HI everyone.
So the last time I ended with the fact that we will go and snorkel with the dolphins. That was a wonderful experience. We were split into groups of 4 so the Shafies were separate from us which was a bit unfortunate, but we didn't really look at each other much anyway during this activity. We were first told not to touch the dolphins. They will touch us if they want to. We were also given wetsuits to keep our body temp up and to help us float. being in one of those things feels like being in a sausage casing. It was definitely different. We snorkeled with our guide for a half an hour. The dolphins were only a few feet away from us at times, swimming around us and under us. We were warned that they were feisty since there were 8 females and the alpha make died a few days ago. This was really sad because dolphins are in heat this time of the year. The only male there is a 10 month old baby and dolphins don't sexually mature until they are about ten. There was also a dolphin named Luna :-). While we were swimming one of the dolphins touched Ralph. Overall it was wonderful. We had a short 10 minute video made of the experience. When we were done we just hung out at the beach for a few hours. None of us burned which was pretty amazing. We were able to swim up really close to the dolphin enclosure and almost got to touch a dolphin that came by for a friendly chat. Very cool stuff. The only bad part was that there were coral reefs right where we were swimming and I cut my foot on one of them. I didn't think much of it while I was swimming, but it really started bleeding when I got out of the water. Don't worry, I will walk again soon. :-).
After a while, we decided to head back home. We changed and showered and walked along the boardwalk going into little shops. We were told of a club called Touch that we should visit. We also ate some good Israeli food. On the way back to the hotel we bought the nastiest alcohol I have ever tasted called Kiglevich so that we could pre-drink. I decided to skip the club since I didn't want to irritate my foot more than it was but I drank along with everyone anyway. EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW. Yuck is all i have to say. I do not think Sereja will ever be put in charge of alcohol again. Ech. After the pre-drinking I went to bed but the others partied it up at Touch. They said that there was a whole mass of girls in tank tops and mini skirts with M-16s clubbing. I love night clubs and guns in Israel. Olya and Antonov made it back pretty early, but the rest of the boys must have partied it up until 3 in the morning. I don't think they had a great morning.
Thankfully were were only picked up to go to the Jordanian border at 11. For some reason the road to the border is probably the worst road in Eilat. We needed to be in a Jeep just to get there. It took us about a half an hour to get through the border and we were had to walk through no man's land unescorted. It was a little freaky, especially since there were "Danger Mines" signs on either side of us. Also as we got closer to the Jordan side we saw a sign that said, literally "Welcome You". We thought is was funny that they even wrote with an accent. Once we got through border patrol we were met by one of our many Jordanian guides, Mohammad (3 out of 4 guides there were named Mohammad). He drove us to Aqaba to the travel agency. We got there at around 12:30. We were told that it was too hot to go to the desert now and we will take off at 4 pm, which meant that we had some time to walk around and chill with the locals.
For some reason there were very few people out - maybe it was because it was around 40 degrees Celsius!! We went to a market/strip mall type of place and some of us bought stuff. Then we came into another store that made sand bottles with designs in them. Inside it was decorated with signs such as "Ded Sea" and another one that was freakily spelled. The group decided to get some bottles - like 10 for different friends. We were offered coffee while we waited. We also got to talk to one of the locals. He was an electrician who had 12 kids. He told us that he personally doesn't have anything against us because we are Americans, since we are not the ones killing innocent children in Iraq, but not everyone feels like him. He told us that they show Americans killing children almost every day on the TV. Over all he was pretty friendly and even got us a deal on water to save us some money. We hung out with him until our souvenirs were ready. We left and walked to a restaurant that was recommended to us by our Jordanian guide called Ali Baba. The first thing Olya and I noticed when we walked in, was that we were the only women. Later on we found out that all of the women were on a different floor which made us a bit uncomfortable. We got over it when other Jordanian non religious couples came together and sat in our section. I guess the really weird thing in Jordan is that even though a lot of people are really hard core Muslims, a lot are not, and no one pushes their beliefs on others. Our food was heavenly and the waiters were really nice. They saw that some of us were not feeling great and gave us special teas to settle the stomach. We were very happy with everything.
