From there, we traded sea for sand and followed the footsteps of Lawrence of Arabia (albeit, in a dilapidated 4x4 rather than atop a trusty steed) into the amazing desert landscape of Wadi Rum. Here we spent the night in a Bedouin camp and slept outside beneath a crystal clear display of stars. The character-filled chap with the instrument in the photo below was our Bedouin entertainment.
Gritty and unbathed, we anxiously made our way to the ancient city of Petra, Jordan’s tourism poster child. Bearing no resemblance to it’s 70s rock band namesake, Petra is an amazing expanse of ancient Nabataean architecture carved into the red rock of the Arabah Valley. We spent two days exploring this grand and ominous sandstone ghost town.
From Petra, we took a long and bumpy bus ride to Amman, which served as a base point to visit the amazing Roman ruins of Jerash. Wow, did those folks love their columns.
Jordan proved a fine country to visit, and a welcome reprieve from the hassles of Egypt.
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| Link to Jordan photos |
5 comments:
Josh and I have enjoyed following your trip. Where will you be for Christmas? I did not know the Star Wars location and may need to dress up as Princess Leia to redeem myself to Josh.
Hi Charles,
You guys are having the trip of a lifetime! Your descriptions rival those in some of the better travel guides and your developed sense of prose will be lost in the mundane technical specs to which we hope you'll return. I keep expecting to see the little TRAVELOCITY gnome in some corner of your great photos. What is you aggregate photo count at this point?
Thanks Meg! As luck would have ıt, we wıll be ın the Mıdwest (of the states, that ıs) for the holıdays. Fındıng ıt dıffıcult to connect from Southeast Asıa to South Amerıca dırectly usıng aırlıne mıles durıng a very busy tıme of the year, we essentıally engıneered a 10 day layover ın Texas, from where we wıll joın Ellen's grandparents on theır annual pılgramage up to the Mıdwest to see the rest of the fam. We would not have ımagıned that a round-the-world journey would ınclude a mıd-trıp vısıt to Amerıca's heartland, but after three months on the road, we're really lookıng forward to tıme wıth famıly, frıends and Mıcky.
Thanks Gary!! We're really happy to see you (and everyone) followıng along. Ellen and I have enjoyed wrıtıng the blog. We're pleased to know that hours spent ın smoke-fılled ınternet cafes amoung screamıng, vıdeo-gamıng chıldren throughout the Mıddle East have not been tolerated ın vaın.:) Current pıcture count ıs roughly 5000 - at thıs pace, we may spend as much tıme revıewıng and sortıng the phots as we takıng them...
Charles, I wonder how being back here for ten days in the middle of your adventure will be? Will it feel natural or will it feel surreal? I don't know who else may be following along. Cynthia has been viewing your posted photos with envy. When we travel, we also take a lot of photos (ok, Cynthia takes a lot of photos) and when we return some percentage get printed and put into a scrapbook (not just stuck on a page - these books are a lot of work) but they're also a lot of fun to look at later.
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