Israel and Jordan trip - Day 20,21,22 From Amman to HK

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 20,21,22 From Amman to HK

文章日期：04/03/2010 08:38 pm

Day 20, 21, 22 From Amman to HK

I organised a taxi a take me to the airport from the hostel. I went to there at about 11pm. When  I was going to  check in, I saw on the screen that the flight I took would be delayed from 0210 to 0530. Yet I couldn’t do anything but just passed the security check and entered to the waiting area. No much time after I’d sit down, the screen shown that the flight would be delayed to 0700. So I took slept on the bench and tried to take as much rest as possible.

Eventually the flight was ‘on time’ to its last scheduled. Right at 0000, on 2 April, the plane touched down HK international airport.   

This was the first time I’ve had somebody picked me up at the airport. The feeling was really good. Thankyou for Horse picking me up and he took me to Chai Wan by his horse carriage at this hours in the night time. A friend in need is a friend indeed!

I had to wake my mother in law up to let me in when I reached Chai Wan. I felt sorry about that. Then what? I was going to sleep ASAP.

…………..ZZZZZZZZZZZ…………………..

O 2^nd April. I woke up at 7, and organised to day’s agenda:

At 8:30 I went to Tsuen Wan. My brother was moved to another nursing home. It’s still very close to the church he goes. Chan laishan, and Ying visited him together with me. Chan laishan said hello to him, and said, you see who’s visiting you. He couldn’t recognize my face. She said, your brother is visiting you. I could feel that he’s still not very sure that the one standing in front of him was his brother. Anyway, that was life. We stayed about 45 mins and got some paper work done then we left.

This one was much better than the last one.  As long as he could have a better living condition here and somebody was looking after him good, I’ll be very happy although he couldn’t tell who I was. We couldn’t do much about that anyway.

I went yum cha with my uncle’s family.

I went to Yuen Yuen Institute to say hello to Mum, Dad, and Aunty.

The last program for the day was to have dinner with EPAS friends. Then I showed them the photos I took on my trip and a little talk about my trip.

At 11pm, I met Liu SW at Taikoo Shing Centre. We had cuppas and a good chat.

…….....................ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ……………………

On the 3^rd March,

To day I had the first Cantonese Breakfast since I stared my trip, which was congee with minced beef and sliced fish, and also yau za gwai. It was nice.

Then I visited my brother. He looked better today.

Then I went to a restaurant in the Lee Theatre Building to meet EPAS Lo Gwais.
In this occasion, I felt myself younger again.

Lo Gwais, of course talked a lot of interesting stories that we came across together I the past. Those were the days.

Kan Chu, Pierre, Debbie and I had afternoon tea at Causeway Bay . This time they talked a lot of Qi Kung.
I then took some dried oysters, tea……they were the stuffs I would take back home.

I am Looking forward to tomorrow. The flight I took is QF128 and the departure is 2110.
Goodnight mates.

photo 1           a good sleep in Amman Airport
the rest            Lo Gwais' gathering at yumcha

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 19 Goodbye Middle East

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 19 Goodbye Middle East

文章日期：03/31/2010 11:57 pm

 Day 19 Good bye Middle East

To day is the last day I am here. I packed everything up and left the big rucksack in the hostel. I mysely carried the important things and went for a day trip to the Citadel of the Jebel Ai-Qala. On my way to there, probably there was a word ‘traveller’ written on my forehead, a lot of people said hello to me. When I took my camera out, kids approached me, and saw what I was doing. If I  took their photos, or video them, they would be very cooperative. It was really amazing.   

Since I have been there once, that was on the first day I arrived there, I knew the way very much, about 15mins, I was there. I’d got a, ticket; it was only 2JD.  The high light of this sight was the Temple of Hercules . In fact it was the landmark of the Citadel. I could see these columns easily when I was in down town Amman . The main building of the Temple was all collapsed. What I could see was only some columns. There was a stone bar still sitting on the capitals of two columns. Other than that there were only rocks and rocks lying there.

The Citadel was built on the highest point of the Jebel Amman. So I could see a 360 Degree view of Amman . As I was looking around, there were a few groups of school girls. As expected that, they approached me to say hello, or taking photo for me, and also asked me where I come from.  When I camera them, they were very happy and waved to me. Then I heard a lady, who dressed very neat and tidy in the traditional Arabic way, say that she was the teacher of the girls. So I paned to her with my camera, she quickly stayed away from my camera. I said apology to her. They were undergoing an excursion led by the teacher. They were very cheerful and energetic. I said goodbye, and they said goodbye loudly to me.

