Petra, the Dead Sea and many very much alive Bedouins

So I visited Jordan on the way back from France and Dad's wedding (which was beatiful, congrats dad!). I travelled with a couple of buddies from my course in Edinburgh who are studying here in Damascus as well. Jordan was quite cheap but all of the tourist
towns which are ridiculously expensive. We paid 2 Dinars (about the same as a Euro) for eight falafel wraps in Amman, the capitol, but when we were in Petra or any of the tourist towns it cost about 6 Dinars for just one. Ridiculous, but most of the tourist towns are
owned by Bedouin families who work together and fix the prices for everything and aren't really Bedouins at all, more like a bunch of Pirates of the Carribean wannabe's, all dolled up in eye-liner complete with trinkets in there hair, all their lacking is a few ships to plunder some booty from from the defenseless tourists. As soon as everything closes they all get off their Camels and jump into their SUV's and drive back to their huge houses. So needless to say I'm having live it on the cheap here in Damascus, but if I had to do it anywhere, it would be here since everything is so cheap. Jordan was a really neat place though. We saw Petra, which was the ancient Nabataean capitol city (i hope im not insulting anyone's intellegence with this wee destription) Its carved completely out of cliffs and predates the Roman civilization, and then was later colonized by Rome. They also invented what would be the predecessor to the Arabic script. (Also where they filmed the end of Indiana Jones and the last Crusade) We stayed in the town next to Petra called Wadi Musa because you can't actually stay in Petra. Wadi Musa was very expensive by Middle-Eastern standards but still very mediocre in the quality of the rooms (cold showers etc) and food. Emlyn and I actually managed to accidentally dismantel the toilet there because we couldnt get it to flush properly. I wont go into much detail but lets just say its certianly working less properly than it was before. The next day we got up and ate some absurdly expensive food and then went to Wadi Rum (wadi means valley in Arabic) via a kind old man in a pickup truck. Wadi Rum is a large desert nature preserve. We stayed in a Bedouin camp there, which was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. They cooked us a traditional delicious Bedouin meal (albeit a little sandy) and played music and sang most of the night. We had tents but we just ended up sleeping outside so we could see the stars since there are no clouds or pollution there. I've never seen the stars that bright before. The Bedouins are the ancestors of all the Arab peoples, and are a nomadic people mostly living in the desert in tents riding camels etc. They are also known for being the only modern people that speak fusHa colloquially (what we study at University). Traditionally the wealthy Arabs would send their children away with the Bedouins so that they could learn pure Arabic. The Bedouins that live in Wadi Rum (real Bedouins) make fun of the Bedouins in Wadi Musa (johnny depp look alikes) because they all live in houses and drink alcohol and don't live like real Bedouins even though they call themselves Bedouins and dress up like them in front of tourists. The next day we went caught a bus then a taxi to Wadi Mujib which is a small nature preserve next to the Dead Sea. We got to swim in the Dead Sea which is really neat because the water is so dense you can barely get under the surface and is unbelievably salty. We also climbed up Wadi Mujib (Mujib Valley) which is actually a very slender canyon with cliffs on either side, with a river running through it. We hiked up the river, which is actually more of a swim or wade since its just water in between two cliffs no dry land, just the occasional rock sticking out of the river. There are ropes where the current is too strong or where there are rapids. It was absolutely beautiful but we couldn't bring camera or anything else for that matter, since the currents were so strong they would have been ruined or washed away (I wasn't even allowed to wear my glasses and I'm very happy I didn't, because you really are fighting rapids at some parts.) After that we hitchhiked back to Amman, which was surprisingly easy. We waited for literally about 30 seconds only before a trucker picked us up and took us all the way back to Amman. He even bought us some cokes and candy (maybe that sounds a little shady, but im sure he meant well). from where we got a car back to Damascus, but since there were four of us it was quite cheap, and we didn't have to pay any exit/entry tax this time since we had all paid for it on the way in, and had visas for Syria. Unlike the way in, when I was by myself. I had intended to take a bus to the Airport, but by the time lectures had finished for the day, I didn?t have enough time to catch the bus. So I tried to find some people to share a private car with. But it began to get too late and eventually, I just had to pay for the whole car myself since otherwise I would have missed my flight and the wedding. With border taxes and fare, it ended up coming out to about $100 USD. That was allot of money for Syria, but considering what a four hour private car ride across international borders would cost in Europe or the US, I wasn't too upset.

So there it is, my first blog entry. Hope you had fun. You stay classy, San Diego.

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