In which Layla and Roz play Lawrence of Arabia in the desert, and give Berlin a second chance

By Layla

Wadi Rum is a desert area in Jordan characterised by pink sand, looming cliff faces, Bedouin camps, and Lawrence of Arabia’s house. We got there by taxi, driving through mist so thick that we couldn’t see more than a metre or two in front of us… Which made it all the more delightful when we descended to the desert, and swapped the mist for a beautiful blue sky. When we got to the visitor centre, we were met by a Bedouin guy who was to be our guide for the next day. There are various activities you can arrange at Wadi Rum, and I’d opted for everything they offered. So we set off, comfortably seated on the back of our guide’s truck, and wrapped up vigorously for warmth, into the desert.

It is hard to describe just how brilliant Wadi Rum is. I’ve travelled a lot but I wonder if Wadi Rum might be one of my favourite landscapes. We drove for miles across the sand, through cool rock formations, past people on camels, and hopped out to climb a huge, bright pink sand dune (note: I am not good at climbing sand dunes!), and to climb through an amazing canyon. Eventually, with sunset approaching, we were deposited at our camp for the night.

The traditional way to ‘do’ Wadi Rum is to spend a night camping in the desert with Bedouin people. There are consequently a million different camps you can book. And in a moment of slightly extravagant silliness, we decided to go with the Wadi Rum Nights Luxury Camp. Never having been ‘glamping’, we were astounded by how lovely it all was. The setting looked as though it had been designed by Disney, tucked into a little desert rocky nook. Our tent, looking simple and elegant from the outside, unzipped to reveal a mahogany king-size bed, sofa, dressing table, chandelier, slippers, bathrobes… it was astounding, like that part in the Labyrinth where the heroine steps through a door from the wilds and finds herself in a beautiful bedroom. We walked through the desert for a good spot from which to watch the sun set, then had a really delicious meal in the dining tent. Strolling back to our tent, we marvelled at the truly spectacular stars visible in the desert sky. We finished off the evening on a sofa in our tent, wrapped up in twenty layers (including a giant full length sheepskin coat), and watching the Spirited Away DVD Roz gave me for Christmas. Surreal and delightful. And probably the best sleep of the whole holiday.

The next morning we had a delicious breakfast, and headed out in the truck with our guide to visit Lawrence of Arabia’s house in the desert, and drink tea with some nearby Bedouins who were friends of our driver. From there, it was off to another pink sand dune for our next activity: sandboarding! We were presented with a snowboard, and told to board elegantly down the sand dune. With a total lack of snowboard skills, we decided to use it as a sledge, and passed a very entertaining time hiking up the sand dune and flying down it on the board. Great fun. Another desert drive and soon it was time for our final activity: a camel ride. I managed not to scream when it stood up, and Roz managed not to scream when it sat down, so I guess we are even… at any rate, not sure Lawrence would have approved of our camel-riding skills… but we had a fun time.

We were sad to say goodbye to beautiful Wadi Rum (and our delightful tent), but as with Lawrence, Aqaba beckoned. Though rather than conquering it, our plan was to luxuriate in warm sunshine and a fancy hotel (for which Roz had found a good deal). It was luxurious to finally swap our pink-sand-filled winter clothes for the lightweight summer dresses we’d been pointlessly carrying all holiday! After a quick lunch in a nice bakery, we headed to the Red Sea. After all, Aqaba is a beach resort, so when in Aqaba… actually it was quite odd to look across and see Eilat, Israel’s equivalent Red Sea beach resort, just round the corner. We strolled over the sandy beach and put our feet in the water. Brrrrr! We retreated to the lovely heated swimming pool and the Jacuzzi surrounded by Roman pillars, and finished off the afternoon with drinks on the beach.

That evening we ventured out to Aqaba town centre for food, and found a serviceable option where we ate our fill of the usual mezze. It wasn’t really a long, lingering meal though, and before long we were back at the hotel, arguing with the bar who had sold out of all champagne under £130. He offered us Jordanian wine instead but it was rather unpleasant – and this is how we came to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Perrier, Galaxy Chocolate, yet another anime film (The Girl Who Jumped Through Time), and the twinkling lights of both Jordan and Israel.

