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Published: January 19th 2007
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Well after enduring the overnight bus ride from Cairo to Nuweiba (i nearly froze due to the over-enthusiastic aircon). I then spent all day waiting for a 1 hour ferry to Jordan. Was taken care of by a lovely Jordanian Girl who kept me entertained with pics of her family. The fact that neither of us could understand anything of that the other was saying still made for good conversation. On the boat over i got talking to Chris, an American who was teaching English at a Uni in Jordan, after spending over an hour and a half waiting for our Visa's we ended up catching a taxi into town with 2 ozzies Chris had meet in Dahab. We all felt that a beer was in order after such a long day and after settling in to our respective hotels we meet up For Dinner. The Ozzies - Brian and Sam a father and son over on holiday from Tasmania were hiring a car for the week to explore Jordan with properly (The Jordanians are meant to be pretty good drivers, in terms of middle easteren driving that is). Brian very kindly invited me along and as the idea of having
Petra
No sign of Indie to get on a bus again was the last thing i wanted to do i readily accepted. The next day was spent drinking beer in the Aquaba sun and planning the week to come.
On the Road.....
With Brian behind the wheel we headed out to Wadi rum - only to hit a small snag when it came to getting a guided night out in the desert. Turns out if you want a guide you have to arrange it 48hours beforehand. Undeterred we continued on our way towards Petra, planning on arranging our guide from there. Had been reliably informed by travellers in Cairo that the road to Petra had been snowed on 2 weeks ago making it unreachable. 2 weeks on and allthat was left of the road closing snow was some big drifts on the hill sides - we stopped and had a play of course. I mean its not every day you can build a snowman in the desert on the way to Petra!
Due to our late arrival in Petra we were told to head out to the small and free site of Little Petra (around 10kms out from the main site), it was nice
Taster for the next days adventures.
We watched the sun set from the balcony of the spookly empty Grand View hotel the went for a drink at the Cave Bar - a 2000 year old Nabetenean tomb now serving Amsteil on tap.
Just dont cross the seal!
The Siq that leads into Petra just goes on and on and on! The fact that I knew what I was expecting to see at the end of it just made it seem to drag on aswell. Every likely looking corner i was expecting to come round and see that fanstaic view of the treasury. I must have gone around 6 such corners before arriving at the real thing.
Now, I dont want to sound like a spoil sport or anything but that fantastic entry into Petra was completly destroyed by the mass of "Camels for Hire" parked in front of it, not to mention the huge throng of Jordanian men that seemed to standing around doing nothing but ruining the atmosphere. I spied this same crowd of blokes sitting in the theatre being filmed for something later in the day, so I can only hope that this kind of a thing
Brain and Sam
Look Dad no hands! is a one off it it really ruined the ambiance that the entry through the Siq created.
Anyway - I made like Indie and scaled the rock outcrop across from the Treasury so i could get a birds i view. After walking through the first part of Petra with Brian and Sam I then made like Indie again and scaled up to the High place of sacrifice whilst my Oz friends checked out the St of Facades. We meet for lunch before heading up to see Al Deir aka the Monastry. Feeling fit and wishing i'd brought my Akubra hat and a Bull whip I opted out of taking a donkey up and made the sclep up on foot. Was treated to a huge well preserved Facade that was apparently the tomb for King Herrod (?correct me if im wrong?). Oddly enough whilst we were sitting and admiring the enormity and the ambiance of Al Deir we were treated to some light entertainment in the form of a guy walking along the roof of the facde (its about 48m high) Its also features a broken Pediment with quite a big gap between the central piece. It was no challenge to
My Bedouin and Me
Our Fireside entertainment - might I add he was the one who requested this photo jump though for our impromptu Parcor man. Gasps were drawn from several motherly looking characters down watching around us. The guy then proceeded to climb down and along amongst the metopes before stoping for a smoke and then walking back the way he'd come to the roof. Just when we though he'd finished he treated us to the spectacle of him climbing up the central Urn and Posing for Photos. No bigs Egos here.
Our entertainment finally over we made our way down from the monastry and onto a Donkey each to take us up and out. Having never ridden a donkey before it was quite an experiance - not helped by the fact that i just cant help but feel sorry for them. Its the big Eyes and comical ears - that and the long face... yes bad pun i know.
From the donkey to a bumpy carriage ride/race the day was done. Back to our hotel and dinner cooked by the Hoteliers mother.
Bring me my Camel
Or at least the back of a 4wd. Was taken round Wadi rums best tourist sights, 2000year old drawings of Camels and Feet, Huge red sand dunes and a very
Dead Sea Float
Just dont get it in your eyes cool Rock bridge before settling in for a night in a Bedouin tent. The thing that i couldnt get over from my time in the desert was the all encompassing silence. Just the slight ringing in my ears caused by listening to music too loud. (hehehe - yes i spent all my time whilst working at noisy industrial sites protecting my hearing only to stand in front of speakers at clubs in the weekends).
Castle tourism
Drove from Wadi rum up to Madaba via the crusader castles of Shobak and Karak. Shobak had a secret underground well that was accessable via a very dark and dodgy tunnel cut into the indide of the hill the castle was Perched on. Karak too enjoyed some underground Tunnels, these ones were huge Galley's though for storage and accomation, they very also better light through a very crafty skylight system. Enjoyed the best meal so far in Madaba at a restaurant by the name of Harat Joudba. Fantastic food and exceptional service.
Dead Sea
By far the highlight of my Jordan experiance was our afternoon out at the Dead Sea. The novelty facter alone of being able to float weighlessly was huge! However, i
Bit of Culture in Jerash
Bagpipes played by Arabs in A Roman Theatre in Jordan. Cool. nearly thought i was going to go blind after getting a drop of the super saturated salty Sea water in my eye. The Pain! The Pain! Blimey! I also drew some odd looks from a Burka clad mother and Daughter as I slapped on some Dead Sea mud, seeing as they took a big bag home with them i dont think they should have been too critical of me.
Ruinous day out
Spent my last day in Jordan walking around the ruins of Jerash. Was completley over fed from our lunch at the Lebabnese house - the Waiter had asked if we wanted a small Mezze, it turned out to be more then we could eat and we'd made the mistake of ordering mains. Talk about stuffed! Bizzarly we were treated to some Bagpipe music at the Jerash Theatre. Jerash it turns out also hosts a chariot event in summer - it has a great restored hippodrome.
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