In the Citadel there was a museum. The entry was included in the ticket. According to the Lonely Planet, it was one of the best museums in Jordan . I prepared to spend two hours inside. It displayed some exhibits which were some 8500 years ago. The exhibits were arranged in chorological order, so it gave me a general idea what was happening from the past to modern in the nearby area.

In the midway, I feel hungry. I went outside and found a bench where was in the shade. I took out my ½ chicken, which was from my yesterday’s dinner, and I started my lunch on this historical sight. As I was having my lunch, I reported all my activities to my dear wife over this magic mobile phone.          Here I have to say thankyou to the father of optic fibre, Dr Guo (spelling?).   

After lunch, I went back to the museum,. It was very educational. About an hour’s time, I went out to the sight again. An Umayyad palace was just behind the museum. There were remaines of Umayyad residential buildings around the palace. A huge water tank with channelled water system was around the Citadel.  And the indispensable ones, there were a bath house and a mosque.

Then I took a few more photos and said goodbye to this beautiful Jebel, Arabic means mountain.

I left at about 3pm; I still had a few hours to hang around. So I walk back to down town. Amman was very busy, I could see markets everywhere. I went into the fruit market. People were yelling out loudly, it was really a market atmosphere. And accidentally I went into a small street and I found that there was a dress makers’ street. As mentioned I had the word ‘traveller’ on my forehead, everybody said hello to me. One guy even came over to shake hands with me.  It was fun.

I was mean to find a place like coffee shop so that I could sit down for a little while. You know that I kept walking since 8 in the morning, so I’d like to have a little rest. Yet I couldn’t find one. There were some ‘tea’ places, but I saw people mainly smoke nargileh. Whereas the other drinking place was only buy and drink. I didn’t want to drink, I wanted to sit down. So end up I went back to the hostel. Here I spent 1JD for 2 coffees, and I could spend some time in writing this blog.

I stopped here. I went out for my dinner then come back to continue the rest.

………………………………..

I am back,

I just went to the restaurant where I had dinner last night. I ordered the same thing. This time I took photos and video. Waiters and chefs are very friendly. Even the one sat opposite to me, he invited me to try his food. I of course said no, but with big thanks. After dinner I didn’t rush to leave but sat and watched how people behaved when they were having meals. After observation, I would say that there was not much different to us anyway. This meal was worth 4.3JD.

I walked back to the hostel. Then I will arrive the airport at about 11pm. The departure time will be 2am. And I will arrive HK 2005, on 1^st  April.

See you guys at the Pearl of the Orient. 

photo 1              Temple of Hercules

photo 2              Inside the museum

photo 3              My packed lunch

photo 4              Umayyad Palace 
       
photo 5              Rice stuffed in veggies

photo 6              My  BBQ lamb chop

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 18 The Desert Castles

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 18 The Desert Castles

文章日期：03/31/2010 02:41 am

Day 18 The Desert Castles

I learnt from my experience of joining group tours that they either didn’t give you time to have lunch or took you to somewhere selling expensive food.  So I made my own sandwich. It was a chicken sandwich. I saved part of the chicken from yesterday’s dinner.

This was a group of 5 people, two couples and me. That was the worse combination for me. I tell you why later. One pair was from Milan , Italy . The other pair was from France . So the Italian pair was talking to each other in Italiano. And the other pair was French channel. So who I was going to talk to? Very occasionally we talked, of course in English. This was a boring trip. Unlike the last trip, we had 4 singles in a group. So…..!  After that we even exchanged email and hopefully, we will keep contact.          

And the sight was quite boring, too.

The mini bus was driving east towards the eastern desert. And if we then turn north, we will go to Syria . If we then turn south, then we will go to Saudi Arabia . And if we kept going east, then we will go to Iraq .

The so called desert castles, in fact were a series of buildings that built in the remote area of the desert. When you stand by on of the ‘castles’, you won’t see any single building within your eyesight. The first one we visited was an inn. Another name for this is a ‘Khan’. Archaeologists believed that this was probably a place for conventions to discuss trade matters, since here was not so far away from the trade route. However this was all guessing.

The 2^nd one was a bath house. There was a very very deep well. I couldn’t even see where the bottom was. Just opposite to the entrance, there was an extended mechanic system, like a wheel and gears thing that was for pulling the bucket up and down the well. On the walls and the ceilings of the inside of the bath house, there were paintings. The themes of the pictures were mainly the daily lives of people, like carpenters using saws, hunting animals, etc.

