Jordan
 

Jordan was a great vacation from our vacation - not as novel as Iran but easier traveling. We were lucky to stay with our friend Monica for 4 days in the capital Amman, it was fun to see Monica. We explored nearby Jerash, Bethany (the baptisimal site of Jesus) and the Dead Sea. In Amman itself, we also ran twice with the local and friendly H3 group.

After Amman, we traveled down the King's Highway, stopping at the beautiful Dana Nature Reserve (which we had never heard of) , the Crusader castle of Karak, Petra and Wadi Rum. Petra is everyone's favorite place in Jordan and is one of the greatest archaeological sites anywhere, on par with Angkor Wat, Tikal and Machu Picchu. We had a great time exploring it for 2 days. Truth be told, we did a lot of napping all over Petra! We'd climb to a great view point, nap and then repeat the process until the end of the day. :)

Wadi Rum was beautiful, but our experience was bit spoiled because we selected an unsavory tour operator to take us around. Better luck next time! After Wadi Rum, we took the boat to Egypt and stayed in a great backpacker bungalow operation near Taba before heading home.

Hiking in Dana Nature Reserve.
The Dead Sea.
The best thing we did in Petra was hike up to this view point accross from the Treasury, noone was there!

 

Wadi Rum.
Cooking great food at Monica's house in Amman.
Wadi Rum.
The baptism site of Jesus, discovered just ten years ago using the descriptions of the site in the Bible and historical accounts of travellers from the period.

page created on January 12, 2006