Amman's gotta do what Amman's gotta do

So starting from where I left off last night, I got back to my hotel, and sat down to dinner, which they had provided (for 5 JD). For those who have been wondering, I have been eating meat here. Mostly it's a When-In-Rome kind of approach, but also my other major reasons for meat minimalism in general are somewhat moot: I don't know that there's much factory farming that happens here, so you avoid the double-whammy of huge environmental impacts and questionable ethics.

Over dinner, I chatted with another person in the hotel, a teacher from Michigan originally, but who now works in Botswana! After dinner, she decided that she'd like to try some Jordanian beer, and I decided I would too, so we went to a nearby liquor store and picked up two cans of Petra Beer (the 8% abv isn't too bad... sortof lager-y, but the 10% really isn't worth it) and a flask of عرق- "Arak", which is basically Arab Ouzo. I haven't really had Ouzo, so I don't know how different it is. Over our alcoholic beverages, we pulled out our respective iPods and swapped music. And then she named me in Setswana (the language in Botswana): I am now, in addition to Peter, Pedro, Boutros, and PeaCombs, "Malebogo" which means "thank you".

Alisha (for that is her name) went to Petra today, while I mainly took it slow and explored eastern Amman, which is called "downtown". Again, not hugely high-density anything. I went and saw some of the old Roman ruins--a public fountain and amphitheatre--then went and saw the Byzantine and Ummayid Citadel on the hill above the city. The highlight of that, I think, was the Archealogical museum they have up there, which covers the history of jordan from roughly the Neolithic up until the Ummayids. In addition to some more artifacts from Petra and the Nabateans, they had pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls on exhibition.

After that, I came down the hill and had originally planned on walking much of the length of the city, but then I realized that it was actually pretty big, so I turned back, although I did get to explore a busy market area.

I went back to the hotel, and decided to sit down for a bit before checking out Darat al-Funuun--"The Little House of the Arts", where I was told that our hotel has a rooftop to sit on. Upon going up, I noticed laundry lines, so I washed my other clothes (which hadn't happened in just a bit too long) in my sink, and hung them out to dry. Then, I went to the Arts House, which is right near the hotel, athough my attempts to locate it yesterday were not successful. And it's too bad that they were unsuccessful, because I get there to discover that at the moment they're between exhibitions, and the last one closed... yesterday! Oh well. I did enjoy a nice cup of tea in their garden. Then I walked around in the neighborhood, which was quite nice. I think, when I become fabulously wealthy, that's one place I'll buy a house. It was mostly quiet villas (and the odd Embassy) built into the hillside, with lots of foliage and occaisional bursts of wild mustard and thistle.

I go back to my hotel, then go out to get dinner. I have a large helping of amazing hummous, some falafel balls, a large piece of pita bread*, and a glass of tea. I think it was probably better than last night's Magloubeh (Chicken and rice and vegetables, basically), so I was expecting to pay about the same. Nope. 1 JD. You can bet they'll have my business in the future. For the next couple days, at any rate.

All right, my hour is almost up (and I just installed skype, too!). Tomorrow: The Dead Sea!


*Not quite how I make it. It ends up being thicker than what I make, and wider at the same time. Also, I think it's with white flour. I haven't seen how they make it, though, but the coloring is solid tan on one side, and speckled tan on the other.

A Landscape of Merry and Desperate Drought

So, as I implied in my last post, I went to Wadi Rum. Again, gorgeous, indescribable landscapes. I took lots of pictures, but I don't think they did it any justice. We'll see when I get them onto a bigger screen. Also: It rained. In the desert! Not very much, but it did lead to some impressive views (that probably didn't photograph well).

Then, there was some excitement getting to Amman, where I am now. So the tour was 45 JD through my hotel, which I had been led to understand was all-inclusive. Not wanting to haul my main backpack along on the minibus, I left it in my hotel, taking just my day bag and sleeping bag. So on the bus, the guy tells me and the other person from my hotel on the same tour that we're only covered for one direction of transport. It turns out that what our hotel had said was that after the night camping, we get taken back to Rum Village, from which we can catch the bus. Okay, fine. You should've been more clear. But it's 5 J.D. each way, which isn't so bad. Also there's a 2 J.D. entrance fee to the park, which we hadn't been informed of.

