Amman West

... was also DeVan's last day/night in Jordan. We picked up some Peach tobacco (our favorite) and food fixens: hummos, khubz, and drinks... and basically chilled out with Adib and Mango. I helped her finish packing, we inaugurated Janis, munched the munchies, and swapped pictures from Syria. Our driver took a much needed nap and then DeVan and I did some more packing, haha. It sucks to spend your last day/night packing but it seems like it always happens. Mango headed ...

... wirklich genug Guthaben habe kaufe ich gleich nochmal 10 JD Guthaben dazu. (Am Ende meiner Reise werde ich noch 10 JD übrig haben, obwohl ich fast täglich mehrere Gespräche mit meinen Freunden vor Ort geführt habe...). Blieb nur noch das Problem mit dem Geldabheben. Auf dem Rückweg zum Hotel finde ich zumindest einen Automaten, der meine Maestrokarte nimmt - sammt PIN.

Gegen Mittag rufe ich meinen Fotografen-freund an, der sich ab ca 13 Uhr Zeit für mich nehmen möchte. Wir ...

... man in Jordanie not done is, slaapt hij beneden. Zodoende staat zijn enorme driekamer-appartement half leeg, en woont daar een Amerikaanse couchsurfer, Tony, die overal op de wereld een paar maanden blijft en wat freelance IT werk doet. Ow, en ongeveer 10 couchsurfers per week..

De eerste avond kwamen ook drie Amerikaanse studenten langs, die in Egypte resp Syrie studeren en in 4 dagen Jordanie wilden zien. We raadden ze aan zich op Petra en Wadi Rum te ...

... the ibex that they are trying to repopulate on the reserves.

Dana was beautiful. We weren’t wandering the Reserve or anything. We were actually checking on the hotels and meeting areas because in October we will host a large group of Palestinian and Israeli youth at the Reserve for a conference on environmental and cross cultural awareness. The hotels are more like guest houses and they are in these old school buildings.
So ...

... next flight, which would be two days later, and hotel and food paid for. Unfortunately I had to pass up on this offer as I wanted to get home ASAP. This turned out to be a large mistake as the rest of the trip home was pretty much a disaster. I arrived in NYC 12 hours after my flight departed, at 6:45 am, with hopes of going into the city. I scheduled my flight to have a 10 1/2 hour layover to go see the city, but unfortunately due to the hurricane ...

... Jordan's Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature established this 26-room, solar-powered retreat with a mountain bike trail system. The inn, a model for Jordanian ecolodges, offers unprecedented access to Bedouin life.


http://www.ecoadventur earabia.com/

... Ends up we were dropped off on some random street. So it was time to hail a taxi for the airport. We hailed a couple of taxis to try to negotiate a good rate. I think we ended up paying 30 EGP, which was pretty cheap, though for how easy it was we probably could have gotten it cheaper. He took us to the airport, though we had no idea which terminal we were flying out of, and he didn't speak good enough English to figure it out with us. So ...

... and the situation were perfect. Petra is amazing.

We walked out of the park dog tired at about 7:20, six hours and forty minutes after we'd entered. We'd been on the move just about the whole time and seen just about everything. Oh man, it was great!

Of course the taxi driver tried to overcharge us, and did overcharge us, for a ride back to the Cleopetra Hotel. We gave him 3 dinar for what should have been a 2 dinar ride. But it was the end of the day ...

... looked out into the west where you could see the dead sea and the various other places that were given to Moses (to include Jerusalem and parts of Israel). We also saw the amazing mosaics that were preserved from several hundred years ago which still had their vibrant colors. We then were off to Petra driving across the desert...there we saw several Bedouin tribes of nomads camped in the desert with their ...

Dana n'est pourtant pas un site exceptionnel : c'est juste un village au bord d'une réserve portant le même nom. A moitié en ruine, à moitié peuplé de touristes (deux petits hôtels - maisons de marcheurs ; il doit y avoir 25 habitants en outre), complètement isolé (ce qui explique le retard de mes dernières transmissions). J'ai passé mon après midi de jeudi, encore quelque peu dérangé par le non-triomphe nabathéen ...