Petra And Wadi Rum (Jordan!)

I am writing this post drunk.  Given it is my last night in Israel, and I've spent a disproportionate amount of my two months here inebriated, this feels fitting.  Bear with me if I ramble or typo more than usual.  I met up with Diana's friend Josh and we got drinks near the shuk.  By drinks I mean I had 1 (one) glass of wine.  I love being small.

You might ask a lone, single, 5'3", Jewish white girl who wants to go to Jordan on her own - what are you thinking?!?  And that is a valid question.

I was thinking a couple of things:
1) I really, really want to see Petra.  It's the Lost City.  How cool is that?
2) You just don't know how the political situation is going to be one day or one hour from now in the Middle East.  This time things with Jordan are peaceful.  Next trip, they easily might not be.  You have to go when you can go to these places.
3) I originally had 5-6 friends who wanted to come and they dropped like flies.  This actually increased my desire to go.  In a "Well fine, then! Watch me!" sense.
4) Adventure high.  You know how marijuana is a "gateway drug"?  There is a similar thing with hair.  You do something wild (I got blue hair) and then you have to do something even more wild to achieve the same high you get from it.  I don't know what I'll do next with my hair.   I've been to Russia and Japan and Israel and here in Israel I got a taste for solo travel and it's a gateway experience, I think.  Have to do something more wild to achieve the same adventure high.  I KNOW, I HAVE A GREAT IDEA, JORDAN.  I have no idea what's going to be next.  It will be hard to match Petra.

When I arrived in Eilat, I saw these gorgeous mountains:

The light was so beautiful

It's a strange place.  Eilat just rises up out of nowhere.  It's like Atlantic City (I imagine... I've never actually been to Atlantic City).  Lots of tourist attractions and restaurants, shopping and pubs and stuff.  Everything is all lit up.  It's on the beautiful red Sea.  Here is the view from my hostel:

The main marina

Amazingly Clear

And the water is so clear:

At sunrise

My hostel was amazing.  So clean and nice.  This trip has really made me a believer in hostels.  They even packed me a breakfast for my early departure for Petra.  I had some time to kill that night so I went to the mall, and I saw these two gems:

Watch out, ladies.

MANia

The obsession with masculinity amuses me.

On Sunday at 7 am, bright and early, a driver picked me up outside my hostel.  He went around to several hotels and picked up a bunch of people and took us to the border with Jordan.  The crossing wasn't really that bad.  We had to pay a departure tax of $60, and...

...and now I pass out and write the rest in the morning.

THE NEXT DAY

Okay now I'm awake and sober and will continue.

A weird sign that says "TO JORDAN"

While I was waiting to cross the border, I heard another guide tell his group "If you want to take a picture of the Jordanian soldiers, just ask them first, and don't give them any money."  And I thought, why would anyone want to take a picture of the Jordanian soldiers?  And then I approached the passport window and looked up at the solider and thought - OH, IT'S BECAUSE THEY ARE ABSURDLY HANDSOME.  I was stunned.  I mean seriously stunned.  Every soldier I saw was so handsome.  I think it is a modeling agency and not an army.  They were relatively friendly as well.

We crossed by foot

WELCOME!

It says welcome, but it was a little foreboding.  The structural integrity and level of maintenance on the Jordan side vs the Israel side was easily noticed.

That's king Abdullah on the left and his dad Hussein on the right.  Their photos are EVERYWHERE.

We got to the other side and were greeted by our guide, Ramsay.  He was maybe... 21? And a pretty cool guy.  His first language was broken English, and then he also knows Arabic.  He was born in Jordan but to parents from Europe and he's traveled a lot.  We piled into some vans which were only a tad sketchy and started the 2 hour drive to Petra.

I wish I could comment more on life in Jordan but mostly what I could gather was that there's a huge wealth disparity.  Parts of some cities are very nice and modern and familiar.  Then you get out into the desert and it's like... shacks with no electricity, and abandoned construction projects, and children chasing goats around.  The desert reminded me a lot of the Brad Pitt story line in Babel.

We stopped at a rest stop/shop on the way, they kind of shuffle tourists from one opportunity to spend money to another. Most of the places were closed anyway, because of Ramadan. Jordanian men ranged in dress, from jeans and t-shirts to robes and head coverings.  I didn't see many Jordanian women at all, but the few I did see were completely covered up.  That said, the situation might be different in major cities.  I imagine it is.

I was in a van full of Lithuanians who were very suspicious of everything and kept saying I was "brave" for going alone. Their suspicion irritated our guide.  They just didn't do their research though... when you book the tour, it mentions the added costs (border taxes, certain fees, tips, etc) and it's not even in small print or anything, and they didn't know about it, so of course they felt ripped off.  I guess I'm just used to this stuff from working in travel.

