvenient. The JETT bus leaves one time a day to Petra but I was told that it is quite inconsistent. If you want to hire a driver on your own, it would cost you an arm and a leg. I met an Australian backpacker in Amman and we ended up splitting the cost of hiring a driver for two days.
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After arriving in Wadi Rum, we needed to get on another truck to drive to the campsite – 20 minutes of very bumpy ride in the desert. For a couple of times my phone almost flew away from my fingers and be forever buried in the red sand along with the animal skulls and remains that we saw on the way.
@WadiRum
Dinner at the campsite. The staff said there was food under the sand but we didn’t believe him. Then he uncovered the sand and showed us a pot of meat and potato. We thought “that is it, we got a pot of food”. Not until then he proceeded to pull out the entire rack of other food entries that was hiding underground.
@WadiRum
Our campsite. Look through the window and that is the desert.
@WadiRum
The mountains.
@WadiRum
The Dead Sea. The water is extremely salty so there is no way your body will sink. If you have scratches on your body or you got salt water in your eyes, it will hurt A LOT.
@DeadSea
The Dead Sea. The water is extremely salty so there is no way your body will sink. If you have scratches on your body or you got salt water in your eyes, it will hurt A LOT.
@DeadSea
My diving instructor, originally from the UK. He taught in Thailand and South Africa before settling here in Jordan.
@Aqaba
Open water diver certified at Cedar Pride shipwreck in Aqaba, Jordan.
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I have always had fear of water. Ever since when I was a child I have always avoided getting into water deeper than my own height at all cost. I would rather eat 10 bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in one sitting if you ask me to get into deep water.
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Back when I was traveling in Estonia, I met this girl from Hong Kong who is an advanced diver with 30+ dives under her belt – I was inspired. I knew there is a totally different world under water and I wanted to take a glance at that world. But before I could do that, I needed to conquer my fear of water: Prior to the start of the open water diver course, the requirement was to demonstrate swimming 200 meters with no aids and floating for 10 minutes. 200 meters might sound nothing to a good swimmer, but it was a big deal for me – Obviously I had swum in swimming pools and in shallow water in the ocean before, but I had never swum 200 meters in deep water in my entire life. For this swim test, I was under the impression that it would be done in a “controlled environment”, like in a swimming pool or shallow water in the ocean.
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Then came test time: We drove to South Beach, in the northern part of the Red Sea (north… south… all relative) near the city of Aqaba in Jordan. As we were standing at the edge of the pier, my diving instructor pointed all the way out to the deep ocean and said: “See that metal ball out there? That is where the shipwreck is. Swim to that metal ball and back. That is your 200-meter test.” As soon as he said that, I almost pissed my pants! Swimming toward deep water to the shipwreck in wavy ocean is not too much of a “controlled environment”!
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I was really pushing my comfort zone on this one: As I started swimming toward the metal ball, I saw some little waves in the ocean, so I needed to focus on not letting the waves push water in my mouth. I knew I could do it, and I tried to remain calm. After swimming for a while, I looked back and saw the pier was quite far away – That gave me more confidence that I was making progress. For the next couple of minutes, I was 100% focus on not letting the waves bother me and tried not to think about how deep the water was underneath. As I was finally approaching the metal ball, I grabbed onto the yellow rope attached to the ball and hugged tight to the ball so that I could take some breaths! As I was celebrating and catching up with my breaths, my instructor signaled me to look down. So I looked down into the water, and realized that I was right on top of the gigantic shipwreck! The water was a good 10-15 meters deep, and it was the first time in my life seeing shipwreck under water.
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On the last day of the course, we came back to this shipwreck to do a discovery dive.
@Aqaba
Open water diver certified at Cedar Pride shipwreck in Aqaba, Jordan.
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I have always had fear of water. Ever since when I was a child I have always avoided getting into water deeper than my own height at all cost. I would rather eat 10 bags of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos in one sitting if you ask me to get into deep water.
\\
Back when I was traveling in Estonia, I met this girl from Hong Kong who is an advanced diver with 30+ dives under her belt – I was inspired. I knew there is a totally different world under water and I wanted to take a glance at that world. But before I could do that, I needed to conquer my fear of water: Prior to the start of the open water diver course, the requirement was to demonstrate swimming 200 meters with no aids and floating for 10 minutes. 200 meters might sound nothing to a good swimmer, but it was a big deal for me – Obviously I had swum in swimming pools and in shallow water in the ocean before, but I had never swum 200 meters in deep water in my entire life. For this swim test, I was under the impression that it would be done in a “controlled environment”, like in a swimming pool or shallow water in the ocean.
\\
Then came test time: We drove to South Beach, in the northern part of the Red Sea (north… south… all relative) near the city of Aqaba in Jordan. As we were standing at the edge of the pier, my diving instructor pointed all the way out to the deep ocean and said: “See that metal ball out there? That is where the shipwreck is. Swim to that metal ball and back. That is your 200-meter test.” As soon as he said that, I almost pissed my pants! Swimming toward deep water to the shipwreck in wavy ocean is not too much of a “controlled environment”!
\\
I was really pushing my comfort zone on this one: As I started swimming toward the metal ball, I saw some little waves in the ocean, so I needed to focus on not letting the waves push water in my mouth. I knew I could do it, and I tried to remain calm. After swimming for a while, I looked back and saw the pier was quite far away – That gave me more confidence that I was making progress. For the next couple of minutes, I was 100% focus on not letting the waves bother me and tried not to think about how deep the water was underneath. As I was finally approaching the metal ball, I grabbed onto the yellow rope attached to the ball and hugged tight to the ball so that I could take some breaths! As I was celebrating and catching up with my breaths, my instructor signaled me to look down. So I looked down into the water, and realized that I was right on top of the gigantic shipwreck! The water was a good 10-15 meters deep, and it was the first time in my life seeing shipwreck under water.
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On the last day of the course, we came back to this shipwreck to do a discovery dive.
@Aqaba
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
“Everyone else is selling soda and scarf. What should I sell that no one else is selling? Rocks!”
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This kid will probably grow up to be a great entrepreneur.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
Petra, the Lost City. It is not known when Petra was built, but the city began to prosper through trades as the capital of the Nabataean Empire from the 1st century BC.
@Petra
As I was sitting in the shared ride with my new Australian friend, our original plan was to head back to Amman after visiting Wadi Rum. But I didn’t quite want to head all the way up north just to cross the border into Israel. So I asked the driver to take me to the city of Aqaba, close to the Jordan/Israel border down here in the south, before taking my Australian friend back to Amman. The driver refused because it would take an extra 30 minutes to drive to Aqaba. So he ended up dropping me off at a nearby “bus station” and asked me to take a bus.
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Taking buses in Jordan is no easy task: They are fairly inconsistent, don’t come very often, and don’t have signs on them. So unless you are a local who speaks Arabic, it would be fairly difficult to know where the buses are going. After the driver dropped me off at the “bus station” (more like a shack with no sign) in the middle of nowhere, I waited for an hour and didn’t see a single bus passes by. My backup plan would be to take a taxi, which would have cost $20 Jordanian Dinar to get to Aqaba (taxi in Jordan is expensive) – But I didn’t see any taxi either. Finally I saw a bus came and I happily jumped onboard. This kind of bus was not meant for tourists so I was sitting with some local Jordanians. I had no idea how much I was supposed to pay, but I guesstimated that it would cost $5JD. I handed him a $5JD bill but he gave it back to me and asked me for $1JD. $1JD for a bus ride!? I will take it! Very honest man.
@WadiRum
