Jordan!
With everyone running fo
r the hills for their Christmas holidays, we felt a bit left out, so we decided to take a quick trip to Jordan! It's a perfect 4 hour flight from here, so it didn't even really matter what we did there. It was just nice to get away for a bit. Even still, we had a fantastic time. I met Jason at his hotel on the Dead Sea (he had come straight from the UK the night before), and we went straight for a dip in the water, despite the fact that the air temperature couldn't have been more than 60 degrees. Fortunately, the water temp was approaching 70 degrees, but still. It was just wa
rm enough to dip in and take the requisite pictures. And guess what! You really do float in that water. I must say that Jason floated a little better than I did, but we won't discuss why that might be. In any event, after the picture taking, a quick massage (of course!), and some lunch, we were off to Petra for a 2 night stay. I must admit that I really had no idea what Petra was before we got there, only that Petra was what you were supposed to go see when you went to Jordan. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with what we ended up seeing. It was a huge ancient trading village, where all of the buildings looked like old Roman structures that were completely chiselled out of the rock. To imagine them trying to do this hundreds of years ago made it seem extremely impressive, especially since I don't know if we, as a society, could even do it now! With all that said, I think I disappointed Jason when we got to the most recognizable structure of Petra (the second picture), and it didn't even ring a bell to me. I guess it has been too long since I have watched the Indiana Jones movies. We walked all through the village
, which ended with a hike up what felt like a million steps to see the old monastery (3rd picture). It was worth the hike up, but on the way back down, through my own stupidity, I managed to slip on the steps and break one of my flip flops. (No, I shouldn't have been wearing flip flops in the first place, but once again, when you have no idea what Petra actually is, it doesn't occur to you to put on your hiking boots. For future reference, wear sensible walking shoes!) So how do you get down millions of steps with a bleeding foot and a broken shoe . . .You take a donkey, apparently! So to add to the a
nimals I have ridden since I moved over here, we can now put donkey on the list. All I can say for the ride is that I just had to repeat over and over in my mind, "He doesn't want to slip and fall any more than I do. He doesn't want to slip and fall any more than I do." Fortunately for me, the donkey was more successful about the not slipping and falling than I was. We (me and donkey, plus a hysterical Jason laughing at my discomfort on this poor animal) made it down the stairs in one piece, but we still had another couple kilometers to go to get out of Petra (still with bleeding foot and minus 1 shoe). So we stopped at this place for lunch to figure out what to do next. On my way to the bathroom to clean up, the chef of the place saw me and stopped me. After a quick game of charades of him trying to take my flip flop and me trying to explain to him that it was broken, I gave in and gave the man my broken shoe. About 5 minutes later, he came out with a fixed flip flop, some bandages, and iodine. I guess I'm not the first person to ever have this happen, but I still thought it was fantastically nice of the guy to do. I am always amazed at the random acts of kindness that I see in this part of the world. I don't think we see enough of it at home. Well, the kind man cleaned me up, put on my good as new (not really, but anyway) flip flop, and sent us on our way. Unfortunately, the flip flop only made it half of the way back, but it was better than nothing. At least, I wasn't still bleeding everywhere. :) But all in all, it was a good day and a good adventure to check off on our list of things to do while we are half way around the world. Well, Happy New Year, everyone. Hope 2008 brings you all the best!
r the hills for their Christmas holidays, we felt a bit left out, so we decided to take a quick trip to Jordan! It's a perfect 4 hour flight from here, so it didn't even really matter what we did there. It was just nice to get away for a bit. Even still, we had a fantastic time. I met Jason at his hotel on the Dead Sea (he had come straight from the UK the night before), and we went straight for a dip in the water, despite the fact that the air temperature couldn't have been more than 60 degrees. Fortunately, the water temp was approaching 70 degrees, but still. It was just wa
rm enough to dip in and take the requisite pictures. And guess what! You really do float in that water. I must say that Jason floated a little better than I did, but we won't discuss why that might be. In any event, after the picture taking, a quick massage (of course!), and some lunch, we were off to Petra for a 2 night stay. I must admit that I really had no idea what Petra was before we got there, only that Petra was what you were supposed to go see when you went to Jordan. Well, I was pleasantly surprised with what we ended up seeing. It was a huge ancient trading village, where all of the buildings looked like old Roman structures that were completely chiselled out of the rock. To imagine them trying to do this hundreds of years ago made it seem extremely impressive, especially since I don't know if we, as a society, could even do it now! With all that said, I think I disappointed Jason when we got to the most recognizable structure of Petra (the second picture), and it didn't even ring a bell to me. I guess it has been too long since I have watched the Indiana Jones movies. We walked all through the village
, which ended with a hike up what felt like a million steps to see the old monastery (3rd picture). It was worth the hike up, but on the way back down, through my own stupidity, I managed to slip on the steps and break one of my flip flops. (No, I shouldn't have been wearing flip flops in the first place, but once again, when you have no idea what Petra actually is, it doesn't occur to you to put on your hiking boots. For future reference, wear sensible walking shoes!) So how do you get down millions of steps with a bleeding foot and a broken shoe . . .You take a donkey, apparently! So to add to the a
nimals I have ridden since I moved over here, we can now put donkey on the list. All I can say for the ride is that I just had to repeat over and over in my mind, "He doesn't want to slip and fall any more than I do. He doesn't want to slip and fall any more than I do." Fortunately for me, the donkey was more successful about the not slipping and falling than I was. We (me and donkey, plus a hysterical Jason laughing at my discomfort on this poor animal) made it down the stairs in one piece, but we still had another couple kilometers to go to get out of Petra (still with bleeding foot and minus 1 shoe). So we stopped at this place for lunch to figure out what to do next. On my way to the bathroom to clean up, the chef of the place saw me and stopped me. After a quick game of charades of him trying to take my flip flop and me trying to explain to him that it was broken, I gave in and gave the man my broken shoe. About 5 minutes later, he came out with a fixed flip flop, some bandages, and iodine. I guess I'm not the first person to ever have this happen, but I still thought it was fantastically nice of the guy to do. I am always amazed at the random acts of kindness that I see in this part of the world. I don't think we see enough of it at home. Well, the kind man cleaned me up, put on my good as new (not really, but anyway) flip flop, and sent us on our way. Unfortunately, the flip flop only made it half of the way back, but it was better than nothing. At least, I wasn't still bleeding everywhere. :) But all in all, it was a good day and a good adventure to check off on our list of things to do while we are half way around the world. Well, Happy New Year, everyone. Hope 2008 brings you all the best!
posted by DaKleins in Oman @ 3:48 PM
3 Comments
