| September, 2nd - Aqaba |
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At first we had planned to go to Petra, but then both of us wanted to take some relaxing days at the beach before seeing more desert and ruins. So we checked out and took a shared taxi to the Jett bus station (to 'Abdali station and a bit further). It's highly recommendable to book some days in advance - almost all seats were sold out. But we were lucky and got 2 seats in a bus 3 hours later. The Jett bus is quite nice, with air con and video and it's relatively cheap - if you avoid buying snacks and drinks and so on. Remembering a similar Egyptian experience I expected some action movie with a lot of car accidents, shooting and so on. Instead they tortured us with a 2-hour-family-drama with 3 people constantly shouting at each other. Therefore we couldn't enjoy they nice view out of the window completely (the bus goes along the Dead Sea and you really would like to get off from time to time - and not only because of the video).
At about 5 p.m. we arrived at the center of Aqaba. While we still were unpacking our rucksacks some taxi driver came along and wanted to bring us to a very nice hotel with a view over the Red Sea and air-con and shower and so on and so on. I didn't want to pay commission for him in his nice hotel so I said I would find a hotel myself and unpacked my guide book. Instead of going away he stared over my shoulder while I was reading. We decided for Red Sea hotel and told him to drive us there, which - after some bargaining - he did reluctantly. He tried to convince us of the advantages of his hotel all the (luckily pretty short) way. When we started to unpack our luggage from the taxi, he went into the hotel and started to talk to the manger! This guy really had a nerve. I jumped after him. Just when I had said hello to the manager he told that impertinent taxi driver that he wouldn't give commission since he wouldn't sell his customers. The driver vanished. Of course we checked in :-). We got a room without air-con, but since the room looked north it didn't get too hot. The rest of the day we spent wandering around and having a look at the beach, although not very long since I started to feel pretty sick.
| September, 3rd - Aqaba |
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Next day both of us felt sick, so we took some Immodium. This stopped the diarrhea but still we suffered from frequent pain in our stomach. We suspected some bottle of water we had bought in Amman to have been refilled with bad tap water - we could open this bottle without breaking the seal, so probably somebody else could have done so before. Be aware of this and buy only bottles with "save" seals, like Ghadeer for instance! We just went to the beach of the Aquamarina I hotel and hang around swimming from time to time. Swimming in Read Sea is rather enjoyable, the water is refreshing without being cold, it's clear and the beach was not too crowded. There were no problems with harassment, too, although this time I wore a bikini.
In the evening we had some tea with some guys we had met at the beach. One of them asked me to translate a letter to a German girl.
| September, 4th - Aqaba |
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We felt a bit better, so we took a taxi and went to the "aquarium", which is a kind of small museum of the scientific station near Aqaba. We had planned to go to the Royal Diving Center afterwards, but at the aquarium it all started again - pains in the stomach once in while and a strong feeling that it would be good to be near a toilet. We were absolutely unable to do anything useful, so we stayed in the aquarium and talked to some of the scientific staff instead. When the station closed at 5 p.m. one of them took us back to Aqaba. He recommended "Miramiya" for the tea, which turned out to be sage when we bought some.
In the evening we stayed a while at the beach drinking some tea with "Miramiya" until we decided that it would be better to see a doctor. So we crept back to the hotel and asked the manager what to do. He at once drove us to a hospital where they checked us. At first they wanted to keep us in there for 24 hours with infusion and so on, but then (on my begging) they decided that this was not necessary, claimed that we had caught some germs and prescribed us some medicine (actually taking Immodium was a pretty bad idea, so the little bastards would just stay where they shouldn't be). The hotel manager drove us to a pharmacy, we bought the stuff (medical check and the medicine was JD 10 for each of us) and then he took us back to the hotel. We had booked a one-day-boat-trip over the red sea, with coral reef snorkeling and a fish-barbecue at the beach and so on for the next day. Although we wouldn't be able to eat anything of the barbecue (we were not allowed to eat anything for one day...) we decided to make the trip anyway.
| September, 5th - Aqaba |
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We waited for the bus to pick us up for the boat trip for over an hour but unluckily it was in vain. The manager tried desperately to reach the man in charge and he was really embarrassed. We told him that it was okay and went to the Royal Diving Center instead. The medicine had helped and so we were able to enjoy the nice and rather empty beach, the swim in the sea and the fine coral reefs. Actually the underwater landscape was not as impressive as the one I experienced in Egypt near Dahab, but it had much more fish. At 5 p.m. the place closed and we went back with the free minibus to Aqaba. There is supposed to be a similar bus in the morning from Aqaba to the Royal Diving Center but since we were waiting for the bus to the boat we of course missed it.
