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Published: February 25th 2007
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The Amman airport had a comfy Starbucks and a small Cinnabun stall, so we had an idea that Jordan would be better than we’d expected. Our first hostel was nice in a busy area of the city and we arrived mid morning with pleanty of time to explore the sights nearby. We ventured out to the Roman Theater which is situated right in the heart of the city. The ruins there are amazing and sitting way up in the nose bleed section we got a great view over the hustle and bustle below. The first thing that struck us about Jordan were the kind people. A lot of the shop owners we passed called out “Welcome to Jordan!” instead of hussling us to come into their shop. They seemed more interested in getting their sales from locals. Jordan was also the first place that the children asked us our names instead of just where we were from, we’d be walking through a residential section and a cute girl on the balcony above tried chatting with us, it was so cute, just trying to practice her English. We walked up tons of stairs up to their small version of the Acropolis
Aaron loves castles
Along the Kings highway there are lots of cool forts which had some huge columns and remains of a church, the 360 degree views from up there of the sprawling city below were amazing. Later that night we trekked up another big hill to a trendy café/restaurant/bookstore/internet café for a good dinner.
The next day we headed down to Petra via the Kings Highway and stopped at several interesting sights along the way. We saw Mt. Nebo, where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land for the first time and then to have died shortly there after nearby. We stopped in some other old castles/forts which were really cool. We realized that now we were out of Asia and wouldn’t see any more ancient Buddha shrines, we’d moved into the West, a new style of architectural ruins from now on. The views over the hills and valleys were great and there were always some Bedouin encampments off in the distance. We got to Petra after the 9 hour tour and the hotel we’d picked out had a room, but the door had no door nob, not to mention lock, the TV didn’t work and we were paying a lot more than we’d wanted to, so we walked
out on them to a real nice spot on the main drag.
We spent the next two days hiking around Petra, in constant awe of the landscape and ancient city. Its absolutely amazing how you walk through the narrow canyon and after about a mile and a half of walking eventually your faced with the sun shining brightly on the beautiful and famous ‘treasury’ building. We never took up any of the offers for camel rides, horseback rides from a guy called Zorro, or donkey “air conditioned taxis” and were completely exhausted, sweaty and dusty at the end of each day. It was such a blessing to have a high pressured shower followed by a soothing bath in our ‘luxurious’ hotel room. On the first day there was a huge celebration to get out the vote for Petra becoming one of the new 7 wonders of the world and there were thousands of Jordanian people flowing into the site, as we left the huge theater was completely filled with cheering crowds. That afternoon we booked a tour out to the desert and the tour operator was the first in a long time who didn’t rip us off, his brother
The classic view
wow, it really was that cool had quoted us a lower price and after a phone call he said “yes, sorry for my mistake” wow. He’d even told us how using his company to get back to Amman would be too expensive for us, we should take a bus instead. Another time we were amazed by the Jordanian people.
On the afternoon of our second day we left Petra for our 4wd tour of Wadi Rum, which is the desert landscape where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. Our tour guide was a cheeky joker and started the trip off with a question “Why do you go to the Wadi Rum?” We had no idea what to say and finally he said “Because the Wadi Rum can not go to you.” haha. He was the kind of guy who’s delivery of jokes made you feel just a bit uncomfortable and not sure if you should laugh or not. He asked Aaron what he thought about being married, and then answered it himself by saying “Life without a wife is like a sky with no stars, a sea with no fish, a chicken with no knife, you can not eat.” haha. He took us out to the
The full view
Aaron with camel middle of the desert with amazing views of the rocky outcrops in the distance, it was an amazing scene. We even got to see the actual gate used in the Lawrence of Arabia movie. The 4x4 tour ended at a quiet Bedouin encampment where we had sweet tea and a delicious barbecue dinner. Our Bedouin host was welcoming and strange, and we ended the night with some nice music around the campfire, Aaron even got to play the Arabic drum with them singing along. The moon was almost full and blocked out the “television of stars” we’d been promised by the tour company, but we didn’t mind. Our tent vigorously flapped in the wind all night keeping me from a good sleep, but the morning light in the camp was beautiful.
We headed back to Amman that day on a public bus and got to the airport incredibly early, but that was fine because we just spent our time on the internet and relaxing at the Starbucks. Our taxi driver on the way there couldn’t speak any English and had to call a friend on his cell phone to translate, Aaron bargained with the friend for a lower rate
and our driver was all laughs and smiles, it was a good ending to our Jordan trip.
A little update on me right now, we are in Ghana at the refugee camp and things are going really well. We are enjoying the work and its been incredibly rewarding already. Downsides are the water situation at our house, last night I had a shower with only 2 liters of water! I didn’t wash my hair of course. I’m trying to get all caught up with this blog, so bear with me. I don’t know if I’ll be able to add any photos from here either. I haven’t heard from some of you in a while, so send me an update!
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