Hello from Beautiful Jordan, this one from Petra
Date: May 26, 2002 1:37:55 PM Eastern Daylight Time

As I had told you, I came here to connect with the family
from my Mother's father side, and to visit my cousins Rawan
and Munifeh. Amman is a huge and modem city. All
construction is of stone blocks, generally of beautiful
Arab design. Due to the problems in the Mid-East tourism is
almost non-existent, a pity for this is really a beautiful
country with very friendly people.

The first day I met the larger family. Almost all of them
speak exquisite English. The second day, my 2 cousins took
me up north to a place called Um Qais, remnants of an
Ottoman village. 3 busloads students were also there having
a party at the restaurant on the hilltop there. We joined
them and had a grand time, also with the wonderful meat
dishes the cousins ordered. And I had a taste of water
pipe. Today I am of my own in a rental car heading south
and visiting tourist sites along the way. After the mosaic
city of Madaba and Mt. Nebo nearby I continued west to the
Dead sea, literally dropping from steep escarpments to it.
After continuing south along the Dead Sea fro about 2
hours, I turned East and climbed the mountains to Mujib
Wildlife Reserve, then south to a town with a castle.
Further south I came to Dana Wildlife Reserve. The camping
site is some 5 km west into the reserve facing several
magnificent escarpments. Alas, I was the only one there.
After a few photos and Turkish coffee, I continued 60 km
further south and came to Petra by 8 pm, just at sun set,
and 389 km since I began this morn. This is one of the most
famous of archeological sites in the world; I expect to see
many more tourists here. I met only one American so far,
from DC, at Mt. Nebo, also traveling by rental car. We were
the only 2 people there, looking down at the valleys below
just like Allah might on a good day.

Will traverse Petra tomorrow morn, find some sort of
connection west to Wadi Araba, take that road--same as the
one along the Dead Sea-to the Gulf of Aqaba, the souther
most point of Jordan, connecting to Saudi Arabia, turn
North East there to Wadi Rum, where I will camp tomorrow
night. Then a day-long ride northeast thru the desert to
Azraq, to connect to the road there going east to Amman,
thru many ancient castles. By the way overtook the typos; I
am on an Arabic keyboard with English pasted on the keys.
More later.


Hello from Jordan (2), this from Amman
Date: May 30, 2002 12:41:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time
====================================================

Just returned from a 1252 km (about 900 miles) trip of
Jordan, covering all parts of the country to the south and
east. The eastern half of the country is almost all flat
gravel-like desert. The highway to Iraq was full of huge
trucks carrying whatever. It is the western Jordan that is
truly beautiful, full of layered valleys, escarpments,
mountains, ravines, canyons and what have you, often the
entire geologic history of Jordan displayed on a mountain
side. The lost/found city of Petra is unique. There is
nothing like it in the world. I drove as far south as Aqaba
on the Red Sea, then 20 km more to the Saudi border. After
saying hello to my once adopted habitat (Feb 25, 1976 to
Oct. 7, 1980), 1 raced up to Wadi Rum, Jordan's Monument
Valley. (The really nice public beaches along the Red Sea
are not in Aqaba but halfway to the Saudi border.) I spent
the night in a Bedouin tent and after browsing the area
some more in the morn. the next day, I continued my journey
220 km northeast to the oasis of Azraq, where I visited the
Shaumari wildlife reserve and Azraq wetlands. 160 km west
brought me back to Amman. I was alone in a rental Avis car.

The only real adventure happened on the 27th, when I took a
road labeled as Rt.70 on the map, but shown as incomplete,
west to Wadi Araba along the border. I had a flat tire 30
km inside the rocky and mountainous desert road at noon
heat. Except for a few scattered Bedouin tents and goats
along the way, I was the only traffic I saw while there. I
changed the tire there and decided to return to the regular
road, since the spare tire did not look encouraging. True
enough, by the time I reached the regular road, it
exploded, close to Wadi Rum entrance. Fortunately, my
cousins had supplied me with a cell phone. I contacted Avis
and an hour later a 2-man team arrived from Aqaba, alas
with a wrong tire. Tow hours later they returned and I was
on my way, first to a roadside place to adjust the tire
pressure, then to a tire place to put on 2 new front tires.
I still made it to Aqaba, then Wadi Rum that day, but it
was fun waiting 4 hours for Avis in the middle of the
desert in that heat.