When we got back we piled in to 2 Toyota trucks and headed towards Wadi Rum which means Valley of sand. While on the highway I noticed that the mountains were striped. I guess they are made of sedimentary rock, so that they have layers of black, green, red and tan. At one point we got off the highway and went off-roading through the desert. It was amazing, though seriously bumpy ride. Our truck got stuck on some railroad tracks, but once the driver engaged the four wheel drive we were fine. At one point we came to a patch of flatrock and the driver put the car in Neutral and got out. We have pictures of us riding in a car with the driver walking next to it and smoking a cigarette. We also opened the doors and stood on the foot-ledges so that we could see everything. Very cool experience. We started driving again and slowly the terrain went from rocky to sandy. There were sand dunes and ralph actually slid down one on his stomach at one point. Lots and lots of fun. We drove around some more taking in the breathtaking views. I am not joking, there are no words to describe how beautiful everything is. After 10 more minutes the drivers pulled over next to some mountains. We got out and took some pictures. We were told that room service would be by shortly with tea. We thought it was a joke until another truck got out with another guide (Mohammad #2) and 3 french people. In the back of the truck there was a big kettle with tea. The guides started a fire and pretty soon we were drinking one of the 100s of cups of tea that we would have throughout the day. our main guide also told us a story while we were drinking.
A long time ago there lived a king. One time he was riding through the desert when he stopped at an oasis and saw the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He fell for her immediately and decided to marry her. He found out who her parents were and went to ask them for her hand in marriage. The parents were ecstatic that they had the honor of being asked and said that there would be no problem if their daughter agrees.The daughter however said no. The king saw her at the oasis again and asked her why she refused him. "well," she said, "you are a bad kind, your people don't respect or love you and i see myself as a queen. I would not want to marry an unworthy king like you" "what can I do to change your mind?" the king asked in desperation. "you need to find yourself a wise man." the girl replied,"and have him follow you everywhere and teach you how to behave. If you change yur ways and I start hearing good things about you from the people, then I will be happy to marry you" And that is exactly what the king did. He had his staff find him the wisest wise man and bring him over to his castle. A week went by and one day the king was very irritable and excited and slipped down the stairs breaking his arm. Upon seeing this the wise man said "Thank god!" The king was furious with such a response and had his guards through the wise man in jail. "Thank god" the wise man said once more when he heard of the kings order. After a month the kings arm healed and he went riding in the desert again. He rode through a mirage and his body guards lost sight of him. Shortly he cam to a group of people that cheered when they saw him and got him of his horse. They told him that they were very happy that he cams since according to their religion once a year they sit in the desert and wait for the first man to ride by. When they find such a man they sacrifice him to their god and can leave the desert. "but you can't sacrifice me the king screamed, I am the king" The people didn't care who he was. They were going to sacrifice him no matter what, king or no king. Eventually he resigned and started taking his clothes off. When the people saw the king's healed arm they told him to get dressed again. He was not whole and not a good enough sacrifice to their god. Relieved the king went back to his body guards. He sent for his wise man and asked him: "why did you say thank god when i broke my arm, and again when i put you in jail?" "well," the wise man said, "you were so nasty that I knew one day you would be riding through the desert and not wait for your body guards and meet this group of people. Once they saw you they would want to sacrifice you and your broken arm would save your life. And if you didn't throw me in jail I would be riding alongside you and then I would be killed" "you are a wise man indeed" said the king. He started listening to the wise man's advice and pretty soon he was loved and reveared by his people. He was able to marry the girl and lived happily ever after.
