Where to begin, let's see.....ok. So Thursday we planned to go to Petra which is an ancient city, full of beautiful architecture and sites (place where Indiana Jones was filmed). We did not leave Amman until noon and got to Petra around 3:30. This was an excellent plan because it was over 100 degrees that day at noon, I personally would not have enjoyed the hike in that kind of heat, the later afternoon was a better choice. We found the visitors center, bought our tickets, and headed into Petra. Within the fist 5 minutes, Lisa had decided to ride a horse down the walk until we reached the As-Siq (the main entrance). The Siq (picture to the left) is what really blew my mind, it is a long/narrow gorge and the way the water cut and colored the rock is beautiful. The nickname for Petra is the pink city because of the way the sun hits the rock, it looks pink and sometimes orange later in the day. Oh, and by the way, Lisa/Jace/Omar/and Juni were the people I went with. Jace is Lisa's friend visiting here for a week, Omar is one of the guys we work with, and Juni is Omar's friend who also happens to make awesome cappuccino! Anyway, continuing with the trip.
So as we made our way through the Siq, I took about a billion pictures.....and then we came upon the treasury. This was sooo beautiful. At the base of the Treasury, there was a fence over top a new cave that was just discovered 2 and 1/2 years ago. Brown University actually has a program there where they come and excavate parts of the site for research purposes. Pretty amazing. I was defintely starting to feel the Indiana Jones part of the visit, haha. At the Treasury, we were approached by a Bedouin man who offered a camel ride and guided tour of some of the other sites. Lisa attempted to kiss one of the camels but it scared her instead! :o) We did ride the camels which was a blast. I got on top of mine and as it stood up, I was literally leaning totally forward (because it puts it's back legs up first) and then after holding on and letting out a slight scream, it stood up the whole way, providing me with a different viewpoint of Petra, from atop the camel. Lisa, Jace, and I were connected with rope and I was the driver of the group. The camel did listen when I pulled on it to turn and seemed to be pretty relaxed through the whole thing. At one point, it did relieve itself for about 5 minutes, which Lisa had the pleasure of watching as she was behind my camel for the trip. Who would have thought I would ride a camel!!! Unreal. The camel ride took us by the Theater, constructed by the Nabetaneans in the 1st century AD, by the Urn Tomb, believed to have been carved around 70 AD, and down the Colonnaded Street, leading to the old 'city center'. We then rode the camels back to the Treasury, took a few photos of course, and then continued on foot. The camel ride was about 45 minutes.
We made our way back to town around 7:30 and grabbed dinner at the Red Cave Restaurant where they served a mix of traditional Bedouin dishes as well as some regular sandwiches and things. I ordered an Arabic salad which was a TON of vegetables in a tasty vinaigrette, served with a large piece of romaine lettuce. Then I tried Jace's lamb curry which was amazing! And I had pasta with minced meat and sauce. We quickly ate and headed back to the main entrance of Petra for 'Petra by Night'. This was something that looked so cool, we wanted to stay and do it. They line the entire walk to the Treasury with candles (in bags) and the goal is to walk there in silence, taking in the moment, and when we reached the Treasury, there was a small show of Bedouin music and we drank tea, taking in the surroundings. I did post a few pictures of this as as well as a video of the music. The first instrument played was the 'ababa' which is a traditional, one-stringed, instrument here. The second played was a traditional Bedouin flute. Because of the candles and the darkness, the music seemed even more haunting and beautiful. Looking at the stars in the desert was also spectacular. I haven't seen the stars so clear in my whole life, really beautiful.
Let's just say that after all the walking and camel riding, when we made it back to the car, we were all exhausted. Three of us were in the back of a Toyota Corolla so we weren't able to sleep very much on the 3 hour ride back....and it is also through desert, just desert, nothing to look at, except the stars. :o)
2 am we got home and promptly went to bed. Woke up the next morning, called Grace to come with us to the Dead Sea, and Ahmad picked us up at noon for a trip to the Dead Sea!!! It only takes about 45 minutes to get there from Amman and it was nice not to have to worry about a taxi driver we didn't know. I posted some pictures of Ahmad on the picture blog, he is a great guy, does not speak much English but calls himself our Jordanian papa. He also calls me Michael Jackson when I put my sunglasses on, hahaha.
You can't just walk out to the Dead Sea, now you have to go through a resort or hotel to get to the beach part of the Dead Sea so we paid for a day-pass through the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. The place is built for tourists so it was pretty nice, very resort-ish. We walked down to the beach and put our things down, then ventured to the water. SUCH as weird feeling!! You get in and you absolutely cannot make yourself sink, it's like you are constantly on a raft but there isn't one there. I tried to float on my stomach but it kept flipping me on my back. You don't want to get the water in your eyes though, a lot of pain from that for Jace. Also, if you have the smallest cut, watch out. The salt content in the water will make wince! After doing the floating thing for a bit, we decided to join the mud bathing on shore. You literally just reach down by the edge of the water and grab for Dead Sea Mud. People pay the big bucks for this stuff and we were just getting it for free. It's full of good natural minerals apparently so you just rub it all over your body. The mud is black/gray ish and when you put it on, you literally look like a different person. Check out the pictures if you don't believe me, it's so silly looking!! Then, after it's on, you let it dry for a bit to exfoliate the skin, then just get back in the Dead Sea and rinse it off. It took a bit to get if off and I rinsed my face in the showers so I wouldn't get salt in my eyes.
For the rest of the day, we just relaxed on the pier, looking across the Dead Sea to Israel. Again, I constantly have to remind myself that I am actually here. It is just nuts!!
When we got back last night, we were pretty goofy from being in the sun all day so we updated facebook (how nerdy of us) and just relaxed, got pizza from the Family Oven (the place that gave me the heart shaped pastry last week) and then headed for bed.
The coolest part about both trips was being surrounded by people from ALL over the world. I was hearing so many different languages around me, it was a really cool experience. I still see that the majority of people in this world are kind people, we need to always remember that.
Wow, so after I have written you a book, I guess I will stop writing for now. Hope you can imagine some of what I described, it's hard to put it into words what I experienced but I'm trying :o)
Today, I have my first sessions with my own clients so I will let you know how it goes! I'm a bit nervous but I know that so much can be communicated through music, it should be good.
Talk to you soon! I miss you so much, xoxo
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