Jordan & Syria as if there was no tomorrow!!

Jordan & Syria It seems that portuguese people have a way with "catchy phrases" and this trip couldnt be an exception... So, this time, we traveled as if there was no tomorrow, smoked shisha as if there was no tomorrow, swam in the dead sea (or at least tried) as if there was no tomorrow, drank (tea) as if there was no tomorrow and so on and so on (I guess you can get the picture by now)!!

Day 1
So, the trip started with a flight to Aqaba in the South of Jordan the Sharm Al Sheiq of Jordan) and the funny situation of having a portuguese pilot flying us there. It was definitely funny to hear "welcome to Aqaba, the outside temperature is (...)" in portuguese.

Of course, as any good backpacker (que se preze) we had our precious lonely planet with us and took a taxi from the airport straight to the travelling agency that had the cheapest (or as lonely planet calls is: budget) trips to Wadi Rum, where we wanted to spend the night. We did manage to get to Wadi Rum that afternoon, but not after plenty of tea cups and a huge shoarma and paying 30 Jordanian each. Not bad, since it also included dinner, the night at a desert camp and the next day drive to Petra.

Wadi Rum was amazing.. I guess it can be kind of compared to the Grand Canyon in the States.. But there is also the desert with its nice reddish colour and the amazing sunset. We spent the afternoon dune bashing with this really crazy jordanian who everyone called Taliban (I guess you can figure out why by looking at the pics) and his sweet daughter. They didnt understand a word of english so it was kind of funny to see us trying to practice our basic words of arabic.

Back in the camp, a night of good arabic food, shisha and arak (similar to the turkish raki) awaited us but I guess that at this point we were all pretty tired from the 5 am raise and shine so after an hour or two we all passed out in our lovely tent.

The plan the following day was to wake up, watch the sun rise and the head to Petra for an entire day of exploration and Indiana Jones adventures... I did wake up to see the sun rise, but I was the only one and have to admit that I stayed outside for only 5 seconds, and ran to my bed right after, as if there was no tomorrow. I guess this kind of tells you that either I was really too sleepy or the sun rise was not that special. I would add: both.

Day 2
Anyway, we did eventually got up and once again enjoyed the pleasures of the arabic food. Nothing better than to wake up to a nice smell of tea, eggs, cucumber & tomato salad and lots of hummus.
All of this followed by a desperating wait for our driver to take us to Petra. When the "inshallah" and the "he will be here in 2 minutes" became more than one hour we had not choice but to accept our faith and relax. Afterall, we were in the desert.. and time doesnt matter when you are in the desert (well, i guess this only works as long as you have a bottle of water by your side, but I chose not to say something like that to the camp guy as he might not understand my weak attempt of a joke). At least it gave us time to arrange with the camp guy that the driver that would come to pick us up would also stay with us for 3 more days and drive us around the best places in Jordan on the way to Amman.

Eventually, our nice jordanian driver arrived and there we were on our way to Petra.. It was not a long drive, about 2-3 hours but...

To be continued