The trip began in Jordan, the oddly-shaped country to the South of Syria, East of Israel, West of Iraq, and North of Saudi Arabia. Despite its location, it’s one of the most stable countries in the Middle East and is pretty Western-friendly. We had three options to get to Jordan from Cairo
1. Flying- Too expensive and would put us in Amman first, which would make visiting Petra less convenient.
2. Taking an 8 hour bus ride to Taba and from there, taking a half hour cab ride through Israel to Jordan- Unfortunately, an Israeli stamp on your passport bars you from entering Lebanon (and 7 other Arab countries), so this was not an option.
3. Taking 9 hour bus ride to Nuwebia on the Red Sea and taking a 1-2 hour ferry ride to Aqaba, Jordan- This is what we chose as it was the only relatively option that allowed us to bypass Israel.
So the trip with my three friends (Derek, Jessica, and Jessica) began on April 10th with a 9 hour (and 80LE/$14.28) bus ride from Cairo to Nuwebia on the Sinai Peninsula. We left on a 10:15 PM bus and did not arrive until around 8 AM on the 11th, and I got little sleep on the ride. Much like the overnight bus ride to Dahab at the very beginning of the semester, this bus ride also contained loud action movies, including Bruce Lee’s “Way of the Dragon” and a Stephen Segal movie.
Nuwebia: At least it had cool mountains around it.
Upon our arrival to Nuwebia, we bought out tickets for the ferry to Jordan, which cost a whopping $80 USD. We opted to take the “fast boat,” which was to leave at 1 PM over the $70 “slow boat,” which was to leave at 3 PM and is said to take a couple hours longer. After buying our tickets, we found a small and relaxed (slow service) restaurant for breakfast, as it really didn’t seem like there was much else to do in Nuwebia.
A ferry like the one we took from Nuwebia
After breakfast, we spent a few hours waiting in what can be described as a fly-ridden warehouse, where we were told that our ferry was delayed several times until we finally boarded at 3. We expected this however, as the ferry to Jordan is known for its tardiness and is a subject found in every guidebook. Ironically, the slow boat boarded before our boat did, and we did not actually leave until 4. On the positive side, the ferry was very nice (nicer than the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut), and I managed to catch up on some sleep on board. Our passports were taken at the beginning of the ride, and were given back with Jordanian visas in Aqaba.
On board the ferry. Picture taken from my friend Derek.
After 1-2 hours on board, we arrived in Aqaba, Jordan, collected our passports, and almost started a cabbie fight when we asked a horde of cab drivers to take us to the town outside of Petra, Wadi Musa, for the cheapest fare. The cab ride to Wadi Musa took 2 hours and went through some intense spans of desert, yet I could not take in the scenery since it was already dark. Upon our arrival to Wadi Musa, we checked into our budget hotel and crashed for the night. My room was very small, but it got the job done- although I could’ve done without the minaret right outside of the window that blasted the call to prayer right into the room. There’s nothing quite like being woken up at 5 AM to “ALLAHU AKBAR.”
Wadi Musa
We got up bright and early the next morning at 6 AM in order to have as much time as possible exploring Petra, the ancient Nabatean City with elaborate buildings carved right into canyon walls. It’s also featured in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” although I can’t remember exactly when or where. Before we went, I tried and initially failed to get some Jordan money (called Dinars), which is actually stronger than the US dollar and works out to 1.4 USD to the Dinar. Luckily, Jordanians don’t treat the Dinar as a dollar and a good meal at a restaurant was about 10-12 JD. Entrance to Petra cost 21 JD, or about $30, but was worth every cent.
The man on the right of this picture is the current king of Jordan, King Abdullah II, and the man on the left is his father and former king, Hussein. Pictures of King Abdullah II are found literally everywhere in Jordan (every business has his picture somewhere as do most major intersections), and I have to say he looks like a nice guy since he’s smiling in most of his pictures unlike President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt below.
Going into depth about Petra could get boring and still wouldn’t do it justice since there’s so much to see, so I’ll try to sum up its key attractions. The first part we walked through was the Siq, which had increasingly high canyon walls around the path and showed some impressive rock color banding.
After a short walk through the Siq, you come to Petra’s most famous site, the Treasury, carved into a solid rock face.
We then climbed up several different small hills and explored smaller caves and carvings, and got a great view of the surrounding area and Petra’s Amphitheater.
We also passed Petra’s Temple.
The next major site, the Monastery, was a pretty intense hike up a mountain, especially since it was pretty hot out, but it was worth it. We ate peeps inside since it was Easter.
After the Monastery, there’s several lookout points, all with interesting names, such as this one.
All offered excellent views of the surrounding areas though.
