Wadi Rum page 3 contacts and guides, "ripping off", Nature Reserve

I am often asked for reliable contacts in Wadi Rum. Here are some people on whom you can absolutely count to give you a fair deal and a good tour. They are among the top guides working in Wadi Rum at the moment. It is essential to reserve with them ahead of time in writing or they will not be allowed to take you. NB when you call these numbers from INSIDE Jordan, then you leave out the +962 and add a zero before the rest, for instance Attayak Ali's mobile number becomes 0795.689.373.

"The two Attayaks" are both marvellous guys, although in very different ways, and are among the elite of the younger guides. Here you can see them "in working costume"! They do everything, climb, lead hikers, organise camel treks as well as visits in 4x4. During the high season they are in great demand. There are some stories about them both in the "Meet the people" section of this website. I always enjoy their company, they are both great fun!

They used to work together but have recently agreed to split amicably, so you will have to choose between them! They are both excellent guides and are guaranteed to make you enjoy your time in Wadi Rum. They are still close friends, are not in competition, and are among the best of the few guides offering "adventure" trips.

Attayak Aouda is a highly professional guide, especially when on the mountains, cheerful, extrovert with an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes about himself and about his life in the desert. Like his friend he guides everything, but is something of a specialist of the mountains and scrambling there. He climbs to 6c and will guide people on the "modern" climbing routes. He is happy not to have TOO much work, since he likes to spend as much time as possible on the mountains and in the desert, so it is a good idea to book up early if you want to use his services. He also owns several racing camels which he trains himself - (his camel treks are mostly done with more sedate animals). His (new) website is at www.rumguides.com

Attayak Ali is quieter, painstaking, meticulous, conscientious and utterly trustworthy in every respect. When I am with him I never worry about anything at all! He doesn't guide technical climbing, but is very experienced and very safe with the "Bedouin routes" into the mountains, which he enjoys and appreciates as much as his friend. His hiking programmes are excellent. He has a website at www.bedouinroads.com where you can see the possibilities he offers for visiting Wadi Rum. He works with a small team of Bedouin who guide people on the "easier" tours; they all speak excellent English and they all try very hard to ensure that tourists visiting Wadi Rum with them have a great time.

Atallah is from the Sweilhin tribe. He is also the person to apply to if you are interested in horses - he owns the Rum Horses Stables which you can see to your right on the road 10 kilometers before you reach the village of Rum. He also organises regular camel treks. It is just opposite the Rum Railway Station (not a passenger railway, unfortunately). If you already have an appointment with him, any bus would drop you off there if asked. (See the page "On horseback around Wadi Rum"). He is also accustomed to organising camel treks. A quiet and highly competent guide, Atallah is another man with a great sense of humour, who makes the craziest jokes when he is relaxed with you!

(Don't tell me that I collect "fun people" - I know it, and I am very lucky to know so many of them!)

Aouda Abdillah is another conscientious guide who prides himself on going personally with his clients. He has a good tourist camp, and can organise any kind of jeep or camel tour. He offers very good value and has a number of "regulars" who come back or who send him clients. He is yet another good fun person! He has a website at http://www.aodeh.de/index.htm his email is aodeh25@yahoo.com and his mobile phone number is 0795.617.902.

Last but not least I highly recommend the Lafi brothers, Salem (on the right) and Saleem - not least if you enjoy being in fits of laughter most of the day. They are both experienced guides, and also work a good deal with Wadi Rum Mountain Guides (this is starting to become a reference in Wadi Rum.) The word for them must be "exuberant". They bubble over with fun, but at the same time they know the Bedouin lore as well as their elders, and can unhesitatingly identify prints in the sand or medicinal plants in the mountains.

They have recently opened an official travel agency, with all the necessary papers and listings, and they can organise your trip inside Jordan if you wish. They are fully qualified to book hotels, arrange transport and guides anywhere that you wish inside the country. The name of their company is called "Jordan Tracks" and you can find full details on their website at www.jordantracks.com email saleemali@jordantracks.com. Their phone number is at +962.796.482.801.

Saleem also owns several horses and can arrange short riding trips into the desert if you are interested.

If any or all of these guides is busy the day that you need them, they will usually pass you to somebody else in whom they have confidence. Don't hesitate to accept these recommendations, you will still be the moral responsibility of your original choice who will invariably check that his substitute is doing a good job.

If you pre-reserve as advised above you should know that some of the Bedouin are specialists in cheap tours for cheap prices. In theory I have no special objection to this, but too often tourists don't realise that they are getting less than they might do; many people would prefer to pay a bit more for a better tour.

The problems arise when you get to the Wadi Rum Visitors' Centre independently, not having reserved a local guide in advance and knowing little about what to expect. You then have no alternative but to accept one of the tours on offer (see Rum Visitors' Centre.) On the whole in Wadi Rum you get what you have paid for. If you want to sleep in the desert in one of the camps, again you have to accept what is offered - and it is expensive, the official price for an overnight is 25JD/person, including supper and breakfast and all equipment for sleeping in the desert.

