Posts Tagged ‘jordan’
Happy Australia Day!
Happy Australia Day everyone!
This time last year we were in Jordan, in the Middle East, drinking non-alcoholic beer because they’re muslim, and not eating any meat because it’s Hallal… :-S
Hanging out in Petra, Jordan Australia Day 2009...
This is one of my favourite days of the year for the following reasons:
- We get to do ‘Australian’ things like BBQ, eat damper, and drink beer. We’re drinking Crownies today.
- ANZAC biscuits. Need I say more?
- VEGEMITE. Only one my favourite things ever. Seriously craved it while we were o/s.
- Friends- nothing better then a day to relax and chill with friends.
- Triple J Hottest 100. So the winner has already been spilled, but it’s still good listening!
Thanks for visiting my site again! keep checking back for more updates!
Tags: australia, australiaday, beer, jordan, patriotism
Jordanian Exploits
Hi everyone,
Talia and I write to you alive and well, although we’ve been on one hell of a ride.
Petra was awesome. Can’t wait to show off the photos. I’ll start the story once we got back from Petra.
There’s not much else to do in Petra town than see Petra itself, so passing time once we were back at the hotel was difficult, suffice to say we were in bed by 7.
We were woken up (as usual) by the muslim prayer siren which plays right next to our room. It was 11pm.
12pm comes. This time we were woken up by machine gun fire which sounded a little too close to our hotel than we would have preferred. A little afraid, we had a hard time getting back to sleep. We heard it again at 12:30.
Prayer siren again at 5 made our night that much more comfortable.
Did I mention that our mattress was about as soft as the floor, and our pillows felt like bags of powdered cement?
It wasn’t all bad though. That afternoon the petrol man had come to the hotel, which meant I got to have the first warm shower since we got to Jordan, and we got heat in our room that night. The desert gets really cold after sunset.
Okay, so morning comes, and we pack our things and get in a taxi. The next two hours were the scariest two hours we’ve ever lived. The driver spent more time on the wrong side of the road than on the right side, and more time 20 k’s above the speed limit than below. We also got pulled over for a security check 4 times.
The boat.
We weren’t exactly sure what port we were meant to be at – but the drivers lack of English didn’t give us much of a choice anyway. We got there and went back and forth between booths getting stamps and visas and more stamps. The whole process cost an arm and a leg. No English here either, which made things difficult and a little frustrating. We weren’t even sure whether or not our tickets were going to take us to Egypt, let alone the port our driver was going to pick us up from.
In the end we got on the right boat, and went to the right location, in the wrong class. We accidentally purchased first class tickets (we think). We were always pushed to the front of the line, and our bags were put separately – we got pretty special attention.
They took our passport from us once we got on the boat so they could process our Egyptian Visa. Getting them back was no mean feat – once we arrived in Egypt we had to find the place to buy our visa’s and the immigration office to get our passports back, amongst a crowd of screaming Arabs.
We rushed through the security check and onto a bus with a guy that spoke no English but had a sign that said the name of our hotel.
We’re now in Dahab, and it’s absolutely beautiful. Our internet time is running short, so we’ll leave it there – but know that the red sea is beautiful, everything is cheap, and we’re going to stay here longer and spend less time in Cairo.
We’ll write again soon.
Luke & Talia
Petra
Tags: boat, dahab, dessert, egypt, ferry, jordan, machine gun, petra, taxi
Jordan… first impressions
I am currently listening to the muslim prayers coming out of loudspeakers attached to Mosques. It’s loud, and as Stephan and Luke said when we were in Israel, they sound like racing cars going round the track, accelerating and changing gears. It’s rather hilarious when you think of it like that!
This morning we went to Petra. It was really quite amazing. We rode a donkey up to the top where the monastry is, and I can’t wait to show you some awesome pictures! It was Luke’s first time riding a donkey, and a horse, which we rode later.
Petra is basically just HUGE temples etc. CUT into the side of the cliff. We also went to the edge of one cliff that claims to be ‘the top of the world’. It certainly did feel a bit like it, and it looked over the desert. Petra is a LOT of walking (about 15km), which is why we took the donkey and horse some of the way. We did see some parents with two small boys, and two babies. I asked Luke to remind me about this day if we have kids and I stupidy think I want to go on a holiday to somewhere like this. I do not fancy being a pack horse!!
There is not much else to do in Jordan, so we’ve been walking around the street buying cheap 7-up, and shwarma. Not as good as in Israel, but I like the way they wrap it up here- more like a ‘kebab’ at home, but yummier ‘bread’.
It is freezing cold here, and as soon as the sun sets (about now) it gets a LOT colder. We buy hot food to keep us warm, and read by a gas heater in our ‘hotel’.
Our room is about 2m x 3m, or, for those of you who have been to our house and seen our bathroom, about that big! It fits a double bed, and has a small corridor of sink, toilet, shower. The door to this corridor is broken, and our main door doesn’t close unless locked, so it’s a process to get into the freezing cold shower, which appears to have no hot water option. Oh, and the toilet seat detatches. We will try to take photos, as this is an experience we’ll never forget.
If you didn’t know, Jordan uses Jordanian Dinars as their currency, and 1 JD is about 2 AUD, or 1.5 USD.
Appatently it’s customary to voice your appreciation for arab mens moustaches, but when Luke tried to compliment the man at the restaurant we went to last night, he was quite confused. Perhaps he didn’t know what a moustache was…!
People beep their horns a lot in this country. On our way here our taxi driver seemed to beep whenever he saw a police man, someone he knew, and for all we know, people he did’t know as well. As we walked to Petra today we heard many car horns beeping around us.
We’re off to catch the ferry across to Egypt tomorrow, and will leave Egypt next Tuesday, and be home next Thursday the 5th. We’re thinking of skipping Alexandria, cause things are more pricey here then we first anticipated. But it’s all good, and we’re having an enjoyable, and memorable time!!
Luke & Talia
Petra