So we get into our tour operator, and someone else from the same minibus, but not having booked through the hotel, walks in, and the (British) girl working there explains that it's 35 J.D. for the tour. So our hotel, with the 1 way transport, took a 5 J.D. markup, which is fair.

Anyways, we get back from the tour of the desert and camping in the bedouin camp, and we're led to expect that the bus will swing by the in-town office to pick us up. Except it doesn't. Apparently it was already full, so decided to skip us, and this is a regular occurence on Tuesdays. So, me and the other guy from the same hotel, who also left his bag there, have a couple options: a) hire a taxi (35 JD total, 1.5-2 hours), or b) hitchhike (maybe 5JD, God-only-knows how long). I figure that it's better to make it there faster, from which we're more likely to be able to catch a microbus to Amman. Except, on the way, somehow we bargain with the taxi driver to take us on to Amman for 60JD total, or a bit less if we can find more people in Petra. Except when we get there, apparently all the busses to Amman have left already. So it's just the 2 of us, and the trip that I was expecting to be maybe 5 JD from Petra just 36 hours earlier ended up costing me 30 JD. Hooray for 600% markups due to situation!

Having wandered just a little bit through what I thought was downtown Amman, I'm not sure there is a downtown. It seems like mostly light commercial mixed with light-to-moderate residential areas. I'll wander a bit more and see what I can find. In terms of City-feel, I think if Cairo is New York, Amman feels a bit like Seattle, although I can't yet put my finger on why (it certainly isn't the weather... that's actually quite like home).

Also: for the list of coordinates for the map thingy on the right: right here!

Princetonian Peter, Polish Piotr partner, peruse Petra

Petra is absolutely incredible. Neither pictures nor words will do it justice.

I did meet a guy on the bus, though, who I ended up splitting a hotel room with. His name is Piotr, which was just too funny to pass up.

Also: I may end up going to Wadi Rum after all. My hotel organizes a trip for 45 J.D., which while not cheap, is at least relatively affordable.

Okay, this keyboard sucks, so I'm going to sign off now.

Some thoughts

* First off, looks like I won't be going to Wadi Rum. It was going to be a little bit too pricey an affair. So straight on to Petra tomorrow. It seems that there are considerable savings to be had a) in groups, and b) with advanced planning, so there's the disadvantage of this way of going about things. Perhaps next time I'm in the area (and there probably will be a next time), in Sha' Allah.

* Aqaba, at least, feels like a cleaner, prettier Egypt. Many of the same styles of architecture that you'll see around, the people are more or less the same (but not quite as tackily dressed), but there just isn't as much trashh lying around in conspicuous piles on the street, and you don't have to play what Sundae has termed "Life Frogger" to cross in front of cars. Now, to be fair, Aqaba is Jordan's only port, and so I think it's sort of like their resort town. You also end up paying a lot more for things here than in Egypt. My hotel room was 17 J.D., which is almost 25 USD, whereas I could get a similar room in egypt for maybe 15 USD (70 L.E.)

* I tempted fate. Last night, I was saying that I've been amazed that, so far, I haven't had any digestive troubles. Whoops. Hopefully the immodium will help. Nothing too bad, though.

* The beach was awesome. Nothing too special on the shore, just fine-gravelly sand. But once you get into the water, maybe 30 feet from shore you start seeing the most amazing fish, coral, urchins, what have you. Really, quite incredible. Unfortunately, it was a bit windy, so whenever I was on the surface, I got a little chilly. The water itself was a bit cool, but fine once you got used to it.

There were more, I'm sure, but I forgot them before I could get to something to write with.

