to amman and back

jordanian cars might as well not have blinkers. they use their horns to indicate everything- passing, turning, about to ram into the back of your truck, etc. but someone how i traveled all over the country and returned in safety.

overwhelmed by the barrage of jewish holidays in israel, three friends (annie, ben and moshe) and i escaped to spend the week of sukkot in jordan, where we were instead greeted by an abundance of ramadan which forced us into partial observance due to the inavailabity of food during daylight hours. we began our journey in the south, crossing at the eilat-aqaba border and venturing into the breathtaking protected desert area of wadi rum. although 80% of jordan is desert, this was really the dessert of the deserts. for an non-negotiable price of 35 jordanian dinars we rode a land rover into wadi rum with our driver mahmoud who guided us through the beautiful rock formations jutting up from flat rocky plains and smooth pink sand dunes, watched the sunset and slept at a faux bedouin campsite where we dined on "bedouin barbeque"- food cooked over coals while buried deep in the sand. dinner was extra delicious since we had complete our first (of many) days without lunch.

the next morning we accidentally slept through sunrise, but woke up in time to hike back to the wadi rum village before the sun got too strong. as we entered the town, the call to pray began. i expected to hear the voice of a lone muezzin in this tiny bedouin village, but suddenly the air was filled with the chant and i was reminded of the rabat medina surrounded by the cacophony of dozens of competing muezzins from nearly every corner. then i realized there was only one voice, but it was brilliantly echoed and magnified by the sharp rock cliffs on either side of the village. ben almost converted on the spot.

from there we traveled to the petra, an famous ancient nabatean city and archaeological site whose excavations have been under the direction of former brown professor martha joukowsky. though for everyone who did not take archeology of anatolia with martha, petra is probably better known as the set for the final scene in indiana jones. we were lucky enough to watch the movie at our hostel where it is selected "by consensus" as the film of choice every night. our hostel also provided a lovely buffet dinner and my first (of many) marriage proposals of the week. i told ahmed i was still young and not ready for marriage and he replied, "ok, tomorrow?"

after petra, we hit up amman. while its certainly no cairo, it is still a crowded, polluted, bustling, not so touristy city of 2 million (almost half the population of jordan). a brother of a colleague of moshe's father wanted to show us around the city and brought us to the "mecca mall" where we gawked at the men in kafiyas browsing at timberland and sipping lattes at starbucks. i didnt buy anything there, but i did purchase some bootlegged sex and the city dvds in the dirtier, cheaper downtown area near our hotel.

amman also made us more aware about our identities as american jews who currently live in israel. petra was crawling with israelis (as well as hordes of europeans) and many vendors and men offering donkey rides even mistook our semitic looks and casual dress as israeli and spoke to us in hebrew. but not so many israelis (or americans) make it to amman which led moshe to become matt and annie to become canadian.

i thoroughly enjoyed jordanian arabic, its much easier to understand than moroccan or palestinian. but i dont think i could ever feel as comfortable, especially as a woman, in amman as i did in rabat. upon arrival in yafo (after 6.5 hours and 7 different vehicles) we immediately went and enjoyed eating vegetables and drinking beer in public in the middle of the day.