Hi!
So I got my camera back! Yay! Thank you, lovely people in Jordan, for returning it.
Day 1: I took a bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat, and then a taxi to the border. The border was alarmingly empty. There was practically no one there apart from the skeleton staff. I knew that it was a fairly quiet border, but I was very surprised at how alone I was there, on both sides of the border. I actually went the wrong way a bit as I walked across, because there was absolutely no one to follow.
It surprised me how different it felt to be on one side rather than the other, when it was a physical difference of maybe 100 yards. The female Israeli border person gave me a piece of Bazooka bubblegum (the comic was in Hebrew! I have no idea what it said, but I'm sure it was hilarious) and the male Jordanian border person asked for my email address and phone number. Being the ingenue that I am, I thought that he wanted them for something security related--after biometrics, email addresses seem so impersonal somehow. When I saw that he was writing it down on a scrap of paper, I realized my mistake. Fortunately, gmail seems to be fairly unpopular in Jordan, and no one has ever successfully called my phone from outside of Israel. Absurdly confusing area codes and country calling codes for the win!
On the other side, I was bundled into a cab, and taken to my hotel. It was fairly alarmingly budget, but it had a gorgeous view. Specifically, this one:
I walked around Aqaba a bit. Went back to my hotel and put on more clothes. Then walked around some more. I made friends with a man selling what I strongly suspect were bootleg DVDs, and I failed to speak Arabic well. Altogether, I had a nice evening, but I felt like half of what I said to anyone and everyone I met was that I did not, in fact, want to go on a private evening trip to South Beach, no matter how beautiful, free, or otherwise nice it might be. And actually, South Beach is supposed to be great, but now I'm afraid my brain has associated it with the-place-men-take-foreign-girls-whom-they-think-will-be-easy-to-take-advantage-of, or something like that. Anyways, I did not go to South Beach.
Next day was Wadi Rum. I had no trouble getting there--I split a cab with two European tourists I met at the Aqaba bus station. Wadi Rum... such a weird experience. It was gorgeous, but... Hmm. The taxi dropped us off at the Visitor's Centre. My arrangements were to spend the night at a tourist-y camp out in the actual basin, and I was told to call when I arrived, which I did, but when no one picked up, I decided that I had all day to figure out how to get to camp, and in the meantime, I wanted to ride a camel, because I was a tourist and that's just what tourists do. I certainly wasn't about to go sit in a 4X4, at any rate.
One of the men hanging around and being a semi-official guide mentioned camels in his spiel, so after making absolutely positively sure that we could end the camel tour at the camp that I had booked an paid for in advance, I agreed to go with him. He was very nice, and after giving me tea and breakfast (yum) and a camel and a kid to lead the camel, sent me on my way.
It was all very nice. Me, on a camel, traversing a rather trammeled tourist attraction. It was very beautiful, of course, and I enjoyed waving at the occasional 4X4 of jostled tourists. Clearly I had made the right choice.
Unexpectedly, a jeep pulled up on one side, and the person in it revealed himself to be the owner of the camp where I was going to stay that night. He made it clear that there was a problem with my going with another guide, although I was not exactly sure why. The kid leading my camel called the person I had hired as my guide earlier in the day. About half a second later, I found myself sitting on a camel with a jeep keeping pace on either side. It was a fantastically awkward moment, and I had no idea what to do. Everything worked out more or less all right, but I wound up hanging around in the town for a couple of hours, which was supremely boring.
But after that: camel, take two!
(I have a small bag around my front, which is why I look a little odd. My water was being annoyingly sloshy when I left it in back. Also, camels walk really really quietly.)
I had an overwhelmingly nice evening, although once again, there was far too much of the harassment occurring. It was nice to see the stars, and dinner was delicious. I wish I had taken a picture of how it was prepared, but think slow cooked under the sand with fire. Mental image? Maybe? Maybe not? Anyways.
Next day, Petra! The other tourists and I returned to the village in a 4X4 (ha! I knew I didn't want to pay for a 4X4 tour) and then I hopped on the minibus to Petra.
A note about public transportation in Jordan: there is none. Well, okay, exaggeration, but barely. I spent an absurd amount of money on taxis and private cars because the minibus system is very casual and it's hard to get information on them pinned down. People hitchhike, but that didn't sound like the best idea ever for me personally. Safety first!
Petra! The minibus dropped us off, and there happened to be a shuttle to the hotel I had reservations for waiting for one of the other passengers, so I hopped on. Lucky break for me! I quite liked the place, and it is the only place where I stayed that I fully recommend, so here goes: Valentine Inn, stay there.
