... the `real` Petra
AH!. Eilat!. Your mini roundtrip through the middle East [Israel, Palestinian Territories, Jordan] has been completed!. How are you doing?.
All right I'm just really tired. Combined with the prevailing temperatures here [today it was 37 degrees [!] makes you a bit passive. But it's great being back and go anonymously through life again and not being stoned, shouted at anymore.
... de [sponge` like] parody on bread + jam
I also see that you enjoyed the unique Jordanian cuisine?.
Yes, say that again. It was the whole time a kind of fast food and it was not before Petra that I could finally eat a decent plate again [produced by an imported Egyptian! Hamdoelilah!].
I have basically survived on a sort of `sponge-like` pancake during the hike. Together with alternating fish and moerapa [jam] I managed to get it through my throat. And of course with the qahwa halwa!. [sweet coffee].
And now ... Petra!. Did your mini project work out [getting in without paying the absurd entrance fee]?.
... the sneak trail into Petra!
HA!. I had a bit of bad luck during my `expedition` because a Peruvian tourist had simply disappeared a couple of days ago in Petra!.
Disappeared?.
Yes!. Bedouins, Police, park rangers, everyone was looking for him now for four days. It seemed I looked a bit like him so I got questioned by the police for at least four times.
When I was exploring the alternative entrance into Petra I was stopped by two sullen Bedouins [turning out to be park rangers]. It is suspected that the poor man just fell off a cliff, besides this sad event the whole situation was for me pretty annoying [ being questioned all the time if you wanted in my case keeping low profile].
But looking at the pictures it seems you were successful?!.
I had the great luck that I got a three-day ticket from a Dutch tourist [shukran Yrjan! :)]. After the meeting with my two Bedouin friends I came back next day freaking early [six thirty in the morning!] in order to avoid them and managed to sneak into the park [as I thought].
I could exactly enjoy the archeological park for two hours before they caught me again. I was driven to the ticket office [`unfortunately` I had my passport not with me] together with three Germans who had spent the night in a cave in order to score an extra day without paying.
I felt kind of uncomfortable and a bit scared but after having made an impassioned speech about my epic journey I saw that they gradually got convinced by my story [and my unconventional entrance into Petra - `I am a hiker! I have hiked 8000 kms!`].
Anyway here [in Jordan] I have noticed that in general you can tell the locals whatever story [on the condition that it is not too fantastic] and they do believe you. They often don`t even consider that you might be a bit creative with telling the truth [For exampe as a response to the famous question: `Mien wayn? / from where?/ I often answer: `Ana min el Ghind!` / I'm from India /!]. They do need the time to process such information but finally accept it.
... beautiful geometry, royal tombs, Petra
... Eventually I screwed up myself. The offer that they wanted to drive me back to the same place where they caught me I rejected [`I want to walk`]. And walking I did, 10 meters until the main entrance where guard number two insisted on seeing my passport.
This was the point I got fed up. I had the chance of seeing [very little] of Petra it was ok for now. Too much hassle. I hiked to the hostal got my backpack and hiked out of Wadi Musa [Just outside Petra I was stopped again by a police squad looking for the disappeared `Colombian`].
...tombs, necropolis Petra
Oh maybe I'll come back here [with the Israeli woman-of-my-life at the age of 65 in a huge touringcar together with a herd of 65 + oldies. Maybe this time I do get senior discount insj- allah!].
... And then the descent to the Wadi Araba [the valley shared by Israel and Jordan]. What was it like?.
I hiked a nice leg from Petra [35 km] but made the mistake of having a break too long in a beautiful olive garden too close to the village. In the village I got almost immediately surrounded by the local [male] youth, they even called the police[!].
I was exhausted and they wanted me to join them to the police station. Because I was so tired [I was also a little sick, somehow vertigo] I was initially a bit stiff to handle but they were very friendly.
I got Qahwa Helwa was invited to join them for dinner and was allowed to camp out next to the barracks [after I got interrogated by police that had specially come over from Petra for me].
Ah, if there's anything I've learned on this trip is that you should never get angry or being provoked. Remain calm, amiable, and it pays off!.
It was a descent into the desert through an enormous raw environment. Raw but beautiful surroundings!. Israel was close, there is not a fence between the two countries and occasionally I had the idea of hiking almost into the [Israeli] dade grove.