A beautiful breakfast buffet was an excellent, if not slimming, start to 2016. Having eaten our fill, we took a shuttle bus to Tala Bay with the hope of going paddleboarding. While paddleboarding would have been a fabulous start to the new year, falling in the freezing water without a change of clothes would have been less good. On seeing the waves were white-capped and vigorous, and the swimming flag on the beach was a decisive red, we opted for a lovely new year’s stroll along the beach, some delicious ice cream, and a few games of ping pong (at which I was sadly trounced) before heading back to the hotel.

Just a four-and-a-half-hour bus journey lay between us and our return to Amman. The bus was fine but it was disconcerting to see how we were leaving behind our lovely Aqaba sunshine for snow! When we finally stepped off the bus, it had turned to hail and we desperately grabbed a taxi and were duly ferried back to Heritage House Hotel. And from there to that delicious Christmas restaurant, where we made even better ordering choices and had an absolutely glorious last night in Jordan. What a fantastic country of contrasts and amazing natural and manmade wonders and completely different weather systems and ancient things and hipster coffeeshops. On discussion, we might even have loved it more than Lebanon.

But it was time to go, so we bid farewell and boarded a late, annoying plane to Berlin. By the time we got there, it was almost evening and we were bitter (both in terms of the airline stealing our day, and the insane cold temperature that Berlin had adopted in our week’s absence!). But then we checked into our delightful, design-tastic hotel, nibbled their free hipster chocolate, and had a hot chocolate in their trendy bar, and felt quite revived! Not least because by a stroke of luck, our Washington friends Tom and John were in Berlin that night and we were meeting for drinks. We decided to walk to the bar, a walk quite attractive but so chilly that we had to periodically duck into a heated shop to avert frostbite! (One might suggest that our dedication to taking a certain number of steps each day is sometimes a little too obsessive…) But when we got there, all was worth it. It was delightful to see Tom and John and drink cocktails and catch up. And then we left the main road, wound down an alley past the rubbish bins, and up a dodgy staircase to Cookies Cream, an amazingly hip, well-reviewed vegetarian restaurant. Fortunately Roz’s reservation finger had been on the pulse and we were quite smug as we surveyed the packed restaurant. The food was, as hoped, amazing, especially a spectacular dessert! Afterwards we started walking home but it was so cold I thought I was going to die, and we took a train instead.

This morning we woke up early and traumatised that after moving country 4 times and hotel 10 times, our amazing holiday was coming to an end… but we still had a day in freezing Berlin and we were determined to enjoy it. After breakfast we strolled (in the freezing cold) along a river and past Parliament, and through pretty Tiergarten park and ended up at the Sony Centre to drink tea and watch The Little Prince at a cool cinema. It was just us and a handful of (disconcertingly well behaved) kids, but it was very enjoyable. Afterwards, in search of lunch, we went to westberlin, a gloriously hipster coffeeshop, full of white furniture and exposed brick and pretentious indie architecture journals. And amazing cake… we stayed for ages with our books, revelling in the ambience and the heat (and the cake). And then headed round the corner to visit one of Berlin’s more obscure museums, the Game Science Centre. Not that we know anything about video games but we do love an interactive exhibit, and this one delivered! There were about 20 video games, all of which used some experimental new bit of technology. There were games we controlled by hovering hands over a sensor. Games we controlled with our eyes. A game where you had to play real ping pong effectively to kill aliens. Dance games with motion sensors. Music mixing things. And a virtual reality headset. We spent ages there and laughed that we had made a much better job of enjoying Berlin this time around. Reluctantly we headed back to the hotel, but squeezed in a quick hot chocolate at another hipster café before it was time to pick up our bags and head to the airport. Where we were duly punished for wailing about the end of our holiday by Easyjet assuring us that it wasn’t over yet: they were providing us with a charming delay in a rubbish airport. Alas. But overlooking this current drawback, what a really brilliant holiday.