To get into Jordan we took another taxi and was dropped off to then take another taxi to Mecca Mall, Amman where we were collected by a friend. Coming into Jordan for me was tiring. Although it’s a different country, the culture for me was the same and it started taking it’s toll. Being in another culture drains me because I am constantly aware of what I’m doing, what I’m wearing and being careful not to upset anyone with looks or behaviour toward both sexes. Things happen that you don’t know if is okay so you kinda turn a blind eye. For instance, what the taxi’s do between borders is illegal for me (and probably there too but there isn’t much done about it and I’m sure they know about it) and although I wouldn’t do anything, it plays even on my conscious just seeing it. I mean, it’s not major stuff but it’s still not according to the law. Anyway…
We hired a car for the whole time we were here. At first I was concerned but Dan did an awesome job driving around these roads. It’s a mixed feeling for me here. It’s like there are no rules, yet somehow it feels safer but then there are no rules and it seems more dangerous. There is no structure to driving here, indicators aren’t used except to let other drivers know you are slowing down and lanes are ignored or no longer visible! The car was a little Chery and it got us places. We flattened the battery twice and when we travelled to Petra the engine light came on. I have to admit, all the joking about driving on the wrong side of the road meant that the passenger seat (me!) hugged the mountains, so I was able to remain flexible! :D
So we visited Jerash and Ajlun in the North where there were some ruins (the attitude of “more ruins” at this stage) and a castle (again, another “castle”). The drive was really beautiful all through the mountain ranges. In the South we visited the Dead Sea, which was really cool to float in. We were going to enter in Amman Beach, then we found it was a ~$20 entrance fee. We drove on further to find a tourist bus parked off the road and a bunch of people going over the ridge, they weren’t swimming but we decided to…after they’d left. The water was really slimy, and salty obviously. We then went over to Hamamat Ma’in where we sat in HOT springs, and a Roman Bath – separately, they had a women and a men’s side. The drive through that area was absolutely gorgeous!
We travelled down the Petra the last couple of days we were in Jordan. Our little car made it, but it was close. We got about 200km out of Amman when the engine light came on. We stopped to check it out and Dan pulled tightly parts of the engine with some wire he found on the road, and the engine light went off. Then we kept on praying. While we were waiting for the engine to cool down a bit, I’d opened the door to get a breeze and Dan dropped the map behind me. It went flying out the door! Man, I don’t think I’ve sprinted so fast! Was good to know I still have some form of fitness! It’s pretty windy out there but surprisingly cool. You know, I didn’t think it snowed in the Middle East and only thought of it as a hot desert. But I guess if I think back to the desert trips back in Australia, it gets pretty cold out there.
So, Petra is BIG! We got a day pass and that was enough - for me walking, maybe not seeing everything. There were a few places we didn’t get to see, but we saw majority of it. I couldn’t manage getting out there two days in a row, ther is a fair bit of walking all over the hilly areas. There are these tombs cut into the rock all over the place, you’ll have to check out Facebook for photos. We visited the monastry and getting up was a MISSION! So many steps and so high up! The exercise was good, when I got past the pain – it kinda got to me mentally too, you go around the corner to see people climbing further up. As we were climbing, there were people on donkeys and they pooped everywhere, so when we were gasping for breath it was filled with the smell (and taste) of donkey poo – yumoo! Good for the lungs, blah! We stayed there for two days as we didn’t want to drive the car to Wadi Rum, which was our original plan – where we would have done a Bedouin campout. On the way home the engine light came on a couple of times and we asked God to get us home – He did. So awesome, thank you!
In Amman we helped out for a couple of hours scoring people against an English test to conclude what level class they would start at. It was really fun, a little nervous to start with as I didn’t want to score incorrectly making it hard for them to learn. I had fun getting to know some of them as there were a couple of personal questions in there.
It’s been good to see more of Jordan and we couldn’t have done it without the car. There is still a lot left unexplored, such a big country. It’s quite expensive here, especially after being in Syria. We’ve heard Israel is much more expensive so we’ll save all our shopping for Egypt, where it’s supposed to be really cheap.
Getting across the border was easy enough, though there was much waiting involved – on the Israel side. My passport got sorted but we had to wait while they checked Dan’s passport over and asked him many questions. I think because they’d seen we’d been to Lebanon and Syria. We thought it would be easy enough and I reckon it was just routine. They stamped my passport, which will mean I won’t be able to enter Syria or Lebanon again…unless I got creative with a “new” passport. But we’ll wait to see if we ever want to visit those countries again.
Till post our Israel trip, Ma as-salaamah!
Liz
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