The Widow and the Spinster: The Search for Adventure, Enlightenment, and the Quest for Forbidden food - Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, and New TR Link! 5/23

[franandaj]

Yes but I’m curious in your fourth one.

All in good time grasshopper.....

I wonder if the tour company insists on safer driving?

Probably. All the officials drivers we had were very professional.

 

[franandaj]

Our driver had just saved the cute little puppies off the highway. After another hour or so, we turned off the main highway and made our way towards Petra, our next destination.

While we were driving, I tried to troubleshoot what was wrong with the camera. I thoroughly cleaned the lens with a cleaner. Both sides and the filter, but the spot persisted. Then I tried changing the lens to my wide angle, but the spot was still there. It must be something inside the camera. I decided there was nothing we could do here (in Jordan), but perhaps tomorrow when we got to Cairo we could seek out a camera repair shop and see about getting it fixed.


We stopped at an overlook and our guide explained to us where we would be walking.

See that canyon in the middle of this picture? That’s the main “city” of Petra.

We stopped a bit farther along. He was surprised we didn't take any pictures, so I took this selfie of the three of us.

The modern city of Petra is one of those cities built on a hillside.

The streets are crazy steep and a lot of them only go in one direction. Our driver took us to an ATM (at our request). We had each ordered $100 (US$155.75 + $5.00 conversion fee) in Jordanian Dinars from our banks at home, but we realized that we needed some more so we each took out an additional $80JD at the ATM. This is the street. I took these pics while Jill was getting her money.

Then it was back in the car and off to Petra, the monument. Remember I mentioned in the intro that when we received our "final" itinerary after PiF, that there was no Bedouin desert glamping? This is the hotel that we were scheduled to stay at instead of the Sun City Camp.

I wouldn’t have traded that Bedouin camp experience including dinner for anything!

The day before, on the jeep tour, our guide had mentioned that it was not so busy because many people canceled their trips due to the war in Israel. The reason we were originally not able to stay in the Bedouin camp was because of lack of availability. We received confirmation of the night at Sun City on October 13, about one week after the war started, probably when the cancelations began coming in. No wonder they were trying to upgrade us to one of the Martian tents.

We found a place to park and our guide escorted us to the entrance and ticket counter.

With this tour, all our admissions were covered by the fee we paid up front. We both remarked that this was really quite a good deal. When you break it down, the Jordan portion was a little pricier than the Egypt portion, but since we paid in one lump sum it was a lot more palatable. Alone the cost for Jordan for three days was $383 per day per person including driver, accommodations, breakfast 3 days, 1 dinner, 2 hour jeep tour, and admission to Petra.

However when you combine it with the Egypt portion the entire 15 days works out to $300 per day. As you see as it unfolds the Egypt portion has many more items that are covered in our fare.

Back to our day at Petra....it was just after 11AM, our guide picked up our tickets, and we were immediately greeted by the tour staff. They knew we had a private guide arranged and called for him to meet us. They mentioned that there was the option to ride a golf cart as far as the Treasury, round trip for $25JD pp. SOLD! We couldn't hand over that money fast enough!

This is a map that shows you how spread out everything is. The Treasury building is in the middle of that map you see there.

Now I'm going to pull back that picture I took from the lookout above, this time with some enhancements. Our guide warned us the day before that Petra involved a 6 hour walk from start to finish. Now I’ve added some color coded guides to the picture. The cluster of buildings that you see on the right side of the picture is the complex around and outside of Petra. There’s a lot of parking out there.

Before you actually enter what was once the city of Petra, there is a whole plaza with shops and a restaurant, a couple take aways, and some other stuff. That’s where we are at this point in the TR, and where we met our guide for the afternoon. Once you exit that plaza you get to where the red line starts. Now keep in mind that this day was around 88F or 31C.

The entire part of the red line was in direct sunlight and stretched about 1km (about half a mile). That’s before you actually enter the canyon in the shade. That portion of the trail is indicated in yellow. This is also about a distance of 1km, but at least it is mostly in the shade.

The Treasury building, the place most people associate with Petra, is indicated where the yellow and green lines meet. The blue line represents the portion of the city where Jill and I chose not to continue touring. But I’ll get to all that part later in the update. The entire trail of the city is over 5.5km in one direction.

I think they said the golf cats saved about 5km of walking total. But first we had to walk from the plaza to the place where we picked up our golf cart. There were all kinds of little stores. This was the first encounter we had with the annoying store people. “Hey lady!” “Here’s a Shirt!” and all sorts of other offers to buy the same crappy stuff, all made in China.

