FOR ALL PICTURES OF JORDAN, CLICK HERE - otherwise, I have included only a few pictures here
Surprise! So when I originally signed up for this summer program, there were some optional tours available. Most of these tours I've done before, and since my time here is limited, I didn't want to go back to the same places. However, one of the options was a tour of Jordan. Now, at first I wasn't too interested - after all, why would I want to bother with going to Jordan? Is there even anything there to see? But I researched it a bit, and it turned out that yes, there is a lot to see. So I signed up and got really excited. Unfortunately, nobody else did and the tour was cancelled. Bummer. But at the last minute, the tour company was able to re-figure it to allow for just a few of us to go...so I and three of my professors here took the opportunity and went to Jordan.
After a couple of hours drive with a very chatty cabbie to the Jordan border (every Israeli has an opinion on something), we walked through Israeli border control - by the way, the taxes to cross the border are insanely high. But there weren't really any signs of where to go, and I guess you're not allowed to walk across yourself, so we had to wait for a bus to drive us over the river (which is narrower than the Rio Grande, if you can believe it). Thankfully, on the other side we had a private tour guide to meet us and help us get through Jordanian border control.
We drove away from the border toward Jerash, the ancient Greek city. On the way, I noticed the rural areas of Jordan are very poor. The buildings were dilapidated, the sidewalks were crumbling, and most of the shops were just fruit-stands (but the watermelons were HUGE!). Still, the people didn't appear to be downtrodden. As we stopped at a stop light, one of the locals knocked on my window to wave...I guess they're happy to have visitors (can't blame them). We arrived at Jerash and right away stopped for lunch. It was a restaurant set up kind of buffet style. There were a number of various salads, a local rice and lamb dish, lamb kebabs, chicken rolls, pasta - well, you get the picture. And it was delicious! My only regret is that I didn't try the locally brewed beer (dehydrating in Jordan would not be a great idea though - water is fine).
Then on to a tour of the ancient Greek ruins of Jerash. In its glory days, it was a thriving town with near 25,000 people. Some of the ruins have been built over over the years, but surprisingly, much of the ruins are still there, even with a town surrounding it. Unfortunately, Jordan is not immune to earthquakes (the Israel/Jordan border actually sits right on top of the Syrian-African rift, major fault line) and a few major quakes destroyed most of the ruins all throughout the country. However, French archaeologists have attempted over the last hundred or so years to rebuild the ruins (a strange thing to do, I mean, once they're destroyed, you can't re-build them, because then they're not exactly the original ruins, so what are we looking at? I mean, it's impressive if the architecture was so great that it withstood time, but it didn't...so it's really just a life-size model, right?) Nevertheless, still pretty impressive.
Ancient Greco/Temple
Old fountain (not quite the Bellagio)
Old Main Plaza, with view of temple
Right before the city gate is a chariot racing track. I guess gambling was outlawed in the city, so they had to go just outside the gate to bet on the ponies.
By the way, while on the tour, my hiking shoes broke. I've had these shoes for maybe 10 years, bought them for my first trip to Israel in high school. Figures I'm in Jordan for a couple of hours and they split. Never seen it happen before, the shoe just cracked and the bottom broke off.
Anyway, so we left Jerash and headed to Amman. We stopped at a museum of archaeological finds around the country. The museum itself was more like a storage room with some random objects labeled with printer paper taped to the glass...like a science fair. However, there were some interesting things. The most interesting were what was purported to be the earliest known statues of man. Personally, I think they look more like alien visitors, but you be the judge.
So a little bit about Amman. It is the largest city in Jordan with over 2.5 million people - in a country that only has about 6 million people. The city is situated on hills, so it kind of looks like San Francisco, only fewer roads - you have to park and walk up the hill. Still, it's a pretty modern city. They even have Popeye's Fried Chicken across from a KFC (not that we ate there, I'm just sayin'). Our hotel, the Liwan Hotel was actually right near an open air pedestrian street with shops and cafes everywhere. Now, the country is most definitely under Islamic influence, but it is still fairly liberal. While most women were walking around with scarves, many girls were wearing very modern attire. The ones with the scarves did not seem out of place, many were out enjoying themselves at the cafes, smoking hookah, and socializing. There were plenty of young men out as well, enjoying themselves. In Jerusalem, there is a similar style street - and there are beggars everywhere. In Jordan, I never saw one beggar. At no point did I feel any sense of tension or unrest. Seemed in fact that most everyone actually like the King and support him. His picture is everywhere. So even with all of the unrest in many of the other Arab states, I would be surprised if it significantly impacted Jordan (but then, I was only there a couple of days, so what do I know?)