I'm really not good at titling these

So my last post, I think, left off just before the title would actually come in. So as the boat is pulling into Aqaba, and we're getting off, the customs officer forms people into two lines: one for those with visas, and one for those without. Apparently we could've gotten visas on the boat, but by time one of us thought to check, they had just closed the window for doing that. We think they made some announcements about it, but in Arabic only over speakers that, even if they had made an announcement in English, I'm not certain I could've understood anyways.

So they take our passports, then herd us off the boqat into a waiting area. We explain to everyone that we can that we didn't get a stamp on the boat, and that we don't have our passports, but as time goes on I get more and more panicked because I'm in a foreign country and I don't have my passport because some official took it. Eventually, though, they do bring us our passports, stamped with a Jordanian visa. *phew*

We get into town, find a hotel, then head out to explore for a bit. Mainly, though, we just end up sitting in sea-side coffee shops and chatting over tea and hookah.

Today, I've spent some time trying to find out whether it's possible to do a camel trek in Wadi Rum, a rocky-deserty area (I think it is... though it's not clear to me how much an all-day thing will be. Probably not more than 100 USD or so), some time in this internet cafe, and now i'm going to see about either hanging out on a beach, or going snorkeling. Then tomorrow: Wadi Rum!

The terrain here is pretty rugged, very mountainous and dry. I'm trying to think of an appropriate comparison to something in the states, but can't at the moment. I haven't really been to Sedona, but that might be closest.

Another stamp in the passport

I made it to Jordan!

After writing the last post, I went back to the hotel, collected my bags, and said good-bye to Evan. It turns out he had met someone else from our hostel in Cairo, and had plans to hang out with him. I, meanwhile, hopped on the train to Alexandria, which was surprisingly punctual in pulling out of the station. I suppose I ought not be too surprised... the trains run approximately hourly, so there's not much reason for them to leave late. It got in only 15 minutes late, too, which was just fine.

From the train station, I walked over to the bus station (probably about 20 minutes), bought a bus ticket to Nuweiba on the eastern Sinai peninsula, and sat and waited. The bus was far less punctual than the train in leaving. Since there was no schedule for stops, I can't say whether it was good at all at arriving, either. Sitting behind me on the bus was, I kid you not, a circus troupe. I was surprised to hear that they were, but not too surprised given their somewhat bohemian appearance. I wish I could tell you that they were exciting and cool, but really on the bus everyone mostly just curled up and went to sleep.

Now, for me this was a somewhat dicey proposition. Public transit anywhere isn't known for spacious accomodations, and busses are no exception. The seats barely provided me adequate leg room if I twisted my whole body and put my legs into the space of the seat next to me. This was fine, as when the bus pulled out of the station, there wasn't anybody sitting there. Then, to my dismay, at the other cairo bus stop, a man sits down next to me. So there I am, sitting with my knees in the back of the person in front of me, and still taking up some of the room of the person next to me. Surprisingly, I did manage to get to sleep, and actually slept reasonably well for the trip. When the circus troupe got off at an earlier stop than mine, though, the man sitting next to me immediately moved to a different seat, and I think we both breathed a sigh of relief.

Upon arriving in Nuweiba, I head to the Port Authority. The guard there asks me for my passport, which I show to him. He then tries to explain, no, not that passport. "Tickes" "Ah, you mean ticket? Where do I get it?" He then points me in the right direction, where there is a small courtyard with a picture of a boat on a sign with prices that approximately matched what I was supposed to pay for the ferry, but $15 higher. I asked some people I had heard speaking English whether they could undertand arabic any better than I could, and together we figured out the prices for the high speed ferry, and bought tickets. Unbeknownst to me at the time, these three british girls studying in Alexandria would be my buddies for the day. We asked the person at the ticket window, then pretty much every other person we could think of when the ferry left. Nobody seemed to have a good idea (up to and including people on the ferry), but my book said "noon, but show up an hour early", and some people said 2pm, some people 4 pm.

