Jordan (Amman, Petra, Wadi Rum)

March 11-15, 2018

Jordan is spectacular. From Muscat, we flew to Jordan to visit the capital city of Amman. Compared to Oman, Jordan felt much more accepting of Western culture and is a "neutral" zone between Israel and the UAE. You actually can't fly between Israel and the UAE, so sandwiching travel to Jordan and Oman between the two worked out nicely for us.

We only had a day in Amman, so we started at the Amman Citadel. Mountain ruins sprawl across the land and you can see a view of the whole city. Tons of civilizations have occupied the area from the Romans, Byzantines, to Umayyads since the Neolithic era.

After hiking the ruins, lunch called our names! We visited Rainbow Street in the heart of Amman with lots of restaurants and shops. We heard about the "best falafel sandwich" at Al Qud's and it did NOT disappoint!! We also stopped by Firefly Burger for a burger & fries to eat on the road.

Along our drive, we encountered Mount Nebo, the famous mount God led Moses to so he could see the Promised Land with his own eyes before he died there. We made a stop here during our drive to Petra, making it our *first* visit to a true Biblical historical site!

Our next stop, Petra! The land of red rose rock.

The beautiful thing about Petra was we actually stayed in the same hotel for 2 nights!! A first for our entire Middle East trip if you can believe it. The Nabateans (nomadic Arabs) created Petra as a result of its central location as a trading post for nearby cities. The people group acquired large amounts of wealth and thrived in the desert by harvesting rainwater with ingenious engineering skills. They carved precise angles in the surrounding rock to store the water and protect themselves. Pretty amazing!

Tons of Bedouins still live there. They insistently peddled us their camels, donkeys, and horses available to taxi you around.

"40 minutes walking, 10 minutes on donkey" they cried. The poor animals didn't look too happy about it. Honestly, it probably would have been more dangerous riding a donkey up the steep uneven steps than walking ourselves! As a result of the plentiful tourists and animals everywhere, there are many piles of animal excrement so you have to watch your step.

Most people buy 2 or 3 day passes to visit Petra given it's over 12 miles long. We trucked through the entire site (somehow) in one day and made it all the way up to the Monastery (final stop of Petra). Whew. Luckily, it's quite breezy at the top so we had a tiny payoff in the midst of this hot day ;)

It wasn't easy, but we did it! :D

Definitely the most memorable part of the trip... besides our last stop in Jordan, the desert of Wadi Rum.

I think of the desert as a sight-seeing destination, but many native Arabs see it as home. We met so many people in Jordan who hailed from Wadi Rum and spoke of it very fondly. When you visit, desert land stretches as far as the eye can see, speckled by the occasional Bedouin tents and camels. Absolutely amazing that these resilient people have found a way to thrive in the desert.

We stayed in these incredible "Martian Domes" at SunCity Camp. Half of the dome is transparent so you can watch the night sky. It sounds super ideal and amazing (it was). However, vicious mosquitos somehow still burrowed their way into our dome.

I'm the heaviest sleeper of all time, so I didn't notice as mosquitos sucked our blood dry through the night. Meanwhile, Steven stayed awake to decimate them one by one. Woof. Probably made the experience less than ideal, but we loved our time in Wadi Rum regardless of looking like victims of a skin rash for the next few days.

At night, they make a meal for all of the campers that is more like a desert feast. Families of stray cats lurk nearby, meowing softly and hoping for a few bites to eat. Kind of felt like home with our cats, Matteo & Valentina ;)

Our favorite part was a Jeep tour we booked where we had a private tour guide. Weode in the wild open air of the truck blazing through the desert. Our tour guide helped us recreate exact scenes of Matt Damon in The Martian (which is filmed in Wadi Rum), took amazing pictures of us, and waited for us patiently as we struggled to climb a sand dune to a tall cliff to watch the sun set. 5 star experience!

P.S. Sitting at the tall cliff was very romantic. i'd highly recommend for anyone looking for a place to propose ;)