Saving the best for last

I’ve had a good time touring around with Abdul. He’s just way more my speed, and I find myself bold enough to ask the questions that matter – to me, at least. I make fun of myself a lot, I know. Some things just don’t ever make sense to me. Geometry is one – I had bartered a copy of the answer key from the TA and I STILL only got a C on the final. And history – that’s just a big swirling mess of information. And I think the common focus of these bus tours is a torrent of regimes and dynasties and empires shoved down your throat.

Abdul allowed me to steer him away to other topics and I am very grateful. The most surprising thing I discovered is the palpable feeling of unrest in the Middle East. It’s been one thing to watch NBC coverage of the situation and a whole eye-opening shock to come experience it. I don’t necessarily feel anti-Semitism (well, except from that tour member;) but what is quite evident is the anti-Israel vehemence. From the US, I concluded that Jordan and Israel are allies. Jordan and Israel are most definitely not allies. Just yesterday, some young Jordanian singer tweeted something that could possibly be viewed as pro-Israel and her appearance at a big music festival was cancelled!

But let’s move on. Abdul tells me that tourism accounts for 17% of Jordan’s economy and they hope to keep bringing that figure up. Our tour company – Gate 1 – brought 3000 people to Jordan in 2019 and plans to bring 5000 in 2020. There’s a fair amount of tourism here but nothing like in Israel. Other tidbits from Abdul – You can get pulled over for talking on the a cell phone here – the fine is $20. In a country of 10 million people, Jordan has 5 jails. Teachers make about $700 per month and work 8 months per year. Gas is about $4 per gallon and 100% imported – Jordan is oil – and water – poor.

When I’m not trying to ask Abdul questions, he focuses on guiding us around Jordan. He took us out to some church that was supposed to be very exciting because Jesus was baptized near there but what I found fascinating was the Jordan/Israel border. This is the Jordan river below. We’re on the Jordan side, looking over to the Israel side, which is quite busy with people coming for baptisms. There are border guards hanging out on either side.

After that we went to Madaba, a town made famous for a church that has a Byzantine tile map on the floor. I did not get a picture of the map but I did snap some photos of these snack foods en route. Ron, in possession of all of our Jordanian currency, refused to let me buy any of these AND had the audacity, after I went back to the bus to sulk, to come strolling out of the market with an ice cream for himself! (Aside – the currency here is called the Dinar – which Ron pronounces as the “Dinero”, which is funny, since that’s the Spanish word for money…not that he’s aware of that!)

One thing I’ve noticed as we trek through Jordan are the storefronts. They’re fantastic. Here’s one from Madaba, just across the street from the famous church with the famous Byzantine mosaic. Kind of like a Jordanian Claire’s, I thought.

Here was a fire extinguisher store:

But this one below is my favorite. I’ve seen a few of these and I’ve spent countless valuable vacation minutes trying to get a picture of one – my camera and my face smushed onto the bus window. This is the best I could do, so excuse the blur. But these are chicken stores. Notice the chicken on the sign. Inside are walls filled with cages of live chickens. Moments like these really make me wish we were still with George, our tour guide from Greece, so we could pull over and do a little reconnaissance.

Those of you who have been to Jordan know I am just torturing you at this point. Because today, we discovered the real reason to come to Jordan. Not that Jerash wasn’t spectacular. But Jordan has Petra. And Petra is worth the whole 24 hours of traveling from Seattle.

Petra was built by the Nabateans, who lived in Jordan just before the BC era turned to the AD era – so a bit over 2000 years ago. They built a city for about 20,000. They carved their buildings into rose-red sandstone. I’m not going to be able to do much justice to this but, just to give you a sense…

You enter the site walking through high sandstone walls like this:

You pass a lot of supercute dogs:

You keep walking, wondering if your bum leg/hip is going to make the hike. But you’re intrigued so you keep going. Carts and horses speed by you:

And then you see this ahead of you:

And you enter unto the Treasury at Petra. I actually cried when I walked out into this courtyard – and that’s a rare travel thing for me – only the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and Venice have ever moved me that much.

Here’s a full shot of the building. There’s no consensus on what it was used for.

There’s more to Petra than the Treasury. The remains of a very elaborate city lies buried under a lot of sandstone. 85% of Petra is still buried – and like at Jerash – there’s no visible excavation going on.

Here’s a couple of more shots from around Petra. The top one is assorted burial sites – larger for royalty and smaller for the riff-raff. The bottom picture is their arena.

I was most pleased with myself after Petra. I did 7 miles with my trusty Leko walking stick. There’s a real fraternity to us walking stick folk. At Jerash, I was looking for a place to sit down for a minute and spied a semi-open bench. The two women already there had walking sticks (inferior brand, but I try to be open-minded). They gestured me over and made room for me and we got to talking, bonded by our various leg/back ailments. It was a beautiful moment of Swedish/American diplomacy.

Here’s me at about mile 6 today, smiling away!

And here’s one more of Petra:

This will be it for me, people. We’ve got a Jeep tour in the desert tomorrow and then a 4 hour drive back to Amman to catch our flight home.

As ever, I’ve had a blast. Traveling brings out my best possible self and I’m grateful for each adventure. I’m US-bound until fall 2020 – so far:)