Mount Nebo

Dead Sea

Back to Amman

I woke up early to catch the 7 am bus to Amman. I had a quickie Skype with my bestie before jumping on a minibus packed full of backpackers and their backpacks. In fact to get to the back you had to climb over luggage. It was an uneventful ride back once you were in your seat. Now I did take my first taxi but was lucky enough to share it with 3 others. Sean, from China, got off with me as he was heading to the airport in the afternoon. We wandered around the fruit and veggie markets before going to Hashim, a famous falafel restaurant. Sean didn't like falafel but I convinced him to try one of mine and he loved it! He must have had a bad one in Petra! We each enjoyed a delicious lunch of falafel, pita, hummous and salad for a combined price of 3.50 Dinars. Amazing! We walked back to the hostel as it was time for him to go. Tim was coming to pick me up from the hostel but I had a few minutes to check my email.

When Tim arrived we decided to find something to see and found a tourist map showing a German Cultural Centre. We headed up 70 stairs and then 90 stairs. I was warmed up for sure. We walked along Rainbow Street and it felt like we'd entered a whole new city. There was no garbage, no taxi drivers trying to get you to ride with them, no sellers on the street. It was quiet and restaurants and shops looked new and modern. It reminded me a bit of home with the burger restaurants and smoothie shops. We couldn't find what we were looking for so we walked back down and went for another falafel at the same place. I had a sandwich this time. Tim has one meal a day and it's a falafel sandwich. I think he's obsessed! He'd never had falafel before he went to Egypt a week ago.  We went to Tim's hostel and looked at his Egypt photos and chatted with a girl in the common room.

The rest of my time in Amman will be spent getting ready for my trip Thursday! It's hard to believe I've already been travelling for almost 4 months!

Perfectly Petra

The next morning I was up early for the bus to Petra. I was going to be taking my first taxi of my whole trip....and I was nervous. I hate being ripped off. But when I was ready to leave the guy running the hostel said one of the hostel's cars could take me for the same price as a taxi. Sweet! And he even asked around and found my bus for me. The things about the local buses in Amman is they wait until the bus is full before leaving. When one leaves there's another waiting to fill. So there is no schedule. Thankfully I waited about 1 minute and we were on our way. I met Patricia, a Chinese woman who'd already been travelling for 8 months. She'd been to India so we chatted about that. However, she was pretty negative and didn't seem to think I could handle it, based on her comments. When we arrived, 4 hours later in Petra, though I could see that she may have been travelling for a long time she isn't relaxed about it. She wanted the driver to stop and let us out early and was panicking when he wouldn't stop. I figured we'd just wait till the end. I've actually never seen anyone panic that much, she was almost yelling at the driver to let her out. He finally stopped.....at the bus station. The thing about Wadi Mousa, the town outside of Petra, is that it is all uphill. So we started our climb. A horn honked and when we turned around a shuttle bus with the hostel's name on the side pulled up! Thank goodness! Arriving at the hostel I got a bad vibe from the guy at the front desk. He got really agressive when I only wanted to book 1 dinner instead of 2, telling me the other restaurants are really expensive. I was almost rude with him as he was so abbrassive. After Patricia was done checking in he showed us to our room. It smelled, and I noticed there was no heat. When I asked about heat the guy laughed in my face. Oh great. I got my bag ready to take to Petra. Patricia was shocked that I was going but I still had 4 hours to look around and a 2 day pass is only 5 dinar more than one day so why not. On my way I met Marco from Brazil who wanted to go as well so I waited while he checked in. Marco had been living in Israel for 5 months on a kibutz! We stopped at a bakery for some lunch on the way before we arrived at Petra. It was early afternoon when we arrived and as we walked on the path through the entrance people were streaming out. The first thing you see is the Siq. It's this amazing path through a chasm. The rock on either side is beautiful. I read somewhere that a lot of people rush through this area to get to the Treasury (the Indiana Jones scene) and they miss out on its beauty. So I made sure to take note as we winded our way through. Children selling postcards for 1 dinar follow you. They are good little salesmen who speak English amazingly well. And all of a sudden, between the rocks you catch a glimpse of the treasury. As the rocks give way to open space the sheer size and beauty hits you. Seeing it in person is no contest for the pictures. It is spectacular. We continued along and saw a man being loaded into an ambulance for a problem with his leg. What a terrible thing to happen on holidays. We walked along, seeing the beauty of Petra and turning down the offers to buy things, and for camel rides. Marco and I passed the Street of Facades, the amphitheatre (the only one built with the rock already there and not freestanding), and climbed stairs to see the Royal Tombs before walking along the Colonnaded Street. An old roman road is still visible while some is buried under the sand. We got to the Great Temple and decided to turn back to catch the last shuttle to the hostel. I enjoyed the sights just as much on the way out. And after returning to the hostel I decided I was too tired to attempt to find somewhere to eat so I purchased my dinner there. The meal was delicious. A buffet of Arabic salads and a rice and stew dish awaited us (plus falafel!). We mowed down our dinner and sat together enjoying the Indiana Jones movie. It was pretty cool to see Petra in a movie after seeing it myself only hours before.

