Welcome to Jordan

Jordan had such a drastically different feel than Israel. I loved Israel, but Jordan felt more like what I expected the Middle East to feel like. We weren't in Jordan quite as long as we were in Israel, but we still got a pretty good taste of it. We went to Dana, where we stayed in my favorite hostel and met this awesome girl from India (now living in Singapore) so now I have a place to stay if I am ever in Singapore.

Unfortunately it was too windy and cold for me to want to explore Dana, especially since my cold was getting really bad at this point. So I just stayed put and hung out with people at the hostel. Good thing I really liked that hostel.

Other than Dana, we went to Petra, the Wadi Rum desert and then Aqaba (where Jordan's part of the Red Sea is) before we headed to Amman to the airport to fly home. Obviously there will be a separate post for the Wadi Rum desert and Petra... this post is to just give you a little taste of Jordan.

In Aqaba we walked around the city a lot and when we got tired of walking, we went to the beach to sit in the shade and relax. While sitting there, many people approached me (us... mostly me) and gave us food to try, bought me a local fruit drink from someone going around selling it, a guy wanted me to go with him to a different beach, some guy draws cool designs on people for money, when I told him I didn't want to pay for that he just said give me your arm and drew on it anyway. Don't worry... he wrote I love you Tracy with his initials in a heart... not a weird thing to walk around with at all. People didn't care about getting money from me, they just wanted an excuse to come talk to me. It was mostly friendly and not creepy... so I didn't mind too much and I was friendly and would chat with everyone. I did feel bad that Deb didn't get much of the attention, but she was a good sport about it. She is so easy going... that is why she is such a great travel companion.

After we left the beach, I wanted to get some ice cream before we headed to the bus station. After buy ice cream, the guys invited us to eat with them. Let me tell you, that food was good! After they asked for pictures with me, so we took them. It's fine... Kinda makes me feel like a celebrity. Ha ha.

Jordan was so interesting. I really enjoyed it there and I wish we could have had more time there. I say that about everywhere I think... but I really could spend a lifetime traveling the world. There is just so much to see and so many interesting people to meet. If I ever had the opportunity to go back to Jordan, I would.