We got some tea, chatted, then decided to take a walk into the port authority, probably around 10 am. Once there, we are pointed to a large hall of people sitting around, and then in there to another large hall of people in line, and we're handed departure cards. I head to the back of the line, and start filling out my card on one of the mini-desks, when a police man comes up to me and pulls me to the head of the line, saying something about 6 hours (I thought he was saying if we miss the ferry, the next one isn't for six hours. One of the girls thought he said the line was 6 hours long. Either way, not pleasant.). So I get my passport stamped, and head out to the large hall of people waiting. By now it's no later than 10:30, and our most reliable attempts at communicating seem to say the ferry leaves at 2. Nevertheless, we get herded onto a bus, which leaves for the boat after only about 15 minutes. The bus stops outside the ferry, which we hop on, still attempting to gain some idea of our departure time, which now seems to be "whenever everyone is on".

We sit down, start reading, chatting, attempting to nap, when at 11:30, the boat's engine roars to life, and we pull away from the quay in short order. Half an hour before my Egypt guide book says the fast ferry is supposed to leave. 3 hours before the earliest estimate we'd heard from a live person. A full 5 hours before my Jordan guide book says the Nuweiba-Aqaba leg leaves. But hey, I don't mind getting in early.

On the boat, more napping and reading. I finish the battered 1964 printing of From Russia with Love that I picked up for 5 L.E. in Alexandria...

Okay, gotta go now, but tomorrow looks like mostly just lounging on the beach, so no reason I won't post the rest!

The rest of Siwa

So yeah, that last post was a lie, at least in that it's a "full report". One thing I forgot to mention was that, while out by the Temple of the Oracle, we also went swimming in "Cleopatra's Bath", a natural spring. Now, I'm sure some part of me knew that Oases were fed by springs and not lakes or something, but it certainly wasn't the first thing I thought there would be. It also turns out that some of these springs are hot. Cleopatra's is just moderately warm (which was a pleasant surprise. I was excpecting it to be chilly).

I also promised to write more about the trip into the Desert. There were 5 of us total, and they took us to the Great Sand Sea, where there are lots of dunes. And more dunes. And a few springs, but mostly dunes. We tried some sand boarding, which is fun, except then you have to carry the board back up the large dune, and that turns out to be a hassle. There are also some fossils out there--it was neat to see a bed of broken sea shells in the middle of the Sahara.


Then we went to our campsite, out by another hot spring. We ate bedouin food, which was basically a vegetable stew, rice, and chicken, then spent the evening hanging out around a campfire. The stars were gorgous, when they were out, although it was cloudy for a lot of the time. Having learned my lesson on the coldness of the night-time desert, I slept inside the tent they had. I woke up early to try and take a picture of the sunrise, but alas there were still clouds, so I went back to sleep.

After waking up again, we went back to town, where Evan and I caught the next bus to Alexandria. This one was far more pleasant (aside from some confusion about our seats... despite the fact that the bus was less than half full, the conductor wanted us in our assiged seats for departure). We got into Alexandria around 6pm, then found a hotel, took showers, ate dinner, and passed out.

Today, I went off to explore Alexandria. I went to the catacombs of Kom Al-Shuqafa. Built in the 2nd century AD, with a mix of Roman, Greek, and Egyptian artistic elements. All of the mummies seem to have been moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the tomb carvings were neat. I then walked by Pompeii's pillar, wandered through town, and then went out to the Fortress of Qait Bey, which stands guarding the harbor. I've decided to skip the Library, though, since it's a little out of the way, and having been there before, it's not really anything special. I did take some pictures of it from across the harbor though.

On the next few days: Tonight, I'm taking the train down to Cairo, after which I plan on trying to get the night bus to Nuweiba. From there, I'll take the ferry over to Jordan, so In sha' allah, I'll be in Jordan by this time tomorrow. I did leave some leeway in my schedule, so I think I'm safe from Egypt time, but we'll see. Once in Aqaba, I think I'll stay there for a couple nights to recuperate, perhaps go snorkeling in the red sea. And then from there: Petra!