In what was perhaps our last excursion from Israel, Misha and I had an absolute blast in Jordan, Israel’s eastern neighbor. The country is currently only allowing those with diplomatic visas to cross the border by car, so we took advantage of our status once again. This may also be our last road trip in my car before we sell it to a fellow diplomat, so it was a nice final drive for my Jetta. This trip didn’t have the bewildering brush with border patrol that our Belgium trip had, but it wasn’t completely devoid of anxiety all the same. Namely, as the trip wore on, I felt more and more certain that I was coming down with covid.
Everything started off well enough. We drove south from Tel Aviv to Eilat on Monday afternoon. We stayed at hotel overlooking the Red Sea and had an excellent Italian dinner at a restaurant called Pastory. The next morning, we drove across the border and on to the Bait Ali Lodge. They took us on an amazing ATV tour around the Wadi Rum desert. The place feels completely alien, which no doubt explains why it is such a popular filming location for foreign worlds from Mars to Arrakis. In the middle of the ride, we came across some bedouins, who let us ride their camels for a few minutes. We stopped at a bedouin camp for tea and a little shopping, and then returned to camp. It’s a must-do activity for anyone visiting Wadi Rum.
From there, we drove to our camp for the next two nights, the Wadi Rum Night Luxury Camp. There are plenty of Mars colony-style bubble tents at Wadi Rum. We had friends recommend this place, and we’d definitely return given the chance. It was very peaceful, had a great breakfast and dinner spread (both included), and had several options for activities during the day, and provided hookah’s (or argileh’s, in the Arab world) for a small fee. We skipped the activities, opting instead to use Tuesday and Wednesday as relaxation days, sitting in the sun with our Kindle’s and breathing in the fresh desert air. At night, the starry sky was spectacular. Temperatures dropped into the 30’s, but we paid for the bubble tent to make sure we didn’t miss out on the view.
However, it was around this time I started to notice the first covid symptoms. I kept trying to reason that I wasn’t actually getting sick, I was just feeling the side effects of my choices. Sore throat? Came from the argileh. Heat behind my eyes? A sunburn, from spending 6 hours sitting in the desert sun. Cough? Sitting in front of the fire while smoking the argileh…Well, maybe I am coming down with something, but as long as I don’t test positive I can re-enter Israel. Fingers crossed.
The fourth day of our journey was reserved for Petra, a roughly two hour drive from Wadi Rum. The ride through the country was simple enough, but the number of speed bumps on the highway with little to no warning was rather frustrating. When it comes to Petra, even being warned in advance did not prepare us for just how massive the complex is. We arrived there around 2pm and decided to take the shorter route, which included paying a man to drive us to the back side of the site, thus cutting roughly 90 minutes off the first half of hike. On and on it went, with some sections of the path precariously winding along cliff edges (pictured below).
After nearly 90 minutes, we popped out at the top of the complex, which is known as The Monastery. From here, we hiked two and a half hours down through the actual complex, past colorful layers of rock, locals selling cheap trinkets and scarves (“1 dinar, where you from?”), and landmines of camel and donkey droppings. As beautiful as it all was, it was tough to appreciate it at times because of how many vendors were trying to hassle you to buy something. I can only imagine what it’s like at the Pyramids of Giza, where you have an entire city trying to sell you something. We skipped climbing up to a few of the buildings you could enter, as the hike was pretty strenuous and the sun was setting fast. We were still able to stop and admire the incredible facade of the Treasury, which, along with the Monastery, is the most photogenic part of the site. It is truly deserving of its moniker: one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
The following morning we were slated to return home. We had tested negative for covid on the PCR tests we took upon entry to Jordan on Tuesday, and tested negative again Friday morning. I was starting to feel actually sick at this point, and found it a miracle I hadn’t tested positive. We made our way north and west to the border crossing, making it there nearly an hour before the scheduled closing time. Surprise! That wasn’t early enough. According to the Jordanian guards, we had to arrive at least an hour earlier, because the woman on the Israeli side likes to leave early. They made one phone call and said we couldn’t cross. Our phones had no reception, so we had no other options but to believe them. We called an audible and drove 30 minutes south to the Dead Sea and checked in at the Marriott. The next morning, Misha floated in the salty waters, and we can confirm that the Jordanian side of the sea is much nicer than the Israeli side. It’s cleaner, less crowded, and has nicer hotels at a better price.
We crossed over the border on Saturday morning. Guess what? It took only 40 minutes start to finish. After taking our fourth PCR test in 6 days, we finally made the trip home. In perhaps the greatest stroke of luck we’ve had in a long time, we both tested positive once back in Israel. If the test we took just 24 before had been positive, we would’ve been stranded in Jordan until we tested negative. It’s been five days since we made it back as of this writing, and we are still both sick. Not only would we still be stuck in a hotel in Jordan right now, but Mochi would still be stuck with her dogsitter, who no doubt would not be happy at the prospect of taking on our crazy dog for an indefinite amount of time. Today, we are trying to relax in our isolation and not fret about what could’ve been, though Misha is back working from home and struggling through. If you get a chance to visit, don’t think twice.
Beer and Diplomacy 
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