Jordan

Benefits: hospitable and friendly people, small country with a lot to see and to do

Concerns: Taxi (sometimes they refuse to start the meter to get some more money); drink alcohol (this happens a lot in the Middle East, specially in restaurants - at dinner time it is really hard for me not to get any beer or wine)

Number of Days: 8 - from 20th till 25th April (then I went to Israel) & from 30th April till 2nd of May

Places visited (& days): Aqaba (1); Wadi Rum (1); Petra (2); Amman (2), Dead Sea (1), Jerash & Ibrid (1)

Transport (time or distances): Aqaba to Wadi Rum by taxi (80 km - 1h); Wadi Rum to Petra by bus (120 km - 1h30); Petra to Amman by bus (240 km - 3 hours); Amman to King Hussein Border by taxi (30 km); Dead Sea to Jerash by taxi (70 km but it took us 2 hours since we had to go around the mountains); Jerash to Ibrid by bus (45 min); Ibrid to Syrian border by cab (15 min)

Currency: JD (Jordanian Dinar): 1 Euros = 0.93 JD;

I arrived at Aqaba late in the evening. During such a long trip, I met Guoada (from Lithuania), Glen and Sara (Australian couple). Guoda was just crossing the border to be able to get back in Egypt since her visa expired each 6 weeks. Glen and Sara were on their honeymoon travelling for 2 months. Getting out from the ferry, we decide to share the same taxi and later stayed at the same hotel. The taxi driver, Omar, a very nice Jordan guy, arranged everything for us.

Glen, Sara, Guoda & Pedro in Aqaba after our long journey

The next day I was supposed to meet Sara and Glen to plan our trip to the Wadi Rum and say good bye to Guoda, but everything went the other way around. Sara was ill and therefore had to stay one day longer and Guoda decided to join me to Wadi Rum. Before leaving, we made a quick visit to Aqaba but there was not so much to see apart from the Aqaba's Castle and Museum.

We then went to Wadi Rum 80 km away from Aqaba with Omar, who drove us. From there we jumped into another car (4x4) and start the safari. It was a great experience doing a safari in the desert. The colors of the rocks were changing each 5 minutes and I felt that I was in a different place each time. On top of that, during all the afternoon we didn' t see any other tourists around, so we had all the desert scenery for us!

Pedro, Guoda and Omar in Wadi Rum

The magic scenery of the Wadi Rum

I was so excited with the safari that, when we got back to the camp, I asked them if they could drive me back to the desert after dinner because I would like to sleep there and see the sunset. They drove me back and I slept there (probably just 2 hours) because all the time I was watching the stars and realizing the lucky guy that I was for doing this round the world tour and visiting such places!

The next morning, I took a small bus to Petra. There was so much to see here that I stayed 2 days. Petra is not just a monument that we can look at it and that's it. It is a huge area, with a lot of sights to visit (Al-Khazneh - the treasury; Al-Deir -the monastery, The High Place of sacrifice; The tombs, the theatre... just to name some).

The Tuga in Petra, at the Al-Khaznesh (The Treasury)

Al-Deir (The Monastery) - Petra

Next Stop, Amman. It reminds me of my city, Lisbon, since it has a lot of hills as well. There is a high contrast between the poor part of the city downtown around the Roman Theatre and the Western part with a lot of 5 stars hotel, bars, night clubs and galleries.

The most interesting sights are the Roman Theatre, which can hold 600 people, and the Citadel

The Roman Theatre

During these days, I' ve been preparing my trip to Israel. Nobody was really happy about it. My parents and some friends saying that I should avoid it, but when I have something in my mind it's hard to stop me. The main risk for me, apart from the political situation and therefore some possible attacks, was not to get a stamp on my passport what would prevent me from visiting Syria an Lebanon.

After 5 days in Israel (see Israel posting - coming very soon) I was back to Jordan and for such a small country, there was still a lot more to see and to do. I then went to the Dead Sea to try what everyone says to be a magic experience. In fact it is, since you can float as much as you want. The bad thing is if you are not careful (and I wasn' t during my first dive) you can easily get water in your eyes and mouth.

Floating on the Dead Sea

Sunset at the Dead Sea

Then I moved to the north, to Jerash, a beautifull Roman city. Excavations here have been ongoing for 80 years but it is estimated that 90% of the city is still to be excavated!!!

Jerash, "The Roman City"

End of the afternoon I went to Irbid, the second largest city of Jordan, which is a university town and very close to the Syrian border (my next stop)