26 May 2012

Saturday. Alright. After waking up, we had a huge breakfast. It was absolutely delicious, everything made right there. So much of it. I feel like I end up eating so much here. Everyone is so pushy with food. “Eat more! Eat more!” “You need this,” and from Abu Yazin (our tour guide), he continually offers food and jokingly (but seriously) tells us that it’s rude to refuse food or that we need to finish what’s there. So much food. It’s a good thing we have to walk up/down a crazy hill/mountain every time we want to go anywhere. I cannot stress how hilly Jordan is.

But after that, we headed out to Petra. I can’t say how cool it is. That is a major understatement. There’s not much to say that I’m able to say, but it’s just so… impressive? We hiked a while down a path that largely wound through a canyon-esque “area.” Then all of a sudden you look forward and you can see the treasury through these rocks. With the sun shining, it almost looks as if it glows. It’s just so tall. We went on the off-season (peak seasons are in April and October), but there were still so many people just walking around experiencing the same thing.

After that we headed out further to go to the monastery (which is up about 880 stairs). Luckily, at the last minute we decided to use donkeys. Very few people agree with me, but I think I like riding donkeys. It did feel pretty different from horses and they seemed a bit too comfortable with taking routes very close to the cliff sides. It was kind of intense. And apparently the donkeys like to play bumper cars with the wall. There were several scuffed knees in the group.

The view from the top was amazing (a little ways above the monastery). There was a little shop up there, to and it kind of made me wonder what it’s like to get to work every day, for the trip up, but also the work environment. I can barely fathom what it would be like. I imagine that it would become just an accepted part of life, but…

After making the trek down and running into someone who happened to be from Jenison (about 10 minutes from GVSU) that happened to be walking down right behind us, the next part of our adventurous weekend began. Off to Wadi Rum; the desert.

Before now my favorite place was “The Bowl,” a beautiful sand dune in Saugatuck along Lake Michigan. It’s absolutely beautiful, but after this trip I don’t think I can say that any more. Wadi Rum (granted it stretches on forever and I only saw a select part) is so amazing. This is where Lawrence of Arabia lived/stayed (we passed by the camp), and I truly can understand why he would stay there. Or maybe I just have a thing for sandy places.

This is where we picked up a ride from a group of trucks that took us into the desert to our camels. You guys, I rode a camel. I was so excited for this, and I really wasn’t let down. Something that I’ve now thought a lot about, though: camels are weird. You should go look up a picture right now and look at their eyes. Look at their feet. They are such bizarre animals. And riding them is different. You’re supposed to ride them cross-legged. I’m trying to imagine running on them. (I’m not sure if it’s the same terminology as horses, so I figured I’d be generic.)

After, we came to the camp that we were to stay at that night. It was so cool. They weren’t exactly true Bedouins, although technically they were. They became rather rich from their ties to the land and so basically go to the desert as a camping trip because they have the camp and can afford to do so. It was so nice there. They even had real bathrooms.

That night we ate food cooked underneath the sand, sang and danced around the campfire and slept underneath the sky (the clouds were hidden by an extremely overcast sky (a slightly unlucky part of the trip). I hope that one day I’ll get the opportunity to go back. I need to figure out a way back.