One of the reasons we decided to spend so much time in Israel was because of its location. Also, A used location as one of the key incentives to secure my agreement in such a long stay. While the idea was to travel here and there for 3 or 4 days, the more attractive locales were a bit further away and, coincidentally, closer together than to return to Israel. So we bulked them together at the end of our stay in Israel which is less than a week away now.

Jordan was an idea we toyed with, a relatively safe outing in the middle east with a border you can actually cross, not just pose next to the sign. So we investigated and put together a short 3 day itinerary with the help of indgare.com. Its my favorite travel resource, you can scan locations based on your passions - adventure, food, or activity. It’s well curated and beautifully designed. We went in for the extra hand-holding because we had no idea what to expect. Israelis have no experience in Jordan (most of them anyway) and as we were to find out, most Jordanians have no experience in Israel. While Israelis are welcome to cross the border with more scrutiny than an American (an no guarantee for their safety by the Israelis), it takes Jordanians 3 months wait to get a visa for Israel.

There are 3 ways to get into Jordan from Israel - a northern border that crosses into Amman, a middle border just 30 minutes from Jerusalem called the Allenby bridge, and the souther border crossing from Eilat on the Israeli side into Aqaba on the Jordanian side. We choose Allenby because it was the closest, but it happens to be the only crossing where you can not get an instant visa (even as an Israeli) - so we had to get one in advance from the Jordanian Embassy in Tel Aviv. We managed to drop off and pick up our Visas in four short hours, the most painful part was walking into the Embassy itself. The rooms are filled with cigarette smoke like the smokers terrarium at LAX. The Jordanians apparently love their cigarettes.

We arranged for a car to take us to the Israeli-Jordan border. At first we thought the driver was running some kind of bookie business out of the car. He had a dispatch radio, 4 cellphones strategically mounted around the gear shift and center dash, a pen in his right hand and a stack of 3X5 cards in his left that he shuffled and wrote notes on. All this while driving 120 km per hour, tailgating and switching lanes. He was on the phone non-stop throughout the drive. A and I joked that the most dangerous part of our trip was going to be the treacherous 90 minute drive to the Border. We had to make it to Jordan in one piece, i mean, we risked lung cancer to get those visas.

Pen in hand, note cards on dash, dispatch radio in lap two phones visible.....

Phne shot - One near Steering wheel, one near gear shift, one in arm rest, two in passenger seat with dispatch radio!

We were dropped off at the Israeli border and walked through security to a waiting car that could take us across the bridge to the Jordanian passport control. We met our Guide (Aziz) and Driver for the next three days. They drove us to the Kempinski Istar hotel on the Dead Sea. Its an impressive compound of a marble hotel with 9 pools, four restaurants, and a private jetty into the buoyant and apparently healing waters of the Dead Sea. Because of the scale of the hotel and the decline in tourism (down 60%), we basically had the place to ourselves.

The dead sea is the lowest point on earth at 1400 feet below sea level. While normal sea water is 3%, the dead sea has a whopping salt content of 33%. Five years ago on the Israeli side, we did the ritual of slathering with mud and laying in the water. It was challenging to even float because the water is in control. People struggled to keep their lawn chairs submerged - while they were in them! We planned to dip into this side of the sea in the morning, but I overslept. The night before I did watch the blue gray tones blur until the sea faded into the mountains and the mountains into the sky. Because of the droughts and Climate Change, The Dead Sea is losing almost 4 feet of water a year. Jordan and Israel are working on a ‘Red to Dead’ project that would take water from the Red Sea (at Sea Level) and carry it into the Dead Sea (below sea level) to refill the water table there. It could be a great opportunity for the Israelis and Jordanians to work and get to know each other. I feel like if only the people here could connect they would have so much to share. I truly hope it is a huge success and restores the Sea to its original size and generates a lot of power in the process.

The next morning we drove to Madaba. Mad Aba means ‘River of Fruits,’ it’s the bread basket of Jordan. Apparently 95% of what you eat in Jordan comes from agriculture in Jordan. A pretty sustainable and admirable figure. Tourism is their second source of income due to many old churches and museums in the area. Madaba is also known as the ‘City of Mosaics.’ We visited a greek orthodox church that houses the oldest surviving Byzantine mosaic of the city of Jerusalem. It was key to understanding the early architecture in the Holy Land, especially the colonade in Jerusalem and the City of David. It has helped archaelogists to locate buried ruins. Aziz told us that there are about 25 families in Madaba that have 6th century mosaics in their homes. Now that is a tour I would love to take!

The rust colored colonade in the center is Jerusalem

There was a bit of traffic chaos the day we were there because of Teachers Elections. We were excited to hear that Aziz’s first cousin was running against the Islamic Brotherhood. We felt a mere 3 degress of separation from actual extremists.

The Kind of Jordan. Apparently his dress varies in each poster depending on it's location.

