One Way Ticket to Africa: Jordan

Hello again everyone! I am trying hard to catch up on our blog posts, so here's the scoop on Jordan!

We took the ferry from Nuweiba, Egypt to Aqaba, Jordan. Despite the chaos leading up to the departure, the ferry was really nice and Aqaba turned out to be an equally nice town right on the Red Sea. It was very easy to get around in, very clean, and many of the people spoke English. This is similar to what we found throughout the country, and it made for a very enjoyable leg of our trip.

In Aqaba, we rented a car. Jordan is a small country with a good road network, and it turned out to be an ideal and fun way to get around.

Our first stop was Wadi Musa, a desert National Park. Its known for its wide expanses of desert with beautiful rock formations and in general scenery that just invites contemplation. Its apparently where some of Lawrence of Arabia takes place, if you are familiar with the film or the story. We walked around in the desert for a couple hours and took in the scenery.

Andrej in the desert at Wadi Musa with the 7 Pillars of Wisdom.

Our next stop was Petra. On the way driving to Petra, we saw many Bedouin camps. The Bedouin are native nomads, and it was interesting to see their giant tents in the middle of nowhere, often with camels grazing nearby. There were some camel crossing signs along the road that I found quite amusing, but sadly did not get any pictures of.

Petra is a famous ancient city carved out of rock back in the early part of the first millennium. A lot of it is quite well preserved. The path into the city involves a street with is about a kilometer long that is very narrow and lined on both side by very tall canyon walls. Every once in a while a horse drawn cart goes by, and the echoing noise is something that really takes you back in time. Most of the buildings have intricately designed facades which are similar to Roman architecture. Often, the insides of the buildings are not decorated at all, but the rock is a beautiful, swirly pink color. The buildings included a famous treasury and monastery, a big temple, a theatre, a large number of tombs, a colonnaded street, and many more. They are often built up into the hillside. We spent two full days there walking the streets, going inside the buildings, and hiking up to the high places to get some great views.

The souq leading into Petra.

The treasury in Petra.

Petra.

An example of the beautiful, swirly pink rock of Petra.

A picture of Petra showing how only the facades are carved on most buildings.

Camels in Petra. You can hire one to ride around the city.

Jordan is also known for it's desert castles. We spent one day driving out to two castles- Shorouk and Karak castles. They were both old crusader castles. Andrej especially had a lot of fun exploring all the nooks and crannies. The Shorouk castle had an escape tunnel that was really cool. The castle itself is on a high hill (for better views of invading armies I suppose) and the escape tunnel comes out all the way at the bottom of the hill. We were feeling adventurous and tried going down in the tunnel, but I fell and dropped my flashlight, which is essential. So, I had to go back up, but Andrej made it all the way and said it was awesome!

One of the desert crusader castles.

Jordan isn't just desert and rock. We also spent a full day enjoying some water activities. First, we went to the Wadi Mujib national park. We did a hike/swim up a river canyon to a waterfall. The guidebook made it sound like a simple 2 hour hike where you might get your shoes wet. It turned out to be an adventure-sport sort of trek to the waterfall involving swimming against rapids, climbing over wet boulders, and trying not to get swept downstream. It was a LOT of work, but turned out to be really fun and we only came away with a few bruises and scrapes. It was also nice to see a lot of locals doing this well, including some girls.

Our other water adventure was a trip to the beach at the Dead Sea. This was not the smartest thing to do after getting all scraped up on the river adventure, but it was still really amazing. It is the lowest point in the world. When driving down the mountain to get there, you pass a sign that says sea level, but it still seems like you are way up in the mountains. Its pretty crazy. The salt content is so high, I guess because a long time ago it actually used to be part of the ocean. Anyways, we got in the water and bobbed around like beach balls for about an hour. It takes absolutely no effort to float- you can stick all for limbs out of the water and you still won't sink. You want to be careful though not to get any of it in your mouth- it tastes awful! Also, one other curious thing- the locals, particularly the women, tend to swim fully clothed, so that's what we did as well. Its quite a change from the beaches back home!

Andrej effortlessly floating in the Dead Sea.

We also spent a day doing a short tour of some Christian holy sights in Jordan. The first stop was Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have first sighted the Promised Land, then died. There is a very old church at the top of the mountain, and a lookout point where we saw some of the first green patches we had seen in a long time! It was the Jordan Valley and Israel. The second stop was Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan on the banks of the Jordan River. This is the sight where it is currently agreed and thought to be where Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist. There are small, ancient baptism pools there. The water level does not currently reach them, but it does when it floods and apparently has been at that level in other points during history. Once again, there are many beautiful churches in the area, and we got to go down to the river and check it out.

The baptismal pools where Jesus was baptized on the Jordan River.

Our last adventure in Jordan was touring the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Jerash. We saw a giant hippodrome where chariot races used to be held, a couple of grand theaters- which they still use for performances today, temples, roads with giant columns lining the sides, as well as plazas enclosed by these great columns. It is very well preserved, and you can get a sense of what it used to be like in Roman times.

A view over one of the plazas.

Andrej in Jerash with some of the magnificent columns.

At the end of our road trip, we did spend a couple of days in the capital Amman. We had filled up our passports already and had to bring them in to get more pages and got to see the very heavily guarded US Embassy. We also enjoyed some tastes of home. I thought it was pretty amusing when we got directions to the car rental drop-off place, and they told us to go past the Lamborghini dealership on our right, go past the mall on your left, then go straight until you see Fudruckers and Applebees and we are across the street. With those directions we very well could have been back home!

To wrap things up, we really enjoyed Jordan. It turned out to be a very safe and friendly country, and a wonderful experience of the Middle Eastern culture. On a side note, while I was there, I read a book that I absolutely loved and became totally engrossed in. Its a book about the lives of young Saudi women. I found it very interesting because women's lives in the Middle East are very private, and this provided great insight. I recommend it to anyone who wants an interesting and fun read! Its called The Girls of Riyadh, by Rajaa Alsanea.