1/15/2010 Wadi Rum; Amman

I'm in Amman now, arrived maybe an hour ago- just got situated in my hotel (the Palace- JD20 a night- about $35), the room is pretty basic, but I don't need much. The rest of the place is pretty nice. I'll tell you, after a few days in tourist traps where everyone you make eye contact with practically crawls up your ass for every penny (fil here, I think) you have, it's nice to be in a big city where, at least so far, no one gives a shit about me.

Amman is huge, especially for a compact area, about 3 million people (half of the population of Jordan); the west side is the ritzy part of town; I'm in the east end (the "old town" according to Yahya); feels a bit like just about any gigantic city you've probably ever been in: storefronts with steel bay doors, and if they're not restaurants they're selling every kind of shit you can possibly imagine (knock-off; legit; who really knows for sure...); I haven't ventured very far, don't plan to, according to Dan there's not much to see; but the humanity in itself, the smells, the sounds, the call to prayer at a mosque in the middle of this cramped but quaint cluster of a city, is facinating enough... and I only had to walk about 200 meters down the road. Plus, since it's about 6PM here, the sun is just fading, and any city is beautiful at twighlight, that intersection where natural light is fading but still glowing, while the city lights begin to light it up. It's a big town, but safe. I'll be out of here by about 7AM tomorrow anyway. How much trouble could I really get into... for those who know me well, that means probably not very much at all.

So anyway, back to the beginning of the day: Woke up early- real early, like 4AM- damned jet lag is still killing me; so I was already awake when they made the prayer call... and once again the alley cats joined in disjointed and unharmonious unison. God love 'em for trying though. Went for a quick jog- Wadi Musa is either all up hill or all down hill, so instead of starting down, I opted for the opposite. Nice view, the main gates to Petra are only like a mile and a half away, and even if there weren't ancient ruins hiding within, those mountains are pretty sweet by themselves.

Yahya picked me up at 8AM and we headed to Wadi Rum (like the booze), about an hour southeast, over the King's Highway, which I guess has been in existence since Moses's time, even before. Wadi Musa itself means valley of Moses. He's very highly regarded around here... a really cool drive, very pretty views. You actually see Wadi Rum before you even drop down out of the mountains, then it's like another 30 minutes to the gate. I guess Wadi Rum stretches all the way into Saudia Arabia, but like Yahya pointed out, if Saudis actually travel to Jordan to see it, it must not be as spectacular as up here. I've never been to Utah or New Mexico where all those natural stone structures or whatever exist (just seen Vacation; and Indiana Jones- he strikes again), but that's sort of what like Wadi Rum is: these massive rocks jutting straight up from out of the orange/red sand. Yahya called up one of his buddies with a 4x4, and for 2 hours and 35 JD I got my own private tour of the place. No roads out there- just tracks in the sand left by the last 4x4 truck. And if a sand storm kicks up, all traces of anyone ever being out there are completely wiped away. The drive up to the park was cool enough- I wasn't really certain paying a guy to take me out in a truck would make any difference. Maybe it wasn't worth all the money, but I'm still glad I did it, and I've got what I hope to be some really incredible pictures to back it up (which again I won't be able to upload for a while-still on a share computer).

It was a pretty long drive back up to Amman- and pretty uneventful- the Desert Highway is aptly named. That said, I still snapped a few shots and took some video: even the driest, flattest desert seems to have its own beauty. Besides that it was quite a contrast to the landscape I'd experienced in my last 2 and a half days here.

I'm not much of a BSer, not that I can't; when riding in a car for hours with for all intents a perfect stranger, I'd say it's just about plum necessary... that said, things really couldn't be much better. Yahya's been an excellent "host," a stirling representative for his contrymen, just a really cool guy, has answered any question I've had about Jordan; Islam; How Not to Get Ripped Off in the Middle East... and has volunteered just as much. If anyone ever decides they want to come out here, I've got his contact information for you. There are times when the lesser angels of my nature have whispered very cynical things to me about this place- Petra is crawling with beggars who might leave you alone if you're busy eating something, but not at really any other time; restaurants have local and tourist prices- it all might lead one to believe that they mean nothing to these people except for whatever cash they've brought with them (which is probably true); everyone hates a tourist; and we are tolerated as a necessary evil more than anything else, if not completely disliked- only once have I encountered a public toilet where I wasn't expected to pay something... when comes the part where my room is broken into and all my stuff taken... But it's important (for me- I'm sure you all are much more insightful) to remember that Petra, Wadi Rum (doesn't have a fraction of the "problem" as Petra/Wadi Musa), these likely are truely poor areas, and the economy rises and falls based on tourist dollars. I think their approach could use some improvement... All this said, Jordan has been an incredibly safe, and imminently beautiful place to visit, and the people do take a lot of pride in taking care of their guests. I never expected in my entire life to ever head out this way. It's a risk, sure. It's different, and different can certainly do a number on one's nerves, igniting that good old fasioned American paranoia... I've really dived headlong into this- perhaps venturing to Europe or something would've been a good indoctrination to this travelling business, and then I'd sort of graduate to this Middle East level. My trip ain't over- I leave for one more tourist destination tomorrow morning (Jerash), then it's off to Damascus, Syria for about 3 days, followed by two in Beirut- so there's plenty of time for me to develop new fresh hard feelings... but I'm over a lot of that bullshit; I've got some great memories and pictures to remind me that I've had a much better time than not; thanks to Yahya and a few of the folks at the Cleopetra hotel (they are remodelling by the way-the rooms will remain small, but they'll have white polished tile soon), I've got a better idea of what to watch out for- if not any way of dealing with it; and maybe I can look at this money thing as a game and try to enjoy it or at least figure out how to haggle the price of a dinner down to a moderate level. Then again, it's either eat or don't eat. And I'm pretty hungry right now. I'll let you know how much I paid this time... that's a joke. I'll be fine.

Bye for now-