There were other stores not capitalizing on Indiana Jones, but they weren’t as interesting. They just looked like regular stores.

Our guide was the oldest tour guide still working, and he kept pointing out all kinds of stuff that was irrelevant and showed how long he had been there, like my Grandfather taught me this. And the people lived in these caves when I first visited, I knew the people... he even said something to Jill about being here before her mother was born, and other such nonsense. However, the one thing that I think annoyed us both the most was that he kept referring to us as "the Queens." As Jill said, it was kind of cute the first time, but the 100th time it was definitely annoying.

Finally we got to board our golf cart.

As we drove along the path, we skipped the grueling walk in the direct sunlight. It was approaching noon and it was starting to get warm. Not surface of the sun hot, but upper 80s. Hot enough that you don't want to walk for a kilometer in it while it's beating down on you. We stopped here and there while he explained various landmarks. I had trouble understanding his accent so I missed a lot of what he was saying, but would stop here and there to take a picture and listen to him talk.

These caves were among some of the places that people called home. People actually lived in the underground caves until 1985 when the site was declared a World Heritage site. UNESCO and the Jordanian government relocated them and moved them to a new village. This relocation was a consequence of two ongoing projects: one to sedentarize the Bedouin, the other to give Petra the status of a national park and thus improve tourism. The actual move was 20 years in the making.

The Bab al-Siq is what the portion of road stretching from the visitor’s center until the Siq (entrance to Petra) is called. The name is Arabic for ‘gateway to the Siq’. It’s the long part where you walk in the open sun.

This structure is called the Obelisk Tomb. It was constructed in the first century BC. It is an elaborate two story tomb carved from solid rock. Its facade is an elaborate mixture of Egyptian, Greek, Indian and Nabataean architectural styles. Obelisk Tomb is towered by four obelisks and hence it got its name.

Zooming in on the Obelisk Tomb

More caves along the Bab al-Siq.

These centurions mark the entrance to the Siq, a slot canyon which was the city of Petra.

Now this sort of crowd activity is not normal for Petra in October. Every inch of the place should be crawling with tourists. I’m not saying I minded the lack of crowds, just saying that it’s unusual.

At one time there was an entire water system that flowed through the city. He talked at length about the water systems, the five dams, how they failed, and the floods. This was a dam that held back the water and as we traveled through the Siq our guide kept pointing out the troughs along the sides of the pathway which brought water to the city.

There were carvings along the sides of the path, our guide described their significance and JIll and I both took pictures of them, but neither of us can remember what he said that was significant.

Here is the guide talking at length about the various features.

The roads were paved with these stones, much of it has been paved over with modern pavement as the original stones have cracked over the years.

I just thought this was a cool shot. It’s one of Jill’s.

There are dogs and cats everywhere, and this puppy was so cute.

These three windows represented something which again escapes me.

Something about the two camels and the person on the sculpture, and two camels on the other side. But most of this carving has been damaged by weather.

And then we approached the Treasury.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Our guide told us to get our cameras ready to capture this sight as we approached.

I thought it was much more impressive once we emerged from the canyon.

And he took a picture of the two of us to prove it happened.

There were camels here, I was unclear if you could actually take them for a ride or they were just for photo ops. By this point I was starting to get tired. Why? You might ask…..all you did was ride a golf cart to the Treasury. But we also woke up at 4:30AM, I think we were still dealing with some amount of jet lag. This was only our second full day since we landed. Plus it was super hot and the heat was sapping my energy.

He took us to a shaded sitting area and told us all kinds of things about the carvings. Then he walked us about and pointed out different entities carved on the various pillars and sides of walls. We took a bunch of pictures and now neither of us can remember anything that he said about the pictures we took.

We continued on to the street of facades. I believe what our guide was saying that while these facades were carved into the face of the rocks, the people actually lived underground. I didn’t really think about it while we were there and he was talking about it, as I think about it here at home in my comfy spacious home, that must have been terribly claustrophobic living inside those caves. And dark. Very dark.

Here's where the vendors started getting super annoying. There was already a little kid who had hijacked his way on the back of our golf cart and when we stopped to look at something he thrust a pack of postcards into our faces trying to sell them to us.

