First some facts about Jordan because sadly the world is under educated:
-The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a Constitutional Monarchy with a representative government ruled by King Abdullah II
-Jordan has one of the highest immigration rates in the world. Jordan's political stability, ethnic and religious toleration, peace with all its neighbors, and equal opportunity for all make Jordan attractive to refugees and political asylum seekers.
-92% of Jordanians are Sunni Muslims and 6% are Christian. Jordan is one of the most liberal Muslim nations in the World with a very progressive government and good human rights record.
-Jordan has almost no natural resources and so it relies on external sources for majority of it's energy and oil needs. It is one of the most water starved countries in the world and is currently exploring ways to expand its limited water supply and use its existing water resources more efficiently.
-Jordanians are the most educated population in the Arab World with a 99% youth literacy rate and a 93% adult literacy rate, the highest in the region.
-Tourism accounts for a large part of Jordan's economy, popular sights include: Petra- an entire ancient city carved into a mountain and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, The Dead Sea- the lowest point on Earth and is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, Wadi Rum- a desert full of mountains and hills and known for it's connection with Lawrence of Arabia. Christian religious sites include: Madaba, where The Madaba Map was found, the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land; Mount Nebo, where Moses was said to have gone to get a view of the Promised Land before he died; and The River Jordan, which is the river where Jesus Christ was baptized.
Ok enough of the Jordan lesson and on to my trip! The main reason for the trip in the first place was for my cousin Firas' wedding. He is one of my closest cousins and lives near me but his fiancee lives in Jordan (as well as most of their families). Me, my parents, his mom Basma and sister Fatin all flew to Amman, the capital, for the wedding. We stayed at my Taita's (grandma) apartment, which was a little cramped with all of us but was pretty convenient to visit the rest of the family and sight-see in Amman. Our first weekend there all of us from Taita's house, Firas and my other cousins Yara and Sana went down to Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba. We went with a big group and took a charter bus down. We left early Friday morning and arrived in the ancient city of Petra about 4 hours later. We walked about a 1 1/2 miles until we reached the Siq which is a path between 2 mountains. The Siq was almost another 2 miles until you reach The Treasury, the most famous building in Petra. It was really hot, over 110 degrees so we didn't continue walking past The Treasury, although there is A LOT more to see of the city.
Wearing our Shmah's, traditional Jordanian headwear to protect our heads from the sun.
Approaching The Treasury
We left at 1:30pm for lunch nearby and then continued to Wadi Rum, another hour away. That night we were staying at a campsite in the desert which is designed to give people the experience of how the native Bedouins (nomads) live. The bus couldn't go too far off the main road in the sand so we had to take jeeps the rest of the way. The idea of camping in the desert was really cool, but it wasn't as great as we thought it would be. Mostly because it was soo hot there was no relief from the heat. Nobody in Jordan has A/C except for the hotels so you rely on the fact that all buildings are made of limestone to keep cool and have fans everywhere. Another problem is that there was only one community bathroom with a few sinks and stalls. Not only where there not enough for the number of people at the campsite but when the Muslim women are in there washing up, they don't allow any men to go in, and that's not really fair. They also ran out of water by morning so no flushing of the toilet..you can only imagine lol.
Side note about water: because water is so scarce in Jordan, people have to have water tanks on their roof's that fill up when water comes once a week. Some people get really big tanks or build a well so they have plenty of water, but some people (like Taita and that campsite) don't have big enough ones for the amount of people that use the water, so running out is a constant threat.
Jeep ride to the campsite
Wadi Rum is famous for it's sunsets, this picture doesn't do it justice. (that's our camp on the right)
Saturday morning we left for Aqaba, the ride was short, about 45 minutes and we were so thankful to be staying in a resort! Right when we got our room keys we raced to take a shower, we were so gross from Petra and Wadi Rum. After our showers we went down to the pool area. It was about 130 degrees, by the time we walked from our rooms down to the pool we were gross again, luckily there were 2 pools and the sea to enjoy. We basically had the whole resort to ourselves, summer is the off season for tourists because its so hot. Lucky us...haha. We didn't really hang out on the beach for 2 reasons: 1) we were so over sand from Wadi Rum 2) the entrance to the water was really rocky. We did explore a little and we found trampolines that you could jump on, for free!
Enjoying the Infinity pool at the resort
Jump!
That week back in Amman my parents and I started what would end up being a very long process to get our Jordanian citizenship and passports. Since my dad was born in Jordan he is still is a Jordanian citizen but he can give my mom and I citizenship too. Things didn't end up going as planned; I thought Italy is inefficient, man Jordan takes the cake. It took over 8 hours and 3 separate trips to fill out all the forms and standing in different lines but my dad and I got our Jordanian ID's and I got my citizenship (my dad just had to get his ID renewed)! My mom could have gotten hers but she would have had to go through an immigration hearing since she isn't of Jordanian blood and we agreed it wasn't worth it. My dad and I getting our passports would have required more forms and lines and since we can get them in the U.S. we didn't do it. It's actually easier for us to travel on our U.S. passports so we may not get them at all, we'll see. The rest of the week was consumed by wedding preparations and pre-wedding parties.
Our last week there we went to the Dead Sea which is only about 30 min from Amman. We had a very relaxing 2 days there just floating around in the sea and swimming in the hotel pool.
The Dead Sea
Mud-bath!
Our last few days were spent with the family and buying souvenirs. We had a great trip but we were definitely ready to return to bay area weather!