The 3^rd was a citadel. They used black stones to build, so the whole thing was black. There was no mud or sand between rocks for adhesion. At the entrance of the citadel, there was a pair of stone doors. They are still working. To move them you must use your muscles. This black stuff was the only one near the town.

The morning session was over; the driver took us to a restaurant. To have a lunch buffet, please pay 10 JD. And not to mention that it was too heavy to have buffet for lunch. I was very glad that I brought my own packed lunch. So I sat outside of the restaurant to enjoy mine.

We went to other 3 very remote and isolated desert buildings. They didn’t have anything worth mentioning, at all.         

So the mini bus took us back to Amman . I went back the hostel at about 4:30.

It was still early; I tried to go to the Turkish bath house. It was very hard to find a place here. The names of the streets on my map were in English, while the street names on the roads were in Arabic. Sometimes on the road I could see street names in English, however it was not the same as on the map. Finally I gave up looking for the bath. I turned to look for food. I saw a restaurant which was quite suit me. When I was about going into it, I saw a bath house just next to it! So I went into the bath house. But forgive me I didn’t have enough courage to take a bath there , although I did prepare to do so. Then I went into the restaurant, first I walked around to see what they’d got. There was a wider range of variety of food than the one I had. I ordered BBQ lamb chops, rice is stuffed inside something like tiny cucumber, I really had no idea what they were, and soup. The taste is nice. I saw next table, he had something like lamb leg or something I don’t know. I will find it out tomorrow. Unfortunately I didn’t bring camera with me. No worry, I will do this tomorrow. Now I was going to paying the bill, together with a ½ chicken to take away for my tomorrow lunch, thankyou 6 JD. Wow what a price.  I was very happy with this dinner. 

I then went to the market, to buy some fruit. Then I went back to the hostel.

To night will be the last night I sleep in Jordan . To morrow will be the last day of my trip to Middle East .

Tomorrow’s schedule is to visit the Citadel of Jebel Al-Qala, by myself.

Cya.

photo 1      I prepared my chicken sandwich

photo 2      An isolated desert castle, the Khan

photo 3      A desert bath house

photo 4      Stone doors at the citadel

photo 5      I was enjoying my lunch

photo 6      The well preserved mosaic floor

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 17 A Day in Jarash

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 17 A Day in Jarash

文章日期：03/30/2010 02:25 am

Day 17 A day in Jarash

It was believed that human inhabitation happened in this area since some 6500 years ago. But its golden years began at the 4^th century BC, when Roman Empire conquered Jarash. Now it was considered as one of the largest and the most well preserved Roman Architectures in the world, outside Italy .

To day I was not in any guided trip but all on my own. I took a taxi to the north station. It was because I knew the price, so I have big confidence in catching a cab without being ribbed off. Then I took a mini bus directly to Jarash. In my previous blog, I ‘d mentioned that people here might separate different genders into different buses. It was not true. Because in this mini bus I took today that was not the case.  But probably they couldn’t afford to do this if the route they run was not that busy. I’ll find the answer for this.        

On about midway, the bus was pulled over by the police at a check point ( there are a lot of check points on the road). A police hopped on and checked everyone’s ID. But he didn’t check mine. Perhaps I was always presented as a gooooood man. About an hour travailing time I was there.  There were many school girls (why girls only). They were all walking towards the sight. They sang, talk loudly and happily. A girl was playing a funny sort of drum. That created a joyful party like atmosphere. These school girls always approached to over seas visitors and asked questions like where’re you come from, etc. and they will take photo for you if you needed some help.

As you can tell that I would see Roman theatres, Oval forum, temples, columns, streets of columns, arches, monuments…..  Yes, they were all must sees, and I saw them all.

No body wants me to talk about these stuffs because you can get detail information from the net. I like to talk something different.

I went to the Temple of Artemis ; she was the daughter of Zeus. As I could see that, compared to the other columns in this sight, they were the best persevered. The sculpture of capitals, head of the column, was still clear and in very fine details. Under a column, there sat two guys. They showed me something that was very interesting. I saw a fork, and the handle tip of the fork that was slipped in the joint between the shaft and the base of a column with the spikes pointing out. A small rock was sitting between the handle of the fork, and the base of the column, so that the fork was pointing ‘45 degree’ upward. And the funny thing was that the spikes of the fork were pointing up and down and up and down automatically. Who knows why, please let me know.  There is a small prize for this.        