A woman was working behind the counter, and I was surprised by how glad I was. Yay! All you want from me is my money! Such a relief. I found it almost hard to address the man who was also working there just because he was a man. Plus, she was practically the first non-foreign woman I had seen in days.
That afternoon, I walked to Petra. After bravely paying the exorbitant admission fee (77 USD) I went in. On a horse because some guy wouldn't let me alone until I rode his horse, and also because I like horses. I walked through the Siq:
And around other areas too. I made friends with a very nice guy with a donkey. Can I just say that it is impossible to look cool while on a donkey? I did my best. If you want to see the awesomeness that is a donkey, email me, and I'll send you a picture. I don't really want to put pictures with my face in them up. Needlessly paranoid? Yup.
Anyways. We wound up with the following view, which is fairly iconic, but I never would have found my way up here by myself.
Soon after this, we went and had "Bedouin whiskey" (delicious tea with enough sugar in it to rot the teeth of a dental hygienist in two swallows) in a cave. In a cave. So cool.
That evening, I went to my new friend's family home for dinner, which was very good. It was chicken and rice and vegetables, all served on a big round platter. We ate sitting on the floor with our fingers. (I am still vegetarian, but I hate to be rude. My stomach was not pleased with me.)
I met some more people and then rode on another horse before being driven back to Wadi Musa (the tourist town adjacent to Petra. It's where my hotel was).
Then back again to Petra the next morning!
In the afternoon, I went on to Amman, where I spent an uneventful night, and then the next day I crossed the border back to Israel. That part of the trip was fun, too, but I can't say that I have any particularly fantastic stories from it. Mostly just good memories.
I keep remembering things to say, but I suppose I should save something for over Christmas, right?
All in all, it was one of the best trips I've ever been on, and an excellent first foray into a foreign country alone. But I don't think that I'll be going back there while Israel is my home for two reasons: one, travel is expensive and I'm fantastically good at getting ripped off, and two, because I hate being addressed as foreign female before being addressed as a person.
So I got my camera back! Yay! Thank you, lovely people in Jordan, for returning it.
Day 1: I took a bus from Tel Aviv to Eilat, and then a taxi to the border. The border was alarmingly empty. There was practically no one there apart from the skeleton staff. I knew that it was a fairly quiet border, but I was very surprised at how alone I was there, on both sides of the border. I actually went the wrong way a bit as I walked across, because there was absolutely no one to follow.
It surprised me how different it felt to be on one side rather than the other, when it was a physical difference of maybe 100 yards. The female Israeli border person gave me a piece of Bazooka bubblegum (the comic was in Hebrew! I have no idea what it said, but I'm sure it was hilarious) and the male Jordanian border person asked for my email address and phone number. Being the ingenue that I am, I thought that he wanted them for something security related--after biometrics, email addresses seem so impersonal somehow. When I saw that he was writing it down on a scrap of paper, I realized my mistake. Fortunately, gmail seems to be fairly unpopular in Jordan, and no one has ever successfully called my phone from outside of Israel. Absurdly confusing area codes and country calling codes for the win!
On the other side, I was bundled into a cab, and taken to my hotel. It was fairly alarmingly budget, but it had a gorgeous view. Specifically, this one:
I walked around Aqaba a bit. Went back to my hotel and put on more clothes. Then walked around some more. I made friends with a man selling what I strongly suspect were bootleg DVDs, and I failed to speak Arabic well. Altogether, I had a nice evening, but I felt like half of what I said to anyone and everyone I met was that I did not, in fact, want to go on a private evening trip to South Beach, no matter how beautiful, free, or otherwise nice it might be. And actually, South Beach is supposed to be great, but now I'm afraid my brain has associated it with the-place-men-take-foreign-girls-whom-they-think-will-be-easy-to-take-advantage-of, or something like that. Anyways, I did not go to South Beach.
Next day was Wadi Rum. I had no trouble getting there--I split a cab with two European tourists I met at the Aqaba bus station. Wadi Rum... such a weird experience. It was gorgeous, but... Hmm. The taxi dropped us off at the Visitor's Centre. My arrangements were to spend the night at a tourist-y camp out in the actual basin, and I was told to call when I arrived, which I did, but when no one picked up, I decided that I had all day to figure out how to get to camp, and in the meantime, I wanted to ride a camel, because I was a tourist and that's just what tourists do. I certainly wasn't about to go sit in a 4X4, at any rate.
One of the men hanging around and being a semi-official guide mentioned camels in his spiel, so after making absolutely positively sure that we could end the camel tour at the camp that I had booked an paid for in advance, I agreed to go with him. He was very nice, and after giving me tea and breakfast (yum) and a camel and a kid to lead the camel, sent me on my way.
