logo Sign In

Post #1342528

Author
EddieDean
Parent topic
Input Wanted: Rise of Skywalker Fanedit Preferences Poll
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1342528/action/topic#1342528
Date created
8-May-2020, 6:09 AM

Knight of Kalee said:

It could have been so much better if Pasaana was Jedha fromt the beginning. At surface level they look exactly the same since they reutilized shooting locations (guess it’s a Disney thing, because I recognized the cliffs of Jedha in Aladdin too).

So this actually reminds me of a few fun facts/stories!

Firstly, it’s not so much that it’s a Disney thing, as that Wadi Rum in Jordan is a popular filming location in general. Jordan is one of the most westernised countries in the middle east, with good infrastructure, and the Wadi Rum desert is quite accessible and with a lot of lovely hotels nearby. So it’s a good natural choice for an alien-looking landscape on Earth.

Now for the stories!

I’ve actually been to Wadi Rum, and Jordan. (Fun fact - the Dead Sea is as amazingly floaty as everyone says, you can’t quite imagine it, but the one thing that’s universal about floating in the Dead Sea but that nobody talks about is that all that salt really stings your butthole.)

The Wadi Rum desert is absolutely as incredible as it looks on film. Absolutely majestic landscape, but I also had one of the most horrifying times of my life there. We were camping out in the desert in some little lean-to shacks, without electricity or plumbing (since it’s illegal to develop on the desert, in order to preserve it). I was, ironically enough given why I’m telling this story, sleeping in a bed with a Mickey Mouse duvet (that’s all they had). But the food had disagreed with me.

So I woke up in the night knowing I needed to make it to the toilet block quickly, but also aware that the cooler night is when the desert bugs are more active. And there’s no electricity. So there’s me, walking across this informal compound by candlelight under the stars, jumping at shadows, desperately trying to hold in the shits. Eventually I make it to the toilet block, get seated, shit my guts out, and then I have to wipe my arse and just put my toilet paper in a basket next to me, because you’re not allowed to flush stuff into the desert.

It gets worse. So there’s me, feeling pretty rotten on a natty toilet by candlelight in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, when I hear a helicopter. Weird. The noise makes me raise my eyes to the top of the doorframe, and I see it’s not a helicopter, it’s a hornet, more than an inch long, and it’s come to check me out. I’ve got my pants round my ankles, and no way am I making any movements. There’s no escaping. But since I’m operating by candlelight, there’s a real chance that my candle will burn out, leaving me to navigate out of this situation by starlight alone. The hornet is helicoptering around the cubicle, which draws my eyes even higher, which makes me notice the most evil looking spider I’ve ever seen was hanging over the cubicle door the whole time. It’s shiny black and about an inch and a half across, with sharp, well-defined legs that end with about half an inch of white spike. It looks designed to look evil.

Suffice to say, if I hadn’t already shit myself that certainly would have done the job. Eventually the hornet left, and I slowly dressed up and got out by the last of my candlelight. I helped myself to a coke, since that was the other option and I didn’t trust the water, so I stayed awake through the rest of the night absolutely harrowed by that experience.

Still, a lovely place and a great holiday and I’d recommend Jordan to anyone.

I’ve also, by chance, been to Luke’s house too. Family did a Tunisia trip around 2012 and one of the tours from our hotel was the Star Wars one. So I got to see the “scum and villainy” view, Mos Eisley exterior set (which still stands), Luke’s house exterior (which is someone’s real house), and Luke’s house interior (which is someone’s real house but different from the exterior), where I got to eat at his dining table under that white and brown patterned ceiling.