Salaam alaykum from Jordan

Looking out over downtown Amman, Jordan

The Jordanian Flag

After a week hanging out with friends and family, I boarded my flight from Boston Logan Airport on my way to Amman via London. My London stopover was a touch longer than I would have hoped for (12 hours!), but I never mind venturing into London!

Trying desperately to pass some time outside of Heathrow, I hopped on the tube to Leicester Square in hopes of cheap theatre tickets. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a show that fit in with my flight times, but I ended up at a theatre showing some good indy films and I was happy to be occupied. (The problem with London, however, is that simple things, such as a tube pass, a cinema ticket and a snack, was half of our daily budget!! Yikes!)

After getting back Heathrow, I caught my flight and landed in Amman at 1am. Unfortunately, Marc and Kyle were picking me up, and I had been delayed by over an hour. As I was approaching the mayhem that was Customs, I was surprised to see a familiar face. Marc had come to meet me at Customs and help me out. I was starting to wonder how the heck he got into the secured part of the airport when I remembered that he has "diplomatic immunity". Haha. He helped me quickly get my visa, and he flashed his ID and we just walked past all the guards. I'm thinking that being a diplomat has it's perks!

Marc found out recently that he had a business trip to Oz that had been rescheduled so he would only be able to spend a few days with us., but in the meantime, he packed in lots of fun stuff for us to do.

The next evening we went out to dinner at a great restaurant with Marc's Canadian friend, Caroline, and her parents. We had a great time trying new food and drink (especially a very strong aniseed-flavoured drink called Pastis - Yuck!) and smoking a sheesha.

Trying my first and last piece of chicken liver! Eww!


Marc trying to to teach us the art of smoking a shisha and blowing smoke rings


Kyle giving it a go


And a little reminder of why I don't smoke... I can't stop choking!

Wadi Rum

As Marc only had one weekend with us, we wanted to make it good! Marc suggested a trip to Wadi Rum. Although he had been twice already, it must have been good for him to want to go a third time!

After staying up too late the night before, we got a late start, but since it was our own personal tour, it didn't matter much. Marc knew a guide that had taken him around before and would be meeting up with us upon arrival.

Wadi Rum is a 720 sq km desert wilderness that is filled with a dramatic landscape of rocky, sandstone and granite mountains. It is most famous as the place where T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) stayed with his troops during the Arab Revolt (1917-8). Inhabited since ancient times by the Nabateans (their carvings can been seen in caves and mountainsides), it is still inhabited to this day by several Bedouin tribes. The scenery is unbelievable and to think that people still live here and drink from fresh springs in the middle of the desert is amazing.

The view of the "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" from the visitors' center

Our first stop in Wadi Rum was to Khazali canyon, a deep canyon caused by a fast flowing river during the floods.

Some of the amazing Nabatean carvings

"Lawrence's house" - where he slept when staying in the area

Next stop was a huge dune that we got to hike up for a great view. Our guide told us (afterwards) just a couple days ago that he had to kill a poisonous snake up there. Hmm, may not have been so keen to hike up there if I had known that!

The view from the top

Finally making it to the top

But the best part was running back down as fast as we could!!

During our drive around, we got to see an amazing natural bridge and even got to climb up!!! We like climbing up things like this. Very fun.

Posing on top of the bridge

Kyle likes to freak me out by getting too close to the edge


Climbing back down was a bit steeper than it looked

Our guide having a rest while we climbed around

One of the views of the Burrah canyon

The views in Wadi Rum were absolutely amazing, but I figured out the real reason that he was so eager to come back again... He gets to bomb around the sand dunes in his 4WD!!

Marc with his toy, I mean, car

The views from the top of the dune that we just drove up

After all the driving, we headed to our camp site, we quickly set up our stuff in our tent then set out to find a perfect spot to watch the sunset.

Marc made sure we had the complete setup for "desert relaxing" - including camping chairs...

...and an esky full of beers

Enjoying a beautiful and peaceful sunset over the desert

We had a great traditional Bedouin barbecue for dinner, then headed back to our tent for some shut eye. We had a pretty good night's sleep in the tents considering the dodgy little mattresses. In the morning, we decided to forgo brekkie and dip into our stash of food we brought with us.... fruit and peanut butter and jelly from my "backseat production line".

The night before, our guide had to head back home as he had a sick kid, so we were going to be following his brother out. As we pulled away from camp and were heading back to the main road, one of the people in the other car had forgotten something and had to turn back, which in turn left us without a guide. The other guide, being very helpful, said "Just drive in that direction. I'm sure you'll be fine." Yeah, no problem. No roads, no landmarks (that we know of) and just a huge desert to get lost in. No worries.

"Does anyone recognize any of these rocks??"

Thankfully, we didn't get lost and we managed to see lots more beautiful scenes on the way. (I just couldn't edit out any more photos as they were all so nice.)

Another weird rock formation

A bedouin camp

Karak

On the way back to Amman, we visited Karak, a 12th century fortified crusader castle about 150 km from Amman, situated on the top of an enormous hill with a view of all the surrounding valleys as well as the Dead Sea. Wen they were looking to build a castle, they chose a great spot!

A view of the valley from inside the castle walls


Entering the castle

Looking around the ruins

A critical part of the defense - small slits in the walls to shoot arrows through

The last known picture of my beloved Cooper's hat... It went missing somewhere in Jordan :(


Some of the inner tunnels


Some of the shots of the exterior

After exploring the castle, we stopped for a little lunch in the town of Karak. Without much to choose from, we ended up at a small local stall for some kebabs and falafel sandwiches. (I'll refer back to this later...)

