After Petra, the next stop on our grand tour of Jordan was Wadi Rum - the desert. The place we stayed was a big campsite with 75 tents and about 20 rooms. As with all of Jordan this place was quiet - so quiet that we were the only guests there. We had arrived at lunchtime and had nothing planned for the rest of the day. This had seemed like a good idea before we arrived as we had been so active in Jordan and visited so many places that a day of rest would be welcome. It was however impossible to relax as there were hundreds of flies everywhere and the heat was stifeling. Nobody bothered us all day, the six guys who ran the site stayed in their covered area drinking tea and we sat in our area swatting flies. When nightfall came we were told that for the real Bedouin experience they would not be turning on the generator - great. Another British couple and a two Arabic guys arrived just before dinner so we chatted to them for a while. They had only been in Jordan for a couple of days and were loving it. We didn't share their sentiments. After dinner we sat around a campfire. I was expecting some songs or traditional dancing however it seemed like they couldn't be bothered for just 6 people. Bored, we retired to our tent for the evening.

The following morning we had a "jeep" experience in the desert. I was thinking that it would be some high powered vehicle attacking sand dunes and finding wildlife. Instead it was an old Toyota pickup truck that we sat in the back of in the blazing sun. Our driver drove us around for 2 hours and we looked at some rocks. We'd seen rocks before, lots of them. We returned to our shade from the previous day to wait for lunch and our camel ride in 6 hours. Again it was very hot. Again we were attacked by flies endlessly. We had a new annoyance though - bites. We had both been bitten a lot over night and by now the bites were swelling and itching. I had 25 bites on my face and neck alone. Between us we must have had a hundred bites in total. This is no exageration. It was hideous. We put up with it until 3pm and by then we had had enough. In a moment that was reminicent of "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!" we called the guy who ran our tour and said "Get us out of here!" Our driver was already at Wadi Rum, so within half an hour we were packed up and on our way to Aqaba. As we left, our driver Ibrahim let us know in his limited English how he felt about Wadi Rum. This culminated in him pulling the car over, winding down the window and spitting back at where we stayed. Glad to know it was not just us who didn't like it.

Aqaba is where the Jordanians go to relax. It's situated in the south of Jordan and is at the northern tip of the the Red Sea. It's about 20 minutes from Eilat, Israel and an hour by boat to Egypt or by road to Saudi Arabia. The hotel we were staying in was 15 minutes out of the city in quiet South Beach. The hotel had air con, a decent restaurant and a pool and was 2 minutes walk away from the beach. Perfect. We barely left the hotel during our two amd a half day stay. It was a nice place to end the tour to relax and allow our bites to heal. Aqaba was our favourite place to stay in Jordan, there was no hassle. We were still counting down the days until our flight to India. We left Aqaba and travelled 4 hours back to our hotel in Amman ready for our flight the following day.

I'm pleased we visited Jordan. That's probably a suprising this for me to say but let me explain:

1. During our 2 weeks in Jordan we saw pretty much everything there is to see. This means we never need to come back.

2. We saw Petra and swam in the Dead Sea - both of which were amazing.

3. We saw another way of life.

4. It'll make us appreciate the other places we visit a whole lot more.

We are both really excited about visiting India. We watched the film Gandhi in preparation.

D