Wadi Araba, GargAndal
Did you manage with water and supplies? You were still five days on the road [reckoned from Petra] on quite rough terrain to reach the final station Aqaba / Eilat plus given the fact that there were not so many villages right?.
I was also on a road making a huge detour [plus thirty kilometers = one extra day] but luckily I had enough bread and Murapa [jam] with me. I was passing constantly military checkpoints and at every checkpiont I had to wait khamsa daqiqa Urdani [five Jordanian minutes] because they wanted to check me out/ to be sure I was not doing illegal stuff.
At checkpoint number one I got interrogated by a high ranked army official [two stars] who thought first I was an Israeli spy but gradually relaxed as I was answering his questions. Eventually he was testing his scarse Spanish knowledge on me [he had learned it in school].
After half an hour I said: `Mumkin akhod djawazadi`.? [can I get my passport back?]. He answered: `LA` [Nope!]. After one hour: `Mumkin ana azhab?` [Can I go?]. And after one and a half hour with a victorious smile the two-star-commander said: [in reasonable English]: `now you go!`.
... camping out [between police checkpoint and army base, GargAndal] in the desert, wadi Araba
At checkpoint number five I went myself to their concrete tower [where they were observing Israel in pairs of two] and I started with the sentence: `Fy Qahwa Helwa?` [Is there sweet coffee?] where soldier B shouted from the concrete balcony:`FY! `[there is!].
At one point I felt they got fed up by me. That feeling became stronger when a soldier asked me to hit the road now because the day was long!. You see! Those are the kind of lads one should cherish!
But you were not all the time in such an obeying mood right?.
Tsk ... the problem was that I hardly made any progress by being interrogated at every checkpoint all the time!. If you are addicted to coffee the road through the Wadi Arava is heaven!. But after a police checkpoint [a moron who really wanted to know everything: the name of my mother, the countries I had visited, where I would go after Aqaba, where in Aqaba I intended to stay and so on] I got fed up.
After this ordeal AGAIN a camouflaged dwarf ran towards the road in order to meet me: I was kindly requested to join him to the concrete palace. Equally I now firmly refused and said in dutch: `You go girl!. You make your phone call, I'll wait here!`. And under the cruel sun, in the dust I lit a cigarette and screamed after five minutes to recruit number two: 'Gallas'?! [Enough?!]. It was enough and I could go.
... Adjely! [my dusted bicycle]!
.. a reunion with an old friend: Appeldam!
And then the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing!. Did the bordercrossing go smoothly?.
The Jordanians did not let me walk to the border post!. I was being held at the checkpoint for one hour [meanwhile watching mini buses, taxis loaded with tourists passing by without any problem].
But they were correct, offered me a glass of water and cigarettes and whistled appreciatively when I told them I had hiked from Filistyne [the Palestinian territories] to Wadi Araba and eventually I was driven in a rancid rebel pick up to the borderpost.
The Israeli side was again 'manned' by [not unpretty] women!. By a very handsome I got tremendously scummy questioned but who cares?. I was happy after not having seen [handsome] women in three weeks and felt almost in the Walhalla :).
Are you glad to be back in Israel?.
To tell the truth, yes. I'm in a really cool hostel, the hostel Arava. Here are friendly people [in Jordan there also were friendly people ofcourse], there is a kitchen, I can rest and it's great being anonymous again. I am looking forward to the remainder of the trip, of going to Turkey.
Listo gringo!. Hablamonos pues!.
And then the Yitzhak Rabin border crossing!. Did the bordercrossing go smoothly?.
The Jordanians did not let me walk to the border post!. I was being held at the checkpoint for one hour [meanwhile watching mini buses, taxis loaded with tourists passing by without any problem].
But they were correct, offered me a glass of water and cigarettes and whistled appreciatively when I told them I had hiked from Filistyne [the Palestinian territories] to Wadi Araba and eventually I was driven in a rancid rebel pick up to the borderpost.
The Israeli side was again 'manned' by [not unpretty] women!. By a very handsome I got tremendously scummy questioned but who cares?. I was happy after not having seen [handsome] women in three weeks and felt almost in the Walhalla :).
Are you glad to be back in Israel?.
To tell the truth, yes. I'm in a really cool hostel, the hostel Arava. Here are friendly people [in Jordan there also were friendly people ofcourse], there is a kitchen, I can rest and it's great being anonymous again. I am looking forward to the remainder of the trip, of going to Turkey.
Listo gringo!. Hablamonos pues!.
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten