The Hidden Gem of the Middle East | Jordan

Tonight, we are sleeping on Mars. Deep in the country of Jordan, you will find the Wadi Rum Desert, which is the closest thing to Mars on this planet. It's literally where they shot the movie The Martian. And in this part two of my Jordan series, we will also be exploring the lowest place on earth in the Dead Sea, as well as scuba diving for my first time ever in none other than the Red Sea. So welcome to part two of the Jordan series, where we just finished up at Petra, which was honestly one of the most remarkable travel experiences of my life. And now for part two, we are about to do another extraordinary experience of sleeping in the Wadi Rum Desert. First up, we gotta take a jeep to get there. You could be like a TV... What were you gonna say? You were gonna say you could be a TV presenter. I didn't realize you were still filming. Oh, it's okay. Thank you. Sorry. Oh my gosh. You guys really turned up the heat here. It's like a blow dryer just coming right in your face. Welcome to the desert, baby. So the wind kind of destroyed my audio here, but I essentially just say how we are about to go explore where they filmed John Wick 4, Dune, Aladdin, and The Martian. Anything else I'm forgetting? You said Dune, right? Dune 1, Dune 2, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones. You're right, or I guess that was Petra. Anyway, filmed a lot of movies here, and now a Brett Conti YouTube vlog. Gonna be way better than all those movies, right? Oh yes. Well guys, we're definitely not in New York City anymore. Like this really is one of the most unbelievable places on our planet. Honestly, doesn't even feel like it's on our planet. This truly looks like Mars. And I guess that makes sense why they shot the Matt Damon Martian movie here. I've done dune bashing in a lot of Middle Eastern countries, but that has to be by far the steepest one I've ever done. That was like an actual roller coaster, but steeper. I think we all thought that he was going to stop and not actually go down. Yeah, I really wasn't. But he just floored it on the gas and sent it. Luckily, made it safely down the sand dune. My name is Brett Conti, and this is Sandboarding in Jordan. Let's do that again. What an experience Wadi Rum is. We have only been here for about an hour, but after just exploring in this jeep, going on the sandboarding, going dune bashing down some super steep hills, we now just finished the evening off watching sunset behind the beautiful rocks. Is that what they are? Those beautiful rocks? Mountains. Mountains. Rocks. Wadi Rum mountains. Yeah. It's not a boulder. It's a rock. That's just a stupid boulder. It's not just a boulder. And now we're about to go back to the hotel that we're staying at, which is one of the most unique experiences in Jordan, if not the entire world. Okay, so we made it here to the bubble tent that we are going to be sleeping in tonight. This has been super high on my bucket list and so surreal that we're actually here sleeping in the Wadi Rum desert. But unfortunately, we had such a long day that we made it here late. Luckily got dinner in, but now I'm going to just kick back, relax. We have a hammock, there's a couch overlooking all the stars. But tomorrow we're waking up at 5am for another hectic day, going to do a hot air balloon, and then the plan is to chill out here at the bubble hotel. Tomorrow morning, you guys will get a full-on tour of this incredible property. I'm so excited for tonight, though. It's like we're truly in Mars. So we are currently doing the hot air balloon with Balloon Over Rum. But I do think this is a missed opportunity where they could have just called it Air Jordan. We'd be out of the hot air balloon area. No. If you want to work together, you got to laugh at these jokes. This was a paid laugh. With a hot air balloon, you can't guide which direction it goes or stop it. It's just kind of flying in the wind. We fly with the wind. Wherever the wind goes, that's where we go. It's up to the wind to take us to a place to land, but it's up to me when we land. So our pilot Bill also let us know that all of this land used to be underwater. Bill, how long ago was that that this was all underwater? Well, the rock is between 250 and 500 million years old. So about 500 million years ago? I guess kind of recently. All right, so we are currently flying over where we are staying. I had no idea they had this giant heart as the shape of the accommodation. A hotel made with love. You like that one? Yeah. And you always give me like the best little like reactions after I say something. I really appreciate you. I like cute things. Time to kick it into sport mode. It's landing time. So welcome to the Lux Hotel Wadi Rum. Guys, this is by far the closest experience you can get to sleeping on Mars. And this is where I slept last night. And it's honestly just like a giant balloon. And it just makes it so incredible to stare at the stars, as well as just look out at the Wadi Rum desert. This place is incredible. Let me give you guys a tour. So it's saying in this balloon, there's so much compression air going in and out that even just to get in, it's kind of like when you enter a dog park and they do that safety measure. So no dogs escape where you open the first door. Then you have to completely shut this so that the balloon doesn't deflate. And then you enter into the room. Honestly, it's really heavy. The door is not heavy. It's just all the air moving around. That makes it a little tricky. Welcome to the bubble dome. I have this couch area. And instead of sitting watching TV, you have a view of the desert. Then if you walk into bubble number two, you have the bathroom. And then last but not least, in bubble number three, we have the master bedroom. And guys, I didn't sleep in because the bed wasn't comfy. I was just preoccupied with how cool it was just looking up at all the thousands of stars. So since this is