TRAVEL | TRANSFORMATION | ROMANCE
How a Beautiful Romance in the Desert Transformed Me
My life lesson while traveling
This story was in response to the Coffee Times Challenge 5. I invite you to join me on a magnificent journey to a desert far away…
I remember the first time the travel bug bit me. I was a teenager, I only travelled to two places from Bahrain — Jaipur and Mumbai. Every. Damn. Summer. And so one hot summer, I was on a coach touring around Agra and old Delhi. There was music playing on the speaker — a romantic number from a then superhit Bollywood movie with an actor all the girls wanted to marry. That moment I had an epiphany, well, more like a desire to experience a holiday romance.
I believe that deep desire slipped right into my subconscious. And my subconscious was at work, baby! I manifested the holiday trip and that romance of a lifetime almost 26 years later!
In 2016, I was divorced, living in Hong Kong by myself. Up until that time, I had never travelled solo, let alone go through the hassle of booking tickets, hotels and sorting out visas on arrival. It was a time when I newly started practicing coaching and I boldly stepped outside my comfort zone and traveled as far as my passport would take me (without visa application hassles, lol).
It was the first time I signed myself up (and freaked myself out) to go on a solo tour. And of all the countries, I chose Jordan. Why? I’ll tell you in just a second.
Here’s a sneak peek of what was to come!
On day 2 of my tour in Jordan, we (the tourists) were all ready and sat on the comfy seats of our coach about to go on the magical tour of Jordan. One of the fellow tourists from Australia, Cathy, was wearing a black t-shirt that read:
If you don’t go, you don’t have a story…
Damn! I felt that. What was my story going to be?
I’m here to share a memory and spiritual healing experience I had from five years ago. Bring your cup of coffee or chai ☕. Get cozy.
My long-time friend in Hong Kong recommended I watch a Bollywood movie at the time (Queen) where the protagonist decides to go on her honeymoon alone after her marriage gets canceled. When the protagonist comes back from her adventures, she’s a changed woman with a clarity she didn’t want to marry the man who left her on her wedding day.
This movie and my personal journey are very similar.
I listened to my heart’s calling when I chose to travel to Jordan. I didn’t know why I wanted to go there. I just knew I had to. It was an adventure of a lifetime. I will take the happy memories to my grave and beyond.
Let me take you on a trip down memory lane.
Oct 2016 | Wadi Rum, Jordan
Arriving in Amman, I soon got the feeling that this trip was going to be full of adventures. It felt like a gateway to the 1980s. People weren’t technologically advanced. Strangers on public transport would actually talk to each other. They were not addicted to technology.
I spent the first couple of days in Amman, exploring its outskirts. The hostel owner drew me a simple map on paper that gave direction to the Citadel on day 1. Once out, I had no access to wi-fi. No Google maps to my rescue. Having lived in Hong Kong for 1.5 decades, I had forgotten what Friday was like in Bahrain (where I grew up). I found myself to be the only woman roaming the streets after getting looks from the men on the street — their Friday is like our Sunday. I wondered, “where were all the women?”, and then I remembered women stayed indoors, men were seen carrying huge plates of food to share with their family after their prayers. Everyone sat on the floor and ate meals in a circle.
On day 2, I found myself exploring Jerash.
The following day, I left my cozy little hostel and joined the tour I had signed up for. Meet my fellow travelers Cathy (with the crew t-shirt) and Nick (my holiday romance, yo!). Isn’t he cute!
This was us at the treasury in Petra. You guys, don’t ever do a one-night in Petra. It’s a waste of time. You need to invest 2–3 days to absorb the vastness and beauty of its magnificence. And do not miss the opportunity to see Petra by night! The long walk to the treasury is lit with candles. The whole experience is magical.
I have to say this tour was very carefully designed and executed. You know how a wine connoisseur pairs foods with wine that keep raising the notes (and people’s vibration) higher and higher as the evening progressed? This tour was quite like that — each place we visited in Jordan was a little more beautiful, and it got better and better and better. We also had amazing people in the group that had joined from South Africa, India and Australia.
On the fifth day of the tour, we drove to the desert of Wadi Rum to stay overnight in a tent and experience oneness with the silence of the desert.
The food you see on the plate was cooked in earth. They (the bedouins) dug a hole, in went the coal, and a huge layered container of rice at the bottom, followed by meat, and the veggies all the way at the top. This was our dinner. Bon appetite!
Spoken Arabic and Arabian songs are music to my ears. I don’t need to understand the language to like the song. I only have to feel it and the next thing I know is I’m dancing.
By this time, I was chatting up Nick as I saw him taking photos of me earlier in the tour. I was curious to see them. He was quite the happy, introverted guy staring out the window seat. The bedouins we’re getting all the foreigners up on their feet and shake a leg. We were all well entertained on that crisp cool night.
After that, we retired to our respective tents and fell asleep to the pin-drop silence in the coolness of the desert.
That Moment Arrived — Finally I Knew Why I Felt Called To Visit Jordan
My why was answered loud and clear when I found myself awake in the middle of the night in the middle of the desert.
I stepped out of my tent. The sky was clear. The moon had disappeared. There were just the two of us: the silence of the cool desert night and me.
“The desert is a natural extension of the inner silence of the body. — Jean Baudrillard
I sat down on the soft sand, arms loosely wrapped around my knees with my eyes towards the night sky.
My soul asked the silence of the night: “Tell me why I’m here. Tell me what you have to say. Tell me why you called me.”
At that very moment, for the very first time in my life I saw a star shooting across the sky that I felt in my chest; it went straight for my heart.
I couldn’t hold in my tears.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed in nature.
I sat there in the middle of a desert in Jordan. I cried the most healing tears. I was a transformed Neha after witnessing six shooting stars one after the other in the hour that I was awake.
Words cannot express the happiness I felt. This memory and the precious moments with Nick, Cathy and the others will live inside me forever. I cry as I pen these words. I hope everyone gets to experience this more than once in their life.
You are more beautiful than you know. Trust is the message. Trust your calling, ‘coz if you don’t go, you don’t have a story!
P.S.: I ate hummus practically every day after that magical Jordan experience was behind me. I feel like a piece of Jordan lives in me.
Thank you for your time. Thanks to the relentless team of editors — Sharing Randomly, Dr. Preeti Singh, Yana Bostongirl, Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles, Marrisa W., Vincent Van Patten, Ashley.
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