Jill and I just kept telling the vendors "no". The guide was sympathetic to the sellers and even kept leading us through some of the shops, but we held firm. I really didn't want any trinkets. I'm already trying to get rid of so much stuff accumulated over mine and Fran's time together.

Had I known what the vendors in Egypt would be like, I might have browsed a bit at the wares from the folks in Jordan. They were actually polite in comparison to what was in store for us.

I think that this place was actually selling some sort of coffee products. We did not investigate, but based on what I saw later in the trip, it was entirely possible.

He continued to describe the various rock features that we were viewing. I think he kept walking while he talked. I fell behind because I was taking pictures. Something that would continue throughout the trip.

Here’s a look back at where we came from. I mean that picture just looks “hot” to me, and I don’t mean in a sexy way. You can see that we have left the shade and were now back in the full sun.

We wandered a little farther and he kept talking about the water pipes. We walked almost to the theater. I was getting super overheated and starting to feel dehydrated.

As we walked closer to the theater, he pointed out more entrances to caves where people lived. Either that or they were tombs where they buried the dead people. Not a huge difference…..

Our guide also talked about how he took people to the tops of those mountains. He kept saying to us, “Next time you visit.”

Closing in on the theater.

We asked how much further and he said 2km, and we were like "nope, we're done." Both Jill and I agreed that seeing the Treasury building was our goal/high point of the day even before we arrived at Petra. So the rest of this was just extra. But now it was getting super hot, the waters we were carrying were warm and we were ready to put a fork in us.

We walked back to the spot where you meet the golf carts and our guide continued to go on about "a cart for the queens". At one point he told us that he actually appears in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Maybe I'll watch the movie before I get to this point in the TR and see if I see him, or maybe not!

Here's a video of a part of our trip back.

After I stopped filming the annoying little kid who tried to sell us postcards hopped back on right in my range for taking pictures. I told him to move.

And here we are back in the direct sunlight portion of the trail.

When we finally got back to the drop off point, we tried to politely dismiss the guide, but he seemed to cling to us. Finally I gave him a tip and he seemed to take that as a hint and finally took his leave.

There was only one actual sit down restaurant in the Plaza, and they advertised free WiFi. Jill made it work, but I tried all during lunch and could never access it. We ordered lunch. I was definitely feeling the heat and wasn't feeling that great. I was remembering that heatstroke incident from a few months before and didn’t want to repeat that. I decided that the lemon mint slushie that I'd seen other people order sounded good. It totally hit the spot!

A couple weeks before the trip I'd learned about the National Dish of Jordan called Mansaf. It's lamb braised in a yogurt sauce, served with rice and lavash and it sounded delicious to me. It was on the menu at our hotel for $22, here they had it for $16, so I was like, Yes! Sign me up!

It was pretty tasty and once I got the hang of how to eat it, I dug in. At first they served it to me with a crispy bread, but at some point the server came back and gave me a plate with the soft bread. It’s a dish that was traditionally eaten without utensils. A large bowl with the meat rice and sauce was placed in the middle and folks would just eat it using the lavash as the vehicle to transport it to the mouth.

The portion was huge and I didn't even come close to finishing it. We also realized that this was the third day in a row that I had eaten lamb. Could I keep up the trend?

Jill got the Chicken Schwarma, she did better than me for polishing it off, but still couldn't eat it all.

We both agreed that we had chosen wisely!

After this we went to the tour office in the plaza. They said they would call our guide when we were done. We didn't have a local Sim card and had to depend on local WiFI for any connection to the outside world. When they asked his name I told them it was Moafa and they looked at me funny. The guy we were talking to used context clues and interpreted his name as Moafaq. Which makes more sense as to why Jill heard his name as a word that isn't allowed here.

The man who spoke to our guide said that he would meet us "near the police car in five minutes". Lo and behold when we exited the Petra Plaza there was a cop car parked right out there and shortly thereafter he pulled up to pick us up. He asked if we wanted lunch and we told him we just had some, so we hit the road.

I finally took some pictures of the speed bumps. These were part of driving for the rest of the trip. They weren’t on the highways in Egypt, but once we got there, we were going over speed bumps in every city we visited. I guess that’s just a thing in that part of the world. We are approaching a city here.

This picture might show it better, they weren’t very big, but just enough to make you slow down.

This one might show it best.

While we were at Petra I had seen refrigerator magnets 3 for $1JD, but I didn't want 3, and I was too tired to haggle, so I let it go. But we made a pit stop on the way back. Not only did I find a magnet (made in Puerto Vallarta, and for the bargain price of $5JD), but they had Dead Sea Bath salts for $20JD, BOGO. So I got two.

