Thursday, July 22, 2010

Ancient Capital of Edom

My friends who had visited Jordan before I did gave me lots of suggestions for tourist activities. Of all of the ideas, two of those were listed under the "I Don't Care if I Don't Do Anything Else" to-do list: Petra and the Dead Sea. They lived up to their expectations. This blog post will, naturally, be dedicated to Petra...or according the Old Testament, the ancient capital of Edom (2 Kings 14:7, Isaiah 16:1, Judges 1:36...).

You may also know about the place thanks to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade--in my opinion the best of the Indiana Jones films. (Of course this may be due to the fact that when I saw it for the first time I had a teensy little teenaged crush on River Phoenix. Or that there are scenes in Venice.)

I posted a trailer that isn't working for some reason, but that's okay because it didn't exactly show you what I am talking about. And then you might not want to read the rest of my travelogue. That has pictures. I took about a kajillion billion pictures, but it is my goal to show you the best of mine.

Petra is an all-day event, and if you have the time there is enough to see for two days. We left Amman early in morning, and took a two-hour bus to the city. It is certainly a tourist attraction, but the place is so huge that the throngs do not derail the experience. After purchasing tickets, and a cool Arabic-type headscarf (which, sadly, was Made in China), we were on our way.

For the first leg of the journey visitors can choose to walk, take a carriage, or ride a horse--included in the price of the ticket (!). Trish and I, wanting the full experience, chose to go horseback. Along the way we passed the Djin Blocks, the Obelisk Tomb, and the ancient man-made cave dwellings that are littered throughout the site. Since my horse guide thought the best way to collect a lot of tips was to make the horse run, and thus taking on more tourists. So along the way, I took pictures of somethings but they were blurry. It's a good thing that we got to pass by that way (on foot) to leave.
The horses dropped us off at the entrance of the Bab al-Siq area--narrow, tall, and utterly gorgeous cliffs. Along the way we saw the artistry of the natural rock layers, ancient carvings, and fig trees growing out of the fissures in the rocks.
It was hard to avoid looking up, and by the time we reached the most famous monument in Petra my neck was pretty sore. It was entirely worth it. Trish and I were walking near a tour group, and as we approached the end of the canyon trail the guide played an all-too-familiar movie theme song. (I'm pretty sure you know which one I mean.)
The Treasury--the immense building you see in the above pictures--is truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Trish and I had to rest and take it all in while enjoying a celebratory Silver Bullet Diet Coke. We had to get our energy up for the rest of the trip.

Can you believe I still have more to share?

When faced with the option "Why Not?" sometimes the question is also the best response--especially when faced with the offer to take a donkey ride to the top of the cliffs to the Monastery. At first, I thought "tourist trap," but it was So.Much.Fun, and the only way we could get up to the Monastery and back without missing our bus.

I actually rode a mule probably because my bedouin guide thought I was too tall for a donkey.

On our way we passed more Nabatean marvels: the Royal Tombs, an arena, and a temple, all being excavated by a fine team from Brown University. We took a lot of pictures, and Trish took thousands--well, so much so that her bedouin started to call her "The Japanese."

For reasons of safety (trust me) I didn't take too many pictures on the way to the top. It was all I could do to hang on to my poor, poor mule. Really, donkeys and mules have the saddest faces. I kind of wanted to take one home with me so I could spend my life trying to make it happy. But then, what would I do with a donkey--even a happy one?

After a very long time hanging on for dear life, and not looking over the side of the cliff, we arrived at the Monastary. Less ornate, but the edifice is just as amazing as the Treasury.
Petra is not just an archeological masterpiece. People, bedouins actually, live there. Many families live in the caves that were carved out centuries ago. In fact, several years ago a New Zealand lady was wooed by a bedouin, and ended up marrying him. They live in Petra to this day. And she wrote a book that I need to read. This has, of course, inspired many bedouin lads to aspire to meeting a lovely (blond) Westerner and luring her into his tent/cave. Trish and I were even invited to "make party" with our two guides.
How could we resist those two eye-lined lads? Easy. It's called running water.

Believe it or not, descending the mountainside was just a hair scarier than ascending. I am surprised that I can't remember the name of my mule, because I would nervously say it coupled with a "shway, shway" (easy, easy) as she gingerly climbed down the worn, carved staircase.
My mantra was: "Hold tight, trust the mule, and don't look down." Isn't that a good mantra for life in general?

Miraculously Trish and I survived, and we happily celebrated once again with another Silver Bullet Diet Coke, and 7-Up's H2Oh. And without our two bedouin guides.

I had to remove my friend's pictures--for some reason they weren't showing up. It's really a crying shame.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Travelogue Continues

Now that I have finished summer obsession #1 (the Anne of Green Gables series), I am now onto summer obsession #2 (the Tour de France), and unlike the charming tales of a certain red-head I should be able to blog while watching some bike racing. I won't mention that there is only one week left for the Tour...

But you didn't come here to hear about epic races in France. I promised pictures, and by golly I will deliver:

My friend Trish and I took a little detour from our Dubai explorations and hopped on a plane to visit what is now one of my Favorite Places on Earth--The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Since it was early April we missed the rainy season, but instead it was sunny, green, and the hills were covered with wild flowers and little clusters of sheep. It was heaven.

We stayed with Fadi, the fellow who was dead-set on bringing me to the Middle East in the first place. He was a great host. Not only did we stay with him, he also picked us up from the airport, arranged for taxis to take us around, and he ordered one the best meals I have ever eaten in my entire life.

Our first stop in Jordan was for lunch in the hilltop town of Madaba. Fadi had to return to the bakery, so he quickly ordered some mezze dishes and then left us to enjoy it while sitting on the terrace of this ancient building.
We ate hummous, baba ghanoush, fatoush salad, fried cheese pastries, fried spinach pastries, shish taouk, fresh pita, and mint-lemonade. I wish I knew the name of the place so I can direct you when you go to Jordan, but all I can tell you is that it is not too far from the Greek Orthodox church.

This Church is a common tourist destination because it contains a gorgeous, historic map of the ancient world--showing locations such as Jericho, Bethlehem, Lot's Cave, to name a few.
After gazing at the map, and pointing out the important locales we took a cab to Jebel Nepo, or Mount Nebo.

If you are an Old Testament scholar, you may recognize this place. Mount Nebo is not just another lovely hillside in Jordan, it is also the place where Moses looked out across the Promised Land just prior to the Israelites taking possession of it. It was a very clear day, and like Moses, my friend and I were able to look out and see Israel (or Occupied Palestine--depending on your political views). In fact, we could even make out the town of Jericho.
It really was fabulous to think that I stood where such a great prophet stood.

A taxi came to pick us up and take us back down to Amman. That night Trish and I explored some of the more sociable areas of Amman, and had dinner at a very popular cafe. Some guys tried to hit on us, but the weren't really our type. Plus we needed to rest for our upcoming explorations.

But before I leave you to wonder about the other wonders I plan to show you, I will leave you with these two images:
Those are sheep on the top of the middle hillside.
Probably the cutest can of Diet Coke on the planet. They are about the size of a Red Bull can, but instead filled with DC. Trish called it the "Silver Bullet Can." Many such cans were consumed during our sojourn. Please tell me where we can get some in the U.S. Please.