In reply to jon:
Hi Jon, obviously nowhere is completely safe and you have to make your own decision, but I think there is no doubt that, avoiding border areas with Syria and with some common sense, Jordan is a lot safer than you might think from looking at a small scale map of the Middle East. Flaneur's linked article makes interesting reading; certainly people in Wadi Rum seem to have nothing but contempt for the extremists (and they have certainly suffered from the backlash of reduced tourism). There is, I suppose, always the risk of an isolated extremist, but it seems unlikely that anyone really wanting to attack foreigners would look further than the airport or Petra ( indeed Petra had airport style security at the entrance when we were filming there) or obvious targets in Amman. I have certainly felt absolutely no sense of threat when filming in November or on my last visit two years before. Jordan is an overwhelmingly friendly country. One thing in the FCO advice is that it might be advisable to pre book a taxi (the usual way if getting from the airport to Run or Petra) to avoid the risk of a rogue driver and I imagine this could be arranged through one of the outfits in Rum. Unfortunately, it seems Turkish airlines have discontinued their convenient flight to Aqaba.
Although we met no other climbers while filming (we did spend little time in the village), there is no doubt that tourism has already bounced back in Rum, which was pretty much deserted two years.
Anyway, if you do decide to go, I hope you have a great trip - it's a brilliant place!