We also had a chance to use the facilities and our driver bought us each cold water. Jill also got this snack.

The trip back to the hotel was uneventful and we got there right around 5PM. We checked back in and they wanted to put us back in the same exact room, but I objected since the tub didn't seal properly. They gave us the room on the floor above, and the tub there sealed perfectly.

I didn't take any pictures because the room was absolutely identical. Right down to the jug/vase that was in the entry hall.

I think I'm going to wrap up here.

Up next: the end of our Nomadic Journey for now

 

[jedijill]

This year was a significant birthday ending in a zero for me this year so I decided I would do one of my top 3 bucket list trips: Egypt, African Safari, or Antarctica. Antarctica is too expensive so it was a toss up between Egypt and Safari....Egypt won especially when I priced it out. As I was researching I remembered Petra and looked and saw how close it was so I asked the tour company if it was possible to add it on since I was going to be so close. They were able to add on the 3 day tour of Jordan for a very reasonable price. I was very glad I did after experiencing Wadi Rum and Petra. Petra was amazing and I'm sure the hiking was cool but I was quite happy with what we saw. Many of the carvings were worn down due to the floods in the canyon over the millennia and not very visible anymore. Definitely go see Petra if you are an Indiana Jones fan! Coming out of the canyon and seeing the Treasury is awe inspiring!

Jill in CO

 

[pkondz]

All in good time grasshopper.....

That's so weird! Just a couple of days ago, I was talking to my trainee and said something like "Well done, grasshopper."
He's in his early 30s and I asked him if he knew the reference. He had no idea. He guessed Karate Kid. When I explained where it was from, he had never heard of it.

made our way towards Petra, our next destination.

Oh boy! This was what I was most excited about for you.

Both sides and the filter, but the spot persisted. Then I tried changing the lens to my wide angle, but the spot was still there. It must be something inside the camera. I decided there was nothing we could do here (in Jordan), but perhaps tomorrow when we got to Cairo we could seek out a camera repair shop and see about getting it fixed.

Well, shoot. (um... no pun intended)

See that canyon in the middle of this picture? That’s the main “city” of Petra.

I had no idea. About anything, as it turns out. I didn't know anything about Petra except the most famous part.

Nice shot of everyone.

The modern city of Petra is one of those cities built on a hillside.

It looks... so barren. I do see a few trees, but... Not at all what I'm used to seeing on this side of the pond.

This is the street. I took these pics while Jill was getting her money.

Those are interesting. Really gives you a sense of what living there might be like.

This is the hotel that we were scheduled to stay at instead of the Sun City Camp.

I wouldn’t have traded that Bedouin camp experience including dinner for anything!

No way!

I find this jarring. Not at all what I pictured. I just assumed it was out in the remote desert. Did not expect this at all.

Alone the cost for Jordan for three days was $383 per day per person including driver, accommodations, breakfast 3 days, 1 dinner, 2 hour jeep tour, and admission to Petra.

Not bad.

They mentioned that there was the option to ride a golf cart as far as the Treasury, round trip for $25JD pp. SOLD! We couldn't hand over that money fast enough!

I bet this was one of those things where you both said "SOLD!" simultaneously!

Our guide warned us the day before that Petra involved a 6 hour walk from start to finish.

Now keep in mind that this day was around 88F or 31C.

Hence the "faint" above...

The entire part of the red line was in direct sunlight and stretched about 1km (about half a mile). That’s before you actually enter the canyon in the shade. That portion of the trail is indicated in yellow. This is also about a distance of 1km, but at least it is mostly in the shade.

Ugh. That would be just brutal. Nope!

The entire trail of the city is over 5.5km in one direction.

In one direction... Yeah, that's just too far to walk... in heat.

This was the first encounter we had with the annoying store people. “Hey lady!” “Here’s a Shirt!” and all sorts of other offers to buy the same crappy stuff, all made in China.

Our guide was the oldest tour guide still working, and he kept pointing out all kinds of stuff that was irrelevant and showed how long he had been there, like my Grandfather taught me this. And the people lived in these caves when I first visited, I knew the people... he even said something to Jill about being here before her mother was born, and other such nonsense.

Give it a rest, dude.

However, the one thing that I think annoyed us both the most was that he kept referring to us as "the Queens." As Jill said, it was kind of cute the first time, but the 100th time it was definitely annoying.