one of the luxe experiences here in the Wadi Rum desert, there is AC, also outlets and Wi-Fi as well. But totally recommend to put your phone and laptops away and just enjoy mother nature. And then in your bubble backyard, you have your own jacuzzi, as well as a table where you could have your tea or coffee. And then on the other side, you even have your own hammock. So as you guys know, I am an Expedia ambassador, and this video is sponsored by Expedia. So if you guys are looking to travel Jordan, I will leave a link down below to everything that I did on this itinerary, from the places we stayed, the restaurants, to all the activities. Now, one of my favorite travel hacks while using Expedia is their packaging feature. So when I get my flights or book my hotels or even my activities, I put it all under my same account, book everything together, and then I get insane savings. I've honestly been able to save already over a thousand dollars just from packaging my trips together alone. You know, one of my lifelong goals is to be the first travel vlogger to go to Mars, but I'd have to say this is the next best thing. So wanted to give a huge thanks to Expedia for making the closest thing to my dream come true. Mars travel series, hopefully coming soon. So the adventures do not end here in Jordan, since right now we're about to go scuba diving in the Red Sea. I have never scuba dived before in my life, but how hard can it be? Holy sh... I've been wanting to scuba dive for my entire life, and now the first place I get to do it is here in the Red Sea in Jordan. It was such an incredible experience, and I think my favorite part about it besides getting to swim, see the fish, see the coral, see the blue waters, was just the overall factor of facing my fear and doing it, since getting my scuba diving license is something that I've been wanting to do so much. And now I still don't have my license, but just the fact that I was able to get in the water and breathe with my tank, learn some of the different signals, and get a better understanding of how scuba diving works just made me fall deeper in love with travel and now Jordan. And after a super long day, we just checked into Al Manara Hotel, which is located right here on the Dead Sea, and from a quick glance, it looks pretty incredible. So for the Brett Conti channel fun fact of the day, we learned that the Red Sea is called the Red Sea, not because it's red, but because the rocks around it are red, and at sunset, there's a reflection from the rocks bouncing into the sea, making the seaweed look red. Anyway, now we are at a fish market about to eat some fresh seafood from the Red Sea. Pretty sure I was swimming with that guy earlier today. So after waking up in that beautiful hotel, we drove about two and a half hours and made it here to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth and potentially even the hottest. It's kind of like when you open up an oven and it's so hot that your face starts tingling. But here, it's just like that everywhere outside. Also, the Dead Sea has a ton of different health benefits. It's almost like going to a spa and getting some type of facial treatment, but for mother nature. Excited for my day at the spa. It's kind of like they got the sauna outside and then your facial treatment in the water. So the Dead Sea is the saltiest place on earth as well as the lowest, but it does make it impossible to drown. Oh my gosh, that is insane. Should I attempt to drown you? You try and drown first. Let me know how it works out. I'm literally a human buoy. So you're not standing on the ground right now? No, not at all. I'm not even doing anything or kicking anything. I gotta try that. Whoa, it's so hard to even like go in. I need like weights. I'm literally a human buoy. Oh my gosh, that is so cool. Wow. Also, I feel like they need to know the dedication we're doing right now. Les was really advising. I didn't even mean to do that. Les was really advising not to bring in my GoPro or camera since it's so salty and we'll just instantly eat the inside. You know, the things we do for the content. All right, Les says she has some valuable information about peeing in the Dead Sea. Is that right? Yeah, guys, don't, don't, don't. Oh my God. So actually three things. One, do not shave any part of your body. It burns as hell. Done it before. Two, don't pee. Why not? Because it goes backwards. It goes back up there. So dense. What the heck? There's so many crazy scientific things going on here in the Dead Sea, but that one's probably the most ridiculous. And then the third one is obviously like it's salt. And when you put salt in your eyes or any like sensitive part like that, she stinks. She hurts a little bit. So just, just don't, don't be dumb. Oh, there is Alessia's three safety tips of the day. I kind of got to pee. Not going to lie. Yeah, me too, but. Oh, perfect. Yeah. So after you go into Dead Sea for 10 minutes, you're supposed to get lathered in mud. This is Salamane. He's going to be lathering us up. So I just sit here? Yes. Get this spa treatment. Do I look as ridiculous as I feel? Yep. Just making sure. Just confirming. Yep. Looking like the peanut butter kid. The peanut butter kid. Does it feel good? Alessia's biting my style. She wants to get the mud too. Not bad Aless. We're literally floating eyeballs and just a mouth. I say we look pretty good though. Look at this face. Look, just like. Put it on a 16. So now we have to wear this for about 15 minutes. Yep. Then we rinse it off back in the sea. I kind of want to stay like this for longer though. I know, it's kind of fun. That's another day at the spa here in Jordan. So after you go into the Dead Sea, get lathered in mud for 10 minutes, you then come back into the Dead Sea to rinse it off. This could take a while, so I brought reading material. So that is going to be it for this Jordan series. Until next week, let's go down and get busy in the next one.