South of Jordan Trip- Part 2 (belated, sorry)
Trip Start
Jun 28, 2008
1
12
Trip End
Aug 15, 2008
Petra, Dana, Karak, Jordan
Sunday, August 10, 2008
After we got on the bus in Wadi Rum, we drove through the hot desert to Petra, a few hours away through the desert hills. Around mid-day, we made it to our hotel, which was the five-star Taybet Zaman, which is one of the most unique and classiest hotels in the country. It's located in an ancient Ummayad village, where all of the rooms are little villas located along beautiful stone lanes. There was a little souk, or market, and a fabulous pool and views of the surrounding areas. My roommates were Stephanie and Alissa, and we had a gorgeous room and comfy beds. After cleaning up, we all went out and drove to a place called "Little Petra". Sadly, I really don't know what its real name is, although I suppose I can look it up soon. After walking through some rock crevices, we came upon some gorgeous ancient Nabatean tomb carvings in the beautiful rock formations. We all climbed around in the ancient dwellings, which were incredibly well preserved. It's not as well known as Petra, so there were very few tourists, and in the late afternoon, the rocks shaded us from the sun, so it was wonderful. Then, some of us climbed these steps situated picturesquely in a skinny gorge, and upon reaching the top, found a beautiful valley with wonderful rock formations. It was lovely. We had to leave soon, though, so we left the area and shopped around outside where Bedouins had set up their craft tents. It was fun to talk with them and bargain for gifts.
After leaving the ancient valley, we stopped for falafel sandwiches and took our picnic dinner up to a tall mountain summit, where we watched the sunset over the hills around Petra. It was incredible, and we all had fun dancing on the mountain top as the sunset behind the rocks. That night, we went back to the hotel, and went swimming under the stars in the hotel's classy pool. Just when I thought we wouldn't see more shooting stars, we did again at the hotel. It was amazing to be swimming in the cool water under the bright night sky, with the calls to prayer from the various mosques in the area bouncing off the nearby hills. We played our own version of Marco Polo in the pool (named "Abu Ali), and had fun swimming around in the dark. It got really cold, though, so we got out and went back to our room, where we took luxurious showers and watched our favorite Arabic drama, "Noor", while eating the rest of our falafel. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, and slept really soundly.
We had to wake up very early the next morning, around 6 am, so that we could go to the real Petra when it was a little cooler. We ate the most amazing continental breakfast I've ever had in the hotel's incredible ancient restaurant, where we pigged-out on olives, bread, hummus, jam, cheese, and fruit salad. It was wooooonderful haha. Around 7:15 am, we left for Petra, and even that early, it was already really busy. It was funny to see the cheesy gift shops selling "Indiana Jones" paraphernalia (the Last Crusade movie takes place in Petra at the end, when he finds the Holy Grail). J The walk through Petra was very long, so we were thankful we were there early and the sun wasn't too bad. After waking along a long road, we made it the Siq, or the ancient entryway to Petra. It's a narrow gorge carved by flash floods, and it was how the ancient Nabateans entered their stone city. The colors and rock formations in the Siq were incredible; I've never seen anything like it in my life! It was so beautiful and cool, so we walked slowly to take everything in. Then, after around 1 km of walking, around a bend in the gorge, we suddenly came upon the famous Treasury. It was magnificent, and was certainly awe-inspiring on first glance. When we made it out of the Siq, we were able to explore the Treasury's inside (nothing like Indiana Jones haha), and suddenly we came upon even more of the city. Over the course of a few hours, we saw countless carvings in the stone, all of which, except for one, weren't free standing, but nestled in the sandstone hills. They were so well preserved! We walked around, looking at the beautiful colors and carvings, and chatted in Arabic with the local Bedouins selling crafts to tourists. One, with a cute little girl, made us tea off of a little stove behind her stand, and we sat and talked with her and played with the little girl in the shadow of a large temple. It was really great. However, we wanted to see the Monastery, which was on the very opposite end of the temple complex, over 4 km from the entrance, uphill (one way). So we left, but on our way there we were bombarded by little children selling us Bedouin necklaces. Since we talked to them in Arabic, and taught them some English, they wanted to give us the necklaces for free, but we payed them anyway, because most of the people there are very poor.
