Karak, Petra, and Wadi Rum

This week is Eid al Adha, a holiday along the same lines as Christmas. Our teachers have the week off, so we went on a little vacation as a program.

Our first stop was Karak, an old crusader castle.

That night we got to our hotel and in the morning we walked to Petra. Petra is an ancient Nabatean city south of Amman that was at its height around Christ's time with 30000 residents. You, and all the ancient caravans, got there by way of a narrow siq or slot canyon. You come out of it to see the Treasury, or tomb for one of the kings, first (it's also what you see in Indiana Jones and the Search for the Holy Grail).  

Petra, specifically the Treasury, at the end of the Siq, think Indiana Jones

Full view of the Treasury. The structure holds symbolism for the afterlife. It's amazing to me it is cut out of living rock.

Me and Matt Martin in front of Petra.

This called the High Place of Sacrifice and is a short hike from the Treasury. I guess Randell sacrificing me may be offensive, so sorry for hurt feelings. There was a hollowed out part to the left here with a blood channel for newly killed sacrifices. It was sort of gross to see Clayton pour some of his water in the hollow and watch where the blood must have flowed. The views around here were breathtaking. The desert is beautiful and it's dotted with tombs.

This is called the monastery, though it's also another tomb. The main gaping doorway is where a feast could be held for the dead and the dead lay buried in the floor underneath them I think. My favorite part about the part of Petra was sitting on a hilltop with a view called  The End of the World, seeing into Israel, and talking with a Bedou guy and some Saudi tourists over tea.

We walked out of the park late. One of the stall-owners whom I had bought jewelry from was walking bak the same time as us. It was fascinating to hear about her way of life and what she expects and hope for herself in the future. We got to the siq and walked back by moon light that lit it only in narrow shafts. Legit Arabian Night.

Here's another legit Arab night. So after we ate, a group of three boys, five girls, and I decided to walk around the neighborhood. We found a small park on the edge of town that bordered the rocky, desert surrounding Petra. During Eid, Dil has warned us that shabab roam even more and are ok with looking for trouble. Accordingly, we saw the same cars cruising the streets and one of them, music turned up, slowed to a stop on the curb of the park. It was interesting to see the girls calmly gather in at the far edge of the park while the guys came in from whatever corners they were at in the park to stand around us between us and the shabab. Jeremy watched the three shabab (young men) get out of the car and come towards us. He went out and intercepted them and struck up a conversation. Andrew joined him, while Mark stayed behind with us. I joked that Mark was the rear guard in case the shabab got through. :) I don't want to exaggerate. This was a really friendly interaction, but the precautions we took to keep it that way were obvious.

The girls and I eventually got bored, so we crossed the wall into the rocky desert on the other side. We went down a big, smooth boulder until we were outside of the view of the boys but could still hear the music from their car. We decided to have a dance party and all six of us really got into it. Kaiti said, “Wait, I can't hear the music.” We all slowed down, then heard a different tune coming from another direction. I turned around and looked across the desert towards the music. Two dark figures were sitting against a rock, one had just puffed on his cigarette. “Guys, I think there's two shabab over there.”

They scrambled like cockroaches when the lights turn on. The shabab were far away and sitting down, so I was fine with just calmly walking up the boulder, but the others were frantic, “Holy cow!” “Hurry up,” “Wait, where's my Sprite?! Who got my Sprite!?” 

The shabab up top left soon after we got out of sight, so when we told our boys what happened, Jeremy laughed and compared it to the dancing Lamanite daughters in the Book of Mormon. It was great. A very fun, very legit Arab night.

The next day, we drove to Wadi Rum. This is an extreme desert that's still accessible to tourists. It is one of the places where Lawrence of Arabia marched through and camped with his army. We rode trucks to sand dunes to play, then to a camel ride, and then to a Bedouin tent for mansaf.

This mountain is called the Seven Pillars of Wisdom and T. E. Lawrence wrote a book of the same name. Do I look wiser looking at it that way? 

The truck ride across the desert. Ashley, Jason, and Jarom.

Same, me, Randell, and Clayton.

I RODE A CAMEL!

We rode for about 20 minutes. It was fun but a little uncomfortable. Esther asked one of the Bedou  camel drivers to teach her a song. I loved hearing the song echo around the chilly desert sand and reverberate back to us from the rocky hills and mountains that starkly came up out of the ground. That was so cool. Camels are funny and amazing creatures too. I spent a lot of time watching how their feet expand on the ground when they walk and thinking it was like riding a dinosaur.

I'll put more pictures on facebook, and a lot of my friends have already tagged me in photos if you want to see more.