Having decided we had our fill of magnificent sights for the day, we hiked down the mountain, out of Petra, and returned to Wadi Musa. For dinner that night I had a delicious traditional Jordanian dish called Gallahyah, which consisted of chicken, tomatoes, and onions in a sauce and was eaten with pita bread. We called it an early night soon after, and prepared to leave for Amman the next day.
On the 13th we left for Amman early in the morning, and took a 5 JD mini bus from a station that was more or less a parking lot. The bus ride took 3 hours, and wasn’t bad at all as we got to see some really nice stretches of desert between the cities. As we got closer to Amman, I immediately noticed the city was very hilly and had some very crooked streets, which reminded me of San Francisco. When we arrived, we took a cab from the bus station to our hotel, and I was incredibly surprised to see the cab had a fare meter inside. In Cairo (and Beirut as I found out later), none of the cabs have meters, and you kind of have to estimate how much to pay the driver. It was a very welcome change, as it meant that the cab drivers couldn’t complain and try to rip us off, which is a regular occurrence in Cairo.
We totally passed this sign on the way to Amman
The hotel we stayed at in Amman was quite nice and helped us book a tour for the next day, even if it continued the Middle Eastern tradition of not having shower curtains in budget hotel communal showers. As soon as we checked in, we left and had lunch at a restaurant that served only French fries. While we tried to find the restaurant, we walked up many staircases on the city’s hills, which made me think of Quebec. Being on top of any of the hills allowed you to see very far, which is not something found in Cairo, Washington, or New York.
After lunch we left and saw the city’s old ruins, which have both Umayyad (7th-8th Century Islamic Empire) and Byzantine origins. The ruins contained a small museum, which actually contained some samples of Dead Sea Scrolls.
Dead Sea Scroll
The ruins were also located on a hill, which allowed me to take some pretty good pictures of the city.
From the ruins I noticed that there was a massive flagpole off in the distance, and this flagpole is actually only the third tallest flagpole in the World.
We then descended the hill we were on to the Roman amphitheater below, which was much larger than the Roman Amphitheater in Alexandria. However, this one lacked the cool broadcasting effect that the one in Alexandria had.
That night we ate a restaurant called “The Blue Fig,” where I noticed that Jordan is much more westernized than Egypt. At this restaurant, none of the Jordanian women we saw were wearing headscarves, alcohol was easily available, and the menu was only in English. While these factors were probably dependent on social class, as it was a relatively nice restaurant, urban Jordanians on average appeared to be competent English-speakers with friendly attitudes towards westerners. It was also at this restaurant where I got the most western meal ever: a cheeseburger with fries served on a pizza.
Delicious.
The next day (April 14th) we embarked on a tour arranged by our hotel to visit several Biblical sites in Jordan. Our first stop was to a Jordanian town named Madaba, famous for its mosaics. A Greek Orthodox Church in the town contains a large 6th century Byzatine mosaic map of the Holy Land and Egypt, which was captioned in Greek but still had distinguishable locations. We then visited its mosaic museum, which contained several Umayyad and Byzantine mosaics.
The second site we visited was Mount Nebo, where Moses is said to have died after he set sight on the Promised Land after wandering the desert for forty years. The mountain contained several monuments to Moses and a cool plaque showing you where certain locations in Israel were from where you were standing.
The third site we visited was the part of the Jordan River where St. John the Baptist is said to have baptized Jesus. The Jordan River is apparently the border between the Israel-controlled West Bank (Palestine) and Jordan, so the entire site is located amidst several military buildings and you are required to have a guide escort your tour group around so that you can’t wander into restricted territory. We knew we were getting close to the Jordan River when our phones messaged us with a “Welcome to Palestine!” message, and after a short shuttle ride and walk we reached the Jordan River, which was more like a muddy creek. Walking along the River, we soon reached the Baptism Site, which was marked by a small pavilion and didn’t have any less muddy water.
While the Baptism site was very interesting for its Biblical history, we then walked to what appeared to be a place for Israeli pilgrims to do the same thing we were doing, only from their side of the River. It was strange being separated from several Israeli soldiers and tourists by a River that was only about 20 feet wide.
Those people are in the West Bank
The next and final stop on our trip was to the Dead Sea, which met all expectations regarding its salt levels. Floating on your back was more or less all you could do in the sea, as getting so much a drop of the water in your eyes was very unpleasant and any water in your mouth created a bad taste that lasted for several minutes. It was also incredibly difficult to force yourself underwater, as you would immediately bob to the surface.
That night we went to another western-style restaurant where I got one of my main priorities in life: buffalo wings. Afterwards, we went to another restaurant/bar that had a very nice view of the surrounding area at night, and then went back to the hotel to get ready for Lebanon the next day. Post on that coming soon!