I had my lunch in an over 2000 year’s architecture, the North Roman Theatre . I reckon it was very good, even though the lunch was only boiled egg and jam in a bread roll. While I was having my lunch at the top row of bench, on the auditorium, there was a two man band. One was playing drum, another was playing Scottish wind pipe. You know Jordan was once under the British rule, that’s why they’ve still got some British culture?? School girls gathered around. They were singing and dancing very happily. I was very glad that I was in the party. 
  

I kept walking, walking and looking, looking. I went to the south theatre. This was a smaller one. When I entered the theatre, I could see no body, none at all, so I went to one end and took my instrument out. I played Teresa’s ‘the moon represents my heart’, although it was still in the afternoon here (in Sydney it was night time anyway). I reckon the music could be heard from very far away. It’s nice.         

It‘s time to go back. I went to the mini bus station. When I passed a car, the driver asked me, where, Amman ? I asked, how much? He said 1JD. I thought Wow, that cheap????? You remember I mentioned that from here to Amman was a good one hour’s drive. No way, there must be something tricky. You know what. I said NO. Then I went to take the mini bus, because I’d feel a bit more comfortable.

I went back to the hostel without hassles. I took a shower and went out for dinner.

Tomorrow, I will join a group tour to the Desert Castles.       

CYa


Photo 1   The Oval forum

Photo 2   Behind me, walking  hand in hand with love one, isn't it romantic

Photo 3   Temple of Artemis, you know why????
     
photo 4    Having lunch in the North Roman Theatre

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 16 A day trip to Madaba, Mt Nebo, Baptism site, and the Dead Sea

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 16 A day trip to Madaba, Mt Nebo, Baptism site, and the Dead Sea

文章日期：03/29/2010 04:28 am

photo 1      A local bakery

photo 2      Mt. Nebo

photo 3      Jesus Christ's baptism site

photo 4      Jordan River, see the Israel flat on the other side of the river

photo 5      The Dead Sea

photo 6      happy customers, waiters and chefs


Day 16 A day trip to Madaba, Mt. Nebo , Baptism site and Dead Sea , the Jordanian side
Today I woke up early. After checking and replying email, I packed up and went for a day trip. There were 6 people in the group. One from Switzerland, one from Brazil, a couple from the States, one from Xian, he was working in Saudi Arabia, and myself, came from Australia. Some one said that we can have a UN meeting.
The first station we stopped was a local bakery. It was only a small shop anyway. We all bought one each. I didn’t find it tasty at all. But this stuff always saved my life. Whenever I was hungry on the road, it eased my hunger.

Then we arrived the town of Madaba . It’s a small town but 1/3 of its population is orthodox Christian. Two different religions are living together with harmony. I visited the mosaic factory since this town is best known for their history in doing mosaic crafts. Yet I didn’t buy anything.

We then went up to the Mt Nebo. It’s a high land and from here I could see the Dead Sea and the west bank of Palestine . It was believed that mosses saw the Promises land from here, but for some reason, he could never go back to the Promises land. Then he died and was buried in this area. Also in here there was a museum displaying a well preserved 9x3m floor mosaic.

Then we were going down and down to the Jordan River , which is 260 m below sea level. We were going to the Baptism site. The bus stopped at the entrance of the site. To get there we have to change to the shuttle bus. why? It was because the site was right on the border of Israel and Jordan . We first went to the Jesus’ baptism place. This was an archaeological site. It was found in 1984, just after the war. Pope Paul VI visited here after the excavation of the site.

One interesting thing I head was that people always use fish as a symbol of Christ. It was because the five Greek letters forming the word ‘fish’ ( 4 letters in English), are the first letters of the five word: Jesus Christ God’s Son Savoir. And fish also used as the symbol of baptism.

Now the pool was still here, but the river was dried up. The water in the pool came from the underground spring.
We then walked towards the Jordan River . The river was much much smaller than what I thought. It was probably not quite 20m wide. Mate, don’t forget that the other side of the river is already Israel soil.

On the way we came here, I saw a mosque called the Mosque of Prophet Jesus Christ. Some Muslim sees Jesus as one of their prophets.

Then I went to the Dead Sea the 2^nd time. This time was on the Jordanian side. I got change and then went to the sea. This time was quite different from the previous one. Although it was full of pebbles rocks, still a lot of sand there. That made me quite easy to walk on. As the classical way of swimming in the Dead Sea , I was holding a book while I was swimming on my back.

