Jordan, part II

Bill began his tour of the 2000-year-old ruins of Petra aboard an obstinate camel who decided to climb the side of a hill rather than walk down the established path. After a 9-year old guide retrieved the beast, Bill was put on a different camel that hissed violently but eventually calmed down and took him safely to the Treasury -- the site of a famous scene in one of the Indiana Jones flicks.

Highlights from our 6-day bike trip around Jordan were sleeping under the stars in the desert of Wadi Rum (although we were absolutely freezing, seeing as how we didn't have sleeping bags!), floating in the Dead Sea and getting in a very short snorkeling session in the Red Sea, where you could see Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt without turning your head. An amazing place we would like to get back to. But the Four Seasons in Istanbul was calling...

We spent our final day wandering through Amman, eating at the city's oldest restaurant (only hummos, muttabal, and falafel on the menu) and meeting a Nigerian peanut vendor who has been selling from the same spot for over 50 years. "He's an icon," our guide, Moayyad, told us.

At 1am, a driver named Youssef, who Dana had traveled with on her way out of Iraq two years ago, picked us up for our 3:30am flight to Turkey. A Palestinian, Youssef is newly married and preparing to apply for a visa to the United States for the second time. "We are not real citizens here," he said, as we pulled away from a police checkpoint. "God willing, I will get the visa and bring my family to America." With travel so easy for us, it was a bittersweet way to leave Jordan, knowing that Youssef has little chance of ever realizing his dream.