Jordan Travel Blogs

Day 20: Hiking in Burbeita & Afra Canyons
Jun 4, 2008 (6 photos)

... spent sixteen years.  We learned during the day that Ali specializes in guiding in the canyons in this section of Jordan. We consider ourselves really fortunate to have had this experience with him! We pay our departure tax and have the Jordanian ...

Crossing into Jordan
Nov 14, 2005 (1 photos)

... taxi drivers do that here in hopes of getting a commission, which will be added to your bill, of course. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy with a democratically elected government. Following the death of King Hussein in 1999, his son, King Abdullah ...

Peter O'Toole Can Kiss My Ass
Mar 21, 2005 (17 photos)

... seen at least a fleeting image of its glorious desertscapes either on television or the silver screen. It is yet another location in Jordan recognizable to moviegoers around the world. A man by the name of T. E. Lawrence spent some time in a desert here ...

The Colours of the Desert
Nov 18, 2005 (20 photos)

... aware of this you might get caught in the dark. I don't know why they change have implemented Daylight Savings Time in Jordan/Syria/Turkey - it makes no sense.) Marloes and Wynard invited us for supper our second evening at Wadi Rum. They made rice ...

The Not for Profit Hotel
Mar 19, 2005 (10 photos)

I curled a lip to the tatty decor and thanking the owner I informed him I'd be looking elsewhere. He lowered the price. He lowered it again as my feet were pointing to the door but I thanked him and said I'd return if I didn't see anything else I liked. " ...

Petra-Fied
Mar 20, 2005 (16 photos)

It's a shame really that most Westerner's sole knowledge of Petra, the former capital of the Kingdom of Nabataea, founded in 312 BCE is that the first Indiana Jones movie was filmed there. Petra was once one of the most important cities in the region, an ...

Soldiers and Wildflowers in the Decapolis
Mar 14, 2008 (9 photos)

... version of Yankee Doodle Dandy.  The friendly voice came from Tom, one of a group of American soldiers on a training in Jordan.  They were learning about Middle Eastern culture, so that if they were deployed or redeployed in Iraq, they would understand ...

The land of Laurence of Arabia!
Jul 5, 2007 (36 photos)

We had a jeep tour when we arrived in Wadi Rum and skidded around the sand dunes and went to all of the 'it' places for pictures.  The culmination of the ride being a huge increase in the speed of our jeeps and what looked like a sand dune cliff up ...

Solace in the Arabian Desert
Apr 15, 2008 (10 photos)

Fan-tailed Raven soared overhead in the hot dry air of a red sandstone canyon of Wadi Rum, the desert where Lawrence of Arabia found solace in the "vast and echoing" landscape.  The particular side canyon I chose was not vast, but it was echoing with ...

From Mount Nebo to Bethany
Apr 6, 2008 (22 photos)

... Further along was a barber shop, where I chatted with the Palestinians there as one shaved my beard.  A large percentage of Jordan is composed of Palestinians.  One barber had lived in New York City and Brazil for many years. On two day ...

Jordan - Edamame's quest for the holy grail
Jun 16, 2006 (20 photos)

... thing about Petra is that it's made up of palaces, temples, and tombs...all carved from rock!! Ending our trip in Jordan was a desert excursion, which of course meant another camel ride! To mix things up a bit we also went on a desert 'jeep ...

Indiana Jones, Lionel Richie and Red Sea 'R and R'
Apr 20, 2005 (13 photos)

... to board at 12 midday it didn't arrive until 10.30pm... ours left at 2.30pm and arrived an hour and a half later.. After entering Jordan, our 17th country (19 if you count Hong Kong and Tibet), we got a taxi straight up to Wadi Musa, the service town for ...

Petra
Apr 7, 2008 (38 photos)

For three days, Petra was a place to roam and explore, a place full of twists and turns and ever-changing colors as the sun arced in the sky.  This was one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, thanks to multiple votes from almost every Jordanian ...

Dying to go to the Dead Sea
Jul 16, 2007 (13 photos)

... become Person 1, as above.   With slightly sore heads, we wake up on Thursday morning and catch a bus off to Amman, Jordan's capital city.  It is there that our Group of Eight begins to separate.  Rene is flying back to Holland, Mark is ...

