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 private 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 during a "private" camel ride! 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 Ali is quieter than his friend Attayak Aouda, 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 Attayak Aouda does. 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.

Attayak Aouda is a highly professional guide, cheerful, extrovert with an inexhaustible fund of anecdotes about himself and about his life in the desert. An evening spent with him at the camp fire tends to be unforgettable. He is completely reliable in every way. He is a specialist in "adventure tourism" but guides everything, including jeep tours and camel treks. He climbs to 6c and will guide people on the "modern" climbing routes. 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

Atallah Sweilhin phone/fax +962.3.203.3508 mobile +962.795.802.108, email : rumhorses@yahoo.co.uk 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!

He can also take you on a jeep tour with or without an overnight in the desert, or on a hiking trip.

(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.

A number of people have written to me recommending Mohammad Hussein (website http://www.wadirumadventures.com/) He is another of the younger guides with a wide range of programmes offered at a lower rate than the previous guides, but please note that they do tend to be of a lower quality as well - for instance the camel tours, which appear on first sight to be very cheap, do not offer a guide with his own camel accompanying the tourists. The jeep tours do not go very far into the desert and most of his tours remain within 10 kms of the village. But he has a camp site in the desert and as I say, he is very much appreciated by his clients. For those wanting a short introduction to Wadi Rum at a price backpackers can afford, he offers a valuable service

He used to use his uncle's "hostel" but I am assured that this is no longer the case.

Last but most certainly not least I highly recommend the Lafi brothers, Salem (on the left) and Saleem - especially if you enjoy being in fits of laughter most of the day. They are both experienced guides, and Salem also works a good deal with Bedouin Roads and Attayak Ali. 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. 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 a number of horses and offers riding trips into the desert if you are interested - see the page "On horseback around Wadi Rum".

I have named the guides I know best as excellent and conscientious guides, but of course they are not the only good guides in Wadi Rum. I can't include everybody, however much I should wish to, but here are a few others, just to make your choice more difficult. I am only giving you those who have websites and who check their email regularly :

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. The great majority do not consider themselves as guides, and make no attempt to describe to you what you are seeing.

The bus from Petra to Wadi Rum : There have been several complaints about the fares charged on this bus, so perhaps it would be a good idea for me to clear things up. This information is correct in April 2007.

The normal fare is 5JD in either direction. Occasionally you might be asked for more money if 1) there are fewer than 4 people on the bus or 2) there are a number of people there but you have a large backpack. 1) It is not economical for the driver to go if there are not at least 4 people. This bus is classified as a tourist bus, and he is not allowed to pick up paying passengers on the way to Wadi Rum (it's different on the way back). He does frequently take the Bedouin children who might otherwise have to walk several kilometers to school, but obviously he does not charge them. Paying an extra 2 or 3JD comes out cheaper for you than taking a taxi which is your only resort if the bus does not run. If 2) you have a quantity of luggage occupying the seats, you might (rarely) be asked for a dinar extra. BUT DO NOT PAY MORE THAN 5JD EXCEPT IN THESE SPECIFIC CASES, WHATEVER THE PRETEXT! If in any doubt, ask the driver to tell you the price - anybody asking for extra money is usually somebody else. The driver himself is honest.

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 Disseh. 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!

Many hotels in Petra will offer to organise a tour for you. They are no longer allowed to take tours to Wadi Rum, so operators in Petra will almost always take you to Disseh, even while insisting that they are taking you to Wadi Rum! If you find yourself in a camp with several dozen tourists then you can be 100% sure that you are in Disseh, the Wadi Rum camps seldom have more than ten or fifteen tourists sleeping there. You might be told that the bus to Wadi Rum is not running - unless this is the lowest period of the low season, you might like to check on this directly with the driver - his mobile number is 0795.235.257 and his name is Mahmoud Asri. (You might also like to look at the web page entitled "Excursions from Petra : Humeima, Disseh and the north of the Wadi Rum area")

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, 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!

Another measure is that guides with clients having previously reserved with them three days before, are also required to pay a fee for taking them - quite apart from the normal admission charge. If they agree to take somebody WITHOUT a previous reservation, they also have to pay a fairly substantial fine. They would therefore need some incentive to agree to this! If you just want a day's jeep tour, they are most unlikely to accept you.

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"