Yeah... Maybe you should've called him something...

Then again, how do you feel about being abandoned in the middle of the desert??

Two smiling people who are not walking in direct sunlight.

People actually lived in the underground caves until 1985 when the site was declared a World Heritage site.

That recently! Huh!

This structure is called the Obelisk Tomb.

Fitting name. Are there still bodies entombed within?

Now this sort of crowd activity is not normal for Petra in October. Every inch of the place should be crawling with tourists. I’m not saying I minded the lack of crowds, just saying that it’s unusual.

The place looks practically empty.
I would imagine that didn't help with the annoying vendors.

The roads were paved with these stones, much of it has been paved over with modern pavement as the original stones have cracked over the years.

I looked it up. Petra is one of the oldest cities in the world. Those stones could be over 2,000 years old! No wonder they're cracked.

I just thought this was a cool shot. It’s one of Jill’s.

These three windows represented something which again escapes me.

Did a quick google, but didn't find anything.

I love this shot. My heart would've been beating a mile a minute, here.

Wow! What a great shot! Whether there for rides or photos... I love the camels in the foreground.

Meh. Photoshopped.

By this point I was starting to get tired. Why? You might ask…..all you did was ride a golf cart to the Treasury. But we also woke up at 4:30AM, I think we were still dealing with some amount of jet lag. This was only our second full day since we landed. Plus it was super hot and the heat was sapping my energy.

Yeah, that would do it.

We took a bunch of pictures and now neither of us can remember anything that he said about the pictures we took.

But all of it was extremely important, I'm sure.

as I think about it here at home in my comfy spacious home, that must have been terribly claustrophobic living inside those caves. And dark. Very dark.

But much cooler than living outside those caves, I bet.

Here's where the vendors started getting super annoying. There was already a little kid who had hijacked his way on the back of our golf cart and when we stopped to look at something he thrust a pack of postcards into our faces trying to sell them to us.

The guide was sympathetic to the sellers and even kept leading us through some of the shops,

I'm not surprised by that. Wouldn't be surprised if he got a percentage, too.

Had I known what the vendors in Egypt would be like, I might have browsed a bit at the wares from the folks in Jordan. They were actually polite in comparison to what was in store for us.

You should've brought your own stuff and tried to sell to them!

They'll put a Starbucks anywhere!

Talk about marring a beautiful sight.

Here’s a look back at where we came from. I mean that picture just looks “hot” to me, and I don’t mean in a sexy way. You can see that we have left the shade and were now back in the full sun.

It looks way too hot.

I was getting super overheated and starting to feel dehydrated.

I was worried about that. I was thinking of your dehydration episode at Disney.

As we walked closer to the theater, he pointed out more entrances to caves where people lived. Either that or they were tombs where they buried the dead people. Not a huge difference…..

Well... there'd be one major difference...

That's cool. This whole update has been so interesting! Really!

Our guide also talked about how he took people to the tops of those mountains. He kept saying to us, “Next time you visit.”

Uh, huh... got a helicopter, bub?

Both Jill and I agreed that seeing the Treasury building was our goal/high point of the day even before we arrived at Petra.

At one point he told us that he actually appears in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Yeah, right. And he's been there since before Jill's mother was born...
I'm not saying it's not possible... but I'll believe it if you see him.

After I stopped filming the annoying little kid who tried to sell us postcards hopped back on right in my range for taking pictures. I told him to move.

Did he?

When we finally got back to the drop off point, we tried to politely dismiss the guide, but he seemed to cling to us. Finally I gave him a tip and he seemed to take that as a hint and finally took his leave.

Pretty sure that's what he was waiting for. Had you intended to tip him? Or were you too annoyed?

I was definitely feeling the heat and wasn't feeling that great.

Glad you got something that cooled you down.

I was remembering that heatstroke incident from a few months before

It was pretty tasty and once I got the hang of how to eat it, I dug in.

So do you break off a piece of lavash and then pick up the meat with it? Or...?

We both agreed that we had chosen wisely!

I see what you did there!

I finally took some pictures of the speed bumps.

That's surreal. I mean... right in the middle of the road???

Not only did I find a magnet (made in Puerto Vallarta

they wanted to put us back in the same exact room, but I objected since the tub didn't seal properly.

Wait... did I miss something? Did I know about this?

 

[pkondz]

I decided I would do one of my top 3 bucket list trips: Egypt, African Safari, or Antarctica.

