Archives: Travels - Jordan

Imagine a Saoudi..

Imagine going from Damascus to Amman, in a service-taxi -because the bus you wanted to take only leaves at 3pm and it is 9am-
Imagine sitting in this cab with an old Jordanian, an senior Lebanese woman and a Saoudi-Arabi man who is giving everybody to drink all the time.
Imagine passing the border and be stunned because evrybody in the Syrian! border is having a mask against SARS -is there sars in Syria->
Imagine arriving in Amman and being proposed to go to Petra with the same Saoudi-Arabian by the Libanese 'Because he's a sweet man'
And before you know it you're in a private taxi to Petra, and the guy says he was not planning to go but because of you he changed his plans
Imagine he proposes you to stay in his house in Cairo, or in Saoudi-Arabia -which is almost impossible to go to, they don't give visa to foreigners...- as you wish
Imagine he's paying all the bills -taxi, dinner and even hotel, with your own room-

You think this is a joke?

It isn't!!!!!

How do I get rid of this nice man

Mum, if you want to sell me high price: do it now.... I guess I am worth a lot here...

Sigal and Tamar -you're the closest-, come and save me.... grinning

I started doing very weird, telling that I want to cross this desert by camel-which I will do btw- and want to sleep in the desert -which I will do also-
and it starts to work, he thinks I am crazy.

I have to make him believe I am too crazy, so he leaves for Saoudi -Arabia and leaves me behind....

By now I said I am going to Al Quds -which is Jerusalem for those who don't know- and he says he will wait for me in Cairo....

I say I don't have any money, he says it's nothing, he'll pay my flying!ticket -and believe me, he will, he's from Saoudi Arabia, don't forget....-

Fppp, travelling alone is easy, when you're really alone...

This adventures, I wonder how I will live through.....

Kisses.

Hope to see you soon...

-So dearest girls in TLV, if you want to go to Cairo, you'll only have to pay a flyingticket, staying is for free.... grinning-

Posted on May 14, 2003
in Travels - Jordan

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I saw Petra today...

After getting rid of my Saoudi guy -he I do have a mind...- I got to the Petra site, where I got in touch with some nice people from Dubai -yeh- They stay in a 5 star hotel -me in a zero one...- -they're in hotelbusiness or something like that.
They're really great.
I had loads of fun, stunning views and now hurting legs.
Wanted to take a camelride, but I guess that if I can walk tomorrow I will feel happy, so I don't know if I will go for a hurted butt....

Heading day after tomorrow for Aqaba.

Almost home...

Petra is indeed more than you ever expect. Great....

Posted on May 16, 2003
in Travels - Jordan

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5 billion sky

You have 5 stars hotels, he said, but mine is a 5 billion star hotel.
Dehbi smiles. I knew I would trust this man Mahmoud introduced me to.
Between the 2 man a discussion about prices start, and in the end they compromise: I pay the engine and the food.
Dehbi, bedouin, takes my stuff in the 4*4 and of we go, into the desert.
I guess if I would have listen more carefully to my mum and grandmother, I would have taken a tour with a travelagency and 20 other people... Instead I follow my heart and take the risk of going out with somebody I don't know.

Once off the road we are in the desert, and Dehbi loves jeeping, and I tell you it's fun.
This is the most impressive thing I ever seen: an empty desert
We stop several times to visit his family and drink tea (never drunk soo much tea)
Dehbi's family counts 6000 people....
Everywhere we are welcomed.
In the middel of the desert we drink tea with an other tourist, elsewhere we cook a meal -well, he cooks a meal-
Elsewhere I am invited to have horseriding at sunset. Imagine riding an Arabic horse in a beautiful desert. I can dream of being Ine of Arabia for an hour.
-later more on this part...-
Much later and a lot of km further, we head for a place to see sunset. But our jeep gets stuck, real stuck: the tyre got of the velge.
So there I am, in the middle of the desert, no telephone connection, no way of solving this problem alone...
Nothing to do but walking.
Ever saw a film of people walking in the desert, in a huge emptyness? I did. They always almost die of thirst... So I quickly take a bottle of water and a camera. (hey I am a photographer, I can aswell die with a camera)
After an hour (or was it less?) Dehbi drops me at a rockformation 'Climb on it, enjoy the sunset. I'll be back with family, if not head 1 km north and wait in a camp'
'Don't worry, be happy, this is life' he adds.
Right...
I end up in the highest rock, enjoying a great sunset, floating in millions of thoughts.
'I am getting big now' A realisation.
An hour later, a convoy of three jeeps, and 10 people come to the feet of the mountain and start jelling 'Come down!!!'
It's funny, but this rescue team feels like happiness in my head.
The desert is the place where things become to the pure essential: sun, land, sky and water.
And two other things: beauty and friendship.
It's peacefullines? is amazing.
We get into the jeep, go to ours, and some men get it fixed. Offcourse now we have to drink tea, talk about what happened and an Ud-player is singing songs, that everybody seems to know.
Later, Dehbi and I head for a Bedouincamp in a valley, to enjoy te desertnight fully.
Offcourse we don't stay alone for long... People come to visit us, because they heard what happened. Waterpipes are smoked, stories told and bedouinsongs sung.
Suddenly one of the man jumps up, a hedgehog was hidden behind its back. Funny. The man was scared all evening.
In my mind a flash: 4 men and a me, alone in an empty desert. Everything could happen, nobody would know.
But I don't fear anything. In fact I should... Later when we walk to see the moon, suddenly a snake appears... Promptly the men get into action. As I exspect to see them catching a snek in traditional way, they set off with the jeeps and strat driving over it til it is dead. Quite funny and impressive to see. grin.
Later I watch the 5 billion star sky before falling asleep under a beddouin lullabie.
If heaven is silence: this is it...