Yep, the title says it all. I've evaded all the nasty stuff that Egypt has to offer: Schistosomiasis, Rabies, Malaria, etc. but I finally got hit with the one of the smaller guys- Giardia.
Over the past weekend we went to the Field President's house, which is something we SM's always look forward to because they feed us tons and we just get the chance to relax. The weekend wasn't so relaxing for me this time around. I shamefully ate a minimal amount of food and sat and my butt because I was just straight up SORE! I'd lifted weights two days in a row before, but I wasn't expecting the kind of soreness I ended up getting. I figured I'd just run my body into the ground by the week's activities and didn't think much of it other than wow my body aches. Then, the fever started, then the diarrhea, then the bloating, then the absolute loss of appetite, and then somewhere in between all of those MAJOR gas issues smelling like rotten eggs. At first I kind of enjoyed making Monte and Daniel suffer, but then it just became overpoweringly obnoxious.
So, by the end of the weekend I hardly ate anything and then came back to the school and was thinking, "WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY STOMACH!?!" Then I remembered that the school nurse had put out a notice that Giardia was running through the school. So I checked it out and, YEP, all most all of the symptoms lined up.
Now, I'm on my first does of "flagyl" ( the pills dissolve really fast, pretty bitter stuff) and I'm relishing the fact that this parasite that is causing me to suffer is also joining me in my suffering. The saying is all too true- misery loves company. Well off to the toilet and then to classes again!
Takin' It Easy at Karnak
Welcome to my blog
Monday, May 18, 2009
It's Getting Hot in Here
108 degrees yesterday. 104 degrees today. Ahhh, yes what I was expecting when I left the US. It is finally starting to really steam up here and I will be honest that I am glad about it. I was expecting it to be 115 degrees when I landed here and to be coming to the desert, but my haphazard research on the weather turned up to be QUITE inaccurate.
When I got here it was pretty hot and it kept me awake at night for a week or two, but ever since then it has just gotten colder and colder. I will admit that about 75% of my time in Egypt I have been cold! I didn't bring any proper winter gear because I thought to myself, "Pah! I'm headed to Egypt, it's the desert and deserts only get cold at night and in that case I'm just going to cuddle up in my sweet little sleeping bag." Wrong, DEAD wrong. It got down to about 40 for a lot of winter and I was just going IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE COLD!!!
Anyways, enough said about the weather other than I am excited about it, but I'm guessing by the time I leave I'm going to be crying about how I miss the cold. However, for the meantime, I'm going to attempt to use up the wild amount of deodorant that I brought with me.
When I got here it was pretty hot and it kept me awake at night for a week or two, but ever since then it has just gotten colder and colder. I will admit that about 75% of my time in Egypt I have been cold! I didn't bring any proper winter gear because I thought to myself, "Pah! I'm headed to Egypt, it's the desert and deserts only get cold at night and in that case I'm just going to cuddle up in my sweet little sleeping bag." Wrong, DEAD wrong. It got down to about 40 for a lot of winter and I was just going IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE COLD!!!
Anyways, enough said about the weather other than I am excited about it, but I'm guessing by the time I leave I'm going to be crying about how I miss the cold. However, for the meantime, I'm going to attempt to use up the wild amount of deodorant that I brought with me.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Slammed, BUT Ready for Some More
The last few days have been SO BUSY!! I'm in charge of a field day for 156 Sudanese kids from a nearby grade school and it has been quite the challenge to organize the day. The kids are coming tomorrow and today I'm asking myself, "Do I have everything ready!? Is it all taken care of? Did I make any mistakes?" I'm such a procrastinator by habit and I don't want to put anything off on this one. I want it to be good. I want it to run smoothly and the kids to have a good day.
Anyways, so as to why I'm feeling slammed. I've spent over 20 hours on this thing for the past three days and my body flat out told me, "NO" last night. I worked on this project from 1pm-12:30am, with a two hour break to go workout and eat dinner. So, when I finally had everything completely lined up I decided to go to bed. As soon as I stood up, it was crazy, I just started feeling cold and by the time I got to my room I was shivering. I ended up shivering until 3:00am and the whole time I was thinking, "Great... I work on this thing like a donkey and now I've got a fever... Fantastic."
