Thanks all! I would hate to see a wonderful place like Wadi Rum go to ruins. But me thinks I'll stay out of the politics on this one. But if anyone has advice on the sensibility of hiring a horse or camel guide for a one day visit to Wadi Rum, I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Cheers,
There are some camel and horse options still - I believe.
It doesn't require advanced horse / camel riding skills -
and is indeed, more eco-friendly. If you seek to be at
one with nature - then this has to be the way I guess.
Mesha, we'll have to get together sometime where there is a table on which one can bang to make a point!
The trouble in Wadi Rum is that some of the guides do very nicely, thank you. They work on the Internet, they use mobile phones and faxes as a matter of course, they offer varied tours, off the beaten track and they are very much appreciated by tourists. These tend to be the people most tourists think of when they talk about the "guides making a lot of money".
The other end of it is the older men, who speak little or no English, who usually do not read or write and who just don't have the money to buy good cars. . All they can do is drive tourists around when it is their turn to do so. The problem is that their turn comes about once a week... 35JD a week isn't all that much money for a family.
They know perfectly well that they are being phased out, and they have no intention of going quietly. They have the numbers to make things very difficult for the younger men in the meetings of the Bedouin Society in Rum.
Camels are far more expensive to buy than a car, and need a lot more looking after! Just to start with they need to eat every day, whether they are working or not. A "cheap" camel would cost about 500JD, a "cheap" car more like 150JD. Few of the men in Wadi Rum nowadays own more than two or three camels - if you have seen dozens or even hundreds of them down in Wadi Saabit and Wadi Salaada this summer, 75pct of them have Saudi owners.
This means that for four tourists doing a trek with a guide also mounted on a camel, at least three camels have to be rented. It would usually cost 30JD/day to rent a camel - if somebody needs three and a camel guide, then this runs very quickly into money. Anybody who has done this sort of trek in Wadi Rum, rather than an hour with a mall boy leading the camel, can attest that a camel trek can cost more than climbing a mountain!
There is also the point that one covers much more ground with a car than with a camel. To get to the Barragh Canyon and back would really need two days with the camel. Burdah Bridge is quite an excursion. In other words, anybody wanting to visit Barragh other than with a jeep needs about 100JD....
Don't get me wrong - I think it would be great if camel treks were more the rule. But when tourists consider that 40JD is too much to pay in Wadi Rum (remind me of the entrance fee to Petra ? - and that doesn't include meals and overnight accommodation!) who is going to fork out for a camel trip?
And as for the guides who make money - believe me, it doesn't come easily! I have seen the back stage of this industry, the effort put into it, the very long days that the organisers have, often longer than those of the guides themselves, and the money that is needed for this, that and the other.
And anybody wanting information on horses, camels and what have you in Wadi Rum just needs to look at [http://www.jordanjubilee.com]
Hmm ... Good point Ruth. I neglected to consider the cost factor in hiring live animals. I saw your web site on trekking. Thanks.
Ruth - Lets pretend this is that table.
Firstly there is no such thing in Jordan as a car for 150 JD !!!!!!!!!!!!!
And - if you can find me a car in that price - I'll take 100 !
However, personally I would never even consider getting into a car that
cost 150JD - my personal safety is more important either in Wadi Rum
or the Welsh borders!
Any second hand (around 10 years old) jeep style car will cost more
than 5,000. Fact - Petrol consumption in older cars is less fuel efficient
and thereby uses more fuel.
Anyway like animals - cars don't run on fresh air either . . . presumably
the guides put petrol, oil, have regular maintenance and most important
have insurance. Cars used in the desert are usually exempted from
annual licence fees and need more maintenance. I'm sure the daily cost
of this amounts to more than what the camel eats . During winter camels rarely drink water even. Notwithstanding that most if not all the animals in Wadi Rum and Petra are looked after free by the various foreign animal charities - and if they are not they can be. Camels live to be about 50
and can work well for around 30 or more of those years. It would also
help to increase the camel population in Jordan which has decreased
dramatically in the past 50 years.
Like with all professions there are some who make a fortune and there
are those who struggle to get by - its not just the guides at Wadi Rum.
I don't say the guides at Wadi rum make fortunes but most of them
don't do too bad. I seriously doubt any of them take only 35JD a week.
Animal feed in Jordan also is subsidized and provided by the government
Wadi Rum has more than 7000 visitors per month see the stats here >>
http://www.locateme.jo/stat2007/1/2007/مواقع/9-Wadi%20Rum%202006%20-%202007.XLS
Incidentally its interesting to note your friend Aouda's new website
lists his prices as from 45 JD to 75 JD per person depending upon the
trip and number. Strange enough his cheapest trip is with a . . . . . . .
. . . camel - at 45 JD !!!!
Anyway as most of the income generated by the entrance fee to Wadi Rum
is given to the Wadi Rum co-operatives - they seem to have do OK. If we
take 8000 x 2JD = 16000 monthly - thats not an insignificant figure.
Not to mention 8000 visitors divided between how many guides . . . ??
Again not a bad earner albeit some maybe get more than the others.
