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A rose among the thorns

Steven Knipp

The Bedouin's face was burned brown by a lifetime beneath Jordan's searing desert sun. As he carefully roasted fresh coffee beans over a campfire, his features in profile appeared as proud and regal as the face on an ancient coin. Then, suddenly, he smiled to himself. Leaning conspiratorially close to a young Jordanian woman who was watching him, he whispered something mysterious in Arabic. She thrust her head back and burst into laugher.

Later, I asked her what the leathery nomad had said. 'He told me he'd been in the desert for weeks and asked if I had any spare shampoo - because he really needed to wash his hair before he visited the city!'

Welcome to the beguiling Kingdom of Jordan, where camel-riding Bedouin still follow a way of life that has hardly changed in a thousand years, yet who appreciate the luxury of a silky-soft, tangle-free mane. This is a young nation born of an ancient womb. Humans have dwelled in the fabled Jordan Valley for more than 10,000 years, yet today, most of Jordan's five million people are younger than 30.

Sadly, many travellers' knowledge of the Middle East is murky at best, with much of it based on CNN sound bites. Modern, progressive Jordan is often confused with a dozen other Arabic nations, many of them politically unstable. Even Jordan's boyish-looking ruler, 42-year-old King Abdullah II, concedes that Jordanians live in a 'tough neighbourhood', sharing their borders with Syria, Iraq, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

But Jordan is authentically a rose among the thorns. In Jordan, women not only drive cars, have careers, vote and run for political office, they're more likely to be dressed in blue jeans and T-shirts than veils. Polished English is spoken everywhere and the casual, open-hearted Jordanian personality is almost impossible to dislike. When I told a taxi driver in Amman, the kingdom's cheery, sun-splashed capital, I was late for an appointment, he quickly declared: 'Be cool! I know a short cut.' Later, 100km to the south, when I asked a Bedouin girl if her donkey had a name, she laughed, saying: 'Of course! His name is Michael Jackson ... because he's a jackass.'

Although a small country, hardly larger than Portugal, Jordan is home to three of the world's most enthralling travel attractions: the celebrated Dead Sea, the ancient city of Petra and the magnificent deserts of Wadi Rum.

The experience of floating in the waters of the Dead Sea is akin to bathing in a dense vinegar and oil salad dressing. Its waters are 10 times saltier than any sea and contain 20 trace minerals, including magnesium, potassium and bromine, all of which have health benefits. The Dead Sea's weird water, its famous black mineral-packed mud and its 400-metre-below-sea level altitude draw hundreds of thousands of tourists annually. Some are so-called medical tourists, who seek Dead Sea treatments for arthritis or dermatological diseases. But many travellers simply come to experience the strange, oxygen-rich air, where a genuine spirituality seems to hang in eerie silence from the ancient desert cliffs and salt-encrusted shoreline.

A magnificent mysticism also lies at the heart of the spectacular Wadi Rum. Wadi (the word means 'valley' in Arabic) Rum first gained fame from the writings of T.E. Lawrence, the legendary second world war British officer who fought alongside the Bedouin tribesmen in the desert. Later, David Lean's Oscar-winning film Lawrence of Arabia was shot here, revealing Wadi Rum's exquisite beauty, which Lawrence himself famously described as 'vast, echoing and godlike'. No photograph can fully capture the amazing moonscapes, prehistoric valleys and towering granite cliffs, some of which tower 1,000 metres over the soft red desert floor.

Depending on their fitness levels, tourists can explore Wadi Rum in various ways. The most romantic is by camel trek, which can last from a couple of hours to several days. For the truly adventurous, the desert can even be explored on foot. But most visitors choose four-wheel drive excursions lasting several days.

Visitors stay overnight at comfortable campsites expertly run by Bedouin, sleeping in large goat-hair tents with comfortable cots, carpets and bedding. In the evening, buffet dinners are served under the stars. At sunrise, hot breakfasts are set up around a roaring fire. During the day, open-top jeeps take wide-eyed guests to some of the most scenic vistas on Earth, with guides answering questions about the geology of the Wadi Rum, a land that, to borrow a line from Victor Hugo, looks the way the world was before God created man.

While Wadi Rum appears as lifeless as the surface of the moon, the ancient stone city of Petra is a monument to human ingenuity. After the Pyramids, it is probably the most compelling destination in the entire Middle East.

Hand carved out of solid rock more than 2,000 years ago, Petra (the Arabic word means 'stone') was lost to the outside world for six centuries. It was rediscovered in 1812 by a Swiss explorer, Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, who convinced nomads to guide him through a secret gorge running though a narrow chasm for more than three kilometres. It led to a vast sprawling city of caves and stone structures, including more than 800 that survive today.

If you've seen Steven Spielberg's film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade you have glimpsed Petra's most jaw-dropping site - the 2,000-year-old, four-storey stone Treasury - the first astounding image of Petra that travellers see as they reach the end of the towering gorge and enter the ancient city. Every day about 2,000 tourists arrive in Petra but, because the ancient metropolis is so enormous, there is never a sense of crowding.

Almost a decade ago, the Jordanian government sagely decreed that all Petra's hotels and future developments had to be built several kilometres from the ancient city. Today there are more than three dozen hotels, the most remarkable being the Taybet Zaman Hotel and Resort. This unique five-star lodge was an old Jordanian village built high on the hills above Petra until 2000, when the entire village was bought and transformed into a contemporary property. Each rustic room is different but the decor in each is uniquely Jordanian.

The restaurant, bar, authentic steam bath and shop are all seamlessly incorporated into what was a collection of old stone cottages.

In the evenings, a soft wind wafts from the valley below, the stars above burn bright like diamonds in the dry air and wonderfully sweet Arabic coffee is served. It's only then that you remember you haven't seen CNN for more than a week, and haven't missed it at all.

Getting there: Royal Jordanian Airlines (www.rja.com) flies to Amman from Bangkok. Amman has two dozen four- or five-star hotels, including a Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Sheraton, Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Radisson and Le Meridien. Room rates start at US$120 a night. Comfortable smaller hotels are available from US$75. Visit www.see-jordan.com for more information.

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