As I wrote before, our first two nights in Jordan were spent in the quaint little town of Madaba. Madaba was a welcome respite from busy Damascus, and an easy day trip to the Dead Sea. Astrid and I hired a driver to take us from Madaba to Petra via the Kings Highway. On this taxi ride we met Doug, who joined us in Petra the following day. The Kings Highway takes you from green fields colored with spring flowers, past rocky mountains, through huge canyons, and by dusty deserts. We stopped for about an hour in Karak and toured an old crusader castle. The old cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were supposedly nearby, and we could see the Dead Sea in the distance. We also stopped for tea alongside the canyon, and frequently stopped for pictures.
After about a six hour car ride, we arrived in the hilly town of Wadi Musa, right next to Petra (Musa, meaning Moses... supposedly this is where Moses struck the rock from which water flowed). The next day we bought a very expensive two-day pass to Petra (only a little more than the one day pass, but if you are thinking about visiting Petra, do it now. The prices will keep rising to a ridiculous amount by this November.) and explored the old Nabatean city. Walking through the Siq (the narrow canyon with beautiful red, pink, and tan rocks) and catching the first glimpse of the treasury (the building made famous by Indiana Jones) was really amazing. The city is quite large. There were over 800 stairs to the monastery, which was even bigger than the treasury, but the "view of the end of the world" was definitely worth the hike (the Bedouin tea in the tent overlooking this view was also nice.). We decided to take a different hike out of Petra in the afternoon. (We = me, Astrid, Doug, and two students from Damascus we met along the way) This hike was a little difficult to find, but we finally came to the narrow canyon, thanks to the help of several local Bedouins. It was one of the most intense hikes I have ever been on, wading through puddles of water, pulling and pushing each other over huge boulders (and huge piles of trash). We were lucky to make it out of the canyon with ten minutes to spare before it grew dark.
That night at the hotel (with Indiana Jones playing in the background) we met some new friends from a nearby country, and decided to join them to Wadi Rum the next day. So we caught the 6:20am bus and headed to the desert made famous by Lawrence of Arabia (which is an excellent film, by the way.). We shared the back of a jeep with seven other people, and bounced through the desert. We stopped to climb a rocky mountain to see a spring and up to a natural arch, to hike through a narrow canyon and also up a sand dune, and to see old Nabatean rock carvings and Lawrence's house. The desert in Wadi Rum is gorgeous as well. Rocky mountains rise out of the sands and fade into the background. There's not a mountain change, just single, solitary rock mountains (see my pictures for a better idea).
After an afternoon in the desert, we headed south (with our new friends) to Aqaba. Aqaba is right on the Red Sea, and the next day we were able to go swimming off the coast and see some beautiful blue, purple, and white coral. From the Jordanian coast, we were less than 10km from Saudi Arabia and could see Israel and Egypt across the sea. After a nice day at the beach we took a bus up to Amman and spent the night in the country's capital before heading back to Damascus the following day.
I'm now back in Syria, safe and sound (tomorrow I start level four class at Damascus University.). Jordan is a gorgeous country, with the landscape changing from green, fertile farmlands to harsh, dry desert. We met some great people along the way and had flexible travel plans, which I loved. I highly recommend a trip to Jordan to anyone reading this.