It was so cool to lay in the sand drinking tea and listening to that story. Eventually we got up and started driving again. The shadows made the mountains look amazing. Off-roading was a blast again. We rode until some mountains close to the Bedouin tents and climbed up to see the sun setting. Olya, Ralph and I went climbing for a little bit. It was a lot of fun and gave us a completely breathtaking view of everything. The desert stretched out as far as the eye could see in all directions. I know I keep saying amazing a lot in this email, but it's just because there really are no words to describe the feeling of being surrounded by something so huge and permanent. you start thinking of time in a completely different way. We climbed down and walked to the bedouin camp. We relaxed a bit as our food was prepared. It was all very simple food, rice potatoes, hummus. there was also chicken, but Olya was the only one who really ate a bit of it - something that she would later regret. After dinner our original guide left and we were left with Mohammad # 2 who offered to take us star gazing into the desert. We all eagerly agreed. We danced with some of the locals for a while and then the seven of us piled into the toyota truck designed to hold 4 people. The shafrans, antonov and Ilyusha were in the back and Ralph and I sat in the front with the driver. I got to sit on the arm rest between the two seats half leaning back so that I wouldn't hit my head on the ceiling. all i have to say is "thank you Bally's for my ab workouts". We rode out for about ten minutes and got out of the truck. We turned off the car and looked up. I have never seen so many stars. The sky was completely riddled with them. There were shooting stars and all the constellations we could think of. Our eyes couldn't even concentrate on anything there were so many. we just all layed on our backs and looked up in silence for a while. All of us were blown away. Eventually we went back to camp. Mohammad #2 drove us back and showed us that he could find the way even if he turned off the lights. We told him we believed him, but he demonstrated for us several times anyway.
At camp most of us went to sleep pretty soon after that. I got a marriage proposal from Mohammad #2 and of course refused. It was definitely a strange experience. We had originally chosen to sleep outside but we were being eaten alive by the mosquitoes so eventually we went into the tents. None of us really slept that much that night anyway. too much excitement and mosquitoes do not make for a restful night. This really sucked since Petra, where we were going the next day was going to be closed starting at noon because it was hosting a huge party for all Nobel prize winners (past and current) We ended up getting up at 5:30 in the morning in order to see Petra on time.
Our next guide (Mohammad 3) picked us up at around 6:30. olya was not feeling well so the ride was not a pleasant one for her. I would say that we got to Petra at about 9:30. The people who lived in Petra were there since 1000 bc. Their culture was amazing. They controlled the caravan routes and learned from all of the people that went by. The basically had a plumbing system with ceramic and diverted water around their city so that they would not get flooded. They lived in caves whose facades they chiseled out into beautiful arches and columns. They believed in life after death and buried the dead in the houses that they lived in with all of their possessions. They also believed in 3 gods. Their main one was the god of Rock. They had a whole city with an amphitheater, treasury, altars, and markets. The amphitheater was originally built to hold 3000 people, but was later expanded to hold 7000. It's absolutely insane how advanced these people were. Eventually though they fell to the Roman Empire. The Romans built on top of their city putting in their own sewer system (an open one vs. the closed off pipes that were already there. The Romans also paved their roads and some of that survived to this day. After the Romans it was the Byzantines that took over. The merely added a few walls and etched crosses at the tops of some buildings. Petra has been a secret from Europe until the 1800s when an explorer heard about it and investigated on his own. 85% of Petra is still under ground. Even now its absolutely enormous. We were done with our tour at noon, ate some lunch and waited for a shuttle that was supposed to pick us up. At first we were told that the shuttle would be there in 15 minutes, but ended up having to wait for an hour and a half in the heat and the sun. People kept coming and there was almost a riot when the shuttle bus finally came. I thought that we would get trampled. Our guide, however pushed everyone aside, and we were almost the first people who made it on to the shuttle.
We got to our van at about 2:30 and then rode for 2 hours to the border. This time around the Israelis searched us, and our bags and absolutely everything we had. They didn't care when we were going to Jordan, but thy cared a lot when we came back. Sereja got the most thorough inspection, but eventually we were let through. As soon as we got back everyone went to sleep. I was woken up at 9:30 by sereja and we went to have dinner. Some of us walked around a bit afterward, but my foot really hurt so I went back to the room. Our plan for today is to go to the oceanarium which is underwater and supposedly THE attraction in Eilat, jet-ski for a little bit and relax at the beach. We are still a bit exhausted from Jordan. We all agree that Jordan was the experience of a lifetime, but we are glad to be back "home" in Israel anyway. I will write you guys another novel shortly. Thanks for your patience with my insane emails.
love you all!!
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