Glamping in Mars.. the Wadi Rum desert

The previous post in this series is here..

We raced out of Petra towards Wadi Rum desert to catch the sunset there. It was supposed to be the highlight of the evening.

We stopped at the mountain sides to see the desert from a distance for two minutes. Rest of the time it was just driving. We saw the original railroad that the Ottoman Empire had that was bombed out by the locals to help the British divide and conquer them.

After 2+ hours we showed up at the camp.

The terrain here is out of this world.. a lot of Alien movies are shot here. Martian was also shot here. Everything has a red glow to it. The sand eroded rocks formations look unique.

The person at the reception told us that we were the only guests in the entire camp for the night, thanks to flight cancelations and state department warnings! He was sad. He said normally the place is full two days before Christmas. Today we were the only visitors for not just this camp but most of the camps on this section of the desert.

Our guides realized there was not enough time to catch an open jeep ride or camel ride to go see the sunset from the dunes.. So they said "just go up to the top of the hill in the camp and you will get the view!".

We walked up, took pictures, saw yet another group of cats there and walked back down. It was eerily silent.

They would turn on the hot water for 30 minutes to an hour just for us given the camp was empty. We agreed on a time and it worked out. There was a dining tent and a post dinner fireside tent. We were the only visitors. The cooks were from Egypt and both of them did a wonderful job serving us vegetarian dishes. Did I mention the cabins were really nice inside! 

Got my paruppu sadham and roti (the Jordanian version) and was happy! We had some good tea next to a fire, joked around for 30 minutes and it was time to go sleep. It was freezing outside and the cats kept trying to get into the cabins. Some of us were already showing signs of allergies thanks to the cats and we were running low on Claritin supplies!

The night sky is supposed to be amazing here.

We were able to see a star studded sky with our naked eyes after they adjusted to the dark, but there was simply too much light pollution from the camp itself. They refused to turn off the flood lights. Then there was light from all the other camps. We spent an hour sitting above the last cabin on the hill to take these pictures. Most of them are 10 second exposures..

a sample..

A gallery of night sky portraits..

By this time we got worried texts from the ladies on why we didn't come back. I tried to clean the skylight filter on my SLR as it was showing hazy images.. only to drop it on the floor in the dark. That "clink" sound of glass breaking was not good. Guess San is going to find out that I broke a 50$ filter by reading this blog..

We had a good nights sleep but we all had to set an alarm to catch the 30 minute hot water window before breakfast. I woke up earlier and ran up the hill again to catch some golden hour photos before sunrise. They were "meh".. and by the time everyone assembled, the sun was up!

A candid shot of a scared San.. she is afraid of all dogs and cats and animals in general.. these cats were very aggressive and woud hiss at us and try to scratch!

A better pic after I shooed the cat to the side.. 

A video highlight of Wadi Ram!

we drove out of Wadi Rum (Valley of the Moon is what it means) after saying bye to the camp..to some amazing views in the haze after a simple breakfast. There was no milk for tea. Apparently cows milk in an alien concept here. The cheese they have is all goat cheese. It was good.

It was a 3+ hour drive to our last destination..

It has been a long long wait to visit Petra

Previous post in this series is here..

Ever since we watched Indiana Jones and the last crusade and heard about Petra, my brother and me wanted to visit this place someday. He got a chance to visit Israel for work like 15 years ago and he saw Petra. Being a man of few words he just said "I went and saw Petra on a weekend. It was good". Was thinking of him when I walked through the site entrance that morning.

Finally after a week of traveling, we got to sleep from 10PM to 6AM. We could have slept longer but the entire group showed up at Breakfast right after it opened at 7 and everyone was giving a sheepish grin. No one could sleep longer and we were all hungry! The breakfast area in Le Maison hotel is awesome and there was a guy making pancakes and omlettes on demand. Given there were a total of 16 people in an area set for 200, things moved fast. 

Our guides had told us that we were to leave our bags at reception and walk through the site after exchanging the online passes for physical tickets. There was a horse ride for the first 1/2 mile included in the ticket (but you tip the guys who hold the horses) and a free shuttle from the last point back to the entrance. 

It was a 10 mile distance to cover. He told us that if we walk briskly we should be done by 1 or 1:30 PM and meet them at the hotel reception before 2 PM. We had to start driving latest by 2PM to see the sunset at our next stop..

When the group questioned it later that day, I reminded everyone that people can wait, the sun won't! 

We were the first tourists to enter the Petra site that morning as soon as the ticket place opened. San and me decided to walk even the first 1/2 mile instead of taking the horse.

There is a Madras trail in Petra!!! 

The idea was to go through the canyon and meet everyone at the Treasury building.. which is the face of Petra that is one of two highlights. 

A video of the first part of the walk all the way to the end of the roman road (execpt the approach to the treasury.. which is in the second video)

There were two well decorated camels (which you also see in all pictures) and a kid who bargained with us for taking photos and videos. We went with it and the kid did an outstanding job with the videos. 

This kid was really good. The artistic parts of the video were all taken by him on my iPhone 13. DO NOT MISS THIS VIDEO and if you do go to Petra, do pay this kid to take your video! 

The moon going down into the canyon was amazing. The Sun was still coming up when we were walking through the canyon.