It wasn't as cold that night as I expected without heat. I wore 2 layers of clothes and, though not for warmth sake, I broke out my sleep sac for the first time. Marco and I had decided to take the 8 am shuttle though everyone else in my room was taking the 7 am and didn't feel that it was necessary to be quiet for one person. Awesome. I ate my breakfast and was ready when the shuttle arrived but Marco was nowhere to be seen. I decided to go on without him as I didn't want to waste energy walking to Petra when I would need it for my day walking around. I met Tim in the shuttle, he's from Germany. I went with him and Bruno from Brazil who are both doing round the world trips. Although they both just started theirs. I should have known 2 boys would end up taking me somewhere crazy...more on that later.

We followed the route I had taken the day before to get the path leading to the monastery. The climb, yep climb, takes about 40 minutes and is exclusively uphill. I hate stairs! Halfway up a Bedoin woman (bedoin means people who live in the desert) named Turquoise invited us for tea. We drank tea, knowing we'd owe her something in the end. And indeed, the tea is free but have a look at what she's selling. We told her we'd be back later and continued our climb. When we reached the Monastery we knew it was worth the exursion. It was beautiful. We stopped and enjoyed for awhile. We also went to 2 viewpoints overlooking the valleys below. We took our time but decided we should be on our way. We walked down and sure enough Turquoise remembered us. I thanked her but said I wouldn't be buying anything and then I'm pretty sure she cursed me. After the climb down we went to the tombs. I waited on a bench while Bruno and Tim went to see one that I'd already seen. Two small bedoin children came to join me. I shared my banana chips with them. They are in charge of selling postcards. The next thing we headed for was a fort the boys wanted to see. The access from the entrance was not acdessible due to flooding in previous weeks but they figured they could get to it from a back way. I should have gone home. :-) We began to walk through a valley and past the cave homes of Bedoins. We climbed some rock hills and got directions from bedoins themselves. I am so grateful for my new shoes as my old sneakers never would have made the climb up these hills. At times I was relying on the grips to keep me on the side of the "cliff". Looking back it definitely doesn't seem as bad, but at the time, after a whole day of walking and climbing, I really didn't know if I'd make it. I contemplated a helicopter at one point, wondering about its cost. I also wondered if I should call for a Bedoin with a donkey. But in the end, following the long legs of Tim and Bruno, who were kind enough to wait for me and check that I was OK, I made it through a canyon, over a few small mountains and on to the highway and back to the visitor centre just in time for the last shuttle. Which is good as I could never have walked up the hills to the hostel. I did notice, walking back on flat ground that my hands were swollen and I couldn't make a fist. I wonder what that means? Tim and I went to get some snacks and I had some delicious falafel, though I still haven't tasted any as good as Saad's! After a shower and a lot of water I felt much better. I decided I was going to skip Wadi rum and head back to Amman to prepare for India. I had seen enough of the Bedoin lifestyle for me!

The Middle East and Me!

My flight to Jordan had a layover in Cairo and being one of the only women on the plane and the vibe of the male passengers made me glad for the short stop. A female solo traveller isn't that common from what I can tell....though I've met a few. We landed in Amman and the clock on the plane said we were an hour and a half early.  I thought this was mighty strange but was glad to have arrived. As I walked towards the visa line I could overhear a conversation between a woman and her driver and she kept going on about the exursions they were doing before going to Amman in a couple of days. Well, I looked around and saw "Welcome to Jordan" signs but not a single one of them actually told me what city I was in. OMG, I thought, I've landed in the wrong place! I knew I was in the right country and figured I'd sort it out later. I received my visa, got my passport stamped and headed out to retrieve my bag. The airport seemed OK, nothing overwhelming. I headed through the X-ray machine to exit the terminal (yep, guess they want to know what you're bringing in). I searched for the driver that was meant to pick me up but couldn't see much through the crowd if eager relatives. I walked outside searching for a car. Nothing. I walked around inside before asking information to call my hostel. They seemed to have forgotten about me but were on their way. I took a seat in the terminal, in the stiffling heat of high 20'slow 30's. I watched the people coming through and realized that when a relative returned home, the whole family came to pick them up. I wonder what kind of vehicles they drive? One family had 6 kids plus about 4 adults....not including the person arriving and their luggage, which seemed to be plentiful judging by the piles of bags I saw on carts. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to handle the heat blowing into the arrivals hall, my driver arrived. Just a side note, wouldn't it cost a fortune to heat a whole airport to that temperature? Afterwards, I learned that Jordan had decided not to do daylight savings this year and computers are still catching up. So the time on my plane was wrong and we were only 20 minutes early.

