Petra, Jordan

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 17:00:00 +0300

Actually got to Petra with still plenty of light.

Mādabā, Jordan

Fri, 15 Jun 2018 12:00:00 +0300

Met up with colleagues of my friend as well as a local Engineering student who drove the car, and started our little special road trip to Petra. The first stop though is the much anticipated Dead Sea.

Amman

Thu, 14 Jun 2018 09:00:00 +0300

Jordan, a beautiful but distant name. Compared to the stopover site of paris, with overwhelming amount of information and frequent updates, I learned uncharacteristically little in my hurried search. Though I realized after the fact that part of the issue came from having considered stopping at Egypt, I formed vague but conflicting sense of what is to expect, between the cautions of different cultural interpretations that I took to heart as a female, and the fondly mentioned hospitality of the Jordanians. Worse, because I was playing time matching with a friend to meet up for part of the trip, combined with the seemingly very local-based mode of operation, my entire itinerary felt up in the air. So I set foot into a middle eastern country for the first time, with bookings for only the first and last night and no definite sense of what to expect. After narrowly escaping getting seriously ripped off at the currency exchange, an uneasy bus ride with me concerned about already violating a rumoured social rule by sitting next to a male, some failed effort in getting a fair price for my taxi, and finally the heart-warming welcome and tips from the highly praised hotel manager, I had half the afternoon in front of me as I stepped into the city. Conscious of the stares I was receiving along the way due to my appearance that screamed tourist, and ignoring the many greetings and questions directed at me, I was on guard till I got to the citadel. To be honest, I was not entirely enthusiastic after seeing almost identical picture of the only two attraction points in the city, thinking that I would just be reconfirming the pictures with my own eyes. One step into the citadel overthrew that notion completely. The ruins of the roman style columns stood tall under the bright afternoon soon, while around me the city sprawled out in layers across the surrounding hills. Call to prayer came from mosques all over, the repeated melodic song created an echo effect that danced around and surrounded me, making me suddenly strangely aware of the fact that the stones in front of me are marks left by an ancient civilization, where people lived worshiped and obeyed their ruler. The descent to Roman Amphitheater took me through twists and turns in more residential neighbourhoods than I expected, then landed me right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. Wasn't able to get inside, maybe it was closed, so I circled its front before walking back to the hotel. It was the last day of Ramadan, and sunset marks the start of celebration the streets were extremely busy, terrible jam and plenty of honking. Combined with the multitude of small businesses lining the streets and people hurrying in and all, the sight and sound was filled with life. Dinner was difficult because of the festivity, due to crowded restaurants and also the resulting lack of patience to overcome the language barrier; walking in the streets after was full of literal shoulder rubbing. It felt almost familiar in fact, reminiscent of the night market scene in asian countries. Many invites came to us to check out their goods, and “China?" "Hello~" "Welcome!” was heard all over. I was simply happy to no longer be walking alone, and thus given the free pass to simply observe the interactions, and soak up the localness of it all.

View from the plane. Maybe because of the conscious awareness that this is a piece of the earth that is foreign to me yet one where ancient civilizaiton florished, there was something captivating about the raw beautiful of the landscape. I kept noting secitons of the land that triggers my imagination, for example the tree I tried to capture with this picture, a tree of life. These are moments when I suddenly glimpse some of the power of paiting, which allows one to present not what they're looking at, but what they see.

King Abdullah I Mosque. Got this picture thanks to the taxi driver who overcharged me, because he pointed it out on the way, stopped for me to take a look, and even offered to take my photo with it.

Something magical to see the city expand out over the surrounding hills.

Really liked this picture because of the two passerby's. I was careful to abide by what I read online and didn't take pictures of the local females, so it helps to have this unintentional inclusion to serve as a pointer to my memories of them.

Amman seems to be built literally over the hills.

Walking among the ruins finally brought home the fact that these were used in another civilization long past.

Roman Amphitheater is right in the centre of the city, no buffer at all between it and the modern day-to-day.

The hard-earned dinner. Couldn't go all out on the meze since it's just two of us, not to mention lamb mansef plus the something chicken already ended up being too much.

Jordan - my first Middle East experience

Petra, Jordan

Mādabā, Jordan

Amman