Amman to Wadi Musa

9/20/11

Lovely to get up late, eat breakfast about 9:30/10:00, then sit around watching tv, reading and then writing in this journal. Met the others and checked out of the Hotel Larsa (Amman) ca. 10:40. Bought postcards (Bev), listened to stories (Pat, Jim, Jeanne) from their City Mall morning discovery.

Our baggage was loaded (all of it), and we piled in for the short drive to Tawaheen Al-Hawa restaurant (in Amman) for 1:00pm lunch of kebabs and the customary selection of Jordanian appetizers a meal all by themselves!). This was the best quality meal, service, and environment so far (and the others were quite good). Steve had talked with Jafar before leaving Larsa hotel and learned that Jafar’s wife and new son are home as of today, and Jafar would meet us at the restaurant. Restaurant wait staff was entirely male as was the staff at Green Valley Restaurant in Jerash. Waiter in charge of our table asked us where we are from, and he said he is from Giza, Egypt, with family there that he sees every four months (I think that’s what he said).

Then “Yalla, Yalla,” Jafar said, meaning “let’s go, quickly,” so we headed for the 3-hour drive to Hotel Amra Palace in Wadi Musa (population of ca. 50,000), a short distance from Petra which we will explore in a full day tomorrow. 

Amra Palace

On the way to Petra we saw Shobak Castle, but did not stop. It is on a high point very visible from the distances in many directions, but Ali (our intrepid driver) took us pretty close. Built as a Crusader castle in 1115 A.D., “the first outpost built beyond the Jordan River by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem to guard the road from Egypt to Damascus.” Although the exterior walls are well preserved, the interior is in ruins. (Jerusalem and Holy Land DK guide, p. 215) As we neared the castle, we saw a young (teenage?) Bedouin goat and sheep herder with two donkeys and two dogs (one apparently for herding, the other larger one for guarding). Ali and Jafar talked with him and then gave him some water.

Shobak Castle

Some explanations by Jafar: 

• Bedouin is a way of living. The word “Bedouin” is from the word “Badia” meaning desert.
• In 1965, 65 percent of Jordanians were Bedouin. 
• King Hussein offered incentives such as housing to the Bedouins to encourage them to settle in one place and have their children learning in schools. His belief was that education is the highest economic capital for a country. His program has worked so that now (2011) the literacy rate is 93%, the highest rate I believe in the Arab world.

At the Hotel Amra Palace: Call to evening and gorgeous sunset got us going from our room to hotel front porch, then to our table on the veranda facing west. Most of us were not hungry enough for a full meal, so we made our own choices from the buffet. Wait staff except for the man in charger was entirely female (young), and most of them appeared to be from the Philippines except one who had earlier greeted us (on arrival) with glasses of cold hibiscus tea (or pomegranate juice). Jim Jr. (son of Jim Gale Sr.) met us at the hotel (he walked the Petra canyon today) and narrated his experience throughout dinner conversation. Jafar joined us for dinner and shared photos of new son Omer (?) whom they will call Sami. 

Time for sleep. Need to get up at 5:00am for breakfast at 6:00am and departure by 6:45am for our Petra adventure!