Jordan

The day before my confinement and straight after our long day at the Valley of the Kings we landed at Aqaba, the port town in Jordan, to the right of Sinai and made most famous by the scene in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia” of Arabian riders lead by the man himself thundering out of the desert & capturing the port from the Turks.

I’m not sure if you really know what the story was about but it ultimately meant the start of the end of the Turkish empire in Arabia.  A lot of the filming was done in Wadi Rum which was just out of Aqaba and in the direction we were heading. A ’wadi’ by the way means a dry river bed and Aqaba mean difficult to pass.

Jordan was called Transjordan and by the end of the war, with the help of Lawrence & the Brit’s the Arab army liberated Damascus and made Prince Faisal King of Iraq & his brother Abdullah King of Transjordan.

In 1948 the UN voted to partition the Palestine Mandate between Jewish & Arabs. Abdullah fought against Israel & occupied the West Bank territories, including East Jerusalem.  In 1950 they were added to his kingdom and became Jordan.  Of course they lost the West Bank in the 1967 six day war, I guess it’s a matter of win a few, lose a few.

That’s your history lesson of the day, back to Aqaba.  One of the first things you notice coming into port is a huge flagpole with the flag of Jordan waving at the top.  Or at least that is the theory, when we saw it the flag was half mast & by the time we got in, it had disappeared so no photos of it.  It did reappear when we came back but as it was night it was too late.

we were here by ourselves

We instantly noticed how different Jordan was to Egypt from the time we stepped on board the bus which was so much nicer, roomier & in better repair, no ripped seats or upholstery.  The countryside was cleaner, the desert more like the desert you imagine, after all, it was here where they filmed the scenes of Lawrence on his camels walking over the sand dunes and just generally far more interesting. There seemed to be lots more Bedouins and their goats & donkeys wandering around within sight of the road and the exotic look of a camel or two strolling down the main streets of Aqaba.

I would have like to have seen Aqaba and maybe will come back one day to explore more but for now we were heading for the lost city of Petra. Not as long a drive as the day before, only about a 2 hour drive which we didn’t mind given the comfy bus & interesting scenery. It was through here that Moses lead the Israelites to Sinai.  We did stop at a photo stop (they called it that as it had sweeping views to the valley below but what it really was, as coincidentally there was also a souvenir shop, was a grab at your money stop).  This shop had lovely souvenir’s that came with lovely prices.  I was going to buy my usual little dishes that I tend to buy from different countries.  They usually look the same but are hand made & hand painted & written on the bottom the country they come from.  The most expensive I’ve bought was in Italy in Deruta,  famous for it’s hand made porcelain and that was around 15 euros.  So I took my time and selected 3 small dishes that I calculated couldn’t be more than $30 total.  When I took them up to the counter they told me it was USD67!  Back I went & carefully replaced each one.

The inevitable lunch followed that, which seems to me, to be a waste of time. A sandwich would do instead of a 1 hour sit down lunch, although very nice but it, pardon the pun, eats up the day. We didn’t get to Petra until 2.30pm as we left the ship late as well so little time left to explore. The guide also seemed to like the sound of his own voice (was the only one who did) so insisted on stopping every few meters to explain this amazing monument or little nook or meaning of this bit sticking out, so a little frustrating and next time we would do what Maureen, Roger, Jo & Ellen did which was catch a taxi from the port and drive straight there.  Much cheaper & quicker so if you ever come on a cruise this way, don’t take the tour.

Saying that the actual place was out of this world.  In fact it had been named one of the 7 wonders, after the Wall of China. It was built by the Nabataeans (ancient Arab tribes) during the time of the Roman Empire and was a pivotal city for the trade routes as it had fresh water. In a place which gets an average rainfall of 300mm p/a (can fall that in a day on the Gold Coast) that makes it a pretty attractive place. Merchants moving between Arabia, Red sea & Syria, and caravans on the silk & spice route from India & China to Greece & Rome all passed through Petra.

It’s a bit like Cober Pedy where they have carved their houses into the rock but that is where the similarity ends.  Here they have carved out beautiful temples, theatres, houses & tombs into the rock walls in the finest of details.  The most famous of these is the Treasury which is the first thing you see and where they filmed Indian Jones. It actually wasn’t a Treasury but a tomb carved for some king in the 1st century BC then later used as a temple.

Petra comes from the Greek work rock.

Before you get to the city you have to walk through the Siq which is a natural narrow canyon 1200 meters in length, sometimes only 16 ft wide in places and the towering coloured, mostly orange & black, sandstone walls of 650 ft tall. (I’m working off American & European brochures hence the metric & imperial figures). It is just beautiful with it’s colourful rock, amazing formations, ancient carvings as well as the incredible water channel they cut into the cliffs to bring the water down.  During the camel caravan times, because it was so narrow and the caravans generally consisted of 1200 - 1400 camels, they were only allowed to bring two down carrying the goods, go back & get more.

The only traffic that is allowed down this narrow pass nowadays were the horse & buggy’s and boy, did they rocket down there. If you didn’t leap out of their way I swear they would have run you down.  They were a touristy thing for people who didn’t think they could walk the distance but looking at them I’d far rather walk than take my life in my hands on one of them.  I also wouldn’t do it on principal as those poor bloody horses were almost flogged all the way down & back at break neck speeds and not all of it was smooth.  Some parts had remains of a Roman road, big rock cobbles so not only difficult for the horse but enough to rattle your false teeth clear out of your head.  They were beautiful Arabian horses but some looked in poor condition and one look exhausted as he climbed the last little bit, slipping on the stones as he pulled some big fat tourist spilling out of the trap back to the top.

As we were making our way down we met Maureen & Jo who were on their way back.  They had already been there for 4 hours so got good time for their money although they went in the heat of the day which was absolutely baking while it had cooled down a fair bit by the time we made it down.  Roger was somewhere behind them and Ellen, they had reported, was last seen heading up a mountainside with a man & his donkey! Obviously no one had any fears for her safety, more likely they feared for the man & his donkey.

We got our first peak of the Treasury just before the end of the Siq thru the narrow gap then, as we stepped out into the open, there it was in all it’s glory.  With it’s height of 43m and width of 30m, it looked magnificent and the whole area looked exotic with camels wandering around, dressed in the gear just like in the film (you really will have to watch it again), red woollen covers with long knotted tassels and donkeys standing around or being lead by their reins and these absolutely jaw dropping craved facades in the towering rock faces. 

It would take about 3 days to explore this place with some justice but as we only had 1 ½ hours we barely had time to scratch the surface. We did make the climb up a steep hill to look at the colourful tomb walls that were etched into the rock.  With the beautiful swirling patterns of red, orange, pink, white & black across the tomb ceilings and walls and the views down to the valley below with it’s passing traffic of donkeys, camels & tourists made the hot, arduous climb to see them truly worthwhile.

Frankincense & Myrrh

We didn’t get to see the famed monastery, further down the road and up a flight of 800 stairs, or the colonnaded street with the Roman marble pavement or even Ellen with her man & his donkey but what we did see was incredible.

After one more shot at the expensive shop on the top of the hill (I’m sure the buses are given a kick back for that) we were driven back to the boat to set sail for the Suez and the beginning of my confinement.

In my opinion it was a more enjoyable day than the day before even though seeing the Egyptian tombs is also a not to be missed event.

Tomorrow we reach Mykonos and hopefully by then I will be allowed off the boat after being locked in my cabin for three days.  Even Jon is starting to look attractive to me! Nah, just kidding, he has looked after me very well, catered to my every need and as he keeps reminding me, I truly am a very lucky girl.