Jordan

The cities I visited were Aman, Jeresh, Dana, Wadi Musa, Wadi Rum, Petra and Aquaba. I was there for 10 days, I think. I would like to start off with how beautiful the country is and the contrast between Egypt and Jordan- where Egypt of busy, loud, and dirty Jordan was peaceful, clean and gorgeous. Where Egypt oppressed it’s beduin population creating a lot of tension between the city people and the beduin Jordan openly embraces them- making sure they have enough land to live with, enough jobs for their people.
Aman, the capital of Jordan is very…boring. The most exciting thing we saw in Aman was the largest flag pole in the world. However it was a nice city, there was a nice outside market next to our hotel, a mosque every few feet (which chanted the prayers very day five times a day- which also means at 5:00 in the morning we were all woken up for the call to prayer). The Jordanian people were so helpful and encouraged us when we spoke Arabic. However since there wasn’t much to do there we left a day earlier then planed.
Jeresh: is a huge Roman ruins city- we spent at least 3 hours there and didn’t fully see the entire city. Jeresh is a combination of ten cities. There was an amphitheater there, and chariot races took place- even when we were there!
Dana: huge natural reservation park – a mountainous area covered with trees and other green vegetation. Where in Egypt garbage is thrown anywhere, Jordan already has nature reservations to help preserve the land and the future of the country. (if you haven’t noticed I wasn’t such a fan of Cairo but I loved Jordan) here in Dana we just spent a few minutes- we wanted to stay longer- there are hikes that one can do throughout the park but we couldn’t find a hotel (cheap enough) to stay in so our taxi driver was nice enough to let us explore the area for an hour before heading to Petra.
Petra: is another huge ruin- the city was built from the mountains- chiseled into the limestone. They built temples, tombs, markets from chiseling in the stone. The red mountain stone is beautiful- the colors are so vibrant- reds, purples, and dark and light browns. We spent two days there- the first day we walked throughout most of the excavated city- did you know that only 5 % of the city is excavated? The city must have been enormous! At the top of a mountain there was a “viewing section” where we could see Israel from where we were- it was beautiful- seeing mountains and mountains just covered with green trees. Also at the top of the mountain there was a beduin man sitting there in his “store” drinking tea- it was the middle of the day and after walking around and climbing for the past few hours we were quite hot and thirsty- he offered us some tea and asked us to sit down. We sat and talked with him for a while- the Beduin don’t care if you are from Israel, if you’re jewish or anything- their loyalty is not to their “country” but their leader which this beduin happened to be the son of. He spoke to us in Hebrew for a little bit, then switched to English and then a little Arabic. He was very amusing to talk with. The next day in Petra we did the 6 hour hike to Aaron’s Tomb- which was A. a beautiful hike and B. the tomb was really cool too. The tomb was on top of a high mountain- completely white with a mosque dome on the top- the building was so white though it was difficult to look at it in the sun. Once there we sat on the roof of the tomb looking out over Petra city and then had lunch in the shade. We also took a good half hour nap there too- it wasn’t a difficult hike- it was tiring however because of the heat and the fact that we should have brought more water then we had.
Wadi Rum: this city- area I guess it’s not exactly a city- the entire area is a desert with huge red mountains sprouting out of the red sand. The sand is so soft- we went running, rolling and playing in the red sand dunes there. After doing some research we realized that the best way to see Wadi Rum was to take a jeep ride around the place, sleep in the Beduin tents and leave the next day. And that is exactly what we did- since we were tired from our hike from the day before having the opportunity to hike up a small side of the mountain and then getting back into a jeep to drive to the next site was an amazing feeling. The jeeps that we took however were quite old and the one that we were in continuously stalled throughout the trip and then around lunch time it just refused to start back up again- so the beduin driving our truck had to call for another one- I guess we killed one of the trucks. Unfortunately the day that we were there it was so winding that it was difficult to see things- let a lone keep your eyes open without getting sand in them. Once at the campsite the Beduin style tents were already set up (they seemed pretty permanent) and we were served tea (as the Beduin style). Later on, dinner was served- with a beautiful fire in the middle of the “eating tent” we had pita, potatoes, onions- some vegetable dish, rice, chicken, hummus and maybe some other things too. The meal was very good- later we were served tea; we sat around and talked for a while. As it turns out my friends and I were the only Americans there- there were people from all over the world. The next morning after some tea, pita and cheese we took a taxi to Aqaba.
Aqaba: our well deserved vacation finally- We were in Aqaba for two full days where all we did was lay on the beach and relax. It was wonderful- and a great way to finish up a sight-seeing sort of adventure/vacation.