Day 75 - 79 - Jordan in 4 Days

THURSDAY - We left on the bus (we being me, Naa anorkor, Akil and Collin) at 10pm and got to Taba, which is still in Egypt around 5:30 am. From here we walked across the Egyptian border, we had to go through the Israeli border (so now I have a stamp from Israel so hopefully that does not hinder my future travels). We waited here for about 45 minutes because Collin had a stamp from Morocco so they had to question him and such but he got through thankfully. So now we were in Eilat, Israel. We had to get a taxi to the Jordan border, which we definitely over paid for but we had no other way to get there. We walked through the Jordan border and got a taxi to take us to Aqaba. We got to Aqaba around 10 am so the whole border crossing process took us about 5 hours.

Aqaba is a nice city. Jordan is much cleaner than Cairo. We ate some lunch once we got settled. Some cops helped us get a cheap taxi and told us where to go eat. Akil has dreads so the people were absolutely fascinated with him. Asking for pictures or to touch his hair and staring hardcore. Not only were there 4 foreigners among the locals but 2 of african people with different hair. The food was great at the place the police recommended for us. Their pita bread is better than the Egyptian bread. We looked for a good deal on a hotel room at 8 different hotels. Collin and I walked from place to place pretending we were brother and sister so they would have no problems letting us all stay in the same room. We finally found a good deal at a place called Amira, with a 3 bed room for 25 denar. Collin slept on the floor with blankets. It worked out wonderfully. Once we got settled in our room we headed to the beach which was a bit disappointing. Women have to wear all clothes in. Like women were wearing their full head scarves and everything and the water was not very clean. So we ended up napping in chairs on the beach for a while in the shade. We left the beach and came and napped in our hotel room till 5:30. Then we headed out to Wadi Rum-a valley cut into the sandstone and granite rock in southwest Jordan. We went there to watch the sunset and my goodness it was gorgeous. Definitely a good choice on our part to go out there. It was beautiful. We got back to Aqaba around 9. I was feeling quite sick so I had to go and lay down. I think I did not eat enough, drink enough and got too much sun. So I missed an evening there but malesh. We had to be up at 6:30 and gone to catch the bus at 7 to Petra.

FRIDAY - We all slept through the alarms so it was a rush to get to the station but Jordanians are like Egyptians and never leave on time so that worked good for us. The trip took about 3 hours. A hot and uncomfortable ride but we made it there.

We searched for a hotel in Wadi Musa. It took going to 4 hotels to find the best deal. 4 beds for 24 denars. Pretty good deal. We got to Petra, which was a 5 minute taxi ride, around 1pm. We bought a 2 day pass because we knew we would not see all of Petra in just on half day. We walked through Petra taking many pictures and climbing things till we got to the monastery around 5:30 or so. We were so tired once we got to the top but it was worth it. The monastery was huge and beautiful. So this was where our adventure started....we chatted with the Bedouin who were up there. They have a shop there. They invited us to eat with them and have tea. We watched one of the Bedouin free climb up the Monastery. It was crazy how fast he got up there. We went up to the look out point and watched the sunset. This is where the talk of staying up on the mountain came about. I was actually not feeling well again but there was no way I was passing up the opportunity to stay up on a mountain in Petra with local Bedouin people. So all 4 of us chilled up at the top of this peak, chatting with the Bedouin's, I slept off and on. They made food, which I didn't really eat. Earlier in the eveing they gave me some sage tea, which apparently makes you throw up, which I discovered about 2 hours later. So besides being sick it was incredible. The sky was the best thing ever. Almost better than my memories of the South African sky. We could see millions of stars, the milky way. I was shown the star the Bedouin use to direction at night. It was called Sarle or something like that. I wish I could remember the name exactly. But it was incredible. They called where we stayed the million star hotel. The Bedouin people are great and live a very interesting life. I would love to live with them for a month or something like that to experience that. So incredible. I bought a necklace down at their shop, it is beautiful.
SATURDAY - We woke up for sunrise but we half slept through it and it was too bright to watch anyways. We started down the mountain around 8:30 or so. We went quite fast because we really wanted to get back to the hotel before check out to shower. At the Treasury there was this one Bedouin man and I was so intrigued by him. I could have sat and stared at him for hours. I would have loved to take pictures of him. I did get one picture with him :) We got back to the hotel with 45 minutes to spare so we could shower and get ready to catch the bus to Amman.

Amman is the capital and 2 hours away from Petra. It was another hot trip in a bus but worth it. We got there and haggled with taxi drivers till be got the best deal. We went downtown to see a roman theater which was closed when we got there. From there we went out to the Dead Sea. ABSOLUTELY incredible. We were in water maybe knee deep and we floated. We drove past Jesus' baptismal site but did not go there. But ya the Dead Sea was incredible. So beautiful. What I thought was a rock in the water was actually salt! Crazy. We tasted it and it felt like burning on the tongue it was so salty. But yes. The Dead Sea absolutely amazing.

We caught a bus from Amman to Aqaba. A 6 hour trip. I slept most of the way off and on. The buses are so uncomfortable.

MONDAY - We arrived in Aqaba around 4 am. We went back to the hotel we stayed in the night before and asked if we could sleep in the lobby until 6. The man just let us in and went back to sleeping. We left around 6:30 to catch a cab to the border. We had no problems crossing any of the borders which was great. We were in Egypt by 9, where we bargained with a mini-bus driver to give us a better price than the big bus price. We got a deal and took that instead. We met some cool people from Slovakia, Austria and the States. We made plans to go out this evening with them. It should be good times. We left Taba, the Egyptian border at 11:00 and got to Cairo around 5 or 6. It was a hot drive but expected. So ya that was my weekend in a few words...I am sure I missed something and of course there are many stories I could tell but that is just too much to type :) A lot jammed in to 4-5 days.

Jordan was more expensive than expected but definitely still worth the trip, for sure!