Yeah, this one is long overdue. Get ready, it's another long one. But trust me, this one is worth it.
After Egypt, Ryan and I made our way to Jordan. My good friend Andrew is studying in Amman and we were going to be visiting him along with a few other friends. Jordan was so much better than Egypt and it was great to see Andrew. He took us around and showed us the city the first day. I gotta say, I really like Amman.
Jordan was having a big parade to celebrate their 100th birthday and we were lucky enough to be there. Here are just a few pictures from the parade.
Yep, camels in the parade. Classic.
We had decided that for the next two days we were going to rent a car and head south to visit Wadi Rum and Petra. We had some trouble finding a place to rent a car but eventually we found a place. After stocking up on bread and water we were off.
On the open road heading down to Wadi Rum and Petra in our rented Kia.
I love fresh markets. The colors were so bright and vivid.
After our quick stop we got back on the road and our next stop was Wadi Rum. We had planned on doing some desert camping in Wadi Rum but didn't want to the pay the fee to enter the camp sites. So, what did we do? We just turned off the road at a spot that looked promising and took off into the desert in our tiny rented Kia.
Yeah, so we may have gotten the car stuck in the sand.
Well it's not the car was going anywhere. We ditched the car and decided that we could at least try to catch the sunset from the top of a nearby mountain.
At the top. There's a tiny black dot in the middle of the picture. Yep, that's the car. You can also get and idea of how far off the road we were. 
Looking the other direction from the top. It was only after we had climbed to the top that we discovered yet another mountain that was blocking our view of the sun set.
That's the mountain we had just conquered. Meh, it's more of a giant rock hill but "mountain" is also a pretty good name for it too.
After come down off the mountain we started to head back to the car. It was a pretty far walk and we weren't really looking forward to the job ahead of us. As we approached the car, we began to devise a way to get our car out of the sand and up onto solid ground. By this time it was dark so all we had were the head lights of the car, which we left one during our sunset hunt. Oops, at least the battery didn't die on us.
We began by gathering as many rocks as we could to reconstruct a new and improved road. After digging the sand out from underneath the front of the car, we realized that the ground became relatively solid a foot underneath the loose sand. Our plan was to remove as much of the sand as we could to get down to the solid stuff and then to begin building our road about 5 feet in front of the car. this was tough work but none of us wanted to mess it up like we did the first time and have to do it again. We took great care in burying the "road stones" as deep and as firmly as we could. The engineering of our road was flawless and we had full confidence that this would work.
We as finished about 2 feet of road when a small white pickup truck came driving in toward us from the road. It slowly came to a stop next to our car and a Bedouin man stepped out and with a grin on his face started walking over to us. Andrew, being our Arabic expert, greeted the man but they had difficulty understanding each other because the Bedouin Arabic is slightly different than the Arabic that Andrew is familiar with. We learned that his name was Ahmed and he wanted to help us get out of the sand. Using hand motions, we finally understood that he wanted us to put all the sand back that we had just removed and that he would then drive our car out to solid ground. Needless to say we were a bit frustrated that we had to put all of the sand back but we knew it was a good idea to listen to this guy. Ahmed circled our car and began to let some air out of our tires. I can't believe I forgot about this, I mean I've had cars stuck in the sand before but for some reason I just blanked. As we were putting the sand back, another truck full of Bedouin drove up and got out to see what the stupid Americans had done. Ahmed got in our car and the rest of us got behind the car to push. With a burst of energy and some luck, Ahmed took off through the sand and pulled our car up on to solid ground about 30 feet away.
Success! Many thank you's were exchanged and as quickly as they came, the Bedouin left and we were finally able to relax and enjoy the falafel we had gotten earlier. We grabbed the food and took off into the desert to find some soft sand to sit in while we ate. We finished eating and were enjoying the unbelievable view of the stars when we saw Ahmed's truck pull up beside our car. Andrew and Ryan decided to go check it out. Turn's out, Ahmed is a mechanic in the the nearby town and some how hooked up an air pump to his engine. He came back to refill our tired with air. What a super nice guy. If that weren't enough, he invited us back to this tent to stay the night. Of course we said yes, I mean come on, this is a once in a life time opportunity to spend the night in a Bedouin tent.
