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| Friday, June 22, 2007 |
| ...and then on to Jordan! |
Salam! Keif Kalag? (Arabic for: Hello! How are you? ...Well, to a man, anyway. Feminine is a little different!)
Wednesday night began like every other night. We were on our way to some sort of dinner/party/outing thing (yeah, we tend to do something like this on Wednesdays). Svenja and I were telling Chelsea all about our trip to Dahab the weekend before: "It was awesome!"
"We did this and this and this."
"Blah blah blah and oh my gosh, blah blah blah!!"
"And oh yeah... let's do Petra tomorrow! What do you say?"
Chelsea decided she could not after only being back in the country for about 24 hours - she'd run back to the States for a wedding and had just gotten back the day before - but Svenja wanted to go so I said, "F* it! Let's go!" So we did.
Thursday was insane, classes all day. I got home around 8:00, then packed, then Svenja and I headed for the buses at 9:45pm. We arrived at the border to Aqaba at 6:00am. (Note: Managed to get around 3 hours of sleep during this time.) Our fabulous taxi driver had informed us that the border was open 24 hours and promptly dropped us off... Yeah, it actually didn't open until 8:00am. 30 shekels just to sleep on a bench for the next two hours!! We took advantage of the complete desolation to take some pictures - photographing is not allowed at the border controls - until a group of four soldiers came over. Yikes! We've caught it now: Hobo-ing it on the benches and taking illegal photos. Instead, the soldiers came over, plopped down on our benches, and made us coffee! It was a great way to spend the next hour and a half. We just chatted and drank coffee. By the time they were ready to go, a bunch of other people had showed up to wait for the border to open. As they loaded up, I told everyone to "smile." Vladimir (the coolest soldier), stopped me, "Wait, you need to be in the picture!" They gave me a gun and a seat in the Humvee! (That has to be some sort of National Security Risk!) The other people who were waiting for the border came over and took pictures of me - I was a tourist attraction! (I knew I should have done my hair!)
We then made it through the border - took forever - then waited for another thirty minutes for a taxi to show up to take us the hour and half to Petra. Jameel was our taxi driver. He was awesome - obviously loved his country. He stopped in a few places that overlooked the amazing scenery and once at a random tent on the side of the road that his brother (i think) owned for some tea.
We made it to Petra around 11:00am (I think). Can I just say, "WOW"? It was amazing. We rode horses from the front to the entry gate, then walked down the Wadi Musa (the deep canyon) to the Treasury (the Temple on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). As we first sighted the treasury, Svenja began to hum the Indiana Jones theme song - classic. :D Then we hiked up to the High Places - accurate name! Amazing views from up there. We saw a lot of the Bedouin villages. On the way down, we met up with Hillel ("Moon" in Arabic) and his donkey (Sky-juice - well, something like that!). He took us to the Spring (which was off the map!). It was beautiful. When we made it back into central Petra, he found one of his friends, Jesus, with an extra donkey, Michael Jordan, (Yeah, seriously) and they took us up to the top of the canyon where you can look down on the Treasury. Before going up there however, he gave me a ride on his camel over to a first century church - which was closed (until Hillel managed to unlock it...). It was a beautiful church - still under excavation. Then, back on the donkeys and up 800 steps!! These donkeys are the most impressive animals, the places they could go and not fall. Of course, the rider did not handle it quite so smoothly... :D I'm still trying to breath again!
We made it back down around 6:30 and went back through Petra. On the way out, we had a couple of guys on camels follow us trying to get us to ditch the "donkey guys" and join them. "Pay Jesus and ride my camel!" (Only in the Middle East is that NOT metaphorical for something else!) It was hilarious. Hillel and Jesus, the donkey guys, were getting really upset - they wanted us for themselves! I was laughing so hard at all of them. The guys on camels were just hilarious.
So - after riding a horse, donkey, and camel all in the same day... the verdict: Camels are best, then horses, then donkeys. Though it obviously depends on what you need to do/climb. :)
After leaving the donkeys and camels behind us, we joined up with our taxi driver. He took us back to a hostel in Aqaba. We left the next morning for Israel again.
And that is my crazy adventure in the lovely Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan (according to my passport). [Pictures as always! Now it's the last half of this group.] |
posted by Unknown @ 1:44 AM   |
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| 1 Comments: |
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It was awsome!!!! Thank you so much! I will never forget this trip, never forget going to the treasury and sitting above the treasury with Jesus, who was singing random Beduin-songs:)
And I will never forget, that you came with me to the beach :)
Luv ya
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It was awsome!!!! Thank you so much! I will never forget this trip, never forget going to the treasury and sitting above the treasury with Jesus, who was singing random Beduin-songs:)
And I will never forget, that you came with me to the beach :)
Luv ya