We visited he site at Mt. Nebo where Moses (aged 120 they say) supposedly climbed the mountain to see the Promised Land in 1316 B.C. He actually died before he could get to the there and some believe he is buried on the mountain. On a good day (Moses had one, we did not) there is a view of the Dead Sea (Distinctive), Jericho (Holy) and Jerusalem (Holiest of Holy). They are building a new church to be open in the next few months for a visit from the new pope, so we weren’t able to go in. What we did experience, is coaches upon coaches of Jordanian school kids who wanted to say hello, know where we were visiting from and what are names were. I’d say we were probably the only Americans on the premises.

We headed back for lunch and on the way we stopped, okay I made us stop, at the coolest little roadside cafe. It was owned by a father and two sons, stylishly painted, and outfitted with shiny silver carafes which made me want a Turkish coffee in the worst way. Its called Al Bador Coffee. Mandatory cool place for Coffee.

Because we were car-less (not at all necessary in Jordan), we were left to fend for ourselves for breakfast and dinner, usually at the hotel. One treat for us in Madaba was lunch at Haret Ajouda an authentic Jordainian restaurant with fantastic and an endless table of food. We tasted traditional dishes of Kofta (lamb with Tahini) Sawarti (Chicken dish with sliced Potato) and Lali lebnan (a cheese and pistachio dessert). Delicious!

After lunch we started the drive south to Petra. We traveled along the Kings Highway built in 2000 b.c, a trade route for luxury goods (think Frankincense & Myrrh not Dolce & Gabbana) that linked Egypt, the SInai, Jordan and Damascus to the Euphrates river in Iraq. At the time is was 9 miles wide to accommodate the traffic of the day. The three hours gave me time to interrogate Aziz about the Jordanian Culture. We asked about the vast number of Thai workers we noticed at the Kempinski Hotel. We have experienced the gracious Thai culture and their amazing standards of hospitality, but to import Thai people to the Middle East when their own workforce is suffering was curious. He called it the Culture of Shame. It turns out Jordanian women are forbidden to work as maids, waitresses, flight attendants, or masseurs so they import their hotel staff from Thailand or the Philippines.

We moved on to the subject of family. Apparently 50% of the muslim religion is based on beliefs while the other 50% is about family. There is little crime, homelessness and no government assistance. The family takes care of each other. Even distant relatives becomes responsible for each other. Respect for parents is mandatory and reinforced from birth. They have a saying that “Heaven is under your Mothers Feet’ so she is the revered one. He said that Mothers Day in Jordan is taken very seriously (as is Christmas!)

Since we were on the topic of family, I asked about arranged marriages. He said 25% of the marriages are arranged and that the divorce rate is high in Jordan - 8 or 9%! He was stunned when we told him that 50% of marriages end in divorce in America. When a man is ready to marry his mother is given the phone numbers of potential suitors. She and his sisters meet with the woman (since they are all women they don't wear the Hijab, so they can get a good look at her) and judge her on a scale of 1 - 10. If she is 7 or above the man will meet with his family and hers and ask for 30 minutes alone with her in the kitchen so they can check each other out. He said they usually know within 5 minutes - thin-slicing in action! If they want to “date” they can request one week of dating at her house so they are not alone. They each have one week to talk to each others family, friends of family, co-workers, and neighbors. If anyone says No they think the match is a bad idea - its all over. If the answer is Yes there is a formal proposal evening where the VIPs (i believe just the men) in the family get together, offer each other coffee on the floor and ask questions. They make promises to each other and write up a contract of marriage. A pre-nup of sorts where 60-70% of everything goes to the woman. They continue to date for a few months with no touching until they are ready to marry in front of hundreds of people. The man has to have a job, a place to live and $15,000 (USD) in cash because he has to pay for everything for the bride to be. Actually everything is on the man, always, even though jordanians are progressive and most woman go to University and speak English. I guess the Tinder App hasn’t hit Jordan yet!

We were hopeful to arrive in time to see Petra by night but that tour is only available Monday Wednesday and Thursday and we arrived on a Tuesday. In case you a planning a trip its suppose to be lit by thousands of candles. The ‘Lost City of Petra’ is also known as ‘The City of Gold’ and the ‘Rose-red City.’ It was supposedly re-discovered by a Swiss explorer in 1812 and earned a world heritage status from UNESCO in 1985. They are currently turning Petra into a serious tourist attraction, adding a museum and several shops and restaurants to the entrance. They also offer donkey or horse drawn carriage rides to the main site of The Treasury, which was never really a Treasury but a Royal Tomb.

The Obliesque tomb has 5 obliesques (one with Isis) and the steps on the side of the mountain - is literally their stairway to heaven.

We walked into the city via the mile long Siq, flattening ourselves against the cool sandstone cliffs in the narrowest parts to let the donkeys and horses clatter by. To me the magic was beginning able to stop and see the caves, tombs, figures, and waterways carved into the rock that line the Siq.

