Days 7-9

After a quick stopover in Cairo (still insane traffic) for the night, we arrived in the beautiful , and less hectic, country of Jordan on Saturday morning. Instead of a guide who is with us the whole time, we have a driver, who hires local guides for us at each location. Our guide is named Geries, but he told us to call him George…Crazy George. So we are being drive around Jordan by a man named Crazy George, who used to drive for the royal family and knows the King and Queen. This comes in handy as he flashes his royal i.d. when needed at various check points.
Our first stop in Jordan was Jerash, which is an ancient Roman ruin site – the Pompeii of the East. It’s a huge site, and most of it hasn’t even been uncovered as the modern city was built over the ancient one. Some of the things that particularly impressed us were:
· The columns at the Temple of Artemis: they were built to withstand earthquakes, by making them flexible somehow. We could put our hand in and feel it move.
· The ampitheater had amazing accoustics and when you stood in the right place, you could feel your voice vibating.
The next day we were in Petra, which is without a doubt one of the most amazing places we’ve seen in our lives. Our guide there was Mahmoud, and he is a Bedouin who actually lived in the caves of Petra until the government relocated them. We spent 8 hours in Petra and probably walked between 8-10 miles…so it’s impossible to describe…but here are the highlights:
· The Siq: This is the gorge that leads into the ancient city of Petra. If you’ve ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he rides a horse through here. We walked…as did most people except for some lazy, overweight Americans who took carriage rides down.
· The Treasury: The first thing you see when you exit the Siq, it’s not really a treasury (they called it that because of a pot on the top they thought had treasure) but instead a temple covering ancient tombs.
· The hills of Petra: The hills are many different colors, from pink to orange to white to black to yellow to blue. In the hills are tombs, which the Bedouins used as caves and where they all lived. They are pretty spacious and had a water system so they actually seemed to us like a better option than tents.
· The Monastery: This isn’t really a monastery but the best preserved building in Petra. To get there, you have to take a long hike up 808 steps. Or you can take a donkey (again, taken by lazy Americans mostly, although it does support the Bedouins). Moira was in our lead and the walk was well worth it. All along the route, there are Bedouins selling jewelry, scarves, etc. As you walk by, they say “Happy Hour. Half price special.” They told us the walk would take about 3 hours round trip. We made it in closer than two, and that was even with a lot of exploring and hiking around at the top.
After our long day in Petra, today we went to Wadi Rum, which is really the middle of the dessert and famous for its red sand. Our guide here was a Bedouin. We took a jeep throughout (he drove a bit like a maniac). We saw amazing rock formations, petroglyphs in gorges and red sand that blends into white. The mountains have sides that look like they are melting. They shot Lawrence of Arabia here. We saw the site from the top of a huge red sand dune that Moira climbed up barefoot, which was the smartest way to do it. The Bedouins are known for their hospitality and gave us tea…which Steph would have bought had the men not starting yelling at one another at the top of their lungs!
Those were three jam-packed days. And here are more things we learned during that time:
· You can transport a camel in a mini-truck. Particularly if it is a race camel.
· Bedouins serves some pretty good french fries (first American food we’ve had since we’ve been here).
· Look straight ahead in a Turkish bath (they are coed).
· Bedouins in Petra can speak up to 7 languages.
· A Bedouin girl, she told us to call her Honey, can be 16, want to get married at 25 or 35, but know that she is likely to get married at 17.
· Jordanians pickle everything.
· Babaganoush tastes differently in every location.
· Lallande doesn’t like sheep lips.
· Donkeys and camels double as air conditioned taxis in Petra.
· It is possible for a Westerner to embed themselves with the Bedouins. We met a woman who did…and we bought her book about life with the Bedouins.
· Remnants of the Roman Empire are felt throughout Jordan.
· Everything here ties back to what we would call biblical times. To the Jordanians, however, it is just their history, not really about the bible.
· Our hotel, the Marriott Petra, is in the valley of Moses. And it’s much better than a Bedouin tent.
· 4-wheeling in Wadi Rum is the only way to go.
· Jordan is the land of milk and honey…and we love the honey desserts, particularly last night’s honey balls (as we named them).
· Like Egypt, where we got Chicklets instead of coins at a vendor, this country also doesn’t like to give change.
· In Petra, you can buy water at the Indiana Jonse snack shop. I doubt Warner Brothers has licensed that.
· Crazy George is like the mayor of Jordan (I’d say King but they already have one). He knows everyone…so we are in really good hands!
More of Petra later today and then on to the Dead Sea.