On Jordan

One word, Jordan was AMAZING.
I got some pics on facebook, and here are some other ones:

PICS

So Jordan, we were only there for 5 days but we got to travel in the country since Petra, biggest tourist attraction in Jordan, is about a 3.5 hours from Amman.
We still didn't see everything, its actually a pretty big country.
I'm not going to give you a day-by-day, but I'll just give you some points on our trip.

- Jordan is safe ! In Amman we were walking around our hotel at night. Our driver suggested we take a walk and to not worry since its very safe, and he was right.
- People in Jordan are very nice. I don't remember the last time I walked into a pharmacy and was greeted with such a big smile.
- They LOVE their King and Queen. He's known for being a very down-to-earth King. In fact our driver showed us a Shwarma place in a market area that he loves and from time to time goes there to eat, and trust me its not a fancy place, just a regular spot.
- The food is good. Of course no pork, but plenty of Lamb and beef.
- You can drink...hehehe. 18% of Jordanians are Christian, so yeah, there's drinking. Plenty of liquor stores throughout the country.
- Petra is absolutely amazing, and its crazy that they are still doing research in the area because they believe that there is still about 70% of it to be discovered. 70 % !!!
- A cool thing about Petra is that once it became one of the Wonders of the World they asked all the Bedouins that had lived there to move out; but they didn't just kick 'em out, they built cement houses with all amenities (even TV) for them. They agreed to move as long as they would be the only ones working in Petra for the tourists. So if you go to Petra, all the tourist guides and pretty much everyone that works there is a Bedouin. This is good because for years they kept Petra a secret as a way to protect it. Historically they have been the guardians of Petra.
- Wadi Rum desert is amazing. It looks like a postcard. Wadi Rum is also run by Bedouins.
- A funny thing is that in the U.A.E it always takes us about 5 minutes to tell people what Dominican Republic is, and most don't even know what the Caribbean is, yet Bedouins (in the desert !!) know what D.R. is! And they weren't just lying, one of them actually said "oh that's near Jamaica right? Like Bob Marley" our guide in the desert said "oh yes, in the Caribbean, right?" so yes, they knew DR which I thought was funny.
- Bedouins LOVE the desert. Its funny being there and thinking "wow, what if we get stuck here?" while our guide is telling us how much he hates the city, and that the best way to live life is in the desert.
- While driving in the desert our Bedouin guide Mohamed looks up and says "oh look mountain climbers !" Both Made and I are like Huh? So he actually drives closer to the mountain and after 5 minutes "..look to the left, now you see in the shade, you see?" we finally spot 2 climbers that look so small that it took me a minute to even spot it again in the picture below
This man saw this while driving !! After I see it he goes "Robert you wear glasses because you sit in front of computer all day, but Mohamed lives in the desert and can see the climbers" He was right. Oh and by the way this man was in his mid 40s, no glasses, and spot it this WHILE DRIVING !!
You're not going to see it, but this is just to give you an idea.

- Its chilly in Jordan, you need a coat, but we lucked out and the second day we went to the Dead Sea and got to go in the water ! You do float like nowhere else on Earth. One thing they tell you is to stay on your back while you float, this way you wont get water on your eyes or mouth. Somehow I managed to get water on both my eyes and my mouth. Seriously, they jury is still out on which one is worst. When it hits your eyes it burns, burns a lot, but its something that you can relate too from going to the beach, it just burns more, but when it hits your mouth ?? oh Lord, its like what the Devils urine must taste like, I cant ever imagine something more disgusting.
You know its salty, you know is very salty, but this is how salty it is, as soon as you step out of the water and you dry out, you can rub out the salt from your body. I was brushing salt out my hair like it was a bad case of dandruff.
We were in a resort so we were to able to wash-off the salt.

Ok, post is getting long, I would highly recommend Jordan, the place is amazing and the people are very nice. By the way our travel agency was Jordan Select Tours if you go try to get Feras as a driver, super cool guy that lived in Cali for a couple of years. Our tour was just the two of us and Feras in a car, which was great because we could stop wherever we wanted, and Feras was very knowledgeable about Jordan, anything from the economy, religion, politics, etc, very smart guy and super laid back.

sorry but I had to do this, dont hate me NYC!! This was me while you guys were 20" in snow:
>

Tomorrow we are off to ROMA !
see you in Rome Erwin !

Happy New Year to all !