The Nabataeans (meaning grown from nothing) are nomadic people from Syria or Iraq that originally built, inhabited and turned Petra into one of the wealthiest cities. They were masterful at collecting and distributing water (precious in the desert) and created a series water channels to funnel the rainwater away from the Siq which coud have flash floods and use it for wells, irrigation and for drinking troughs so there was water for the caravans’ horses and camels. They created ceramic fountains for the people to drink from so they wouldn’t get sandstone in their cups. The effect from earthquakes and erosion on the sandstone was magnificent, it was streaked and stained with mineral colors from brown to ochre. The stone, from one footstep to the next, changed from soft curves with time worn statues to rugged shards. There are even a few rock caricatures of Pharaohs and elephants heads. Its amazing that destructive events like earthquakes and erosion can also create so much beauty.

The Treasury, Palaces, and Tombs all have a chiseled facade that is built into the sandstone. The Nabataeans had two main reasons for building Petra. One was to provide safety for the caravans traveling the spice route. They also happened to be Mercenaries, so they built watchtowers and guaranteed the Caravans protection. The protection came with a cost - $250 Roman Dinaris per camel (about $5000 in todays money.) The second reason was to Entertain them in an attempt to keep the caravans as long as possible. Tourism really. So their strategy was to provide good food, wine, and music. The Nabataeans worked hard for freedom of religion and equality among all nations so that any people traveling through Petra would feel no threat (religious or otherwise) being there, would stay longer and spend more Dinaris.

The Siq corridor frames the view to the Treasury - the main attraction of Petra. It was thought that the Treasury would be where all the gold in Petra would be found. It was actually a Royal Tomb - they found buried bodies but no gold. The carvings on the Treasury show greek, roman, Nabataeans, and Egyptians to reinforce that all cultures were welcome and known. Steps on the right top of the treasury show eagles to take the souls to heaven, And warriors on each side as a “warning.” Isis is shown in the middle but was unfortunately used by the Bedouins for target practice and destroyed. The bedouins still live in and around Petra and are welcomed to profit from the tourists.

Through the Siq, a view  to the Treasury — Through the Siq, a view to the Treasury

We visited the greek looking Amphitheater was designed by the king and is carved completely of stone. It took 40 years to comple. We wandered through several psychedelic caves and marveled at the Great Palace Tomb with its four giant doors.

Queen Shakyla has her Tomb and next to her is the tomb of her faithful guide, Shuleyes’ tomb. Legend has it that Shuleye guided the Roman army into the middle of nowhere and left them, thereby saving the Nabataeans from one Roman war. The Romans tried to capture Petra and failed twice, ultimately succeeding.

After Petra we take our second three hour drive of the trip, south to Wadi Rum. We stopped on the roadside this time not for coffee, but to meet a baby camel just three days old. While the mother would occasionally get miffed when too many of us were too close, she let Aziz get close enough to touch him.

Baby camel or, the source of the new MERS virus?????

We arrived in Wadi Rum, a red red sand desert not nearly as mountainous as Petra, just small clusters of mountains pop up here and there, but beautiful just the same. We toured the area by Landcruiser, seeing the ‘7 Pillars of Wisdom’ a rock formation and the title of a book by archeologist T.E. Lawrence. T.E.L. was the general who inspired the film Lawrence of Arabia. They even shot the movie here. There are hieroglypics on the rocks that bedouins used for directions to point fellow travelers to water for their camels.

We saw Ice Cream Mountain, a tall rock formation whose erosion gives the appearance of melted ice cream frozen in time.

Dripping rock inspirers the name ice cream mountain

Heiroglyphics of Woman (birthing a baby) and Man

All the tented camps in Wadi Rum are run by local Bedouins. Ours (Discovery Bedu) was the smallest and most remote. We were one of two couples at Bedu leaving the other four pristine white tents empty. I struggled to remember the last time i was in a tent. The first time I remember a tent got me kicked out of girl scouts. That and the deer skull I dragged back to the campsite. The second was almost twenty years ago on a water rafting trip with friends. I watched the shadow of a bear rustle through the trash. As his shadow left the camp i peaked out to find it was really someones hungry black lab. A reminded me that this would be the first in a series of tents as a Safari was in our very near future.

We had a glass of wine and watched the sunset, only to be interrupted by a stray camel that came running into the camp crying. He stopped, looked around and ran to the left. Stopped, looked around and ran to the right. Then he darted back to where he came from. We were all stunned, but it was so comical, he was almost slapstick with his timing. One of the guys told us he was looking for his friend. Which is exactly what it looked like he was doing. Regretfully, I didn’t get that shot.

The Chef had specially prepared a dish that is cooked in the ground for three hours. They had to shovel off the dirt and dig up the pot in order to serve it. The traditional feast of salads, breads, and hummus were added. We ate in a handstiched rugged dining tent which was handmade by bedouins. It was gorgeous - a similar one may be popping up in Sonoma sometime soon.

After dinner we sat for a short time under the stars. I had never seen so many, packed so dense that the sky looked concave and dusted with powdered sugar. By morning the chef had arranged an omlet bar on some nearby rocks for an early breakfast. It was the perfect end to our visit to beautiful Jordan.

Our parting shot before we crossed back into Israel. I love that they painted the barricades like dice. Not sure what one would gather from the combination of the dice and the crossing man on the ground - Taking a gamble? We did, and it paid off!