Crossing the Border
Mar 15, 2008

Leaving the truck, I paid the driver and jumped on a bus into the center of Amman, the capital of Jordan, where I would stay only one night before crossing the border across the West Bank into Jerusalem. One night was enough to walk around the old center ...

Day 17: Eilat to Jordan, Bedouin Tent Experience
Jun 1, 2008 (6 photos)

... the credit card invoice for our remaining balance.  We put our two backpacks in the jeep and we're off! At the Israeli-Jordan border crossing, our driver gives us a tag for our clothes that says "ECO" so we can be identified on the Jordanian side. ...

The Nuweiba debacle and the footprints of Lawrence
Apr 20, 2006

... of TE Lawrence, who helped launch the Arab Revolt here in the early 20th century that drove the Ottoman Turks out of Jordan, Wadi Rum presents a stunning vista to any traveller lucky enough to venture this way. On the surface, forbidding and desolate, it ...

The 5-Star Bandits
Apr 24, 2006 (6 photos)

... any sort of cohesive public transport connecting Madaba with the outside world. It's the one main problem with getting around Jordan as an individual backpacker, especially if you are travelling up from the south. Buses either don't connect, or run once a ...

Petra was red
Sep 29, 2007 (22 photos)

Wehoo, Indiana Jones experiens (sort of). It was quite touristy, but still nice.

Petra!
Jul 6, 2007 (34 photos)

On the 5th and 6th we were in Wadi Musa seeing the ruins of Petra. Petra was very interesting too.  We had a two day pass and we hiked through the gorges and saw the breathtaking stone carved monument called the Treasury and then hiked up about ...

A High at the Lowest Point on Earth
Mar 16, 2005 (5 photos)

... needed help. He read my note and pointed me in the right direction then punctuated our exchange with the now familiar, "Welcome to Jordan". Wide-eyed with brows arched I stepped up into an old yellow bus and showing the driver the card I greeted him in ...

Day 18: Wadi Rum, Petra by Candlelight
Jun 2, 2008 (6 photos)

... we set our own schedule.  He says usually people come to Wadi Rum for a few hours around 10 or 11 AM, after passing through Jordan customs in the morning, on their way to Petra.   He is basically done with us.  It is at this time that I ...

The Rose of Jordan
Nov 16, 2005 (20 photos)

... by the time we get back to Sask! Wadi Musa is the town located just outside Petra ("wadi" meaning valley, "musa" meaning spring), Jordan's pride and joy, "a red-rose city half as old as time" as the poem by Dean Burgon goes. So many things are here are ...

Road Trip
Nov 22, 2005 (10 photos)

... the "king" of castles in Syria (i.e., Crac de Chevalier). So we continued on up the King's Highway through the Wadi Mujib ("Jordan's Grand Canyon") to Madaba (just south of Amman) - a much more pleasant place to stay than the capital (and easier to ...

Hitchhiking Nomads
Apr 26, 2008 (13 photos)

· Wadi Musa, Jordan · GMT +2:00hrs Entry to follow. 

Petra-fied
Apr 27, 2008 (12 photos)

· Wadi Musa, Jordan · GMT +2:00hrs Entry to follow...soon!

Celebrate
Apr 25, 2008 (1 photos)

... promise, and I'm a man of my word. It seems, upon reflection of this entry, that I couldn't highlight a positive about Jordan without mentioning a corresponding negative in Egypt. I'm sorry, it is because of the just-recently-removed-from-Egypt mind ...

The Best Souvenirs
Mar 18, 2005 (5 photos)

... views on various subjects from what it's like for him being a Christian in a Muslim country to how minorities are accepted in Jordan to various ancient tourist sites and even his favourite local foods. I was quite surprised if not taken aback by some his ...

Following in the footsteps of Moses
Jul 7, 2007

Swam in the Dead Sea today...or rather floated big time!  We stopped at a resort and had a huge buffet...especially great when all you are doing is sitting on your rear in a bus the entire day!  You could only stay in the sea for a bit ...

El Condor and the Last Crusade
Apr 22, 2006 (26 photos)

Petra, the Rose City, hidden capital of the Nabatean Empire, and one of the undoubted wonders of the world (I do seem to be collecting them, don't I?). Known to most of the world, and many of you reading this no doubt, as the ancient city discovered by ...