You can imagine that we were pretty hungry that evening :-).
| September, 6th - Wadi Rum | 
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We had been told that the only bus for Wadi Rum would leave at 7 a.m. so we got up early (and starving!) and went to the mini bus station. To our surprise the information was correct - the bus was there, the passengers were there and so was the bus driver. We arrived in Wadi Rum at about 9 a.m. At first we had planned to sleep in the desert but since we were not allowed to leave our luggage in the rest house we booked a place on the roof. We talked to a couple from France and decided to take the long Jeep ride (sunset included) together to share the expense. This tour starts only at 2 p.m., so me and my friend walked a bit behind the village and sat on a big rock stuffing ourselves with bread and corned beef (we were really hungry) until the shadows vanished and the hornets came out.
We went back and after some fuzz we got our Jeep. You are supposed to go to the police station where they will write down the names of the places where you go on a small piece of paper, giving this to the driver. After we had this our driver took us to the Jeep. The car looked pretty old, and I didn't put to much trust in the tires - there was absolutely no profile on them. The driver took us to the village and stopped at a shop. Instead of buying some cigarettes he changed with an old bedouin who from now on was our driver. He looked even older than the car - as if he had been born around the time when T. E. Lawrence crossed Wadi Rum (Like "Dad, this is really the very last time you're making the tour, okay?"). Anyway he was a fine guy, and really enjoyed the ride - until the car stopped involuntarily for the first time. My distrust of the tires was not justified - but then I hadn't seen the engine yet. Anyway he got the car running without any problems again. Then it got stuck in the next sandhog and the engine said bye-bye again. This time it was harder to get it on again, but you can't get an old, desert-experienced car down so easily. But when it happened for the third time even the bedouin seemed to lose his patience. He had several tries to repair it (i.e. he exchanged some cables, sucked somewhere else, muttered some magic words over a third part...) but it wouldn't come back again. After exchanging some jokes ("Now I know why they need 5 hours for 45 km") we began to get a bit nervous - we were too far to walk back in this heat, the sun was burning pretty hot on our heads and we didn't know when another desert ride would pass this place to rescue us. But Allah was merciful and finally the engine was running - and didn't make any problem again. As they say in the advertising poster: "Wadi Rum - were you will find adventure". Probably this is the extra kick for the tourists.
It is a very fine trip through the wadi. You will stop now and then at some
remarkable landmarks, so you can take a lot of pictures. The breaks are pretty relaxing,
we had some food and tea with the bedouin man (who unfortunately spoke no English at all), and finally
we arrived at the place were the tourists sleep when they sleep in the desert, and
waited for the sunset. There were some guys from Italy who said being
brought to the tents and back the next morning was JD 3 each. Anyway I think
that the expense for the Jeep was worth it - the landscape is just great. And of
course it was fun.
Back in the rest house we had the full moon rising over the
roof, so we had a rather romantic night with the exception that I woke up later just
to notice that the gnats had had a kind of party on me.
| September, 7th - Petra |  
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The minibus from Wadi Rum to Petra (or rather to Wadi Mousa, which is the name of the village nearby) left at about 8.30 a.m. We had talked to a German couple coming from there and they recommended the Petra Garden hotel where they had paid only JD 4 for a double room. So we had a hotel which didn't keep a man in the minibus from trying to drag us to his hotel. He even carried Ralph's rucksack there although we had told him that we didn't want to take his hotel. I was so angry that I even refused to see the rooms - I have even forgot the name of the hotel. Probably it's okay and cheap, too, but this guy really was a pain in the neck. We went to the Petra Garden, where it took some time (and acting as leaving right now) until they gave us the room for JD 4. At this time of the year there are not too many tourists in Petra so you will be able to get a cheap hotel. Anyway Petra has been corrupted by tourism already - it's the kind of town where the price for a bottle of water will increase from 300 to 350 Fils while you take it out of the fridge. And you will get no fair price in the restaurants, just special price to you, my dear guest.
