Blogs from South, Jordan, Middle East - page 41

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Middle East » Jordan » South » Aqaba August 3rd 2008

ggaaaaaaaaa SO SORRRYYY it's taken foreverrrr but just got back with diala from an unbelievable weeeekend in wadi-rum and aqabaaaa!!! Thursday night, we headed out with a bunch of Diala's buddies on a bus 3-4 hours south to Wadi-Rum aka DESERTTTT! There was a huuuuge annual dance/dj show going on called Distant Heat that took place outside in the sand and in the middle of what looked like no where! Goes from 10pm-10am and so you can only imagine what it looks like as the sun rises in the desert as you've been dancing in the dark all night...WOW! **I am weak and unlike non-stop Jordanians, I couldn't make it past 4am hahaha but luckily, Diala woke me up around 5 or 6 and then went back on my dancing feet!!! hahaha truly an outstanding, kinda ... read more
At Miriam's swimming
chillllin
the side of the way highway

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra August 2nd 2008

I walked the 7 continents the last 6 months...and today, I'm visiting my last 7th Wonder of the World. I've been waiting a lot to come here. This is a pilgrimage to one of my dearest dreams...today was simply an amazing visit of human architecture in an astonishing natural site. I departed yesterday morning from Cairo to Aman on Royal Jordanian. In front of the plane for some style, and I must admit I've been very surprised by the brand new aircraft, big seats for a small aircraft...and great service. Once in Queen Alia airport in Aman, jump on a taxi for what is supposed to be the 3 hours drive...that we did in 2 hours and 10 minutes! Sand, sand, stones and rocks...this is the 230km to Petra. Arrived in the middle of the afternoon ... read more
Treasury at 7.15am
Monastery...8.30am
As-Siq

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra July 12th 2008

As usual, I am here in an exotic location on Business and on the last day of work, I decided I should go do tourist stuff. I actually decided to do the tourist stuff long ago, I just never made any plans. On the way from the airport I discuss my tourist desires with my driver, Yanal Bikmerza, and he suggests that I should spend the night in the Wadi Rum when I visit Petra on Friday. He fills my head with visions of the Bedouins and their camp, sleeping in a tent and enjoying an evening of Arab desert hospitality. I’m sold. He tells me to call him or email and make plans a soon as I can - “Please don’t wait until the day before.” He asks. Over the next couple of days I ... read more
Aqaba Map

Middle East » Jordan » South » Aqaba June 25th 2008

If I ever hated anybody enough I would wish upon them a border crossing via ferry from Aqaba, Jordan to Nuweiba, Egypt. A knee in the nuts and voodoo dolls frenzies just don’t cut it once you’ve seen this. Picking up from where I left off last leaving Wadi Rum, my brother and I get to Aqaba an hour and a half late. Our timetable says there is one daily fast ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba at 11am and we had heard from a ton of people that this was an extremely painful all day process. Hey man, that’s cool. Life sucks sometimes, roll with the punches, border crossings are never fun. Well... I omit details on the actual purchasing of the tickets which in itself was a whole other headache just because it pales in ... read more
Steve arm-wrestling a 5-yr old Egyptian girl
Do you want your bags in there?
I think I see mine, you know the one all the way at the bottom

Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum June 24th 2008

The only way to see Wadi-Rum is with a guide. We book a 4x4 tour from the hostel in Petra but unfortunately it seemed like nobody else was going so we had to pay a slightly higher 45 JD per person for a private car. When we got to Wadi Rum however the guide had a Japanese couple that was to be in our group, but since they couldn’t refund us any money we decided to demand a private car anyways. We justified it by thinking that we would want to hike around and take our time all day at the sites before reaching the overnight Bedouin camp. It tuns out we have to wait for the couple and vice versa as the drivers decided to be best buddies anyways so Japanese Couple is with us ... read more
me
in the desert
dinner in tent

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra June 23rd 2008

After a day or two of Petra, you will have developed a few new skills. You will be able to take on anybody in a camel-and-donkey-shit-dodging relay race. You can say “no” to cute 5-yr old children faster than they can approach you with useless pieces of rock. However your tolerance for fat but scantily-dressed foreigners will have regressed as you probably haven’t seen exposed, cellulited muffin tops in 3 weeks, and you certainly haven’t seen sunburnt man-boobs (yes, some men take their shirts off here...) in too long. I mean what is this, a Six Flags? Your eyes will need time to heal - head to Syria or Iran. Jordan has a highly developed tourism industry - a somewhat unpleasant shock after coming from down-to-earth Syria. Bathrooms are spic-n-span, visitor centers are well run and ... read more
sick
Photo 20
little kids with fat women

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra June 22nd 2008

Jordan was a magnificent experience and the city of Petra was one of the most wonderful experiences in the Middle East. Here are some pictures. ... read more
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Middle East » Jordan » South » Wadi Rum June 20th 2008

Wadi Rum, a moon like desert views. ... read more
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beduin tent

Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra June 16th 2008

We got back to Amman and walked for supper but as this proved to be far to energetic and mildly scary we gave up after about an hour and got a taxi to the restaurant which was scrummy! The following day we woke up bright and early as we were heading to Petra. We had decided to hire a car as it was not going to be possible to get public transport and hiring a driver was to expensive! Anyhow on getting into the car we checked about petrol and realised that I had no idea where a petrol station was but if I didnt find one promptly we would run out! Luckily we found a petrol station pretty quickly and headed on our way without getting lost! One of the things that suprises me about ... read more




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