So for dinner that night we went to a cafe. The food was amazing. And relatively cheap - in fact, all the food was much cheaper in Jordan than in Israel. And it seemed we were the only table without a hookah. Now, oddly enough, there were a few bars in the neighborhood around our hotel, but in the pedestrian mall area, there was no alcohol. None. I ain't saying I was disappointed, but I was surprised. Take a note Vegas - if businesses can thrive without serving alcohol, perhaps they can thrive without serving ashtrays too (maybe a bad comparison since everyone there was smoking something).
Friday morning we woke up very early for out drive down to Petra. It's about a three hour drive. On the way, I noticed that the landscape went from being somewhat greenish (kind of like that of New Mexico) to BAM! barren desert. They are, however, trying to bring pipes down into the desert to help agriculture.
So Petra is an ancient ancient cave village. Thousands of years ago, people came to the area where there was a natural spring, and carved dwellings into the sandstone. Well, not just dwellings, but monuments and tombs and art and anything else they needed in their town. The area proved to be a perfect crossing area for major trade routes. Centuries later, the Greeks and Romans would conquer the land, and made some improvements, but mostly just built their own temples and amphitheaters and did not really disturb much of the carvings. Earthquakes over the next few hundred years did a little damage, but not much, many of the original carvings still survive today. In fact, until about 25 years ago, a tribe of Bedouins still lived in the caves! When the government decided to make the area more accessible to tourists, they moved the Bedouins to a small village just outside the tourist area. The Bedouins work in the tourist area though, providing carriage rides, donkey rides, souvenirs, and snacks (and they're really smooth about getting you to tip...they also tried to buy my crummy watch, oddly enough they were willing to pay much more than it was worth, but I need a watch, so no deal).
The carvings are absolutely amazing. The perfection in the sandstone, and the fact that it is still there (very few things rebuilt after earthquakes, and mostly just for reinforcement) is awe-inspiring. The colors in the rocks are interesting too, they look painted, but it's just the natural formation of the mountains. Also, we saw their pipe system - to bring clean water from the spring into the city - yes, a pipe system, with real pipes, for sanitation purposes. Even back then they had that kind of knowledge - it's truly amazing.
Do I look touristy enough?
That evening we went back to Amman (another three hours) and tried a different cafe. Now, I'm generally not a very adventurous guy when it comes to food, but sometimes I get an inkling to try something. I had been so impressed so far with the food in general all over Jordan, that I reasoned if something was on the menu, it had to be good (although many times things were on the menu but when we tried to order, the waiter said it doesn't exist...so who knows). So I decided to try pigeon. Verdict - tasted fine, but there was less meat on there than a BWW chicken wing. So, perhaps I won't bother in the future.
Saturday morning was a quick trip to Madaba. This is an ancient city, but more recently ancient. It was a primarily Christian city in the 5th century until earthquakes destroyed it. Many hundreds of years later, another Christian colony decided to set up a community there and started building a church. But as they started to build, they found buried an old mosaic map! So they built their church around the map and it still stands that way today. The city subsequently became a mosaic center, and still pride themselves on their mosaics.
After Madaba, we drove up to Mt. Nebo, the spot where Moses looked out to the Holy Land to see the land he would never enter.
If you look closely, you can see Jericho in the background
So all-in-all, I'd say the trip was much better than anticipated. I wasn't sure what exactly to expect from Jordan, except I figured it would be a very poor and desolate place. And yes it is an extremely poor country, and yes the desert is desolate. But the people were incredibly friendly, and the food was wonderfully delicious. I had no idea how much there was to see, and how important the area was historically. I think it's a lot like Mexico (sans the drug war). Aside from being practically on the same latitude, both are countries with a wealth of history. They both depend on tourism, and both have wonderful coastal vacation resorts. Most of the towns are full of dilapidated buildings, but each has a major modern Capitol city. They are both very poor, but have the potential to do better. Anyway, if you get the chance to visit, I suggest you do so. It's an eye-opening experience.
