Egypt and Wadi Rum

I'd been exhausted from travel, wishing only to spend some time at home in Amman. I took a flight to Cairo only to be sent back to Amman for not having a visa and had to come back the next morning. Once in Cairo, my days were split by a boring conference during the day and trying to see at least something in Cairo in the evening. The Egyptians were as aggressive and as friendly as I remember. They insist. Whether they insist you buy something or insist you sit with them, they will do everything in their power to force you. A young man even pulled me off the street you have Iftar with him and his friends. Going to sites proved difficult with everything closing early to prepare for Iftar. I managed a few wondrous sites that were nestled impossibly in impoverished and dilapidated cement surroundings.

After Cairo, I went to Sharm el Sheikh and got some much needed down time. Surrounded by mostly Italians, I tried not to think about my upcoming Baghdad project. I went sailing, snorkeling, sat by the pool, saw a sting ray. It was nice, very nice.

And nice became even better. My return to Jordan was rushed, but incredibly fun. I arrived and immediately drove south to Wadi Rum to meet Miss Petra for hiking and camping. When I bought my 4-wheel drive Jeep (which is always in 4-wheel drive oddly), I was a little upset that there weren't any economical gas-efficient sedans for sale in the community. The Jeep, though, was fantastic for hauling eight of us around without a guide in the Jordanian desert. At one of the lookouts, a Bedouin came up to me and asked how I got out there. I pointed to my Jeep and he seemed confused. I'm not sure if it was because he thought I would have gotten lost or that we had crammed eight people in.

Night was a hummus and bread dinner next to a campfire under a star-filled new moon sky.

And then, I went to Iraq.

The Eastern Desert

Miss Petra said she had been everywhere in Jordan. And so, we went to nowhere. The drive to the Eastern Desert was a trek into awe-inspiring emptiness. Flat, rocky and completely lifeless, the desert's endlessness stretched beyond human imagination.

But why go into nothingness? Well, there were a few outpost castles set up by various past peoples. And there was an oasis called Azraq.

Azraq, sadly, had been devastated. What had once had been marshy wetland had been reduced to a dry dusty truck stop supported only by Iraqi and Saudi truckers. The wells of Azraq had been overused leaving miles of thirsty bushes. Impoverished Bedouin set up ragged tents between piles of trash. It was a hell, isolated.

The castles were pretty neat, though. One set up by Umayyad in 700 AD featured pornographic images of naked women upon indigo backgrounds. Gasp, those early Muslims were a bit naughty!

Traveling during Ramadan proved to be nice as the castles were completely empty. In fact, the guards, who could not be bothered to open the castles up for us, simply gave us the keys to explore the castles on our own.