I truly believe to travel, is to understand humanity. The more people we meet from all walks of life and background, the better we understand what differentiates us and appreciate what makes us all the same.
Those that know me well, know my genuine fascination of the Arabic and Muslim world. It's something so foreign to me, that my inquisitive nature keeps leading me back here.
The road to Petra
After hiring donkeys on a whim with the intent of 'discovering Petra' we wandered aimlessly for a few hours through some dusty and rocky terrain thinking at every turn and cavernous rock formation, that 'now we'd found Petra', until we resided to the fact we were well and truly lost.
Just in the nick of time we stumbled across a local family enjoying some cooked tomatoes over a small fire. From my understanding Bedouin hospitality often involves sweet tea, and one should always graciously accept, even in the middle of the nowhere.
After a few more hours in the blistering sun on this quest to find Petra, we were about to give up and then...around the corner...
...a whole city carved into the stone! Nothing quite like I had ever seen! After picking our jaws up from off the floor, we quickly realised we had taken the very 'scenic' route around as there were souvenior shops and buses full of tourist driving up the road (yes there was an actual road lol) right up to the main city area.
Noticing a sign to "The end of world" of course we followed it. Which led us to....
...our two new friends, Abraham and Ahmed aka Jack Sparrow (because he looked like the Arabic version of Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean). They quickly befriended us with sweet tea, and stories and songs of their beduoin life and before we knew it we were both on their donkey's being led up to their home. After a quick pittstop to meet the family and for supplies we headed out for a night under the stars surrounded by the caves they were born and raised in.
Here is a short clip of some bedouin kids and the friends we made, very much amused to see themselves on video
It's memories like this that make me hungry to travel again, and not just holiday.
Day two, now all the best of friends, they wanted to show us the natural beauty of their homeland, and took us through vast canyons and landscape so beautifully barren, until we reached a small oasis to stop for lunch.
Further and further out we went into the dessert, singing along enthusiastically to popular Arabic songs and taking in the rolling dunes. As if there were invisible road signs we took one last left and pulled up at the base of a dune. This would be our camp for the night.
No guide, no tents and no phone signal....definitely one of those don't-tell-my-mother moments!
Living in Hong Kong it's easy to forgot that stars even exist. Out here, in the Wadi Araba dessert the blanket of stars is almost blinding. In the far distance, you could see the glow of the lights from Jerusalem, but other than that, just silence and blackness. We danced, we ate without a piece of cutlery in sight, and shared stories of how different our lives were until the fire died out and we had all drifted off.
This trip to Jordan really showed me that as cliche as it sounds, everyone smiles in the same language, and I love how traveling reminds me of this.
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