You might decide to omit the "sleeping in the desert" however attractive this prospect is. But since no public transport whatsoever leaves Wadi Rum at the end of the day, the alternatives are few. It is still possible to sleep at the Resthouse for a small sum and forage for your food.

Remember also the problem about speaking English. By no means all of the drivers waiting at the Visitors' Centre speak English. They do not consider themselves as guides, and make no attempt to describe to you what you are seeing.

Hotels whether in Aqaba or in Petra are no longer allowed to organise "tours to Wadi Rum". All too often these were simple ripoffs, in which the tourist paid (say) 25JD to the hotel and the hotel passed on 15JD to their bedouin contact - who gave the tourist a 15JD tour. If anybody in Petra or Dana does offer to "organise" a tour for you, you can be 100% sure that a ripoff is involved. Only if you are given the card of somebody in Wadi Rum and advised to contact him yourself can you be reasonably sure of a good tour there.

The current scam concerns the area north of Dissieh. I have said elsewhere that it is "nearly as beautiful as Wadi Rum". Yes, but not only is it not the same thing, but its comparative isolation from tourists has gone. Since it is not included in the "Protected Zone" it is exempt from the controls in Wadi Rum and many people take advantage of this. A tour going to this area will not have the same qualified guides and will all too probably be a short one. Also look at all the rubbish to be seen there! This distresses many locals, but unscrupulous operators don't hesitate to discard all rubbish in the desert with no attempt to collect it and bring it back - or even to burn it!

This applies very largely to "operators" in Aqaba. There are dozens of people rushing to "organise a tour of Wadi Rum", most of them pushing "cheaper" at you. All too many of them are unlicensed operators who will avoid at all costs the new Nature Reserve and its rangers, and here also you will be lucky to get your money's worth however little it was. You can nearly always do better independently than by going with these cheap operators. If anybody offers you a low price, then you should immediately be suspicious.

Obviously, I am not including the reputable agencies in this, but the sad truth is that a good tour of Wadi Rum is seldom very cheap! By "a good tour" I mean the kind of tour that makes people say afterwards "Wadi Rum was the high point of the holiday". I have never known ANYBODY who has visited Wadi Rum with a reputable guide not to say this - even when they have already enjoyed Petra.

The New Nature Reserve (officially called "The Protected Area") is gradually taking shape and is changing very largely the way in which Wadi Rum receives tourists. The aim of the local authority is to conserve both the beauty of the area and the customs of the Bedouin who live there - sometimes it is difficult to reconcile the two.

For the tourist, so far the most obvious sign of changing conditions is the new Visitors' Centre some 6 or 7 kilometers from the village of Rum. This is an ambitious construction consisting of (among others) a reception centre for tourists, an information centre, conference and lecture halls (what will they be used for???), lodgings for the rangers surveying the Reserve and possibly eventually an hotel and a camp site. Locals are hoping for ATMs and an Internet service here - they will probably use them as much as tourists do. So far there is no sign of either, although there is talk of the ASEZA opening a big Internet café in Rum Village.

There is also talk of new rules being introduced in the spring, not only of an increased entry fee, probably about 7 or 8JD, but also of limiting the trekking and hiking parties which must be declared in advance, and which might have to sleep in designated areas. While most tourists, even hikers and trekkers won't realise the difference, this will inevitably change the way in which the guides operate these groups.

ASEZA is also spending what must be a huge amount of money in building a wall around the village of Rum and around each block of houses there. It is quite an attractive shade of pink, but one rather wonders if it really has a purpose apart from the ascetic one. Ominously there is what looks like a sentry box at one of the entrances from the desert. It does mean that the entrances to the village are marked and can be controlled. Possibly this is intended to reinforce the intention that few tourists will actually visit the village in future.

One of the measures already put into operation is the introduction of a small herd of oryx (see photo) into a blind valley well away from the frequented areas. The Wadi Rum Nature Reserve rangers are keeping a sharp eye on them to ward away any prospective poachers!

Links to Wadi Rum references and information in this site :

Introduction - Sleeping in Wadi Rum - Getting there and away again - What to see there - prices and tours (including horses and camels) - some longer trips in 4x4 - Reliable contacts and guides - "ripping off" - Nature Reserve - Trekking, hiking and climbing : short notes- - Trekking in Jordan - Riding around Wadi Rum - Camels and camel trekking - Tours of Wadi Rum - Wadi Rum climbing information - Climbing "El Habla"

Tourist Map of Wadi Rum - Satellite map of Wadi Rum - RSCN Map of Wadi Rum - Out of doors in Jordan : detailed maps of Wadi Rum

There are also several pages of photos of Wadi Rum in the Photo Gallery
and a number of stories about the Bedouin who live there in the section "Meet the people of Jordan"