We went back to Amman at about 5pm.

4 of us were dinning out together. I recommended the restaurant I went last night to them. Since this time we had a female, so we could sit upstairs. We had a big feast. Everybody was very happy, including the waters. You can feel that from the photo I posted.

It was very late now I must go to sleep.

Goodnight.

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 15 From Petra to Amman, the capital city

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 15 From Petra to Amman, the capital city

文章日期：03/28/2010 02:48 am

Day 15 From Petra to Amman , the capital city

I’ve already spent 2 days in Petra . According to the schedule, I will visit the little Petra , to get a closer look at the Bedouins people. However the weather was so bad. It kept raining. So I gave up this trip and went to Amman early in the morning.

I took a 20 seats mini bus. The fair was only 5JD. The travailing distance was 200 odd km. So it took almost 3 hour to reach Amman .

The bus ran about its midway, it stopped to a road side store so that passengers could go to the toilets or could have a cigarette. At this time, just next to our bus, another bus came. But I noticed that there were all women on board. And I looked back to my bus, and there were all men. I guess, they separated different genders into different bus??  Amman , as compared to the other Jordanian cities, it is huge. As I hopped off the bus, a taxi driver approached me. Where you go? He asked. Palace Hotel. Amman Palace Hotel? I said, yes, but how much? 5 he offered. 2 I replied. 3 OK? I hopped on.       

Anyway he was quite nice. As all the other drivers will do, he gave his name and phone number to me. I said if I need his service I will call him. I didn’t lie.

And as we chatted, he said this is an expensive hotel. I thought that I only booked cheap hotels. How come it was an expensive one? Very soon we arrived the Amman Palace Hotel. The man over the reception counter looked at me and said was it ‘Palace’ or ‘ Amman Palace ’ Hotel. Then I was confused. I took out the booking confirmation and checked. It was ‘Palace’ but not’ Amman Palace ’. Luckily the taxi driver was still with me. So we clarified everything he then brought me to the right place.

This made me think of a Stephen Chow’s 007 movie. In the movie, he was going to meet some body at the Peninsula tea café, but he went to the Peninsula Hotel!

Any way it was a nice small hotel, old but clean. The main thing was that it was right in the heart of down town Amman . Everything was so convenience. I took a little rest, and then I started my programme.

Today I will visit the Roman Theatre . It was built in the 2^nd century AD when this area was a part of the Roman Empire . It could accommodate some 6000 people sit in. I always wonder that why did the Romans built huge theatres whenever they conquered a place? You should know that in those days 6000 means the whole population of the city.         

Rows and rows of columns are indispensable for Romans’ architecture. Not surprisingly, I could see these stuffs right stand in front of the theatre.

On the way to the theatre, there were many shops selling souvenirs. It seems that I was in Cat Street of Sheung Wan

On the 2 wings of the theatre, there was a museum displaying popular tradition of people living in this area many many years ago.

After that, it was still early so I went up to the Citadel. This will be a one day visit. I went up there just wanted to know its exact location.

It was dinner time, I found a restaurant, and it was not far away from the Roman theatre. I could tell that they must be very famous in fried chicken. But I didn’t want chicken I’d like lamb. So I asked. The waiter didn’t really get what I wanted. So he led me to the kitchen. Unlike Chinese kitchen, this one was on the outside and it was an open one.

He showed me what he’d got. I ordered a lamb ribs in soup, grill mutton with salad and rice.

That ribs in soup was very tender. I reckon I will try it again.     

In this small restaurant, there was a half 2^nd floor (what do you call this), just like the old style Chinese restaurant (Cha Lau, tea house), all women and children will be sitting up there. However men with family can also sit up there. That means women were not allowed to sit downstairs.

To morrow I will join a day tour to Madaba.

Time was flying. This is the last stop of my middle east trip.

Anyway ……         
     
Cya.


1st               a good dinner in a small restaurant
2nd              museum of popular tradition
3rd              Roman theatre
4th              Amman down town

Lily at 04/03/2010 11:31 am comment

Mor-law, I just can't recognize you. Oh, last we met was about 1972/73. Though we've changed much physically, including appearance, we are still as young as the days we were at 9/F. Mosquito regards to siu shan as well

Israel and Jordan trip - Day 14 Hiking at Petra

Israel and Jordan trip

Day 14 Hiking at Petra

文章日期：03/27/2010 01:04 am

Day 14 Hiking at Petra

As usual I woke up early in the morning. Having breakfast at the hostel then the boss of the hostel took me to Petra by his own car. It took only 5 mins to there for it was only 2km away.

