The Desert Road,,,courtesy of Avis Car Rental

---

Traveling during Eid has turned out to be more of a challenge than either of us anticipated. Sure, we can eat when we like and I haven’t been stoned (yet) for showing my elbows, but arranging the logistics has been a bit of a challenge.
For instance, when we arrived at the car rental place in Amman at 9am this morning (with a reservation made months in advance!) there were only two vehicles still available- an aging Peugot with a cracked windshield, and a newer model Chevrolet with ‘a loose key’, a phrase which Amil interpreted as referring to a bad wheel but which in fact turned out to mean they had literally ‘losed’ the keys. However, just as I could feel my dream of seeing Petra by candlelight slipping from me, a Jordanian came speeding into the lot with a rental to return a day early. The car was unbelievably dusty (on the inside) but neither of us spent much time questioning why that would be, especially given that the windshield was intact and key was in the ignition. It wasn’t until we were on the road, after spending nearly $60 on gas and a car wash (it was returned so low on fuel that if the nearest gas station had been uphill we wouldn’t have made it) that we realized that the interior was dusty because the air conditioning doesn’t work. The horn doesn’t work either, you need to use both hands to get it out of park and, most interestingly, the tires are four different sizes (some have three treads, and some have two). However, with Amil’s skillful driving and my navigation (of the radio, that is), we made it safely to Petra a little bit before four this afternoon. In other words, it took us a little over four hot and dusty hours to make the 200+ kilometer journey along the Desert Road. I point out the time of the journey because the most irritating of Jordanian idiosyncrasies is that they claim that everything takes ‘just five minutes’. Jordan must inhabit a temporal universe all of its own, because I swear I could read ‘War and Peace’ cover to cover in some of these five minute intervals.
At any rate, having arrived in Petra in one piece but alas too late to enter the site during the day (I did get to go by candlelight in the evening), we went instead to ‘Little Petra’ and hiked around in the hills near Wadi Musa. The highlight of Beda was witnessing a trio of girls climb a short flight of rock steps and then panic, scream, cry and demand a firefighter-style rescue. When the only person to respond to their pleas was a toothless Bedouin on a decrepit donkey, they crab-walked back down the rock face and made a mad dash for the car park. The result being that we had the park to ourselves, I decided to go off road a bit, but couldn’t convince Amil to make the climb with me. Needing a climbing partner if I was going to go any higher than you see in the photos, I thought to borrow a trick from the trio and threatened to cry and scream if he didn’t come up. Unperturbed, he just shot the photo below left, shook the car keys at me (which were in his pocket), and then threatened to leave me there if I tried it. So, I climbed back down, vented my frustration by kicking the largest of the four car tires, and consoled myself with the thought that the hotel, at least, has air conditioning.
‘Night.

---

Comments

[Helen Hunter]

What fun!
I loved the photos and stories, Jennifer. What fun -- but better you than I!

[frjg]

Isn't Petra a Titular Archdiocese?
This Mendota priest wonders whether someone named Martin is trying to incardinate there. Anyway, I hope the toothless Bedouin helped you clean up your car a bit. Have they stopped making references to the Indiana Jones movie yet? Such remarks were still going strong at Petra in 1995. It's still beautiful. I'm glad you're sharing your thoughts with us.

[vicaradmin]

And you thought MN gravel roads were bad ...
$60 to gas up, wash and vacuum ... yup, that's about the same cost as here.