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Blogs from South, Jordan, Middle East
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May 18th 2013
After three days of sailing up the Red Sea we arrived in Aqaba, Jordan. The city was filled with half a million tourists celebrating a local holiday. It was a good day to head out of town to the desert. Yazeed was our Jordanian guide. He is a Muslim who was educated in Britain and is married to a Spanish Catholic woman and has some very interesting ideas about the Middle East. He calls the Arab Spring the Arab Hell because of the instability it has brought to this area of the world. Jordan is being inundated with Syrian refugees fleeing the violence of their homeland. The numbers are reaching about 2000 a day. Yazeed says that Jordan is surrounded by “naughty neighbors” who are always causing a ruckus. We passed Bedouin herders tending to their ... read more
May 15th 2013
Aqaba, Jordon is at the head of Red Sea and the port access to Petra, an ancient marvel requiring several hours of travel. We board our buses at 8:20 and begin the 2 ½ hour bus ride north from Aqaba, Jordon’s only Port City. Along the way we learn about this storied land, how its history and people are told in the Bible and, as we pass the road to Wadi Rum, how modern tales have been told about Lawrence of Arabia. The real Indiana Jones did explore these parts and planted the seed for the movie story filmed in Petra. Petra is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataean, an industrious Arab people who settled here more than 2,000 years ago, turning it into an important junction for the ... read more
Diving in the spectacular Red Sea, Safari driving with minors, absorbing the enchanting Petra and floating in the Dead Sea
Published: May 7th 2013Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra
May 7th 2013
Diving in the spectacular Red Sea, Safari driving with minors, absorbing the enchanting Petra and floating in the Dead Sea After a long Easter Sunday bus day, where the best we could do for Easter Eggs were Kinder Surprises, we were refreshed and ready for our jam packed day of adventure. Very excited but a little nervous about our intro dive, we got saddled up into our wetsuits, weight belts and tanks before trotting down to the light house area in Dahab of the Red Sea. We learnt the very basics on how to get water out of our masks and mouth pieces and the all important hand signals. For our short intro dive, our guide was going to manage the pressures for us which was quite reassuring. Surprisingly, only after a few minutes, both Amy ... read more
May 3rd 2013
My main reason for visiting Jordan - other than living out my “Lawrence of Arabia” fantasy – was to visit Petra. Petra is an incredible Nabatean city carved out of the cliffs, dating back to the first century BCE. There are still Bedouin who live in the caves of Petra, making this a city that has been inhabited for at least 2,500 years. To that end, I had arranged with my hotel to hire a taxi for the day to take me the 128 kilometers from Aqaba to Petra. The hotel manager assured me that this was a driver he trusted; the driver would wait for me while I explored Petra and drive me back. The fee was JD85 (about US $120) which was steep, but it was certain, unlike the buses. My driver, Naef, spoke ... read more
Jordan - first impressions and desert camping
Published: May 2nd 2013Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum
May 2nd 2013
Its difficult to go back and write about my previous travels when I am still on the road, especially when the countries are so different. However, I know if I procrastinate until I am home I will forget even more detail than I have already and might even decide I'm too caught up with life to sit down and write. We were only in Jordan for five or six days. It went by way too fast. We arrived at the port in Aqaba late at night so were given most of the next morning free. My mom and I decided to go for a walk around and stretch our legs a bit after being confined in a seat for so long the previous day. After Egypt, Jordan seemed quiet and peaceful. I'm sure there was still ... read more
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May 1st 2013
I was a young teenager when I first saw the movie “Lawrence of Arabia,” and fell immediately in love with Peter O’Toole as only a teenage girl can. In fact, if you mention “Lawrence of Arabia” to any woman of a certain age, she will get a spark in her eye and sigh, “Yes, Peter O’Toole.” Here was a man, handsome, courageous and strong; you just knew his swash wouldn’t buckle even under the harshest conditions. There is a moment in the movie when Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) and Sherif Ali (Omar Sherif) peer over the edge of a cliff and Lawrence proclaims “Aqaba!” I vowed that someday I, too, would see Aqaba. Aqaba today is a dusty, flyblown, rather dirty town. It’s a shame, really. Aqaba is on the Red Sea, and scuba divers come from ... read more
April 26th 2013
Aqaba is Jordan’s only access to the sea and is built at the end of a narrow fjord-like waterway surrounded by mountains on all sides. Israel is only across a dividing irrigation/stream and shares beach frontage with Aqaba. You can easily see development in Israel, but we do not know what the name of the community is. Saudi Arabia is just southeast over the mountains about 15 miles away and Egyptian shores can be seen across this waterway. Aqaba has had many rulers from the Edomites to the Romans to the Crusaders and lastly to the Hashemites. T. E. Lawrence, along with Arab forces, battled the Ottomans for control of Aqaba in 1917 and with his success, become known to all as, Lawrence of Arabia. The big attraction for our shipmates, was the nearby ancient, carved ... read more
March 20th 2013
J: Jordan is an island of stability in an otherwise fairly hostile part of the world. It is bordered by Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian occupied West Bank, yet we found Jordan to be a friendly and open country, and we soon lost count of the number of locals saying 'Welcome to Jordan!' We arrived in Amman and spent our first day visiting the famous sights. The most celebrated of all, the Roman Theatre is an amphitheatre built on the side of a valley in Jesus' time. It was closed when we went but we could see the whole grand structure from outside anyway. Next we made our way up to the Citadel but with the light fading and Holly's broken toe aching we turned around before we got there. We had heard ... read more
March 15th 2013
Aqaba was a beachy holiday spot compared to the rest of Jordan. I ended up spending two nights there, and was intending to stay longer but (and normally this wouldn't deter me) I was so annoyed by the mosquitoes in my room at night time, I decided I would either move to a hotel closer into town (my hotel was further out, overlooking the South Beach) or go somewhere else. Because I am headed for Egypt soon, I thought it would be easier to just stay in Aqaba and catch the Jett bus on Friday back to Amman - about a five-hour drive. Then I started thinking about Wadi Rum again, and how it would be wonderful to camp in the desert. I couldn't make up my mind, so I spent my full day in Aqaba ... read more
March 12th 2013
I've been lazy with this blog, but I'll blame part of that on being in some places that have felt remote (and beautiful!). So after four nights in Amman, seeing the old mosaics in the town of Madaba and floating/covering myself in mud at the Dead Sea, I was lucky enough to find two Italian guys from the hostel who were travelling to Petra the next day. I shared a car with them (they were such gentlemen, and running off to buy coffee at every spare moment - though I joined them for a cappucino back in Madaba!). However, the car went past the beautiful Dana Nature Reserve, where I asked them to drop me off. It is about an hour from Petra, and has an old, small stone village situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking ... read more