It was still early, there were not much visitors around. I entered the gate to Petra with yesterday’s ticket. This time I looked at all sights very carefully because I’ve done some homework last night. So I could tell, of course roughly only, the stories behind most of the sights. The main different between the route of today and
yesterday’s, was that, before I reach the theatre, this time I turn south up the hill. Then I followed the steps kept going up and up and up to the High Place of Sacrifices. It took a good 45 mins to get there. From there I looked down to where I came from, the view was so nice. 2000 years ago the Nabataeans took their animals up there, as sacrifices for the heaven or their god. It makes sense that to communicate with the heaven; the best location should be the highest spot at the mountain.

On the way I saw many ‘seniors’ around. Most of them are in groups. They were quite well prepared.  They are all equipped with things like hats, backpacks and hiking sticks and are dressed like hikers.

And I also saw groups of Japanese seniors walking around. As usual they were very disciplined. I also saw another group of Japanese seniors that they gathered in front of the theatre and sang beautifully. I reckon they are some sorts of choirs.

After reaching the top of the mountain, I turned north and went down hill. It took another 45 mins to do this. Since there were not much people choosing this route, so I was very cautious that I won’t go the wrong direction. However I found that the way was quite easy to find because when you walked not far away there must be a road side stall, very simple one, and selling souvenirs. Don’t worry, you won’t miss the way.

When I kept going down, in fact I was going to the other side of the hill. From there I saw tombs. The biggest one was the Soldiers’ tombs.

After the tombs there was a Garden Hall, I saw water features in front of the hall. A water reserve was built next to it. It’d even got an adjustable water outlet for the auto irrigation system. It was built 2000 years ago! All chambers like that, if I said ‘built’, I‘d rather say craved. I went into the garden hall; I found that I was inside a speaker box. Then I took out my harmonica. I played Spring Dream on Plain. The sound was transmitted to the whole garden. This sense was recorded.

Then I went back to where I climbed up hill. That was the first part of the hill hiking. When I went down to the street, I went on to see sights in more details. Local kids were following you selling pictures, pan flaps or postcards. Sometimes they asked for money. This recalled my memory that when I was a small kid, I saw elder girls and boys did the same thing to the Kwai Lo visitors or the US navy in Wanchai area. In HK they yelled one dollar, one dollar. In here they yelled one JD, one JD.  See, we all came across this.

It’s lunch time, I ordered an sandwich, a fresh lemon juice and a coffee. It costed 7 JD to have this. I took a rest and did some study ready for the afternoon programme.

Half an hour rest was good enough to recharge myself. So I went on the rest on the street. It was the Roman temple and the Qasr an-Bint. 1^st century AD, the Romans annexed Nabataeans as part of the Roman Empire . So they built in Roman style. I saw stack up columns, arches. However the city was destroyed in about 350 AD, probably because of a massive earthquake, or some sorts of climate change, or change of the trade route.
The high light of the afternoon was going up to the monastery.  There was another 45 mins up hill to go there. This time I took a donkey to get there. This was the first time I was on a donkey’s back. It was quite ok when it was on level roads. When it was climbing up hill, it was not easy to sit on properly. The donkey was so strong that it could walk on steps, very steep roads or even on rocks. I had to hold onto the handle very tightly in order to sit on safely. Sometimes the donkey would walk along the edge of the cliff. Thanks God it didn’t slip, otherwise it would be a big big big trouble.

Riding on donkey’s back and going up hill, my words, definitely not a pleasant experience.
After jumping off from the donkey, I walked about 20 mins to the Monetary. It was one of the biggest monuments in this area. It was a huge thing. Then I went to the 2 view points to look down the surrounding mountains and deserts.

As I was going down hill, It was raining slightly. I went down hill with no problem.

When I went back to the entrance of Petra it was 4:30. I took a taxi and went back to the hostel.

After cleaning up myself and having a little rest, I went for my dinner. This time I tried another restaurant. I ordered a half chicken, rice and a coke. It was quite nice. It was quite a long time that I haven’t had rice. This dinner costed me 5JD. It’s cheap!

I am thinking of changing my plan a little bit. If possible, I will go to Amman tomorrow, instead of going there day after. If I can make it I will leave Petra tomorrow afternoon.

I will tell you later.
Cya.



                  Top       The Roman temple
                  Middle   Studying at lunch time
                  Bottom  The theatre