Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts
Friday, September 28, 2007
Slideshow: Petra
Click here to see it full-size.
No surprise, Petra is absolutely stunning. When you complete your walk down the narrow, mile-long Siq (sheer rock cliffs that have been rent apart by tectonic forces), and get your first glimpse of the giant Treasury facade carved from the rose rock cliff face, it takes your breath away.
What was utterly surprising for us was the immense size of the park itself. I had always thought that Petra was simply the photogenic Treasury, but it was a bustling Nabatean city 2,000 years ago, a city that sprawled through the valley and into the surrounding cliffsides. Petra has many impressive tombs (some of the larger ones look similar to the Treasury), carved in a manner inspired by the Greco-Roman style. There are large boulevards lined with columns, a giant amphitheatre that used to sit 3,000, and a religious temple (the Monastery) located on a twisting narrow path consisting of rubble, boulders, and 800 switchback steps carved into the remaining rock. Many of the cliffside temples and buildings had been eroded from centuries of wind and rain, and had surreal Dali-esque facades that looked like they could have been partially-melted ice cream.
It was on our second day at Petra that we decided to climb the long steep path up to the Monastery. Somewhat fatigued from our previous day’s 5-hour walk in the 95 degree heat (most of the day consisted of repeated exclamations like “WOW” and “Keith, look at that!”), we had a good night’s sleep, lots of water and sunblock, and some provisions for the trail. We were continually harassed by the Bedouin donkey-riders who take tourists up and down the trail for about five Dinars. The walk was full of great vistas and photo ops, some good exercise, and repeated recitations of laa shukran (no thanks, we don’t want to ride the donkey). After a good hour’s worth of climbing, when we were almost to the top, there was a boy of about 3 years that greeted us with raspberries—not of the fruit kind, but rather the spitty kind. These, naturally were met with raspberries from me, and this one-upmanship went on for a few minutes, ending with the boy giggling madly. Keith and I reached the top soon after; we sat to admire the view, rehydrate, and dig into the fruit and cookies we brought. The boy and his slightly older brother had made it up to the top too, in order to sell trinkets to the tourists disembarking from their donkey-saddles.
I held out a cookie for the younger boy to come and eat. He ran over to us at full throttle. He had bare feet, filthy clothes, and flies over his face, looking like one of those “Would you spend 50 cents a day to feed this child?” ads—but he was so happy and full of life. He had some paper in his hand—some random computer page printout from a German tour itinerary. He held it like it was precious to him, but I thought it would be more so if Keith used some of his skills to draw on the back of the paper. Keith drew cats and dogs for him. Peals of laughter from the kid. His brother came over and we offered him cookies too. Keith asked "Ramadan? Is this OK? OK with mom?" as if kids would actually turn down a cookie in any circumstance (they happily ate our cookies without hesitation). As we started packing up to make our way back down the trail, the older boy asked us: "English?" Keith answered: "No, American". And as we started to walk away, he said "Americans...are nice" quietly, almost more to himself than to us, as if he was making a pronouncement in order to imprint it upon his memory.
Travel thrusts us into other people’s lives unexpectedly, and can leave lasting impressions. I hope the ones we leave are always as good.
No surprise, Petra is absolutely stunning. When you complete your walk down the narrow, mile-long Siq (sheer rock cliffs that have been rent apart by tectonic forces), and get your first glimpse of the giant Treasury facade carved from the rose rock cliff face, it takes your breath away.
What was utterly surprising for us was the immense size of the park itself. I had always thought that Petra was simply the photogenic Treasury, but it was a bustling Nabatean city 2,000 years ago, a city that sprawled through the valley and into the surrounding cliffsides. Petra has many impressive tombs (some of the larger ones look similar to the Treasury), carved in a manner inspired by the Greco-Roman style. There are large boulevards lined with columns, a giant amphitheatre that used to sit 3,000, and a religious temple (the Monastery) located on a twisting narrow path consisting of rubble, boulders, and 800 switchback steps carved into the remaining rock. Many of the cliffside temples and buildings had been eroded from centuries of wind and rain, and had surreal Dali-esque facades that looked like they could have been partially-melted ice cream.
It was on our second day at Petra that we decided to climb the long steep path up to the Monastery. Somewhat fatigued from our previous day’s 5-hour walk in the 95 degree heat (most of the day consisted of repeated exclamations like “WOW” and “Keith, look at that!”), we had a good night’s sleep, lots of water and sunblock, and some provisions for the trail. We were continually harassed by the Bedouin donkey-riders who take tourists up and down the trail for about five Dinars. The walk was full of great vistas and photo ops, some good exercise, and repeated recitations of laa shukran (no thanks, we don’t want to ride the donkey). After a good hour’s worth of climbing, when we were almost to the top, there was a boy of about 3 years that greeted us with raspberries—not of the fruit kind, but rather the spitty kind. These, naturally were met with raspberries from me, and this one-upmanship went on for a few minutes, ending with the boy giggling madly. Keith and I reached the top soon after; we sat to admire the view, rehydrate, and dig into the fruit and cookies we brought. The boy and his slightly older brother had made it up to the top too, in order to sell trinkets to the tourists disembarking from their donkey-saddles.
I held out a cookie for the younger boy to come and eat. He ran over to us at full throttle. He had bare feet, filthy clothes, and flies over his face, looking like one of those “Would you spend 50 cents a day to feed this child?” ads—but he was so happy and full of life. He had some paper in his hand—some random computer page printout from a German tour itinerary. He held it like it was precious to him, but I thought it would be more so if Keith used some of his skills to draw on the back of the paper. Keith drew cats and dogs for him. Peals of laughter from the kid. His brother came over and we offered him cookies too. Keith asked "Ramadan? Is this OK? OK with mom?" as if kids would actually turn down a cookie in any circumstance (they happily ate our cookies without hesitation). As we started packing up to make our way back down the trail, the older boy asked us: "English?" Keith answered: "No, American". And as we started to walk away, he said "Americans...are nice" quietly, almost more to himself than to us, as if he was making a pronouncement in order to imprint it upon his memory.