That's a pretty darned good list!

Antarctica is too expensive so it was a toss up between Egypt and Safari....

I'm a bit surprised by that. If you had asked me which of the three was the least expensive, I would've said Antarctica. Huh!

As I was researching I remembered Petra and looked and saw how close it was so I asked the tour company if it was possible to add it on since I was going to be so close. They were able to add on the 3 day tour of Jordan for a very reasonable price.

So happy for you both. I'm thrilled you got to see Petra. Truly!

Definitely go see Petra if you are an Indiana Jones fan!

<sigh> Maybe someday.
I guess I am an Indy fan (many are), but my interest in Petra predates the movies.

 

[rndmr2]

I have been enjoying your report. I never had a real desire to visit that part of the world but Have known a few people lately who have gone and thinking I might have to add it to the bucket list.

I just came back about a month ago from a Mediterranean cruise. We splurged on business class and it was awesome. We paid OOP for it because we don't have any reward points/miles but it was pretty worth it. Very pricey (cost almost twice as much as the actual cruise but we did it because of the long flights and also it was our 20th anniversary trip). It was 6 total flights and 2 were in the cubicles/pods -JFK to Paris on Air France and London to JFK on Virgin Atlantic. Have to give a slight edge to Air France. The other flights were in regular slightly bigger seats (one they kept the center seat unoccupied).

Loved the pics from the Hot Air balloon ride. I would love to do one of those one day.

Wow that Treasury in Petra is amazing...

All the pushy vendors make me think of the Bahamas/Caribbean

 

[franandaj]

This year was a significant birthday ending in a zero for me this year so I decided I would do one of my top 3 bucket list trips: Egypt, African Safari, or Antarctica. Antarctica is too expensive so it was a toss up between Egypt and Safari....Egypt won especially when I priced it out.

I better start saving my money for the African safari! Then again I'm still paying off the last trip!

As I was researching I remembered Petra and looked and saw how close it was so I asked the tour company if it was possible to add it on since I was going to be so close. They were able to add on the 3 day tour of Jordan for a very reasonable price. I was very glad I did after experiencing Wadi Rum and Petra.

They were definitely both very cool. And I suppose there really wasn't a way around all the driving. And we're not done with driving either!

Petra was amazing and I'm sure the hiking was cool but I was quite happy with what we saw. Many of the carvings were worn down due to the floods in the canyon over the millennia and not very visible anymore. Definitely go see Petra if you are an Indiana Jones fan! Coming out of the canyon and seeing the Treasury is awe inspiring!

Yes! That was a magnificent sight to behold when you emerged from that canyon!

 

[franandaj]

That's so weird! Just a couple of days ago, I was talking to my trainee and said something like "Well done, grasshopper."
He's in his early 30s and I asked him if he knew the reference. He had no idea. He guessed Karate Kid. When I explained where it was from, he had never heard of it.

Well I actually didn't know where it had come from, but I guess because it was something that was popular when I was a kid, it became something that was incorporated into my vocabulary. I seem to use it when people are anxious and jumping the gun.

Oh boy! This was what I was most excited about for you.

You know I'm not even sure what "thing" I was most excited about. I was just open to experience everything!

I had no idea. About anything, as it turns out. I didn't know anything about Petra except the most famous part.

While I did a ton of research on the Pharaohs and they Dynasties, I tried to research Petra and what I found was difficult to understand and digest.

It looks... so barren. I do see a few trees, but... Not at all what I'm used to seeing on this side of the pond.

They don't have nearly the amount of moisture (rain, snow, or anything) that we are used to.

Those are interesting. Really gives you a sense of what living there might be like.

I'm not sure anything can really give you an idea of what living there might be like. So different than we are used to.

I find this jarring. Not at all what I pictured. I just assumed it was out in the remote desert. Did not expect this at all.

It's Jordan's largest tourist location. Anyone is going to capitalize on that!

I bet this was one of those things where you both said "SOLD!" simultaneously!

Yup!

Hence the "faint" above...
Ugh. That would be just brutal. Nope!
In one direction... Yeah, that's just too far to walk... in heat.

I agree. It was hot. Everywhere.

Yeah... Maybe you should've called him something...

Then again, how do you feel about being abandoned in the middle of the desert??

I think we could have found our way back.

That recently! Huh!

I know! I was surprised as well.

Fitting name. Are there still bodies entombed within?

No idea, but I doubt it.....