Unfortunately my drive to the hostel was done in darkness so there wasn't much to see. Arriving at my hostel, I was happy to see it was in pretty good shape. The bathroom is a wet room, which is always fun but other than that it appeared clean and warm. It was only a slight disturbance to be woken at 6 am by the call to prayer.....besides I fell right back asleep. Breakfast was amazing. Coffee or tea, bread, lubna, olives, hummus, jam, a choice of 3 plates, and cake. I ate away and after a lazy morning decided to see some sights in Amman. I was a bit nervous to go out as I didn't know what to expect. A girl in my room studying here from Austria assured me it was quite safe. So off I went. They have 2 tourist sights; the Citadel and a Roman amphitheatre. I got my directions and was on my way. I had been told the Jordinian people were really kind and it's true. On the way people redirected me without me even asking. So kind.

The citadel are ruins built on the top of a hill overlooking the city. The area is beautiful. I took my time and then wandered down to see the amphitheatre. It is so amazing what they were able to build these massive structures without machinery and engineers. The area was filled with local people and I stuck out but had no problems with anyone. One tourvguide tried to convince me to hire him for the rest of the day but he was a little too slick for my liking. My hostel has a cafe downstairs and you can order food for so cheap. My tummy had been acting up so I ordered roast quarter chicken and rice, figuring the simpler the better. It came with its roasted neck still in tact as well as some spinal bones. It took a minute to look past that but when I did, it was delicious.

The next day I went on a dead sea tour. We started by going to Madaba where there is a church (Greek Orthodox), which contains an old map. They found the mosaic map in the ruins of an old church and built a new one on top.  It was a piece of the floor of the original church. It's still part of the floor but gets covered during mass. Next stop was Mount Nebo. This is where Moses went and saw the promised land before dying and being buried somewhere on it. The top gives a beautiful view. After that we drove to the dead sea. As the road climbed upwards the driver stopped and put the car in neutral and low and behold the car continued to move up. It's a magnetic spot! Next we changed a flat tire. The driver asked the guy sitting in the passenger seat how much he weighed and then said ok we need to sit the heaviest person in the front to balance the tires, "Kirsty, you sit up front". I wasn't sure whether to be offended or not. After some discussion later the others in the group decided he really just wanted me to sit beside him....I think I'm still a bit offended by his comment!  Once the spare was on we went up up up to a lovely panoramic of the dead sea before heading down to swim. I've never been able to float so I figured I'd try it but didn't have any expectations. We changed into our swimsuits and walked down to the beach. Our guide had to pick a spot directly in front of a group of 3 fully covered Muslim women. I felt so awkward undressing to my bikini in front of them! The water was warm as we put our feet in. Us girls were last in and I took my time walking deeper. Finally I took the plunge and released my feet from the earth. I was floating, and in fact I had a hard time getting into any other position. Trying to get my feet back on the sand was a bit tricky because my body was so buoyant. And if you did stand up but the water was too deep, chances are you'd end up floating on your tummy, whcich is bad news as you don't want water in your mouth or eyes. We floated for half an hour showing off our floaty moves. Finally we decided to get some mud. Since we were all being cheap we dug some up ourselves instead of buying it from the beach area. As we stood there covered in mud we looked around and noticed we were a different color. Everyone else was covered in black mud while ours was green. Oops. Rinsing off created another dilemma. How to get the mud off your face without getting water in your eyes or mouth. It was tricky. By now our guide had gone off to shower and change so we decided to do the same. We went to the outdoor showers to rinse off the salt but they were freezing. We did the best we could. Sonya wanted to jump in the pool to clean off as we already knew the showers in the change rooms were unheated as well. Sonya and Peter jumped in first and warned that it was probably colder than the showers. I am such a chicken when it comes to cold water but I knew a quick dunk would be much easier than trying to stand under an icy spray. So.....I jumped.....and I screamed! It was freezing! Dave jumped in after me and screamed like a girl....we got a lot of weird looks. Haha. We were all ready for lunch so we went off to change and get dressed. We headed to the restaurant beside the pool. While our guide went off to fill his plate the rest of us dropped off our stuff and asked about the price of the buffet....14 Dinar. Which is about 20$. No way. We all decided to just order a drink and when our guide sat down he was a little annoyed. He probably should have asked where we wanted to go first! We waited while he ate and then drove back to Amman while he gave us the cold shoulder. On the way we stopped for a new tire and to pick up his 3 1/2 year old daughter who sat on the console in the front seat. The laws for car seats is very different. We all ordered food as soon as we got back and sat chatting the evening away. Sonya and Peter are going to India too, and South East Asia, so I hope to run into them again! They are the sweetest Irish couple! By the way, I told them I know lots of places across Canada where they can stay when they travel there.....right guys! :-)

In rememberance

I feel so terrible. I have not acknowledged the loss of my trusty old sneakers. On January 10th they were permanently put out of service. I think we are both much happier this way but they have been such trusty companions for the past 3+ months. Good bye old friend!

In happier news my new shoes have been keeping my feet dry and warm and much more comfortable.

Sunshine, ferry rides, and mosques