The tent was rather small but at least we a place to stay. Ahmed introduced us to Abu Ali and offered us a place to sit in the tent. It wasn't long before they made a pot of tea and the five of us were all enjoying some of the best tea I have ever had. Two pots of tea later, they brought over a fried chicken and began to pass around various chucks of meat. Guaranteed that chicken died specifically for us. That's the way Bedouin hospitality works. Their home is yours. It wasn't the best chicken, but hey it's not like we could refuse. These guys didn't know a word of English so all the communication happened through Andrew, although, my Arabic started coming back and I was able to understand about 50% of the the things that were being said. Three pots of tea later we were all getting tired and decided to call it a night. We decided to forgo the tent and sleep outside. Nothing like sleeping under the stars in the middle of the desert.
Here's a picture of what I woke up to the next morning. That's Ryan still fast asleep.
At about nine in the morning we had all woken up and enjoyed a few more pots of tea with Ahmed and Abu Ali. Unfortunately, we had to get going. Petra was waiting for us. We said our final goodbyes and thank you's and carefully made our way out of the desert and on to the open the road.
An hour or so later we were getting close to Petra and stopped at an overlook. Just a typically morning in the desert. No big deal
We finally made it to Petra at 11am, paid the entrance fees and began our very long day of hiking around on mountains of rock.
Andrew has a thing for birds and wanted me to get a few pictures of some of them. I really have no idea what kind of bird this is but I hope you enjoy.
We followed the path for about a mile to get to the Treasury and the whole time the trail looked like this. So awesome. Really you should just visit to get the full experience.
Here are some close ups of the rock face thanks to the digital macro setting on my camera. The colors were unreal.
I usually edit my pictures to bring out the best color, but this one is untouched. I really couldn't believe it came out this clear and vivid.
Andrew being Andrew.
We're getting close. I can feel it.
Yeah, the signs said no climbing but we just couldn't resist.
The Treasury. I'll be perfectly honest. I had no idea this was here. Sure I had heard of Petra and I had seen Indiana Jones find the Holy Grail, but I just never put the two together.
After the Treasury we took a hike up the mountain to the sacrificial high place. You could see the majority of the sights from up here.
Looking down to the main trail
We came down on the opposite side of the mountain for a quicker route to the Monastery. A quick stop for some pictures.
We had finally made it down off the mountain but weren't really sure which way to go to find the Monastery. We wandered around a little bit and decided to climb a mountain to see were we were. We found ourselves and headed toward the trail that would take us up to the Monastery. We had basically taken the longest route possible to find the trail but I wasn't surprised given our previous experiences in the desert.
The trail up to the Monastery took forever. I thought we would never make it. Almost there... almost there...
What a nice little donkey. They tried to offer us rides up the mountain but there was no way we were paying a donkey to do something that our own legs could do.
The Monastery. If you look close you can see Andrew doing a hand stand in the door way.
Just in front of the Monastery was a hill top that looked out over Jordan and into Israel. We climbed up and Andrew just had to have another hand stand picture.
This little guy followed us up the hill top from the Monastery. Don't let his looks fool you. He bits pant legs and won't leave you alone once you start playing with him.
A view of the Monastery from the hill top.
Looking west from the hill top over Jordan and into Israel.
We came down off the hill top and wouldn't you know it that little puppy started following me. He followed me all the way down the trail. Luckily I out ran him, used a few moves and was able to escape. It was getting late so we ran down the trail, literally, and made our way back tot he car. It was about a 3 mile walk back to the car from where came down from the monastery. Needless to say we were exhausted when we got back to the car. After the two hour drive back to Andrew's, we crashed for the night and slept in the next morning.
Jordan was great. It was so good to see Andrew and spend time roaming around the country and in the desert. Ryan and I safely made it back to Jerusalem and since that time we've had our first week of classes. Today I took a trip to Masada and the Dead Sea. Look forward to some pictures from that trip sometime in the future.
I hope you enjoyed the stories and pictures. Until next time, take care.
