Alden vs. Petra

Woah! Where has Alden been? Sorry y'all, but Alden's been busy! Here's what's happened:

Alden left Tartus for Hama. Hama has cute ancient water wheel things that were part of an old school irrigation system. Some are still functional and make groaning sounds. Alden saw all of them in about an hour, then slept for the afternoon.

Next day, Alden gets back to Damascus for his last night in Syria. Dinner at Arabesque: steak & wine. Some last moment shopping got done as well. (Alden's father should get excited.)

Then taxi to Amman, Jordan. The taxi ride was taxing. The driver went back on his pledge to use the AC, and even though Alden rode shot-gun, it was a throughly miserable drive. The highlight was Alden purchasing a large bottle of his favorite Irish cream liqour at the Duty-Free area. Also, the taxi driver, like most taxi drivers, is involved in smuggling large amounts of duty-free cigarettes. Alden was less than thrilled to hide contraband cigarettes on his person as demanded by the driver while the car got inspected.

In Amman, Alden expected to meet his mother, who was joining him in Jordan for his last two weeks of his SUMMER 2008 MID-EAST ADVENTURE. She has lots of frequent flyer miles; thus they are staying at the Grand Hyatt Amman. Really roughing it...

Alden's mother was late, but arrived nonetheless. Day one with mother: See Amman. Citadel, Roman amphitheater, the Balad, etc. Back to the Hyatt for the afternoon ('cause it was too hot for anything other than a dip in the pool). Then dinner with Brian "Da Ampersand" Katz. Delightful.

Now for adventure: Renting a car should not be difficut, given there was a Hertz Rent-a-car in the Hyatt's lobby.

Alden: "Hello, I would like to rent a small car for tomorrow."
Hertz girl: "Oh, I'm sorry, no small cars for tomorrow."
Alden: "Ok, medium or large perhaps?"
Hertz girl: "Sorry, no medium or large."
Alden: "Ok, any cars at all?"
Hertz girl: "Nope, no cars at all for the next two weeks."
Alden: (Confused, blank stare)

One phone call to the first random car agency listed in his slightly less out-of-date Jordanian Lonely Planet, and Alden's got wheels for the next day!

Alden and mother take off down the dramatic King's Highway for Wadi Musa (town next to Petra), but not before seeing the Crusader castle at Karak. Alden LOVES castles, remember? It was a bit hot, but Karak was great. Fairly intact. Good job, Crusaders.

Lunch, then hit the road again. Arriving in Wadi Musa too late to get into Petra, Alden and mother head "off the beaten path" to find "Little Petra." Arriving shortly before sunset, a little Bedouin man grabs Alden to show him a good place to see the sunset. A sprint through a valley and a scramble up a cliff later, and indeed, Alden is at the best sunset he has seen this summer. He finds his patiently waiting mother and they find some dinner in town. (Cleopatra's all you can eat buffet- great deal.)

Alden vs. Petra - Round one:

Arriving sharp at 6:30 (when the ticket office opens), Alden and mother saw just about everything. Round one: Alden. Amazing pictures were taken, extremely difficult hikes were accomplished- Up to the Monestary (850 steps according to a tacky t-shirt) and up to the aptly named "High Place of Sacrifice" via the long route. It was hot, but Alden and mother beat the crowds all day long by keeping a pretty good pace. Alden also bought foodstuffs to bring for lunch, thus avoiding the awful restaurants. Actually, they looked ok, but they were filled with tourists. Alden doesn't really like that crowd...

Side note: Wadi Musa rings with gun shots, honking, and fireworks all night long. Weddings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays? Seriously people?

Side note: Winning the "Unexpected national majority of foreign tourists at Petra" today were the Spanish- and mostly Catalan at that. Mostly nice people, and it gave Petra an funky Iberian flavor.

Petra can't really be described with any justice given this author's state of true exhaustion right now, but after 12 hours of site-seeing, Alden is VERY impressed with the Nabateans that made the place. Good job, Nabateans! You guys even installed an plumbing system to control the blood flow from the High Place of Sacrifice! And Alden just loved the column tops that had elephants! Seriously, you done good work.

Tomorrow, Alden vs. Petra: Round two. More hiking, which means it is time for some Tylenol PM and earplugs to catch some sleep!

Days one and two!

Alden is still alive after two days!

Day one: Alden pays Gringo price for a taxi downtown and gets up on the Citadel and the Roman Amplitheater. These are the old-timey sights that you got go see as a foreigner in Amman. Also, it was really hot. Alden wandered around a bit- good, but sweaty, times. He realizes he paid too much when he takes a cab with a meter back to meet BK (aka "Da Ampersand").

Fun adventure: Getting a cell phone to work. Alden's Arabic is alright, but there was a considerable amount of vocab about "sim cards" and such that Alden didn't know and was very tricky to pantomime. But worked out in the end- Alden's got digits!

Evening: Books at Cafe- a great rooftop restaurant/bar with amazingly good BBQ "Chicken Chunks" and beer. And Nargileh. But the waitress didn't quite understand what Alden et al. wanted until they asked for "Hubbly-Bubbly." Best flavor, rather unexpectedly, was Watermellon-Mint. This was a good time; Alden was joined by FZB, who just gradumacated from SAIS and appears to be working for a CIA front organization (JK!) in Kurdistan (not JK!). Alden really wants to visit Kurdistan. But this is a big "rabooma" or "mumkin" ("Maybe").

Day two: The 4th of July at the Dead Sea

An only slightly hung-over Alden, BK (aka "Da Ampersand") and roommate (Mark) headed to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is very salty. Alden enjoyed himself, but he found floating in the hyper-salty sea a quite odd experience. It would have been better with beer, but this is Jordan, and Alden went to a public beach. No beer. But an all-you-could-eat buffet.

Having taken a taxi to the beach, Alden and folks were a bit stuck. There were taxis, but they seemed to all be hired. Flagging a taxi was thus impossible. An hour's drive away, this was going to be a very long walk back to Amman. Luckily a really beat-up cargo van picked Alden and folks up and tossed them in the back for 1 JD per head for the three very salty beach-goers. The three got left at a wee-little truck stop, where refresments were consumed. (It was still hot.) En route to the wee-little truck stop Alden saw a cow, and he thus won the cow game.

More waiting until a 2006 Honda Civic pulled up. Alden noted that this is the same car he drives back home. There were two empty seats, and the individuals inside allowed the team to join them, and refused payment for the ride back to Amman. With BK (aka "Da Ampersand") on his lap, Alden et al became friends with the Jordanian, Palestinian, and Chechnyian in the Civic. The Chechnyian was the most talkative, giving Alden all the advice he ever needed on how to pick up Russian women in the various cities in the Middle East.

Lessons learned: Hitching a ride in Jordan=Fun Times.

Alden also noted the differences between the 2006 Civic he rode in and his own. Mostly, with Jordanian-levels of honking, the horn and steering wheel were quite worn down after only two years.

Alden has a safety suggestion for cars in Amman: Since everyone honks and blinks their lights (all the time, at the same time) to gain attention, the lights really ought to be rigged directly to the horn. It is impressive, but probably dangerous, to honk and flash one's lights while smoking, down-shifting, talking on the cell phone, eating candy, and informing Americans the ways of Russian woman, all at the same time.

Tonight, a slightly sun-burned Alden plans to enjoy a James Bond marathon. Hopefully he will not be rudely awoken by the dueling cats and/or a rooster again. Seriously, those three should start a band. Their harmonies were amazing.