The place looks practically empty.
I would imagine that didn't help with the annoying vendors.

Yeah, and it seems that most people didn't really go past the Treasury. But who could blame them? You walk all the way in there, and you still have to walk back out, I wouldn't go any farther either!

I looked it up. Petra is one of the oldest cities in the world. Those stones could be over 2,000 years old! No wonder they're cracked.

Did a quick google, but didn't find anything.

Don't you think I googled all of this before admitting that I didn't remember!

I love this shot. My heart would've been beating a mile a minute, here.

It was pretty exciting!

Wow! What a great shot! Whether there for rides or photos... I love the camels in the foreground.

Both Jill and I have the same shot. In fact we have a lot of the same shots. Sometimes it just comes down to which phone had the better coloring for which one I choose.

Meh. Photoshopped.

If it was photoshopped, don't you think I would have done something better with my hair?

I'm not surprised by that. Wouldn't be surprised if he got a percentage, too.

Probably. Remember, he knew the people......

You should've brought your own stuff and tried to sell to them!

Too much to schlep!

They'll put a Starbucks anywhere!

Actually there weren't nearly as many as we thought, and they weren't capitalizing on sales opportunities that they could have.

Talk about marring a beautiful sight.

There's a lot of that going on there. I probably could have documented it better in the future.

I was worried about that. I was thinking of your dehydration episode at Disney.

I tried to be very mindful of that and stay in the shade a keep super hydrated. Probably why I had to pee almost everywhere we went!

Well... there'd be one major difference...

This is actually laughed out loud at. I read this while I was setting up for band. Luckily the room was loud so no one noticed me breaking out into silly laughter.

That's cool. This whole update has been so interesting! Really!

I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Uh, huh... got a helicopter, bub?

Yeah, really.......

Yeah, right. And he's been there since before Jill's mother was born...
I'm not saying it's not possible... but I'll believe it if you see him.

At some point, I will watch it and look for him.

Did he?

Yes, he did let go and jump off. I'm sure he hopped on another one though.

Pretty sure that's what he was waiting for. Had you intended to tip him? Or were you too annoyed?

Oh, no. You really have to tip EVERYONE there. I didn't mention that we tipped our (1st) jeep (truck) driver. We did NOT tip the second one. However, we did give a tip to the balloon captain and he promised that he would divide any tips we gave him amongst the crew. And I need not add, we tipped nearly every time we used the restroom outside if our hotel room. Sometimes that was the only way to get toilet paper!

Glad you got something that cooled you down.

It was very refreshing!

So do you break off a piece of lavash and then pick up the meat with it? Or...?

Well you mix the sauce, meat, and rice, and pick up some of all of it with the lavash.

I see what you did there!

Yes! You got it! We may have used that phrase a few too many times on the trip.

That's surreal. I mean... right in the middle of the road???

By the time we got to Egypt I was actually used to them and didn't even bother to remark on them anymore. They didn't have them on the open highways, but anywhere in town there were speed bumps.

Wait... did I miss something? Did I know about this?

I may not have mentioned it. I'm so used to tubs that don't work properly, I've learned to work around the problems. The drain did not seal properly. I had brought ziplock bags along (just in case I had a need for them). I used one of those to slow the drain. I still had to keep the water flowing almost constantly, but at least I was able to fill up the tub, and keep it full for a 15 to 20 minute bath.

 

[pkondz]

Well I actually didn't know where it had come from, but I guess because it was something that was popular when I was a kid, it became something that was incorporated into my vocabulary. I seem to use it when people are anxious and jumping the gun.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(1972_TV_series)

You know I'm not even sure what "thing" I was most excited about. I was just open to experience everything!

You experienced a lot!

They don't have nearly the amount of moisture (rain, snow, or anything) that we are used to.

Nope.
Nut I think it was much more tropical 2,000 years ago.
I could be wrong.

I'm not sure anything can really give you an idea of what living there might be like. So different than we are used to.

I get that. But you’ve given us a small taste.

It's Jordan's largest tourist location. Anyone is going to capitalize on that!

Don't you think I googled all of this before admitting that I didn't remember!

If it was photoshopped, don't you think I would have done something better with my hair?

Probably. Remember, he knew the people......

Yup

I tried to be very mindful of that and stay in the shade a keep super hydrated. Probably why I had to pee almost everywhere we went!

Better than the alternative!

This is actually laughed out loud at. I read this while I was setting up for band. Luckily the room was loud so no one noticed me breaking out into silly laughter.

