Waiting for a bus

Waiting for a bus
Originally uploaded by bastchild.

From Wadi Rum, there is one public bus to Petra, but a tour group had somehow acquired it for the day, so a few of us were SOL. We did get a free lift to the highway where we got on the bus from Aqaba headed to Petra. Apparently hitching is absolutely allowed and required for independent travel through Jordan as buses come and go on an irregular schedule, and the number of helpful Jordanians is ample.
Vis-a-vis the tour group, I think it was "Globetrekkers" and essentially they had reserved the bus which seemed incredulous since it was the public bus, but I figure the tour company was too cheap to rent a bus themselves and the public bus operator was more than happy to hire out the bus and his services for a bunch of rich foreigners on a tour. I don't know how legal this is, but what can you do? What was especially helpful was an irate Australia who started to cuss out the tour guide, so they even recanted their offer of giving all of us a lift to the highway. Thanks, dude!