We spent a good 30 minutes trying to hike the trail to the ritual site on top of the hill called the "High Place of Sacrifice". The map did not clearly show how long that trail was and there were no markers or signs to tell us we were on the right track. Once we went high up and did not get a comfortable feeling, we decided to come back down. Either we missed a turn or it was not a short distance hike as suggested by the map. 

this is my friend doing a victory pose when we walked up the sacrificial high place..

The plan was to go all the way to the top to see the Monastry. This is the second highlight of Petra. 

In between the group stopped and said "we dont want to go up to see the Royal tombs". so I ran by myself and got a few photos and ran back.  Missed seeing the Church and tiles but my BIL and friend went up for those while I was running back. I got a short break to catch my breath, eat some well deserved Parle G biscuits and we were off to go up. 

Then there were the cats and kittens.. lots of them everywhere. They smell food in the backpacks and jump up from every gap and crevice. We later asked one of the locals why so many cats in Petra. He said "out here we either eat animals or let the inedible ones go..it is a desert!". Guess cats were inedible for some reason in those days and that worked in their favor. You can see them in the second video. will add a separte slidshow for them in the next post..

We did buy some Myrr and Frankinsense from one of the shops. The guy selling had a beautiful turban and he let me take his photo. Told him I could buy the same cloth, but would not look good in that turban. He said I could pass for a local because of the copper tone in my skin. Didn't know what to make of it.

We got to see a very old living pistachio tree on the walkway. Then there was an attempt at a bench photo.. Had to squeeze through the gap to get this one..

The shops were cute.. after we had bought stuff another store vendor showed us photos of Sadhguru in his shop and was marketing his shop as Sadhguru certified! We told him we already bought incense and walked on..

Once the entire team made it to the end of the colonaded street and saw what an earthquake does to large stacked columns, we took in the view from the Nabatean cafe.

By now other tourists who had taken the golf cart and mule service had beat us to this point and enjoying drinks. We were already late. 

So we started hiking up the steps to the monastery. . . 

There are close to 900 photos from just Petra alone between the iPhone and Canon DSLR. Here are a select few in slideshows. A lower back sprain is killing me. Before this break is over, want to finish writing about this trip. So the rest of the photos will show up every now and then on FB! 

and another slideshow in portrait format..

The monastery and leaving the site.. another story!

Women rock!

The previous post in this series is here..

This day was going to be a busy one. We had been warned. There were three things to cover as part of the tour and two things we added to the list before being dropped at the airport.

We woke up at 4:30 and got ready. Our bags were packed and the porters got it to the van. The amount of offering to the porters was predetermined just like the offerings to various gods during temple visits. We complied. The porter gods smiled on us. The suitcase with the broken wheel had made it this far. 

It was a special day. One of two days the sunrise is smack dab in the middle of the square hole in Karnak temple. This used to be a big festival in olden days. The Egyptian locals made it a festival again for tourist purposes. We made it in through security and the German language tour was still wrapping up. 

there were a few hundred people blocking our view and I had no chance. Still held my camera up to take a timelapse and was hit in the ribs a few times by jostling tourists. Did what I could..(you can see it in the video)

The sun did its glorious thing without making a fuss. We started walking through the temple once it was up. 

Had to increase the shadow lighting to get this image. those stories on the walls with the sun rising between them is marketing genius. Makes it look like the Sun is approving the story!

The night tour with the sound and light show did not do justice to the magnificence of the temple. They also did not cover enough about Queen Hatshepsut and how she rebuilt this place and started lighting up the temple, brought the two gold tipped obelisks to Luxor, etc. etc. 

This women had done more good for Egypt's people than all those Pharoh's before her put together. It was not about the kings and gods.. It was about improving the lives of citizens. She got that!

However her step son who later became king worked hard to erase her from Egyptian memory. A female ruler blessed by Egyptian gods did not fit their narrative. So within a generation, it was erased in mainstream media of the time. However thanks to shifting sands and the Romans and others who didn't care who ruled what when, some of her legacy has been preserved.

Walid took us to a special spot where the sunbeams come down in a dark chamber..it was scary to walk to the center as we didn't know where the ground was. Should have been challenging for folks to build the place!

A candid shot of us trying to stop the photographer from continuous clicking. Walid was filling up my memory by taking 25 shots a minute!

This temple at Karnak used to be all color. There is still some color on the pillars that has survived millenia and it is just amazing. When we imagine non faded colors on pillars and ceilings this size, one can only wonder!

As a Mylapore kid who was awestuck by Kapaleeshwar temple when my mom or grandpa would take me there, it still holds a special place in my heart after 50 years. Now imagine what a walk through this temple in all its colored glory would have meant to kids in those days!

Maybe the Egyptian government should think about restoring at least a small section of this temple to the original colors (if they can figure out what pigments were used and how to color them in the past!) and let us get a true sense of this awesomeness!

This is yet another place that has to be seen to be believed. If you are making plans to visit Luxor, try to be there on the Winter solstice and watch the sunrise at Karnak! It is true the sun rises every day and keeps moving, but a temple built thousands of years ago to align the sunrise to the solitice is worth watchng! A lot of science and engineering went into this!

Granite is not an easy stone to carve or carry! 

A few HDR shots..

A video highlight of the Karnak temple visit..

The grand finale from the night's sound and light show was a focus on the statue around which people would walk counter clockwise 7 times for luck..

We enjoyed this temple complex thoroughly. After this on our way out we got some tea/ coffee at a restaurant / gift shop which was very nice.

Then we went back out to the van. It was time for the next stop which was supposed to be yet another highlight!