I woke up this morning at 6:30 and I feel just fine. No symptoms of fever. I'm not even tired and I've actually got a bit more..."spunk" to me than I've had over the past two days. I'm excited about this field day. My students are excited about it. The other staff are excited about. All the excitement gives me the energy to push on or my body is taking a serious beating and I'm going to feel it when this is all done, but for now I'm alright and ready for some more!
Anyways, so as to why I'm feeling slammed. I've spent over 20 hours on this thing for the past three days and my body flat out told me, "NO" last night. I worked on this project from 1pm-12:30am, with a two hour break to go workout and eat dinner. So, when I finally had everything completely lined up I decided to go to bed. As soon as I stood up, it was crazy, I just started feeling cold and by the time I got to my room I was shivering. I ended up shivering until 3:00am and the whole time I was thinking, "Great... I work on this thing like a donkey and now I've got a fever... Fantastic."
I woke up this morning at 6:30 and I feel just fine. No symptoms of fever. I'm not even tired and I've actually got a bit more..."spunk" to me than I've had over the past two days. I'm excited about this field day. My students are excited about it. The other staff are excited about. All the excitement gives me the energy to push on or my body is taking a serious beating and I'm going to feel it when this is all done, but for now I'm alright and ready for some more!
Jordan Day 5: Returning to the "Adoptive Motherland"
Petra to Aqaba:
I woke up early again and got on a bus headed to Aqaba. The bus driver wasn't the nicest guy, to put it nicely. He told me there weren't any seats left- even though there were six of them- and that I needed to take a taxi. I told him that it was REALLY important for me to get on the bus because I'd miss my ferry if I didn't. After about two minutes of me practically pleading, he said, "fine, but you have to pay an extra JD." I laughed inside because the whole time he just wanted more money, but I couldn't do anything because I was a captive to his game.
The ride was embarrassing, to put it lightly, because my feet stunk REALLY bad. I hadn't taken a shower the night before and made the bad choice of wearing flip flops. Let's just say that I had a refresher in "Hygiene 101". I laugh now, but the smell was so bad that the guy next to me was covering his nose with his jacket!!
When I got back to Aqaba I jumped off of the bus in quite the hurry because I was embarrassed about my feet. I got in a taxi and headed for the port to Nuweiba. When I got to the port I went to a bathroom and washed my feet off! After that I got my ticket taken care of, with a few hang ups. Evidently my $50 wasn't good anymore because it was the old one and so I had some challenges there, but it all got taken care of. When I was on my way out of the office, I stepped on a kitten sitting by the door. I will admit that I jumped and the ticket agent joined the throng of one of many Jordanians that laughed at me. I said goodbye and walked out of the place.
I asked around for where I should be going and they pointed me towards the bus depot down below. While I was on my way down there I ran into the guy that was my traveling buddy at the beginning, Andrew. It was good to see him because he was a familiar face and we sat down to talk about our adventures of the trip.
Time passed by and soon we loaded up on the ferry to Nuweiba. Once again, it left two hours late, but it was all good because I wasn't in a hurry. If I couldn't catch a night bus to Cairo, then I knew I would have to stay in Dahab for a night and do some free diving the next day while I waited for the bus out- bummer! The ferry ride was good. Andrew and I talked about life, traveling, he gave me advice on careers, recommendations on places to see in countries, the character of God, how things change in life, swimming, and smoking. It was a good conversation!
When we got to Nuweiba, somehow we ran into a German guy, Matthew, and he decided to stick with us since we knew the place. We went to get our re-admittance visa and the guy canceled my 12-month visa since I left the country. I'm still not sure if he was just trying to scam me for $15 or not, but I'm leaving in 6 weeks so I'm not too worried about having a Travelers Visa. We walked through security without any problems, even though the "metal detector" went off. I love the security checks in Egypt! I always get a laugh every time.
After the security check we jumped on a mini bus to Dahab with two other Australians and three people from New Zealand. For the life of me, I can't remember their names and it's killing me! The bus ride was quite the party since all of us had a lot of stories to tell from our trips. The two Australians, a couple, had been traveling for five months and had six more to go before their world tour was over, or until they ran out of cash. The three New Zealander's, a guy and two girls, were on a three month travel through the Middle East and Egypt was their last stop.
