Finally, a Jordan I Like

I'd like to thank all of you worriers out there who were sure that we'd die today.

Naomi woke up this morning, a nervous wreck, at 10:45 pm (yeah, the previous day) after going to bed at 9 pm. She then managed to get back to sleep until 2 am, at which point she was up for the day. I managed to sleep in until 4:30, when we actually had to move out. We found the border crossing after a betrayal by the GPS and met up with our group; a small jeep full of people, followed by another jeep full, followed by another and another. In case any of you had thriller-movie-expectations about us being kidnapped by terrorists in a small group, there were 45 noisy Americans, French, and Italians all asking dumb questions. This group was surrounded by 5 other groups just like it. Let's see 250 of us get kidnapped. Honestly, I'd feel sorry for the kidnappers: "Are we going to be able to get pictures of the torture?" "Do we get a meal here in solitary?" "If you're not going to throw away that finger, I'd love to have it as a souvenir." We also had numerous armed guards, most likely for the tour guides to protect their sanity through force.

It took Naomi approximately 3 years to get through the border. Everybody wants to know why she has two passports. They also want to know why she doesn't have her Israeli passport out. Then they want to know why she has it out. To add extra comedy to the situation the tour guides took all of our passports to speed things along and when they handed them back the had lost her's. We got the same crap on the way back, only this time, since Naomi knew it would happen, she abandoned me to get in the next line, leaving a suspicious guard looking through my passport and then flagging me for a bomb risk. (Oh boy, this blog is now on every watch list for keywords...)

Petra is really frickin' beautiful. The entire city is both an architectural and sculptural marvel, since every building is carved out of the canyon wall. In non-American countries the rules are very relaxed so you can go into most of the buildings and climb around and stuff. We have pictures of one of us or the other standing in front of things - the postcard pictures were nicer. That's all I'm saying about Petra the place.

Petra the experience was funny. When we pulled up we parked with an additional 20 buses, putting the totals at around 1000 slack-jawed tourists walking around getting fleeced by the local merchants. Our tour consisted of at least three groups of Pinks (defined, as before, as the people who ruin the tour). The worst Pinks were a pair of Americans; the kind that really make you embarrassed for the country and any association they can claim to you. They brought 5 full suitcases on the trip. Yup, ALL of their stuff. Parents and teachers are liars: Stupid questions exist and are rampant in places like these. Scenario - Tour guide says fact. Halfway through, Pinks interrupt and ask the question the guide was in the middle of answering. They then criticize the guide for not being informative.

Inside of Petra you can also ride type of creature you wish. They had donkeys, camels, horses, tigers, unicorns, etc. They used to only have camels and donkeys. Then came the scene from Indiana Jones where they all ride horses into Petra. Now there are horses for everyone! They are also banned from Petra proper.

Okay, bed.