It was only 2 p.m. so we went down to the old Nabbatean town. The entrance fee is really high. Usually you wouldn't pay it but actually Petra is a must-see. You can't miss it and so you pay the fee. Hope they won't increase it any more. We took the 3-day's-ticket and that's what you should do if you have the time. One day will be not enough - or you have to rush through it which will be very hard in this heat. Having 2 or 3 days means you can walk relaxed through the town, have a look at all the great things and still be able to rest for half an hour in some shadowy place if you feel like it.
There are a lot of bedouins around wanting you to take "an air-con taxi", meaning a horse, a camel, a carriage or a donkey. We didn't do it - it's pretty expensive (up to JD 7 for a horse ride, up to JD 20 for the carriage), and it's worth to walk the way through the siq - the canyon at the entrance to Petra leading to it's most famous sight: Al-Khazaneh, or The Treasury, known from the movie "Indiana Jones and the last Crusade". And although you know it from the movie the moment when the monument comes into sight is absolutely breathtaking - and it was still on the third day! We walked only to the Amphitheatre the first day and then we wanted to climb to the "High Place of Sacrifice". For inexplicable reasons we missed the point where we should have turned to the right. You can't miss it - there is a ruin of a bedouin house without any roof, and there are arrows on the wall showing the right way. We didn't see them anyway and climbed for a long time through the mountains in vain. Finally we had lost any idea where we were. But the view over the rocks is nice, and although it would have been a very very short way from these arrows to the right place, we didn't mind very much. I'm convinced that we ended on the rock into which Al-Khazaneh is carved - a rather scary thought.
Back to the hotel we regretted the lack of a fan - there were a lot of gnats (and they all were eating me), so better take another hotel (or me with you).
| September, 8th - Petra |
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This day we went further - along the Royal tombs and through the feeble rests of the Roman period of Petra. We had a look into the small museum, then we climbed up to the Qattar-al-Deir (Deir monastery). This is by far the biggest monument of Petra, and it's in very good condition. A lot of other sights in Petra has been damaged by earthquake and water, this one is almost untouched by time. Don't miss it! You can even climb up to the urn on the top (it has been forbidden since a girl fell to death, though).
In the evening Ralph went to a barber shop to get his hair cut. The result was rather depressing but the process was fun, since the barber made a lot of jokes while cutting. Probably this is why the result was so depressing :-).
| September, 9th - Petra |
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If the first day was hot and the second hotter this day was hell. Later we heard
that there was some air from the Sahara blowing over the Middle East so at least
the subjective feeling of being boiled had an objective base. We had a second try to
reach the High Place of Sacrifice, this time from the other side. This meant we had to
cross a plane at high noon - don't do it, especially not if there is a Sahara wind
blowing. It's not far, though - on the map it looks worse than it actually is.
As a result of melting over that small plane accompanied only by the worried looks
of some camels we rested for almost an hour in a shadowy tomb helping the tourists
taking their group snaps. Then we climbed the mountain - on the sunny side.
When we reached the High place we were rewarded again with a fascinating view
over Petra. On our way back we finally realized the error of our first day climb.
Then we had to say good-bye to Petra.
| September, 10th - Amman | 
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The minibus from Petra to Amman leaves at 6 a.m. (*Yaaaaawn*) in the center. It leaves you somewhere in South Amman (Wahadat station), from where you can catch a shared taxi to 'Abdali. During my travel preparations I had got an e-mail telling me how to get to Jerusalem. (If you ask around you better use the Arabic name: Al-Quds). I had been told that there would be shared taxis for JD 4 from 'Abdali station, but when we arrived there everybody tried to tell us that there were no shared taxis and you should take a taxi for JD 12. We kept asking around until somebody came to tell us that his bus was waiting there for JD 1 each. Never believe a taxi driver! The bus left at the southern end of 'Abdali; there is some kind of travel agency down there.
At King Hussein bridge it was a bit confusing and we had some trouble because our visa were not valid. After we had understood what the actual problem was we payed the penalty and the exit fee and were transported over the river Jordan which at this place is a rather muddy and miserable creek. It was hard to believe that this little bit of water can give live to such a big area.
 The North |
Jerusalem |