The land of Bedouins, Jordan seems familiar yet fascinating and worthy of revisits

All roads may not lead to Jordan—but they should. Admittedly an unlikely choice for a road trip, Jordan fulfills all the criteria one seeks for in a road trip. For instance, highways. There are three main ones in Jordan that crisscross the beautiful countryside in an organised fashion. The second must-have is dependable route maps. Jordan provides plenty of those; then throws in a handful of friendly folks and fnger-licking food as a bonus. And the fact that Arabic and spoken Hindi have so much in common, makes travelling that much simpler. I was in Jordan to attend a wedding with my husband and took the bride’s advice to make a road trip out of it. Totally worth it. Our first stop: Amman, a bustling city where historic and modern mingle with older, more organic neighborhoods in the east rubbing shoulders with the swankier new ones in west, much like an old couple. All neighbourhoods bear the mandated finish of white limestone and even the most iconicretail chains are not easy to spot; for example, the only way to distinguish between a McDonalds, Citibank or an Apple showroom was to spot their signage on the facade. An overall structure of ‘circles’ gives the city a modicum of organisation, but an average visitor may find it all a bit too disorienting, especially since several circles turn out to be something else altogether. But with a little help from street signs, maps and friendly directions in Urdu, broken English and sign language, we were all right in a day or two. Our next stop was Wadi Rum: the incredible mountainous desert landscape. Massive striated rocks dot and define the desert landscape, best navigated on a camel. Millions of years of being buffeted by underwater tides gave the sandstone rocks their unique appearance like ancient stony corals. The colours change drastically— from vermilion to terra-cotta to purple and yellow—in the light of the rising or the setting sun. A leisurely three-hour ride on a camel yields a closer view at the scenic jebels or desert mountains, glimpses of the life of TE Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) and a few Bedouin tents where you can pause for a sip of shai (black tea with a handful of fresh mint and sugar, delicious and refreshing), a puff of nargileh or a picture with the locals. We stayed in camel hair tents, sampled an authentic meal of whole goat, chickens and vegetables cooked in a hole in the earth, danced with the troupe of local musicians in attendance and fell asleep under a blanket of stars. A short 45 minute drive from Wadi Rum, at the end of the Desert Highway lies the southern-most tip of Jordan. Lush with vegetation, cooled by sea breezes and frequented by beach bums, Aqaba is the national beach escape. For a small sea town, Aqaba receives visitors in the hundreds of thousands every year. The main attractions are Roman ruins, a beautiful white mosque, the spice market, fresh seafood (rare in Jordan) and an underwater treasure trove for snorkeling and scuba diving among brilliant coral reefs. The next day we reached Petra as the sun was setting. We strolled down the main street to Petra Kitchen, a restaurant by day and traditional Jordanian fare cooking class by night. Discovered in the 19th century but established in the 6th century as a trade center by the Nabateans, (people of Jordan) Petra has an impressive number of rock-cut monuments and water systems to utilise and harvest a resource precious in a desert country. Past the Djinn blocks— burial chambers in massive stones—lies a tunnel to the underground reservoir and the entrance to the city via the Siq, a natural gorge used as the city’s first line of defense. Walking the gorge lit by the occasional candle below and stars above, we reached Petra by night. Musicians played local melodies on ancient instruments against the background of a Khazneh lit by a thousand candles. A fitting end to the day.