Jordan Day 3: The Long One

Al Karak to Ma'an:
Once again I woke up at around 6:00 to get on a bus headed to Ma'an, the connection city that I needed to go to get to Shoubak castle. I got on just in time as the bus was just filling up. The trip was comfortable and pretty short. When I got to Ma'an I wandered around for an hour trying to find the bus station to Shoubak. On my way I bought a pair of socks and literally took off the ones I had on right then and there because they stunk so bad. I'd worn them for three days in a row because I only brought one pair of socks with me- "I is Eric, need no socks on trip..." I don't know what I was thinking, but I felt like a retard. The guy laughed at me when I threw away my socks and put on the new ones I'd just bought. I also bought some of their little pastry things there to try them, disappointingly they were the same as the Egyptian ones.

Ma'an to Shoubak:
I finally decided to get a taxi to the bus station, which was a good call because there is no way I would've found it had I not. When I got there, a taxi driver tried to convince me to ride with him because it would take two hours to fill up. He ended up being full of it. It took 15 minutes and we were on our way. He was a pretty persuasive, shrew old man though. He almost convinced me.

The ride there was good, except two boys tried to steal out of my bag before the journey started. I told them to not touch my crap. They didn't speak English, but I think they got the idea that I wasn't messing around. Other than that it was a good ride. I shared my pastries with the people on the bus and got dropped off in the middle of nowhere.

Shoubak:
Like I said before, I got dropped off in the middle of nowhere by a "T" in the road. They kept driving the other way, so I figured the other way led to Shoubak. I'm guessing I walked about three kilometers before finally seeing the castle way off in the distance. When I saw the castle, I cut across the terrain towards the castle. It was quite the adventure and really relaxing. No touts trying to sell me stuff, just me and wide open space. Beautiful.

When I got to the castle, I got a firsthand experience of the pain invaders had to have taken to attempt to seize the castle. There was this huge slope to climb up the hill leading to the castle and it was one heck of a brutal climb to the top. When I got there and looked down on the trek I'd just taken, I smiled in defiance and then began my quest to explore the ancient Crusader castle.

I will say first off that I haven't felt like a kid in a playground like I did in this castle since I was seven years old and we went to this HUGE playground in Estes Park. There were secret passageways, dark tunnels weaving down towers, turrets to climb, and a final secret passageway that went for 400 steps all the way to the bottom of the castle that took me right outside of the castle. I will admit the return journey wasn't the best, but it was better than doing it in the sun. Exploring the castle is what I would describe as a pure delight!

Once I returned to the top of the 400 step secret passageway there was this Jordanian family sitting there eating. They invited me to come eat with them and at first I was going to decline, but I just decided to get off my high horse of American custom and join them. It was great, I shared my candy bars with them and they gave me some sandwiches. The father was an old military officer and joked with me about giving one of his two daughters in marriage that was sitting there. I asked one them what they thought about it, and she replied, "I don't like talk to the boys." It was a great time!

After eating with them I did a bit more exploring and then decided to call it a day. As I was walking out, I decided to stop at the "Historical Center" to see if I could find some water. While I was there I met a couple from New Zealand and they offered to give me a ride. It was a serious blessing because I wasn't looking forward to walking another 3k with my pack and then however many it took to get to the town of Shoubak. They were contractors that were working in Dubai and another set of just cool people. One I got out the guy said, "I didn't catch your name fellar, but I wish you the best." We exchanged names, I said thank you and his reply was a variation of what I heard from one of my coaches, Jim Nash, four years ago, "My pleasure, mate. Just pass it on to somebody else."

They drove away and I negotiated a taxi ride to Petra for 8 JD. I bought some sandwiches at a local place and the two boys running it laughed at me when I saw that they had hot sauce and I asked for a lot. They told me I'd cry and I replied that I was a girl so it would be okay for me to cry. We joked around a little more and I jumped in my taxi.

Shoubak to Petra:
The "taxi ride" aka "ride in a 4runner" was relaxing. The guy didn't speak too much English and so there was no need to talk, which was nice. We got to Petra and I checked out the Musa Spring Hotel. I paid him and he drove away content. When I got to my room, I was fried! I had the ambition of going to the "Petra by Night" showing, but I just didn't care. I laugh at myself as I write this, but I honestly just sat there and watched TV for four hours. I was in one of the most historic places in the world and I watched TV for four hours there! I guess in my defense it was appealing at the time. Once again, I slept SOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!