Petra-fied

So, I am back in Amman after spending a few days travelling around Jordan.  First stop was Aqaba, the port where the 18 other people who began their tour in Egypt joined us after taking the ferry across.  We stayed at an AMAZING hotel there.  I stay at the cheapest, nastiest places I can find and am not used to stayng in hotels at ALL!  It was so nice!  It was really hot so I stayed at the pool all aftrnoon where myself and a few of the other girls on my tour made friends with a Palestinian woman and her kids.  Her name was Farida and she was a few years younger than me.  She was swimminng in the full black robe and pants as well as headdress and her English was limited (although certainly better than our Arab, I can only say hello, no thank you, thank you and IN YOUR DREAMS) and she couldn't swim or even float.  After a while and using her six year old neice as an interpreter, we got her floating and swimming and even touching the ground of the pool, and she ended up teaching us a few swear words in Arabic (can't remember them though). 

After Aqaba we headed out to Wadi Rum, which is Lawrence Of Arabia country.  We hired 4WDs and went out into th desert for two hours.  It was alot of fun, except when our 4WD continually stalled.  Our next day was spent at Petra, which was very impressive, particularly the Treasury buildings and the price of silver jewellry.  I got two silver and  turqouise rings for myself very cheaply.  It was an 8km walk through Petra and back to the entrance, and there wasn't alot of shade, and the Middle Eastern sun in the middle of summer is very hot as  you can imagine.  So I booked myself a Turkish Bath at the hotel we stayed at just outside Petra.  I was very apprehensive as I thought it would be like the public hamman I went to in Morocco last year, but this was a private bathhouse.  Sat in a steam room for about forty five minutes and was so tired, I sat like a limp rag doll naked (except for undies) on a marble bench while a complete stranger exfoliated and threw buckets of hotnwater over me, then got a massage.  The hotel catered very much towards Westerners so I figured the lady who scrubbed and massaged me has seen worse than me, plus it wasn't public like the one in Morocco was.  If you can get past the fact that you're naked and letting a stranger bathe you, it's quite a nice experience and leaves your skin feeling amazing and of course the massage really helped, particularly when you are carrying around a 20+ kg backpack and walking so much.

Today we droove back to Amman via an old fortress and also Mt Nebo, where Moses apparently died.  Tomorrow we go to Jerash, and the day after is our border crossing into Israel via the Allenby Bridge.  Still not sure how I will get from Jerusalem to the airport at Tel Aviv when the tour finishes.  I could have pre-booked a private tranfers through the tour company when I booked this trip but it would cost $200 and in my experience iit is always much cheaper and just as convenient to book things once you're in the country.

I mentioned that I booked San Fermin (Running Of The Bulls) - I will be there for Opening Day and get to see the first two bull races.  Camping at a site at Zarautz and the company I booked it through does transfers to Panploma regularly.  Booked cheap Easyjet flights to Bilbao and also booked transfers direct to the campsite, and also back to the airport.  Thank goodness it's a pretty long flight to Cuba, I will definately need to catch up on some sleep!