By Bob Van Leer

  (AQABA, JORDAN, Wednesday, April 12, 2000) - Betty and I went for a 4x4 drive today through Wadi Rum, a spectacular landscape of towering, rugged crags and pink sand valley floors.

  This is Lawrence of Arabia country. Lawrence spent much of his time in Wadi Rum organizing the Arab Bedouins for the successful assault on Aqaba, then occupied by the Turks, in World War I. Much of the movie, "Lawrence of Arabia", was made in Wadi Rum. Betty and I took a camel ride in the same area that Lawrence and his Bedouins lived. There are still some Bedouins in the area but our guide said the government is making efforts to resettle the Bedouins in villages instead of drifting across the desert tending their herds of goats and sheep and living in tents.

  He said the purpose is to improve the Bedouins' standard of living and allow their children to go to school. He said, "Some reject it, but it is only a matter of time".

   Jordan is a small country, about the size of Ohio, of about 49 million population with 1.5 million of that living in the capital city of Amman. Aqaba is the country's southernmost city and its only port.

  Four countries meet at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, the northernmost arm of the Red Sea. Israel almost comes to a point here at its port of Eilat. Jordan is not much wider and Egypt is on the west and Saudi Arabia on the east just a few miles south of Aqaba. Eilat and Aqaba are separated by only a couple miles of open land which our guide said was a "no man's land" during the hostilities between the two countries. A peace treaty between the two countries was signed in 1994.

  Our guide, Gazi, said water is the main problem in this part of the world, both for Israel as well as for Jordan. Locally, oases in Wadi Rum are sufficient for Aqaba for 100 years, he said, and some water may be exported to Amman. Long range, Jordan is looking to Turkey for water. This would be shipped from Turkey's huge Ataturk Dam in Southeastern Turkey across Syria to Jordan and Israel. Political problems will have to be resolved before this happens.

  Jordan has no oil. Its main income now is tourism followed by mining for phosphates and potash. The narrow gauge railway built by Turkey in 1904 is still used to haul phosphates to Aqaba for shipment at a terminal just next to where our ship is docked.

  Jordan has been a fairly stable country, politically, and was ruled from 1953 to 1999 by King Hussein. After his death his eldest son, Abdullah II, was named king. His reign is too short to be judged yet. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy and people here do have a vote, unlike Oman or the United Arab Emirates.

  Just over 10% of the land of the country is arable but that land grows crops well.
Agriculture is the country's third largest income source.

  The country has a high literacy rate (97%) and a high life expectancy rate (70 years), but had a per capita gross domestic product (1994) of only $1565. It is not well located nor does it have the natural resources to increase this greatly.

  Our stay in Jordan is to be brief. Tonight we drop south 192 miles to Sharm el Sheikh, at the separation of the Red Sea into the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba. We will then be in Egypt.