Travel thrusts us into other people’s lives unexpectedly, and can leave lasting impressions. I hope the ones we leave are always as good.
Crossing (into) Jordan
What a contrast to Egypt! Cleaner, with a better infrastructure and less-aggressive touts, and people here seem genuinely proud of their country and their (relative) stability, and are happy to have tourists come visit. It seems that Jordan had been a popular destination (and very busy for our taxi driver) throughout most of the 90s, but the past year or so they have suffered from tourism slowdown. Jordanians seem unsure about the reasons why (the Iraq war has already been going on for a while now, and the Middle East in general has been dicey since...well...a long time. There was a well coordinated terrorist attack on several hotels last year--some 60+ people were killed—-though several people we spoke to insisted things had slowed down prior to that). We assured our driver that with the naming of Petra as one of the "New Seven Wonders of the World", business was sure to pick up.
Jordan has been a whirlwind of car travel. With less than a week in the country, and lots of ground to cover in order to see the major sights, we have spent a lot of time in a taxi. The good news is that Jordan is a small county: it only takes about 6-7 hours or so to go from the northern border to the southern one. There's not much in the way of buses, but taxis are popular, affordable, and they travel nationwide. We got into Amman in the afternoon and took a taxi to the hotel (You can hire a taxi for the day, and cross the country for about 80 Dinars. The Jordanian Dinar is worth about 1.4 USD, similar to the Euro, so things weren’t necessarily cheap. Many people in the country are very poor.)
We’ve been madly accumulating Starwood points (from our Amex card) the past five months in anticipation of our trip. We have been trying to minimize our hotel expenses by cashing in our points, or by using a clever combination of cash and points (usually 2000-3000 points plus $45 USD for nice hotels). This scheme really delivered in Amman, where we scored a huge suite at Le Meridien for $45. Our first afternoon was spent napping, doing some minor laundry, cleaning up, checking email and bills online, and repacking (we planned to leave some luggage in Amman so we could travel light while camping in Wadi Rum). That first night in Amman we ate at Benihana—weird, yes, but after weeks of disappointing Egyptian food, we had a craving for something Asian. The meal was the best we’d had in a while. It was an interesting experience, eating at an American chain restaurant staffed entirely by Filipinos pretending to be Japanese for the sake of their Arab clientèle.
Jordan has been a whirlwind of car travel. With less than a week in the country, and lots of ground to cover in order to see the major sights, we have spent a lot of time in a taxi. The good news is that Jordan is a small county: it only takes about 6-7 hours or so to go from the northern border to the southern one. There's not much in the way of buses, but taxis are popular, affordable, and they travel nationwide. We got into Amman in the afternoon and took a taxi to the hotel (You can hire a taxi for the day, and cross the country for about 80 Dinars. The Jordanian Dinar is worth about 1.4 USD, similar to the Euro, so things weren’t necessarily cheap. Many people in the country are very poor.)
We’ve been madly accumulating Starwood points (from our Amex card) the past five months in anticipation of our trip. We have been trying to minimize our hotel expenses by cashing in our points, or by using a clever combination of cash and points (usually 2000-3000 points plus $45 USD for nice hotels). This scheme really delivered in Amman, where we scored a huge suite at Le Meridien for $45. Our first afternoon was spent napping, doing some minor laundry, cleaning up, checking email and bills online, and repacking (we planned to leave some luggage in Amman so we could travel light while camping in Wadi Rum). That first night in Amman we ate at Benihana—weird, yes, but after weeks of disappointing Egyptian food, we had a craving for something Asian. The meal was the best we’d had in a while. It was an interesting experience, eating at an American chain restaurant staffed entirely by Filipinos pretending to be Japanese for the sake of their Arab clientèle.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Wadi Rum
Even boarding the new, clean Royal Jordanian Airlines plane in Cairo, we started to notice a difference. We spoke briefly with a fellow passenger, a Jordanian woman relieved to be going home... "How long were you in Egypt?" Jacqueline asked... "Ten days....long enough to get homesick!" She added "Jordan is beautiful, you will LOVE it here!!"
After the unrelenting heat and dust of Egypt, Jordan's cooler climate was a relief... As far as climate & topography, Amman feels more like Southern California or New Mexico than it does your stereotypical Arab desert. Amman is a modern city with tree-lined boulevards, high-rises and large suburban neighborhoods reminiscent of Beverly Hills... the strong infrastucture and relative calm of this place is impressive considering the violence that surrounds it (I'll post more on that later, hopefully).
We spent two days exploring the ruins at Petra; that'll have to wait for a later post. For now though, at least I was able to upload some pictures to flickr. Here's a slideshow of our Bedouin campout in Wadi Rum:
You can see these pics larger and with captions on flickr.
Tomorrow we fly to Rome...
After the unrelenting heat and dust of Egypt, Jordan's cooler climate was a relief... As far as climate & topography, Amman feels more like Southern California or New Mexico than it does your stereotypical Arab desert. Amman is a modern city with tree-lined boulevards, high-rises and large suburban neighborhoods reminiscent of Beverly Hills... the strong infrastucture and relative calm of this place is impressive considering the violence that surrounds it (I'll post more on that later, hopefully).
We spent two days exploring the ruins at Petra; that'll have to wait for a later post. For now though, at least I was able to upload some pictures to flickr. Here's a slideshow of our Bedouin campout in Wadi Rum:
You can see these pics larger and with captions on flickr.
Tomorrow we fly to Rome...
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