Amman Jordan

Greetings from Jordan 11/20/006

I am in Amman Jordan. I have been in Jordan since 11/10/006, since I left Dahab Egypt and took a bus to Taba and then walked across the Egypt Istrael border to Elat and then took a bus and taxi 12 km to Acaba Jordan. I was in Israel for 30 minutes. It cost me 27 US dollars!! Not exactly what you would call budget travel,eh? The deal is that you take a bus to Elat city center and then you take a taxi to the border9.00US dollars for transportation, and then the Israelites charge you 69NIS (New Israeli Sheckels)which is 18.50 USdollars to exit their country!! Even if you have only been in the darned country for less than an hour...
Aacaba is a special economic Zone of some sort so it is the only place to enter Jordan where you dont have to pay for your visa. The whole city is a duty free zone. liter of Smirnof for $5.00US. Other groovy cheap shit to buy and enjoy, Cheap toblerones chocolates, cigarettes, perfumes etc. I stayed there for only one night and then I split and went to Wadi Moussa.

Wadi means Valley. I dont know what Moussa means. This is the littel city/town you stay in if you want to check out the magnificent ancient ruins of Petra which are by far Jordans number one tourist attraction. They filmed parts of Indiana Jones movies here. The facade for the big temple is unbelievable. There are lots of other cool ruins there as well. I cant really describe it. It is really breathtaking, but Jordan is NOT a cheap country to travel in and it costs $31.00 US Dollars to enter Petra. That is what my hotel room in Dahab egypt cost for a week... Still I am there and I want to see it. It costs 5 times the entrance fee of the temple of Luxor or the Pyramids of Giza. It is the most money I ever spent to visit ancient ruins anywhere in the world!!
Would I do it again? HELL YES!!!

Before I visited Petra I arranged a tour of Wadi Rum. Wadi means valley and Rum means sand. So sandy valley or valley of sand...This is the place that Lawrence of Arabia was inspired to write The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. It is here that he organized the Arab Revoltr which kicked the Turks out of Jordan, in 1920.

This is also an amazing plaace. Although it is totally unique, It reminds you of Brice canyon in USA or Kapadochia in Turkey. Utterly spectacular dessert landscapes. Trememdous silence. A great place to meditate and have a religious experience. Seriously. After touring around with hamed (my guide) in his 4x4 toyota pick-up for 6 hours and climbing beautiful rock formations, having tea with some bedouins after helping them get thier truck out of some deep soft sand and checking out dessert flowers and deep suberanean springs, We spent the night in a bedouin camp sleeping in tents. I highly recomment this place to any world travellers who want to see an amazing natural valley it is a national park here and from Wadi Moussa or Aqaba it is easy to get to.

So now I am in Amman. Capital of Jordan. About 40km east of Jerusalem. I am staying with my old traveling Mate Peta. This is the third country I have been in with Peta having travelled with her in Turkey and Egypt as well. She is a very cool woman about my age. She is a teacher at the British council here in Amman and they set her up in a Palacial Apartment in a fine and high class French neighborhood, not far from the Abdeli bus station and walking distance to the Jordanian National Art Gallery. Very good gallery. I was very impressed with some of their pictures although Peta was quite less impressed than I.

We took off on her day off from teaching at the British Couyncil last Saturday and went for a day of fun in the sun and swimming at the Dead Sea. Really weird swimming experience. Not for those of you with suicidal tendencies. You cant drown there. The water is so salty that you can hardly go under water at all. you can sit up in the water. There are no waves, No fish , no sharks, no sea shells, No Sea gulls...Really weird. Arab women swimming in full on Burqas with veils on their faces and hajibs (head scarves) on their hair. So strange, so strange...Sometimes the middle east is so strange...

I have been a guest speaker at some of Petas english classes. The students are told a few basic facts about me and thy all think of a couple of questions to ask me. It helps them to practice talking to a Native english speaker. They ask about Iraq, Buddhism, Travel, George W Bush, why I dont have a job, and if all Americans think all Muslims/Arabs are terrorists. Strangely enough mostly we speak about religion...

I got a ticket to go to India on 22/12/006. In a few days I will cross the border and go to Israel for 3 weeks or so and, "Insh Allah", come back to Amman on the 20th. This may not be such a good time to visit Israel or Palestine as they call it here, but I dont think it is ever gonna be a better time and I aint gonna get any younger or any closer than I am now so I will go this next Sunday. Then get my flight out of Amman on 22/12/006 and arrive in Mumbai (Bombay) on 23/12/006 for Christmas in India. Next update from the land of Milk and Honey (Israel).
Meanwhile here is a quote to ponder:
"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."-Jeannette Rankin
Peace and Love to all who read these words,