It was all very nice. Me, on a camel, traversing a rather trammeled tourist attraction. It was very beautiful, of course, and I enjoyed waving at the occasional 4X4 of jostled tourists. Clearly I had made the right choice.
Unexpectedly, a jeep pulled up on one side, and the person in it revealed himself to be the owner of the camp where I was going to stay that night. He made it clear that there was a problem with my going with another guide, although I was not exactly sure why. The kid leading my camel called the person I had hired as my guide earlier in the day. About half a second later, I found myself sitting on a camel with a jeep keeping pace on either side. It was a fantastically awkward moment, and I had no idea what to do. Everything worked out more or less all right, but I wound up hanging around in the town for a couple of hours, which was supremely boring.
But after that: camel, take two!
(I have a small bag around my front, which is why I look a little odd. My water was being annoyingly sloshy when I left it in back. Also, camels walk really really quietly.)
I had an overwhelmingly nice evening, although once again, there was far too much of the harassment occurring. It was nice to see the stars, and dinner was delicious. I wish I had taken a picture of how it was prepared, but think slow cooked under the sand with fire. Mental image? Maybe? Maybe not? Anyways.
Next day, Petra! The other tourists and I returned to the village in a 4X4 (ha! I knew I didn't want to pay for a 4X4 tour) and then I hopped on the minibus to Petra.
A note about public transportation in Jordan: there is none. Well, okay, exaggeration, but barely. I spent an absurd amount of money on taxis and private cars because the minibus system is very casual and it's hard to get information on them pinned down. People hitchhike, but that didn't sound like the best idea ever for me personally. Safety first!
Petra! The minibus dropped us off, and there happened to be a shuttle to the hotel I had reservations for waiting for one of the other passengers, so I hopped on. Lucky break for me! I quite liked the place, and it is the only place where I stayed that I fully recommend, so here goes: Valentine Inn, stay there.
A woman was working behind the counter, and I was surprised by how glad I was. Yay! All you want from me is my money! Such a relief. I found it almost hard to address the man who was also working there just because he was a man. Plus, she was practically the first non-foreign woman I had seen in days.
That afternoon, I walked to Petra. After bravely paying the exorbitant admission fee (77 USD) I went in. On a horse because some guy wouldn't let me alone until I rode his horse, and also because I like horses. I walked through the Siq:
And around other areas too. I made friends with a very nice guy with a donkey. Can I just say that it is impossible to look cool while on a donkey? I did my best. If you want to see the awesomeness that is a donkey, email me, and I'll send you a picture. I don't really want to put pictures with my face in them up. Needlessly paranoid? Yup.
Anyways. We wound up with the following view, which is fairly iconic, but I never would have found my way up here by myself.
Soon after this, we went and had "Bedouin whiskey" (delicious tea with enough sugar in it to rot the teeth of a dental hygienist in two swallows) in a cave. In a cave. So cool.
That evening, I went to my new friend's family home for dinner, which was very good. It was chicken and rice and vegetables, all served on a big round platter. We ate sitting on the floor with our fingers. (I am still vegetarian, but I hate to be rude. My stomach was not pleased with me.)
I met some more people and then rode on another horse before being driven back to Wadi Musa (the tourist town adjacent to Petra. It's where my hotel was).
Then back again to Petra the next morning!
In the afternoon, I went on to Amman, where I spent an uneventful night, and then the next day I crossed the border back to Israel. That part of the trip was fun, too, but I can't say that I have any particularly fantastic stories from it. Mostly just good memories.
I keep remembering things to say, but I suppose I should save something for over Christmas, right?
All in all, it was one of the best trips I've ever been on, and an excellent first foray into a foreign country alone. But I don't think that I'll be going back there while Israel is my home for two reasons: one, travel is expensive and I'm fantastically good at getting ripped off, and two, because I hate being addressed as foreign female before being addressed as a person.
Thanks for the report. The photos are great.
ReplyDeletePetra is incredible isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThat was Uncle Mark
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a fabulous trip! Not so fun being the pick up attempts. I am so glad the camera is back with you!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you could post those photos! Beautiful view of the water. Cool shadow picture of you on the camel! And Petra: What a place! That picture of the path through the rocks--is that an approach to the city? Did you go inside the carved building? Sweet tea in a cave in Petra--nice.
ReplyDeletePetra is incredible!! It was a great trip, and I am super glad to have my camera back.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes--the Siq is the major entrance to the city. It is a place where the earth basically cleaved in two.
I didn't go into that particular building, which is called the Treasury, but I did go into a different one later. Pretty cool!