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One thing we've definitely learned from this trip is that border crossings are never fun, easy, or hassle-free. Border towns are universally hellish places, and our biggest nightmare is getting stuck in one. It takes special effort to get out of bed on the days when we're moving from one country to another. When we moved from Tiberias in Israel to Irbid in Jordan, we found the usual hassles on the Israelis side. A total lack of information at the bus station (we were told the wrong platform number by both people and the schedule board, so we missed the bus and waited two extra hours). The passport control people were bored and unfriendly (we did not help things with Chris' request that they not stamp her passport since it's new and she may want to return to the Middle East before 2016). And border control is full of hassles (we had to take a bus from the Israeli side to the Jordanian side, not more than 1 km). Then, on the Jordanian side we instantly felt the change. People in Jordan have to be some of the friendliest that we have encoutered on this trip. Even the border guards were
friendly. People told us where to find taxis. And then...haleluha, haleluha...the taxis had a sign posted with the fares to various places. No bargaining, and everyone, I mean everyone, said "Welcome to Jordan."
That really set the tone for Jordan. Jordan has some tourist attractions, but it's the people that made it great. We spent our first night in Irbid, a university town between the border and Amman that doesn't get many Western tourists. With not a lot to do, we spent the afternoon walking around the Yarmouk University campus and the nearby cafes and shops. While we did see a handful of women walking into the library with their faces completely covered and the campus was full of olive trees, the majority of university life seemed pretty similar to what we see at home minus the alcohol. A few of the cafes were marked as Men Only, but many others bussled with coed groups. Later that night we went to a shesha cafe, and while our presence definitely drew a lot of stares, people were super friendly.
We moved on to Amman, a very recent city in a country full of ancient ruins. Amman has been continually
inhabited since days of the Old Testament, but it did not grow into a regional center until the 20th-century. It has that quality of Los Angeles where everything is comparatively newer, but not necessarily better planned. Actually because of the many hills, we found our maps a bit confusing, and we got lost a lot.
That first afternoon, we fuelled up on the best shwarma (lamb, veggies, and whatever else they feel like wrapped in pita) so far at Bifa Bila, before heading over to the one "tourist" site in town - the Roman Theatre. We were pleasantly surprised when the tourist police gave us a gratis tour of the place. That night, we tasted the Bedouin delicacy of "mensaf." Worth trying, this roasted lamb and rice dish might taste delicous after you've spent the day crossing the desert, but we probably won't be repeating. We capped off the night with a second try at shesha - flavored tobacco smoked through a waterpipe. We hoped that maybe apple would be better than peach, but we still don't quite get the popularity of this stuff that is all over the place. Our only theory is that with so many of
Yes, it's salty
Chris and Bryan float on the Dead Sea the Muslim bans, particularly alchohol, people are left with shesha and juice. They're not even supposed to inhale the tobacco.
The following day, we daytripped out to float in the Dead Sea. As expected, the Dead Sea is really, really salty, and you do float. In fact, it is impossible to swim, as Justin found out when he got a drop of burning water in his eyes. After we were done baking in the mineral-rich mud, we showered all of the salt off and were pretty much done with the Dead Sea. While we had no trouble getting out to the sea on a series of minibuses, getting back now presented a problem. Bryan, a new Irish friend also staying at our hotel, shared our expensive taxi ride and then a very cheep falafel meal ($2.50 for 3 people!). After the sun and the food, all we could was nap. That night, we spent hours trying to find the Jebel neighborhood - a section of higher end cafes and stores in the hills of the city. After getting lost for hours, we finally found part of the area we were looking for, and Chris was rewarded with a cup
Petra
The building called the "Monastary" carved out of the rock of Green Mountain coffee at a very busy bookstore cafe called Books@Cafe.
Before leaving Amman, we tried to repeat the good shwarma place, but found that many food places were closed for Friday prayers. However, our cheap felafel place was open, and the owner was ecstatic that we had returned. After eating, we got on the bus for Petra. Wadi Musa, which has the fortune/misfortune of being next to one of the world's great archaeological sites, represents what is second only to border towns - towns that subsist solely on tourists. This is quite the same as a "tourist town" which may have many tourists buy usually have their own infrastructure - their own townspeople have to live and eat. Places like Wadi Musa are only hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops, and water costs three times what it should. Despite this,
Petra is incredible. Built in the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. by the Nabataens, an Arab tribe on the trade routes that someday Justin will learn to pronounce, the site is probably most famous as the place where Indiana Jones found the holy grail in his last crusade. In honor of this we watched the
movie the night before with the tortuted hotel staff who say they have seen this movie "more than a thousand times." The site of Petra is a maze of beautuful rock formations in the middle of the desert. Even if the Nabataens hadn't carved out temples, tombs, and theatres from the rock, this place would stunning.
From Petra, we moved on to Aqaba, Jordan. Our original plan was to stay there for the night. But the only bus for Aqaba left at 6:30 am, and therefore we got there in plenty of time to make the ferry for Egypt, so we moved on. The ferry showed us that the relaxed atmosphereof Jordan was not going to continue through Egypt. Total chaos is the only way to explain the process of getting on and off the ferry, and we both burst out laughing when they showed a safety video and asked that people remain calm and file off in an orderly fashion. Tourism has suffered quite a bit here, and there are tourist police that are trying desparately to make the process easier for us. We moved past the luggage check and road checkpoints easily while they stopped everyone else
Amman at dusk
It's very hilly to throughily examine everything. After a very long day, we made it to the beach town of Dahab and unanimously agreed that we had to spend a few days here before moving on. We need a few days rest before we face the rest of Egypt.
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sayteeluck
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more pics
hi i should be great full 2 u if u can send me more pics of the dead sea plz. Thks in advance.