Today I learned that I want to see Lawrence of Arabia. We rode through the Wadi Rum desert and kept seeing sights that bore his influence.
Getting the cab ride to Wadi Rum was awkward. The hotel receptionist had called the cab for us, so we didn’t have a chance to negotiate the fare. The receptionist told us to pay fourteen Jordanian Dinars, which was a great price anyway. When we arrived at the Wadi Rum Visitor’s center, the cabbie demanded forty JDs. 😡 He even called the hotel and the receptionist said that we had heard the number wrong. We never would have agreed to that much! After talking to him for awhile we let him convince us to pay his full fare.
Inside the Wadi Rum we rented a Jeep and a driver. He looked like he was 10. We thought it was a joke, and knew it wasn’t. 🙂 He was a great driver.
There are great facilities at the hotel in Aqaba. They were overbooked so they didn’t have our reservation. We tried to hide our tears as they upgraded us to an executive suite worth $600 a night. Wow. I feel out of place.
We had mint lemonade that was the most delicious thing I’ve had in a long time. Then we had ice cream and I couldn’t decide on a flavor so the guy just started scooping up something of everything all in two scoops. It’s the best two scoops of ice cream I’ve ever had. Then we went to the spa, into the separate male and female areas and did some much-needed relaxing (from relaxing).
Elisa and I got up late today, and tired. I was woken up a few times during the night because our room got so hot! It had taken us a while to figure out where to set the thermostat, and so the room had already been heating up all evening. Then it turns out that the hot/cold switch is backwards from the label. It was past 3 am and the room felt like a dry sauna before I realized that might be the problem, and dared turn it towards Hot. 👿
Elisa and I have wanted to see Petra for a long time. After I heard Daniel was going to Petra last fall, I was insanely jealous. True. Petra had been on my list ever since I learned that the sandstone facade at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a real place. 🙂
We walked through a pretty canyon that kept getting narrower and narrower. The scenery was similar to southern Utah. There were so many really interesting things to see, not only archaeologically, but the natural wonders were awesome. We probably hiked 8 km today–we weren’t expecting that. I can barely walk now. The hiking turned out to be one of my favorite parts. We hiked up to the Monastery, which was pretty steep and had a lot of stairs. The paths were pretty narrow at some points. You could ride a donkey up and down and that looked absolutely terrifying. The breeze was nice. The sun was hidden behind a little dust.
For the return hike, we got on camels for a ride. So fun! They are weird looking creatures, you have to admit. And they were fun to ride. One of the merchants shouted out to me while we were riding back about how we needed to steer closer to see his goods. Then he said something like,”Get something for the baby! You’re going to have a baby right?” I have been all self-conscious about just looking chubby. I am glad he got it right! 🙂 This was a real vacation day.
Today we learned how not to get around this area. We had to be to the Tel Aviv airport three hours before our flight at noon. Once we finally got on the plane we arrived in Amman only an hour later. Unfortunately, Amman was only a connecting point in our journey. We had to wait around the airport for our next flight at 5 pm. The Amman airport is small and not entertaining. We then had a short flight down to Aqaba. We were under the impression that Aqaba was the best airport for arriving at Petra and that our hotel was not far off. Wrong. We took a long taxi ride back up toward Amman. The taxi driver seemed to have trouble staying on the road. Lane dividers are more guidelines than hard rules. Just like the No Smoking signs at the airport. Well the hotel is beautiful and we are excited to be close to Petra for a great “real vacation” day tomorrow. That is the same phrase Elisa used in Greece. I don’t like it; it’s a bad omen.