On we hiked to the Monastery, which turned out to be about a 1 km hike up more than 850 stone steps. It was exhausting, and because we didn't have much time, we had to do it very quickly in the hot sun. As we climbed higher and higher the views got more spectacular, and while some tourists took donkeys to the top, we were determined to walk it all. After a little over an hour (very good time, apparently), we reached the top and saw the massive Monastery, which was completely worth the hike. The carved façade was incredible, and we climbed into it to look around. We only got about 15 minutes to enjoy the view before we had to turn around, because our bus was leaving in an hour, and normally it takes almost two to get back to the entrance from where we were. Eeeek! So, in different groups, all of us basically sprinted down the mountain. Alissa, who is a cross country runner, and I , went down together, and I'm glad I had her with me because she pushed me along when I felt too tired to keep going. We power walked past all of the sites we had passed before, and when we were offered donkeys from the men renting them out (since we must've looked like we were dying), we said no, we had just walked from the Monastery, or "al Deyr" in Arabic. Every one of the natives was very impressed, and we felt really proud of ourselves. Soon, we came upon the people in our group that didn't do the hike, and they thankfully gave us water and let us sit for a bit before we had to start again. My feet felt awful, but we walked all the way back through the Siq, where most of us gave up for the rest of the walk and took beautiful horses back to the main entrance. It was completely worth the 2 JD to ride them! Haha Sadly, though, we had to say goodbye to Petra, so we got on the bus and drove back to our hotel, where they thankfully let us check out later so we could take showers. After that, we hit the road again, and drove through more hills to the Dana nature reserve, which is one of very few nature reserves in the country. It was absolutely spectacular, with rolling hills covered in trees, and really interesting rock formations. We took a kind of cattle car filled with our things down a mountain to our campsite, as we were really far away from civilization. After unpacking our things in our cute, teepee style tents (yay Alissa and Margaret, my roomies!), we got ready to go on a hike, because it was almost 6.30 pm and we wanted to see the sunset from the summit of the mountain. So, with a few random directions from a park ranger telling us where to go (follow the trail markers, aka piles of stones- when there are piles of stones EVERYWHERE!), we began our ascent. After hiking in Petra that morning, I wasn't too keen on another steep hike, but I was determined to push myself, so after a long, quick-paced hour long hike, we made it to the top. The summit was incredible, with interesting trees and spectacular views. Plus, we only had to wait around a half an hour to watch the magnificent sunset over the peaceful hills, with nothing but the sounds of the wind in the pine trees' branches and a few birds to interrupt us. After the sunset, though, we had to get down the mountain quickly before it got too dark to see, so we had to descend the same way as the scary, rocky steep uphill climb from before. It was so scary! I tried to take it slow though, and thankfully we all made it down safely just as it got too difficult to see. We were greeted by the people who stayed at the camp, and helped to make a yummy dinner of bread, beans, hummus, vegetables, and cheese, which really hit the spot after a long hike. We relaxed in our "bayet shar" on colorful cushions, and watched as our campfire grew larger and larger while drinking traditional tea. I iced my poor swollen feet while laughing with my friends, which was just so much fun. Afterwards, we played "campfire games", mostly Arabic versions of telephone and other language games, and I won a sticker book as a prize. Haha. Soon after, we decided it was almost time for bed, so we put on our PJs, and went out to look at the stars one last time. That night, I counted almost 12 in a half an hour. We had lots of fun giggling on our mats under the stars, but we were nervous about animals and scorpions, because we had been told it was much more possible to see a creature at night than in Wadi Rum. So, as a pack of "wowiis", or half-dog half-wolves, began to start howling, we retreated to our tent, where I feel asleep immediately again.
In the morning, after a light, traditional breakfast, we has a class in the "bayet shar", and talked in Arabic about our trip. Soon after, though, we headed back up the mountain (via cattle car), and continued our journey. It was sad to leave such a peaceful place, but it was getting hot, so it was nice to be in the air conditioned bus.
We were supposed to head right back to Amman, but the students talked about it, and we were close to a famous castle called Karak (which is in the movie Kingdom of Heaven), and we asked the teachers if we could stop there for an hour to explore and eat lunch. Surprisingly, they agreed to it! So we got to see this amazingly preserved Crusader castle, and we got lost in its many dark passageways and rooms. It was so neat! We saw an ancient kitchen with ancient sinks, and saw some very old churches nestled within the castles walls. It was incredible! We could really sense what life was like for a Crusader living in the castle.
Yet again, though, we had to leave, and this time back to Amman. We all fell asleep on the bus, and then again when we made it back to our houses. It was one of the most incredible trips of my life, and I had some of the greatest adventures ever. I really hope that someday I can bring all of you to Jordan, because seeing such beauty made me really fall in love with this country.
I hope you're all doing well. I know I'm about a week behind on my blogs, but maybe tomorrow I can post an update about what happened in the last week. Right now, though, I have to go study some Arabic grammar. Please be well! I can't wait to see you all soon when I'm back in the states! (In less than a week!)
With lots of love from Amman,
Lindsay
Comments
Hey!. I just stumbled across these albums.
That's nice when i'm seeing my hometown's pictures on profiles of the people who visited it.
proudness feelings