When we got to Dahab we all decided we'd go out to eat together after they'd gotten their rooms. I went for an hour and a half swim that was truly amazing! I felt like I was thrashing about for the first half of the swim, but as time went on "the feel" came back and I just cruised. That's one thing I've missed a lot here, swimming!
After my swim we went to dinner and relaxed together. I gave them "the lowdown" on Egypt and they told me about India because I have an immense amount of interest to travel there. We finished up with our dinner, said our goodbyes, exchanged our emails, and Matthew and I headed off to the bus station. The bus ride to Cairo went by fast since I slept the whole way. It ended up that Matthew came and stayed with me at the school for a few nights, as he explored Cairo. Then he went to Luxor and came back for two more nights to stay before he headed back to Jordan. He was another really good guy I met on my travels.
In conclusion of my travels to Jordan I will say that I really did have the time of my life. I don't think I enjoy traveling alone very much, even though I met a lot of people, but it's just nice to have a friend along. Jordan will forever stand out as my first time really going out on my own, though, and what a good first experience!
I woke up early again and got on a bus headed to Aqaba. The bus driver wasn't the nicest guy, to put it nicely. He told me there weren't any seats left- even though there were six of them- and that I needed to take a taxi. I told him that it was REALLY important for me to get on the bus because I'd miss my ferry if I didn't. After about two minutes of me practically pleading, he said, "fine, but you have to pay an extra JD." I laughed inside because the whole time he just wanted more money, but I couldn't do anything because I was a captive to his game.
The ride was embarrassing, to put it lightly, because my feet stunk REALLY bad. I hadn't taken a shower the night before and made the bad choice of wearing flip flops. Let's just say that I had a refresher in "Hygiene 101". I laugh now, but the smell was so bad that the guy next to me was covering his nose with his jacket!!
When I got back to Aqaba I jumped off of the bus in quite the hurry because I was embarrassed about my feet. I got in a taxi and headed for the port to Nuweiba. When I got to the port I went to a bathroom and washed my feet off! After that I got my ticket taken care of, with a few hang ups. Evidently my $50 wasn't good anymore because it was the old one and so I had some challenges there, but it all got taken care of. When I was on my way out of the office, I stepped on a kitten sitting by the door. I will admit that I jumped and the ticket agent joined the throng of one of many Jordanians that laughed at me. I said goodbye and walked out of the place.
I asked around for where I should be going and they pointed me towards the bus depot down below. While I was on my way down there I ran into the guy that was my traveling buddy at the beginning, Andrew. It was good to see him because he was a familiar face and we sat down to talk about our adventures of the trip.
Time passed by and soon we loaded up on the ferry to Nuweiba. Once again, it left two hours late, but it was all good because I wasn't in a hurry. If I couldn't catch a night bus to Cairo, then I knew I would have to stay in Dahab for a night and do some free diving the next day while I waited for the bus out- bummer! The ferry ride was good. Andrew and I talked about life, traveling, he gave me advice on careers, recommendations on places to see in countries, the character of God, how things change in life, swimming, and smoking. It was a good conversation!
When we got to Nuweiba, somehow we ran into a German guy, Matthew, and he decided to stick with us since we knew the place. We went to get our re-admittance visa and the guy canceled my 12-month visa since I left the country. I'm still not sure if he was just trying to scam me for $15 or not, but I'm leaving in 6 weeks so I'm not too worried about having a Travelers Visa. We walked through security without any problems, even though the "metal detector" went off. I love the security checks in Egypt! I always get a laugh every time.
After the security check we jumped on a mini bus to Dahab with two other Australians and three people from New Zealand. For the life of me, I can't remember their names and it's killing me! The bus ride was quite the party since all of us had a lot of stories to tell from our trips. The two Australians, a couple, had been traveling for five months and had six more to go before their world tour was over, or until they ran out of cash. The three New Zealander's, a guy and two girls, were on a three month travel through the Middle East and Egypt was their last stop.
When we got to Dahab we all decided we'd go out to eat together after they'd gotten their rooms. I went for an hour and a half swim that was truly amazing! I felt like I was thrashing about for the first half of the swim, but as time went on "the feel" came back and I just cruised. That's one thing I've missed a lot here, swimming!