We stopped before entering Petra City to take some pics of the area from above, though you can't see anything but the mountains, it was still pretty:

Petra is down there...

Then we went through the visitor's center and the long path of merchants and then started down the trail to Petra.

This is Ramsay.  Everyone at the site knew him and kept saying he was the tallest man in Jordan, which may be true.  He was always easy to find.

We were warned not to accept donkey or horse rides because insurance doesn't cover it.  Even the donkey herd-guys were amazingly handsome.  They should stop selling donkey rides and start being models.  I'm really not kidding. 

As you start down the path, you start to see tombs and stuff.  We were all like "ooooh! aaaaah!" and stopping to take pictures, and Ramsay kept explaining them and giving facts but saying, "Let's move alone! That is really not a thing.  It's not anything.  We're not even in the city yet..."

The Nabataeans, who build Petra, represented their Gods with blocks and not really accurate figures.  These blocks were put at the entrance to the pass to represent Djinn (like demons) and keep them away.  They were polytheistic and had a large pantheon.

A tomb for some dude and his family

No Djinn welcome!

Some Aramaic writing at the entrance to the Siq (pass)

This is a tomb for 4 family members (you can tell by the number of pillars up top, and that it matched the number of bodies found) plus one slave buried underneath.

Ramsay pointing at things.  Behind him, you can see all the chisel marks on the stone.  The entire city was carved, all of it carved, and all from the top down.  AMAZING.

The siq gets progressively narrower.  This is my group going deeper in.  There's only one entrance and exist from Petra, which made it very secure.

These little kids were aggressive about selling us post cards.  It was kind of cute, but mostly sad.

Basically, everyone who works in Petra is Bedouin.  The Bedouins were living in the ruins until they were cleared out when UNESCO made it a heritage site.  They were relocated to a nearby village and work in the site to make a living.

The stonework underneath is original!  The entire place used to be paved by stone but a lot of it was worn away by earthquakes and filled in with modern concrete.

As you go farther the mountain walls get higher and higher...

This rock supposedly looks like a fish from this side...

And an elephant from this side.  I don't really see it... do you?

Narrower and narrower...

When you get to the end of the Siq, you can just peek the treasury, the most famous building, through the stone pass.  It is AMAZING.  That little peek.  It took my breath away.  I swear my heart stopped for a second.  I was too dazzled to have the presence of mind to take a picture of the impact, but here's a pic from wiki:

And of course it's much more stunning in person. My entire group GASPED in unison when we saw it.

It is HUGE!  HUGE HUGE HUGE! I mean, so big.  And all carved!  Amazing.  The urn at the top is covered in bullet marks because the Bedouins were convinced if they shattered it money would full down.  Didn't happen.

Here I am!  Where Indiana Jones was.  No big deal.

Yep

Stairs leading up to the aqueduct that brought water into the city.  It was build really high up so it would be difficult to poison the water supply.

This is where people lived, in all these little dwellings

More tombs and stuff

The theater

More tombs in the distance

That obelisk way up there between the mountains is where they did their sacrifices.  All animal sacrifices, no humans.

Here I am in front of one of the royal tombs.

I took a bunch more pictures, but those were my favorites.  You could spend days and says in Petra, on the one hand, on the other hand, it's all more of the same.  I was satisfied with my afternoon.  The walk back was a lot harder than the walk in - it's uphill and you're already hot and tired.  Although, in terms of heat, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as I expected. It was actually pretty pleasant most of the time!  Not as hot as Haifa by far.

Arabic chips... I really wanted to try the chili lemon, but they were like 4 dinars, which is nearly 5 dollars. What?

Jordan is a pretty expensive place! That's not what I expected.  The dinar was worth even more than the dollar! I was shocked.

The way this tour company operates, they run a bunch of different one day trips, every day.  Then they mix and match the days up to what you want.  So your guides and drivers and fellow tourists are different every day.  That means that although I was with a big group on day 1, after Petra I had my own driver and he took me back to Aqaba.  It was a tiny bit sketchy but he was a nice guy.  The only time I really felt uncomfortable was when we had to drive slowly through a tiny village full of very religious people who stared rather meanly at me.  Erm...

My hotel in Aqaba was really nice.  I think old Ariane would have been pretty intimidated to stay by myself.  But I just kind of pretended I was comfortable with everything and then I was actually comfortable.  The staff were so nice and friendly!

View of Aqaba and the red sea from my window

Since it was Ramadan, the hotel had a big Jordanian style dinner to break the daily fast

View from the dining room.  The distant mountains are Egypt, and in the middle is Israel.

