Just days after returning from an exhilarating trip to Luxor and Aswan for Thanksgiving, I packed my bags again, this time heading elsewhere in the Middle East. I decided to travel by myself to Jordan and Israel for my last trip around the region, mainly because I had to get to Petra in Jordan and since I am so close to Israel, it was very important that I return. I had planned to meet up with friends at certain points during the trip, so I wouldn’t be alone all five days.

I left Wednesday evening from the Sinai bus station in Cairo. After dodging through the herds of Egyptians taking overnight buses to the Red Sea resorts (Sharm el-Sheik, El Gouna, Dahab), I found my way to the bus heading to Taba, which is the border town along with Israeli border. After a six-hour bus ride (in which I slept for most of it), I arrived at the Israeli border at 4:30am. Thinking “oh this should be a piece of cake” I took my time walking to the border, fiddling with my passport and crossing into no-mans land. Upon reaching the Israeli border, I realized a tour group had just been let off before us and it would probably take several hours! I went through the usual border procedures (where are you from, how long are you staying, why are you coming to Israel, who do you know) and the inevitable: “are you Jewish?” If so, “what was your Torah portion from your Bar Mitzvah”, which, if answered correctly, is your automatic gateway into Israel. I was in by 7:15 and took a cab to the bus station, only to realize that no buses went to the Jordanian border until later, so I met up with a couple of guys and we shared a cab to the border. In the one hour I was in Israel, we drove along the beautiful Red Sea, saw the area I went snorkeling in, passed by the mall and the beaches, and drove through one of my favorite places, Eilat. I reached the Jordanian border, crossed through effortlessly, and obtained my free visa without any question.

After crossing, the two guys I had taken the cab with were also going to Petra, so we hired a modest cab for the two-hour ride north through the mountains to Wadi Moussa, which is the town located outside of Petra. We stopped along the way and got great Bedouin tea (as usual) and made it to the town by 11am, where I checked into the quaint Valentine Inn, before heading with our driver to the entrance of Petra.

Petra was an ancient civilization – over two-thousand years old – where the citizens carved out a city into the mountainside. It is located in the southwest portion of Jordan, in a valley, surrounded by mountainous peaks. The entrance is nearly a kilometer long, and consists of a natural valley pathway that was enlarged. It also contains an elaborate water system and some carved out rooms in the mountain.

By far the most recognizable site at Petra is the Treasury, which is considered by most a tomb, carved out of the rock. Other than a little restoration work, the entire Treasury was carved from the single mountain and no additional rock was added. Again, I resort to photos to best display the ancient city.

We sat around for a little and I had tea with a few Bedouin women who graciously offered their tea and food. I guess I hadn’t realized that walking down into the valley to see the ruins would result in me having to walk back up at the end of the day, which I had to take in several stages. I got back to my hotel and took a quick nap, followed by some light reading, a decent, yet tasteless buffet at my Inn. I read a little more in the common area, but took an early night, since it was freezing and I had slept for only a few hours on the bus ride the previous day.

I got up relatively early the next day and I had been told that the only bus for Amman (capital of Jordan) would leave at 6:30am. I felt that was a lie so I woke up at 8 and walked to the bus station, where low and behold, there were a few minibuses waiting around until they were full to head to Amman. Best part: if I had taken the “lone” 6:30 bus, it would have been 15 Jordanian Dinars, or $20. But this minibus (which also only took 3 hours instead of 4) only was 3 Dinars, or $5. Brilliant.

I arrived in Amman and shared a cab to my hotel. I was exhausted at check in and did some more leisure reading before heading out to explore the area around my hotel. I had not planned to come to Amman to begin with, so I had no expectations. The only reason I came was because one of my Fraternity Brothers, Jake Patoski, was in Amman on business. So before we met up, I walked around a little, grabbed some tea, and bought a backgammon board! I have been meaning to buy one and I probably paid a little more than I would in Egypt, but it is great quality and I can’t wait to bring Towla back to the United States.

I ate dinner at Midan Abdoun (Abdoun Square) at a restaurant where all the writing was in Arabic and I had a decent shwerma wrap before grabbing a donut, across the street, before hailing a cab to meet Jake.

One side note, however. In Egypt, a lot of locals try and speak to me in English and so I have to force them to speak to me in Arabic. But in Jordan, as soon as they knew that I spoke some Arabic, they refused to speak to me in English. They kept saying “yanee” (like) or “lets figure it out. No English” which was great for my Arabic. Plus they speak the dialect I am used to. Anyways, it was great using my Arabic and the people actually understanding exactly what I was saying.

Jake and I went to a quasi-diner with great shisha and drinks where we caught up for awhile before heading across the street to a bar, called Blue Moon Pub. Didn’t expect much, however, this place was borderline American strip-club. Tons of women dancing around in skimpy clothing, dancing all over what seemed like high-powered business men. But first, no money was being exchanged and second the girls really seemed to enjoy it. We couldn’t understand if they were being paid or not by the bar or if they were just girls that come and play at the Bar. So weird.

After wishing farewell, I realized that I didn’t have my book on me so I therefore couldn’t remember what my hotel was called. I got in the cab and was like “oh man, where am I staying?” It also didn’t help that I had no idea what street I was staying on, what neighborhood it was in (other than just Downtown) or any landmarks within a ten-block radius of my hotel. The closest thing I could tell him was the Roman Theatre, which was a good 2-3 minute drive past my hotel. So we just went and I eventually told him to go down Shariyah Malik Hussein (King Hussein St) until I recognized where I was, and SUCCESS! I made it home and crashed.

I was nervous about Saturday since I wasn’t too positive of all the plans to get to the Israeli border and then from there into Jerusalem. Plus, my friend had been MIA in responding so I wasn’t sure of where I was going to stay. But I got up, took a cab to the “new cab place” where I could catch a service taxi to the Israeli border. It wasn’t too bad and the trip took only forty minutes. At the border, I took the necessary steps to leave Jordan only to realize I had to pay another 3 Dinars to take a bus to the border. The actual customs & passport facilities are 4km to the border, and you have to take a bus. You can’t walk. So I scrounged together 3 Dinars and was off to Israel…

I was in Jordan for a little over two days and thoroughly enjoyed it. Jordan is quite modern for an Arab nation and parts of Amman reminded me of a cross between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. It is definitely a more open society than Egypt, but is still trying to catch up to its Western, mini-America nation next door.