The BabyMoon in Egypt & Jordan

A babymoon is like a honeymoon but you do it before a baby comes. It’s kinda like your last travel trip together as non-parents. Truth is, I booked the 1st flight to Egypt even before I knew I was pregnant haha!

But it was really any excuse for a new adventure - plus I had 3 typical bucket-list items I’ve always wanted to do: 

1. See Petra

2. Float in the Dead Sea

3. The great pyramids

The timing of it all was slightly unknown - with me stepping into my 2nd trimester (4th month) & the conflicts going on in that part of the world. But we decided to honor it & go with the flow.

It was the 1st (& probably last time) we booked a tour - my understanding was that it would be organized and I wouldn’t have to plan anything. But there were so many things that didn’t make sense, like they would put us on 6am flights, with a 3am wake up to then sit around for 7 hours for the next activity. 

Besides the tour management, Egypt was interesting. Everyone is to decide & define their own experiences but I hated the energy. It was not just the chaos or the mess. It was the ingenuity all round, designed just to create traps and scams that were so hard to avoid. Every second was met with harassment, and even saying no did not matter. Sorry but in the 2 weeks there, I didn’t have the best time. 

We went from Cairo, to Aswan, up the Nile back to Luxor. Went to all of the temples possible and the magic of those places were still hard to enjoy. But yes they were beautiful. 

But we could not wait to leave Egypt tbh. 

Jordan was cool though. 

We did land into Amman about a week after the attacks from Iran so it was quieter than usual, most people had canceled their trips in. But we were greeted with a man who charged about $20 in tips to walk us to our luggage pickup, (After another red-eye). I might be too well travelled but no one needs that kinda help at the airport - these parts from tour really pissed me off.

We saw the Dead Sea, its salt crystals were so sharp and there was almost no one there. (It’s totally open & easy to get to, you should not need to pay any extra to get there. We paid $100 each for the public access so don’t make that mistake)

Petra was stunning too. The way its positioned hidden within the rocks was really special. We were blessed that it wasn’t so full. That was like a 4 hour walk in perfect weather too. 

These 2 experiences in the end turned the trip around, kinda.

But I wonder if I had more control over what we were doing on a day to day if the outcome would have been any better. The language barrier is harder than arranging most things in English and there were just so many pieces. 

Overall, it  was an experience for us that was enlightening. We learned that our travel style might have shifted & we rather never book a tour again.