After my swim we went to dinner and relaxed together. I gave them "the lowdown" on Egypt and they told me about India because I have an immense amount of interest to travel there. We finished up with our dinner, said our goodbyes, exchanged our emails, and Matthew and I headed off to the bus station. The bus ride to Cairo went by fast since I slept the whole way. It ended up that Matthew came and stayed with me at the school for a few nights, as he explored Cairo. Then he went to Luxor and came back for two more nights to stay before he headed back to Jordan. He was another really good guy I met on my travels.
In conclusion of my travels to Jordan I will say that I really did have the time of my life. I don't think I enjoy traveling alone very much, even though I met a lot of people, but it's just nice to have a friend along. Jordan will forever stand out as my first time really going out on my own, though, and what a good first experience!
Jordan Day 4: Petra
Petra:
I awoke early for my exploration of Petra since I was in the habit of waking up early anyways, it came really easily. It turned out that my hotel wasn't the 3km from the park that the hotel manager had said, it was about 8km! I walked for about 6km of them and was just like, "there is no way I'm this slow!" I stopped and ate at an all you can eat breakfast. I was an absolute pig! I ate four bowls of cereal, five pita bread sandwiches with vegetables inside, two cups of coffee, three cups of orange juice, one slice of breakfast cake, and two bowls of fruit salad. What can I say? I think I was hungry from my exploits the day before or I'm just a glutton. Most likely a combination of the two...
Once I'd finished eating I went on my way and finally got to the entrance. I bought a two day ticket which was a mistake because I only stayed for one day. I was like a maniac when I got in the park. I explored everywhere, I'm guessing my breakfast of champions helped- Wheaties have got nothing on my breakfast of champions, there's is a poser breakfast! The place was really magnificent, I will say though that I was pretty jaded by the carvings and all that because of my travels through Egypt.
When I got to the Treasury (the building from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" or the place where Lawrence has his funeral in "Lawrence of Arabia") was pretty darn impressive! I was really disappointed that I couldn't explore inside of it, you can't win 'em all :) After the Treasury I went and bartered with an old Bedouin woman smoking this huge homemade cigar. It was really funny, she had this huge smile, probably five teeth, and then this beast of a cigar coming out of her mouth.
I moved on from haggling and went up to the Monastery, which was also really impressive. I met four Israeli guys, Mordecai, Avi, Ori, and Pel. We ended up eating together. They were interesting guys for sure. They wouldn't eat anything I offered them because they weren't sure if my food was kosher. We talked about military, the joys of traveling, America and it's influence on the world, Arab's, future, education, religion, and the meaning of life. They were really good guys for sure! I ended up spending the day seeing stuff with them.
After eating with them we went to a ton of different places, "The View of the End of the World"- the name isn't accurate at all, "The High Place of Sacrifice"- I climbed an obelisk here, and the "Spring"- turned out to be a six inch deep pond and was disappointing at the least.
The day came to a close and I said farewell to my newly made Israeli friends after getting there email addresses. When I got back to the hotel, I kind of just got this impulse of wanting to get the heck out of there and back to school. I decided to leave the following morning at this point. The idea of 20 or more hours of travel wasn't too inviting for me.
I went to the "Petra by night show an hour after getting back to my hotel. It was really gorgeous and almost soothing. The Siq was lined with candles and they had some local talent doing a musical performance by the entry way of the Treasury. After the show, I snuck into the Treasury and had a look around. The tombs didn't have secret tunnels like I was hoping, but it was fun. I soon left the park and went to eat at a local place. It was a good cultural experience. There were locals getting up and singing together with a guitar and drum. I ate another huge meal and then headed back to my place exhausted. I slept GOOOOOOOOD!!
I awoke early for my exploration of Petra since I was in the habit of waking up early anyways, it came really easily. It turned out that my hotel wasn't the 3km from the park that the hotel manager had said, it was about 8km! I walked for about 6km of them and was just like, "there is no way I'm this slow!" I stopped and ate at an all you can eat breakfast. I was an absolute pig! I ate four bowls of cereal, five pita bread sandwiches with vegetables inside, two cups of coffee, three cups of orange juice, one slice of breakfast cake, and two bowls of fruit salad. What can I say? I think I was hungry from my exploits the day before or I'm just a glutton. Most likely a combination of the two...
