Brian and Marisa Bargsten: Jordan

After feeling refreshed from our Turkish baths (which we highly recommend), chatting with rug dealers at the bazaar while drinking their apple tea in tulip cups, and eating a few more Turkish delights, we headed to the airport for our flight to Amman, Jordan. By this time in our trip, Brian and I fully believe in the advice of "arrive 2 hours early" and managed to catch our flight without too much hassle. We happily arrived in Jordan around 10 pm, and a taxi took us to Madaba, a town outside of Amman on the King's highway, the most scenic road running north to south through Jordan.

The following day we were hoping to take a cab down the King's highway, stop at Mt Nebo where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land, and Wadi Mujib (Jordan's own version of the Grand Canyon). However, we discovered it was too late in the morning to do this and instead settled with taking a minibus to Wadi Musa to see Petra via the Desert Highway. As expected, the highway lives up to it's name...incredibly barren and arid. The only breaks in the scenery are tiny desolate towns, an occassional arab hitch hiker or piled rocks that mark property lines. It was around a 3 hour trip when our shuttle driver stopped in front of the Valley Sun Inn (recommended). We asked to see a room. Mr. Creepy McCreepy (hotel manager) showed us a simple room with a single lightbulb hanging from a cord, fairly clean bathroom, and two twin beds with lovely animal print comforters. Unsure of whether this was really the best option, we crawled back in the shuttle and followed two other backpackers to where they were staying, but much to our surprise it was...yucko!! There was mold and mildew on the curtain, etc. After one last hotel stop, we went back to the Valley Sun Inn and secured a room. Sidenote: Up to this point in our trip, we have never found a hotel that was recommended in the Lonely Planet guide to be the best value nor the cleanest places to stay. Restaurant recommendations, however, have usually been accurate.

Now, there are some interesting dynamics/observations regarding Jordanian/Arab culture, and they may only apply to southern (more rural) Jordan. We began to see these beginning with our hotel. Mr. McCreepy, who wore a black trechcoat, never smiled, and stared very hard at you while speaking, had a secondhand man, Gopher (we nicknamed) who did everything. Ask to buy some water? Mr McCreepy would nod, but Gopher would go get it. Breakfast? Gopher prepared it. Cleaning? Gopher again. But ask Gopher a question (ie. "Where is the bus station", and he would immediately call Mr McCreepy on the phone for simple decisions. We saw this everywhere...one person makes decisions and waits while others do the labor.

Observation 2 was that while in the city of Wadi Musa and alot of Jordan, you do not see women (Amman and some other large cities probably being the exception). During my time in that town I don't think I saw more than 10 women in 2 days unless they were being driven in a car somewhere. Women are not in the streets, in the bakeries, in the shops or cafes. Even our hotel did not have women-an oddity given that in most countries the cleaning staff tends to be women. We did see women in Petra selling wares, but literally, until we reached Madabe a few days later, I never saw a woman on the streets of the city. That being said, I never really felt that I was unwelcomed in the cafes where all the men sat.

Interesting observation 3, those head scarves you often see Arab men wearing actually indicate what country/region they are from. So, for example, Jordanians are almost always wearing red and white, Palestinians wear black and white, etc. And, LOTS of people wear these. I'd say at least 1 in 3 men had their countries scarves around their head or neck at any given moment. One shop owner we chatted with insisted on dressing Brian up in one.

Observation 4 occurred in the Internet cafe when a guy walked in looking like Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean (mascara and all)! This was fascinating and I wanted to stare at him. Southern Jordan has a very strong Bedouin culture where people live in the desert, are often herders, and more or less lead nomadic lifestyles. Many of these bedouin camps have become much more permanent, but they maintain many of their traditions. In the case of this young gentleman-it is quite common to wear eyeliner/mascara in order to protect their eyes from the sun-both men and women. This liner is developed from tree sap that they heat up until it turns black. Once applied, it lasts a full week or more. It's actually quite beautiful. You will also see these people with herds of sheep and goats or crossing areas of desert by camel...more of that later, though.

We were not able to make it to the site Petra the first day we arrived in Wadi Musa, and instead wandered town and went to bed early in order to get an early start the following day.
The following day we had a very typical middle east breakfast (bread and jam, hard boiled egg, olives (if you're lucky), and tea, and then we wandered down the hill to the gates of Petra. We purchased our $30 tickets (ouch!) and headed for the Siq, a long narrow canyon that winds for abit over a kilometer before opening up into the Treasury (pic). For those who are having a hard time picturing this, imagine Indiana Jones because this was where it was filmed. It's even more amazing than the movie. ...and yes, if you want that "Indiana Jones" feel, there are men willing to let you ride their Arabian horses for about $2.

The Rose colored canyons and stone city of Petra dates back to 3rd century BC and was created by the Nabataeans who carved palaces, temples, and tombs from sandstone cliffs. This is probably the most spectacular man-made ancient site Brian and I have ever seen (topping even Ankor Wat). This area was a major spice, silk and caravaning crossroads and was also known for their mastery of hydraulic engineering, iron production, copper refining, sculpting and stone carving. We pictured Petra being a few cliffside carvings. Don't be fooled into thinking this- the place is immense and extraordinary. We can only provide pics...they explain better than we can. We spent a solid 8 hours walking through Petra and did not even come close to covering all there was to see.

Now, there were some entertaining things about Petra. The main two being the boys selling donkey rides and the occasional children who try to sell you pretty (sort of) rocks. Donkey boys are everywhere! You will here the calls of 'do you want to ride my donkey?' well after your visit. They follow you, race by you smacking their burros with handmade crops, and sometimes almost run you over while playing amongst themselves. My favorite donkey boy first tried to sell us a donkey ride, but finally succumbed to just conversation after I wouldn't even want to ride his burro for 1 dinar (about $1.50). I learned his burro's name was Coco and that if I wanted to have his donkey he would give it to me for free. How lovely, no more taxis for us... We'll just use Coco. Wonder if the airport would let us take Coco to Cairo as luggage. Nonetheless, the boy was quite entertaining.

The second funny business was that of rock sales. I had a little girl in a very pretty turquoise head scarf want to sell me rocks. After declining numerous times but confirming how nice her rocks were she insisted I take one as a gift. Quite persistant. And clearly, I needed a rock to carry up the giant hills we were climbing. So I gave the girl a dinar in exchange for her rock and then she wanted me to have two. "no no, but thank you.". Wouldn't want to be too greedy (and I didn't really need a sack of rocks).

Funny enough, I later came across a pair of children selling more rocks. "Do you want to buy my rock?" I asked them. First they looked surprised, but then they found this quite amusing and broke into silly shy grins. "I'll give you a special price -1 dinar" I further inquired. Delighted, they politely declined my sales offer but then said more seriously,"we can't buy your rock...that was a gift". How they determined this is beyond me, but the result was that I carried this rock throughout Petra.

We ended at Petra near the treasury where the crowds had diminished, the light was fading, and it was growing quiet. Tomorrow we would head further south to Wadi Rum where we hoped to learn more about Bedouin life and sleep in the deserts in one of their camps. All in all, Petra is a fantastic site, and well worth a visit. Particularly, for those of you whom may have said the Cypriotic "Tombs of the Kings" are a smaller version of Petra (Dee).....this is like looking at a rock and saying that it is a smaller version of Earth.

On top of a hill overlooking many of the ruins.

The Monastery, which was a good 1 hour climb uphill to get to. Well worth it.

The Treasury as the sun set in the evening. Okay, the colors aren't that great, but this gives you a sense of scale....we're the two little ants in the middle.