Most bedouins have previously done army or police service or govt
work of some kind and have pensions. One only had to do 15 years
service in Jordan to receive a pension. Additionally, anyone below
the poverty line is given benefits from the Social Security Fund.
Again like in any profession if people do not meet current needs they
are superceded. This is a fact of life.
I believe if private guiding was prohibited and the current guides were
employed by the Ministry of Tourism on a professional basis it would
be fairer all around and they could receive standard government
salaries.
I feel pity that the bedouin way of life is disappearing but this was
started many years ago with the original bedouin resettlement program.
I just hope they start a newer, new program to bring back the traditional
bedouin lifestyle with all that that entails, literature, poetry, hunting etc
- this would be a step in the right direction.
I do not wish to appear unsympathetic to the bedu of Wadi Rum but something has to be done to maintain the precious eco balance along
with their communities whilst allowing access to visitors to enjoy the
majesty that is Wadi Rum.
Also a recent camel survey by a USAID funded project put the numbers
of camels in the Wadi Rum area at 450. - just to get the figures into
perspective with the 2 or 3 camels you mentioned Ruth.
And additional financial help from here :
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-152525782.html
And projects like here - where the guides can eventually do trips to lol . .
Oh dear Mesha!
You are talking ordinary cars! I am talking about cars for the desert. They have no road licence and would not be qualified to get one! Insurance - what's that?? "Hand down cars" can be had for around 100JD in these conditions! Repairs are done "at home" - most of the Bedouin can change a carburetor when required to do so. Petrol is brought in mostly from Saudi Arabia which is sold at a ridiculously low price, very few people in Rum buy "Jordanian petrol". You may have noticed that there is no filling station there - have you never found that strange for all the vehicles around?
The entrance fee goes to the Bedouin Cooperative? Yes - when "expenses" are taken out, that is the expenses of "administering" the "Protected Area". In other words they get what is left over after all the Visitors' Centre expenses are paid, including the Rangers, their cars, and the "hides" in the desert. When one knows the salaries that are paid to the top guys, one is not surprised that the money received by the Cooperative Society is very little. In fact, the expenses are highly subsidised by ASEZA otherwise it would be nothing at all.
The majority of all these visitors to Rum come in groups and take a car at 20/25JD for 8 people for a two hour drive around. That's not very much to pay. And yes, quite possibly the older men might make 70JD a week, and during the high season that might well go higher. I agree that it is not the average earnings, nevertheless it is what some people make! Like any village, even Wadi Mousa (!) some people make more money than others, and it is usually the poorer and less well educated who are at the bottom of the pile.
The traditional money earner for the Bedouin all over Jordan was a stint in the Army or the Police. This is no longer the case in Rum, and very few of the under thirties are or have been in the Army. Certainly they get subsidies, that village people like those in Wadi Mousa, consider unfair.
USAid has supplied a good deal of the money for the running of Wadi Rum. But it hasn't come through as direct payments to the people there; it is all taken up by "administration" unlike the situation, for instance, in Madaba.
450 camels divided by 3 comes to 150. There are many more than 150 Bedouin (men) in Wadi Rum! I think this makes my point adequately. The number is going down with the huge increase in the price of animal feed.
I agree the cheapest tour offered by Attayak Aouda is the camel trek - BUT this is without an overnight stay. Add in the overnight, which most people want, and you are at 60 or 65JD.
I don't believe you will find "guides" anywhere in the world who accept official salaries without the right to work elsewhere when business is slack. Most certainly the official guides in Jordan are all independent; they earn well when there is business, when there is no business they are in trouble! Ask any guide you know how he managed in 2001 and 2003!
And lastly, believe it or not, the Bedouin are very conscious of the environment and the ecological balance of their "country" and always have been. A couple of UNESCO surveys reported on this with surprise and approval, although I am sorry, I don't have any references to give you. Sure, rubbish used to be thrown out for the desert to absorb, and it does still happen among some of the people who camp a long way out. It happens for that matter among a lot of Bedouin, not just in Wadi Rum. The newer guides are very much aware of this problem. But even the older people have always been careful about taking green wood for fires and not destroying vegetation wilfully. This is left for present day visitors who come to have fun on the dunes!
And I am afraid that I had to laugh at your summary of Bedouin culture! I don't disagree in principle, mind you, but literature? And hunting is one of the things that the authorities are trying to stop - without all that much success, mind you!
Insurance - Ruth, was meaning to cover any injuries to the visitors
being ferried in them ! At least !! Are you telling us there is no cover ?
I was gob smcked that 8 people jump in one of these 150 dinar cars and
get away with paying 20 JD - thats 2.50 each ?
Regarding the military service I was talking about the "older men" you
mentioned who complain about their meagre existence not the young ones.
Regarding the camels I was talking about the men working as guides (which I believe is around 150 or thereabouts )
Regarding guides around the world - not all of them work in a place
like Wadi Rum - so its beside the point.
I'm glad I made you laugh at my summary of bedouin culture - the folks
you mix with are a very small taste of bedu and you shouldn't assume
this sample (as you stated poorer less educated) is the measure of a
great people. I was talking about in their hey day.
I must remember to tell this joke to the Bani Sakr and Bani Hamida
tribes next time I visit them.