Once I'd finished eating I went on my way and finally got to the entrance. I bought a two day ticket which was a mistake because I only stayed for one day. I was like a maniac when I got in the park. I explored everywhere, I'm guessing my breakfast of champions helped- Wheaties have got nothing on my breakfast of champions, there's is a poser breakfast! The place was really magnificent, I will say though that I was pretty jaded by the carvings and all that because of my travels through Egypt.
When I got to the Treasury (the building from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" or the place where Lawrence has his funeral in "Lawrence of Arabia") was pretty darn impressive! I was really disappointed that I couldn't explore inside of it, you can't win 'em all :) After the Treasury I went and bartered with an old Bedouin woman smoking this huge homemade cigar. It was really funny, she had this huge smile, probably five teeth, and then this beast of a cigar coming out of her mouth.
I moved on from haggling and went up to the Monastery, which was also really impressive. I met four Israeli guys, Mordecai, Avi, Ori, and Pel. We ended up eating together. They were interesting guys for sure. They wouldn't eat anything I offered them because they weren't sure if my food was kosher. We talked about military, the joys of traveling, America and it's influence on the world, Arab's, future, education, religion, and the meaning of life. They were really good guys for sure! I ended up spending the day seeing stuff with them.
After eating with them we went to a ton of different places, "The View of the End of the World"- the name isn't accurate at all, "The High Place of Sacrifice"- I climbed an obelisk here, and the "Spring"- turned out to be a six inch deep pond and was disappointing at the least.
The day came to a close and I said farewell to my newly made Israeli friends after getting there email addresses. When I got back to the hotel, I kind of just got this impulse of wanting to get the heck out of there and back to school. I decided to leave the following morning at this point. The idea of 20 or more hours of travel wasn't too inviting for me.
I went to the "Petra by night show an hour after getting back to my hotel. It was really gorgeous and almost soothing. The Siq was lined with candles and they had some local talent doing a musical performance by the entry way of the Treasury. After the show, I snuck into the Treasury and had a look around. The tombs didn't have secret tunnels like I was hoping, but it was fun. I soon left the park and went to eat at a local place. It was a good cultural experience. There were locals getting up and singing together with a guitar and drum. I ate another huge meal and then headed back to my place exhausted. I slept GOOOOOOOOD!!
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!
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!
Jordan Day 2
Aqaba to Al Karak:
After a good nights sleep Andrew and I got an early morning start on our travels at 6:00am since the bus transport leaves early in Jordan. He was headed to Wadi Rum and I was headed further North so we went to the bus station together and planned to meet up in Petra (Wadi Musa). I wandered around the town for a little bit and decided that I was going to fast that day. It was nice taking a break from eating, I feel like it helped me get things in proper perspective.
While I was wandering around I talked to a shop owner that I bought some pens from. He told me that Christians, Jews, and Muslims were the only good religions because they believe God is one. He told me that Israeli's weren't evil people, which was a change of pace because Israeli's aren't so popular in Egypt. After my brief 5-minute conversation with the man I said, "Salaam" and went my way.
I jumped on a mini-bus headed to Al-Karak and while I was on it I ended up joking around with this kid. I gave him some candy I had and ended up sharing it with about a third of the people on the bus. This was also out of the ordinary for me because in Egypt everybody always refuses, in Jordan they accept because they want to be polite. Different meanings of polite in different cultures... REFRESHING!! Something I found really interesting along the way is that there are pictures of Kind Abdullah everywhere and the people legitimately love him. He's quite the celebrity, THE CELEBRITY.
Al Karak:
When I got to Al Karak, I walked around for a long time and finally found the castle with the help of some local boys; really friendly and they weren't looking for anything but to be helpful- refreshing. I wandered through Al Karak castle for two or three hours and I've got to say that it was a pretty darn impressive castle! After that I came outside and got to talking to this guy named Trad. He was giving me good information about transport and a really friendly guy. I asked him about the Dead Sea and he offered to take me there for 20JD after a little while I accepted. It was quite the trip, he took me to his brother's house where I had Turkish coffee and then we stopped to get some snacks, cool guy. I'm sure the fact that I was giving him a great deal was a strong incentive, but still he made it fun.