Marc drove us back to Amman on the Dead Sea Highway, so that we could get our first view of the Dead Sea!

Our first view of the Dead Sea - looking down to 400m below sea level, the lowest point on earth!


A typical traffic jam - goats everywhere!

Looking across the Dead Sea to the shores of Israel

That night, after driving back from Karak, we had a great BBQ at Marc's place and ate on his deck under the night sky, overlooking the lights of Amman. After lots of wine, some sheesha, Scotch for the boys and some of Marc's classic 80s & 90s music blasting, I was glad that he wasn't kicked out of the building!! Somehow we ended up playing a competitive game of Foozball in his "entertaining room" - very fun!! The evening went much later than expected, however, and Marc had to work in the morning. Yikes!

Kyle and I were both feeling a little under the weather, but mine seemed to getting worse not better. By 2pm, I was feeling really crook and had started vomiting. I thought at first I had just drunk far too much wine, but when the vomiting continued all afternoon and the diarrhea started, I started to believe otherwise.

I ended up being laid up for 8 days. 8 days stuck inside!! I got progressively worse to where I couldn't get out of bed, and if I rolled over, it would provoke more vomiting. Not nice. It got so bad the next day that I had to give myself a shot of maxalon just to be able to sleep for a few hours (plus, it gave Kyle and Marc a little project to work on...how to safely dispose of a used needle).

The next day wasn't much better and, with Marc on the verge of leaving the country, I decided it was time to get looked at. Marc's personal doctor happened to specialize in gastroenterology so I was in luck. I got an appointment that afternoon with no problem, but getting myself up and out of the house was another story. I was getting quite weak as I hadn't been able to keep any food or liquids down in 3 days.

The diagnosis: amoebic dysentery. I didn't think I could possibly get something like that, but I was wrong. I had never been so sick in my life. Round the clock temperatures of over 38 C (nearly 101 F), complete dehydration that I couldn't seem to do much about, constant running to the toilet for one reason or another... The doctor advised me to start on 2 different doses of antibiotics while he awaited my culture results. When I spoke to him later, he said that my infection was worse than he had thought and advised me to extend the course of drugs.

While I was unlucky to have gotten so sick, I was so lucky to have done it at such a nice place... a lovely air-conditioned apartment with 3 different bathrooms and a maid, Chitra, coming every other day - the situation couldn't have been any better for me! Chitra must have thought we were the laziest house guests ever as we were always just laying around the house every time she came.

On Day 6, I tried to leave the house for lunch with Kyle, but I was so weak and the heat nearly killed me that I had to take a cab back. Maybe another couple of days will do...

On Day 8, after 5 days of high doses of antibiotics, I managed to get out of Marc's apartment for the first time. Oh thank God. Wasn't feeling 100% yet, but at least I could walk more then 10 meters without having to take a rest.

The results of my bout of amoebic dysentery:

• a slight fear of kebabs (the suspected cause of the dysentery - eaten in Karak)
  
• a renewed fascination with fruit (the first thing that I managed to keep down, and all I ate for the last few days of illness)
• a sudden addiction to Sprite and Fanta Orange (a bit weird considering that I don't drink soda, but it seemed to stay down better than water!)
  

After being a lock-in and Kyle graciously staying to take care of me (and playing Marc's Play Station) for 8 days, we were keen to get out of the house!! Since I've been in Amman for 11 days and hadn't even been downtown to see the sights, it was time...

Amman is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world with excavations discovering homes and towers dating back to 7000 BCE. It was also formerly known as Philadelphia, named after the Ptolemic ruler Philadelphus in the 3rd century BCE.

Feeling and looking a lttle less green after my illness

Walking through downtown Amman

One of the first things we noticed is how much they love their king, King Abdullah II. There are pictures of him everywhere!!


Exploring the odeon - it is still used now as it was in Roman times, for music performances. It is relatively small, holding only 500 people.

But this one is massive! The Roman Theatre (next door) was built into the side of a hill that used to be a necropolis (or graveyard). It was built during the reign of Antonius Pius (138-161 CE) can hold over 6000 spectators. In fact, Pavarotti, Diana Krall and Mika were all performing here in July and August.

Taking a closer look

There was also a museum inside the theatre that housed different handicrafts, articles of clothing and artifacts from Amman throughout the ages.

Kyle posing with a figure showing the impressive current uniform of the military.

After exploring the sights of downtown, it was time to go up. Way up to the top of the city to the Citadel. The Citadel sits atop Jabal al-Qala'a, one of the 7 hills of Amman.

The best sites to see in the Citadel are al-Qasr (the palace) and the Temple of Hercules.

The view of the city from the Citadel

The temple of Hercules

The entrance to the palace which is being fully restored

The restored ceiling

What the rest of the palace currently looks like... ruins

The Citadel site also houses the Jordanian Archaeological Museum.

A striking piece at the museum

World's oldest sculpture, dating back to approximately 6000 years BCE

A look at the city from inside the palace

The King Hussein Royal Automobile Museum

King Hussein, the second king of modern Jordan, ruled for 47 years until his death in 1999. His son, Abdullah II, became king a few days later and dedicated this museum to one of his father's greatest loves... his cars.

Beloved King Hussein

Over 80 cars are housed in the museum, and even those are only a part of the full collection.

Here are some notable ones...

A replica of the Benz 1886 - the world's first car




Some beautiful cars and pictures behind showing the most memorable times when they were publicly used




The vehices that used to flag him for protection


One of his early motorbikes with sidecar

After finally getting out to see some of the sights of Amman, we were ready to get out and see the world famous sight of Petra!