At some point, I will watch it and look for him.

Wonder even if he is in it if you’d recognize him. Was a while ago. People change.

And I need not add, we tipped nearly every time we used the restroom outside if our hotel room. Sometimes that was the only way to get toilet paper!

Well you mix the sauce, meat, and rice, and pick up some of all of it with the lavash.

Which you tear into pieces I presume?
How are you mixing everything? Spoons provided?

Yes! You got it! We may have used that phrase a few too many times on the trip.

You have to!

I still had to keep the water flowing almost constantly, but at least I was able to fill up the tub, and keep it full for a 15 to 20 minute bath.

Heh. When I’m at a hotel, I usually keep the water flowing anyways.

 

[franandaj]

I have been enjoying your report.

I never had a real desire to visit that part of the world but Have known a few people lately who have gone and thinking I might have to add it to the bucket list.

I was always interested in Egypt, but never thought it was in my grasp. After this trip, I'm realizing that nearly anything is possible! We are considering Turkey for a future trip!

I just came back about a month ago from a Mediterranean cruise. We splurged on business class and it was awesome. We paid OOP for it because we don't have any reward points/miles but it was pretty worth it. Very pricey (cost almost twice as much as the actual cruise but we did it because of the long flights and also it was our 20th anniversary trip).

I'm sure that cost a pretty penny for those flights! I'm working hard to build up my own miles on carriers that can be transferred easily to international airlines. Turkish was awesome.

It was 6 total flights and 2 were in the cubicles/pods -JFK to Paris on Air France and London to JFK on Virgin Atlantic. Have to give a slight edge to Air France. The other flights were in regular slightly bigger seats (one they kept the center seat unoccupied).

Those pods are absolutely the best for overseas flights!

Loved the pics from the Hot Air balloon ride. I would love to do one of those one day.

It's a lot of fun. The worst part is getting in and out of the balloon baskets!

Wow that Treasury in Petra is amazing...

It was. I feel like I saw so much amazing that I wasn't appreciating it enough by the end.

All the pushy vendors make me think of the Bahamas/Caribbean

The Egpytians make the folks in the Bahamas looks like amateurs!

 

[franandaj]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu_(1972_TV_series)

Yes, when you alluded to the fact that it was not from the Karate Kid, I then googled to find out where it was actually from.

Which you tear into pieces I presume?
How are you mixing everything? Spoons provided?

Well they gave me a full set of utensils when they served it, but I'm not sure how it would be served when dining in the middle of the desert.

Heh. When I’m at a hotel, I usually keep the water flowing anyways.

For me it depends. If they have one of those pesky drains that keeps the water level too low than I will as well. At home I don't need to since I have the walk-in tub.

 

[franandaj]

.

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

LOL, how did you manage to get this shot?

Here is the steward serving the guy behind me.

 

[Magical_Suitcase]

I love this photo of you. You look more relaxed than I have seen in years.

 

[pkondz]

Well they gave me a full set of utensils when they served it, but I'm not sure how it would be served when dining in the middle of the desert.

Ah. So you had utensils. That's what I didn't know.

For me it depends. If they have one of those pesky drains that keeps the water level too low than I will as well. At home I don't need to since I have the walk-in tub.

 

[franandaj]

LOL, how did you manage to get this shot?

I think I was standing up in my pod, perhaps to remove my denim shirt.

I love this photo of you. You look more relaxed than I have seen in years.

Huh. At that point I'd had a few glasses of wine, barely any sleep on my flight the night before, and was just exhausted.

 

[franandaj]

Ah. So you had utensils. That's what I didn't know.

That's why I was confused as to how to eat it. I was having trouble when I tried to use utensils I missed the lavash part.

 

[franandaj]

Hey Folks! I'm having issues with Photobucket. My images are showing up as red X's, but when I go to edit the post, the picture appears. I'm not sure if it's just me seeing the red X's or if everyone is seeing them.

 

[pkondz]

Hey Folks! I'm having issues with Photobucket. My images are showing up as red X's, but when I go to edit the post, the picture appears. I'm not sure if it's just me seeing the red X's or if everyone is seeing them.

Okay this is just weird.
What I was going to tell you was that while this post was a red x, your last update was fine.
But as I type this, I can see the photo in the quoted reply, but not in your post.

ETA and as you can see, it posted a red x here too. It was a photo of your video monitor on the back of the plane seat showing a 3D map.