We got to the Dead Sea and I swam around for a bit. It was a really indescribable feeling to not be able to sink. I tried standing on the water, tucking myself into a complete ball, and any position I could think of, but I wouldn't sink!! I wouldn't get my head wet though because I got some of it in my mouth and the stuff was SICK and stung, too. There were things that looked like ice embankments all along the shore, but in reality they were salt rock, I took a piece for a souvenir.
On the way back, Trad kept joking with me and wanting me to talk like a "black man" because he listens to rap. It was hilarious the way he would try to imitate "ghetto Ebonics". We got back and I ate dinner with him at his restaurant. He made some hummus, lamb kofta, and tea. It was a good dinner. After that I went back to my hotel that Trad had brought the lady down from 18JD (when I went in during the morning) to 10JD (after he talked to her). I think treating him well worked out nicely. He gave me information on all prices and made sure nobody in town ripped me off. Pretty cool guy all in all. I lost my key while I was at the Dead Sea and instead of going and making a new key the guy broke the door lock- really flimsy! I gave him 2JD to fix, I should've given him only one, but I felt bad for inconveniencing him. I slept AMAZINGLY that night!
After a good nights sleep Andrew and I got an early morning start on our travels at 6:00am since the bus transport leaves early in Jordan. He was headed to Wadi Rum and I was headed further North so we went to the bus station together and planned to meet up in Petra (Wadi Musa). I wandered around the town for a little bit and decided that I was going to fast that day. It was nice taking a break from eating, I feel like it helped me get things in proper perspective.
While I was wandering around I talked to a shop owner that I bought some pens from. He told me that Christians, Jews, and Muslims were the only good religions because they believe God is one. He told me that Israeli's weren't evil people, which was a change of pace because Israeli's aren't so popular in Egypt. After my brief 5-minute conversation with the man I said, "Salaam" and went my way.
I jumped on a mini-bus headed to Al-Karak and while I was on it I ended up joking around with this kid. I gave him some candy I had and ended up sharing it with about a third of the people on the bus. This was also out of the ordinary for me because in Egypt everybody always refuses, in Jordan they accept because they want to be polite. Different meanings of polite in different cultures... REFRESHING!! Something I found really interesting along the way is that there are pictures of Kind Abdullah everywhere and the people legitimately love him. He's quite the celebrity, THE CELEBRITY.
Al Karak:
When I got to Al Karak, I walked around for a long time and finally found the castle with the help of some local boys; really friendly and they weren't looking for anything but to be helpful- refreshing. I wandered through Al Karak castle for two or three hours and I've got to say that it was a pretty darn impressive castle! After that I came outside and got to talking to this guy named Trad. He was giving me good information about transport and a really friendly guy. I asked him about the Dead Sea and he offered to take me there for 20JD after a little while I accepted. It was quite the trip, he took me to his brother's house where I had Turkish coffee and then we stopped to get some snacks, cool guy. I'm sure the fact that I was giving him a great deal was a strong incentive, but still he made it fun.
We got to the Dead Sea and I swam around for a bit. It was a really indescribable feeling to not be able to sink. I tried standing on the water, tucking myself into a complete ball, and any position I could think of, but I wouldn't sink!! I wouldn't get my head wet though because I got some of it in my mouth and the stuff was SICK and stung, too. There were things that looked like ice embankments all along the shore, but in reality they were salt rock, I took a piece for a souvenir.
On the way back, Trad kept joking with me and wanting me to talk like a "black man" because he listens to rap. It was hilarious the way he would try to imitate "ghetto Ebonics". We got back and I ate dinner with him at his restaurant. He made some hummus, lamb kofta, and tea. It was a good dinner. After that I went back to my hotel that Trad had brought the lady down from 18JD (when I went in during the morning) to 10JD (after he talked to her). I think treating him well worked out nicely. He gave me information on all prices and made sure nobody in town ripped me off. Pretty cool guy all in all. I lost my key while I was at the Dead Sea and instead of going and making a new key the guy broke the door lock- really flimsy! I gave him 2JD to fix, I should've given him only one, but I felt bad for inconveniencing him. I slept AMAZINGLY that night!
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