Rooftop pool, although I didn't have time to swim!

The next day I was picked up at my hotel by Mahmoud, my personal driver for the day, haha.  And he took me to Wadi Rum.  It's one of my most famous places in Jordan! I got a truck tour of it and it was incredibly beautiful.

The entrance to the wadi

We explored this really cool canyon

In the canyon there was a group of Chinese tourists, and Mahmoud turned to me solemnly and said, "I was once with a China Person in Saudia Arabia, and he strangled a dog and ATE IT.  Then he collected a pot of blood and boiled it on a fire and DRANK IT."  Oh my.

Me at the canyon entrance!

Mahmoud took all the pictures of me.  He was clambering up and down all these sand dunes in dress clothes with me, and showing me all these things.  And then he started coughing, so I offered him my water, but he couldn't drink because of Ramadan!  Eep! Being a desert guide during Ramadan must suck, I felt bad.

Then the desert got REAL!

Amazing!

Crazy beautiful

Enormous sand dune

Lawrence of Arabia was filmed riiiight... here! (And the actual Arab troops marched through here to Aqaba)

This is Mahmoud

Mahmoud was really sweet, and such a character. He has 12 children - 5 sons and 7 daughters, but only 1 wife.  In Jordan, you're allowed up to 4 wives.  I asked why he had just one, and he said "I am not risking my brain!!!!" And he told me a joke:

A man looks to the sky and says to God, "My God, My God! You give me health, and take it back.  You give me money, and take it back.  You give me fortune, and take it back.  My God, please, don't forget my wife!"

He said he thinks if he had more than one wife they'd fight all the time and it's just not worth it.  Here's another conversation we had:

Mahmoud: Are you Married?

Ariane: No.

Mahmoud: How old are you?

Ariane: 26.

Mahmoud: WHAT? And not married?

Ariane: Not yet!

Mahmoud: Boyfriend?

Ariane: Nope.

Mahmoud: If you get a boyfriend in Jordan, you need to kiss him in secret. If you kiss him in public, they will KILL YOU.

Ariane: Wow. Kill?

Mahmoud: KILL.

Ariane: Thanks for the tip.

Mahmoud: Ariane. Ariane. ARIANE.

Ariane: Yes?

Mahmoud: I pray to god. I PRAY to God. I pray to GOD! That soon you will be married and have 12 children.

Ariane: Thanks, Habibi (Honey.)

I hope God doesn't listen to Mahmoud, personally.  I pray to GOD, that someday I will be married and have a reasonable number of children.  Reasonable by Ariane standards, not Mahmoud standards.

This is AbuSultan, our Bedouin guide through Wadi Rum.  He was born in Wadi Rum, in a camp in the desert. He said Bedouins sometimes move to the villages for work, but they often still prefer to sleep out in camps.

From Wadi Rum we went to Aqaba and drove around a bit.

This is a very fancy gas station

The Jordanian flag

A beautiful minaret.  These towers are where the calls to prayer come from, several times a day, quite loudly.

A beautiful mosque

Jordanians were super friendly and kind.  When I was hesitant about going to the hotel dining room dressed as I was, the concierge said "Jordanian girls wear much shorter things! Don't worry!" When I tried to buy things at shops and the shop keeps didn't have correct change for me, I said they could keep the change and they flat out refused.  I came back later when I had proper change. They would not accept donations whatsoever. 

That said, I didn't wear any Jewish jewelry or talk about being Jewish at all, and Israel was spoken of very cautiously and sparingly (aside from Mahmoud praising Rabin for making peace).  I'm not saying anything bad would have happened if they'd known for sure I was Jewish, but I didn't feel very comfortable about it.  Mahmoud said, "Jordan is your second home now!"

Not quiiiiiiite.  But it's a very interesting place.  I recommend a trip!

The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan wishes you Goodbye

WELCOME TO ISRAEL!

I felt relieved re-entering Israel.  The border control people asked me a lot of questions, and I told them I was in Israel studying Zionism, and they asked if I was Jewish, and I said yes, and they relaxed, and I relaxed, and they waved me through.  It's nice, and rare, to be in a place where being Jewish gets you places instead of the opposite.

View of Masada from the window of my bus back from Eilat to Jerusalem.  Ah, memories.

 I feel really good about myself since this trip.  I am so glad I went.  It was amazing to see, but it also gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to get by on my own in a very foreign place.  Japan and Israel and Russia are foreign, but not this foreign (to me).

I have a lot more to say about my overall Israel experience, but I'm meeting Rivka any minute for a last hurrah before my flight out tonight.  I hope I have a chance in the airport to type up a little retrospective!

xoxo