Jordan

One tip for the traveller, don't go to Jordan when it's Ramadan, or when it is just finished. We arrived in the middle of the night to Amman airport, the same night as Ramadan was over. Amman city was crazy with cars filled with people celebrating. This could be cool we thought, but little did we know this holiday meant that everything would be closed for the next 3 days, at least.

The hostel was a hole in the wall, even that is too nice. The owner was a fat and dirty man who seemed to never leave the place or make any attempt to keep it clean. Nightclubs are of two types - clubs with eastern european strippers or with arab ones, he informed us.

Next day we thought it could be worth looking around town. The tourist sights in Amman are an amphi theater in the center and on one of the hills in town are some ruins from the roman time. We had a look at both, it was ok. Down town Amman, where we stayed was just really dirty and there was nothing to do because of the holiday. No restaurants were open, just the fast food shawarma place, and no shops neither. The only people out was us, some confused elderly Spanish tourists, and some local perverted men walking the streets making western women feel like objects.
In the evening we took a taxi to another area of town, the rich area, in hope of seeing something nice. It was a pedestrian street with American style shops and restaurants. Here we saw some young local people, of both sexes. The young ladies here wore lots of makeup and European style clothing, very different from down town.

The second day in Amman we chose to leave the city, we shared a cab with two malaysian guys we met at the hostel and went to mount Nebu and the Dead Sea. Mount Nebu was a place with a monastery, and the place where Moses was buried. It had a view over the countryside and to Palestine, Israel and dead sea. Then we went to swim in the Dead sea. We paid 12 JD to be at aprivate beach with facilities and a big pool, a little expensive but it was pretty cool. The sea was super salty! Noone dipped their heads, it would had been difficult but also a health hazard. The best was the pool after! It was great to just relax in a clean and nice place after the start in Amman.

Then we finally left Amman to see Petra. It was about 5 hrs bus ride south. We had a tip to go to the Valentine hostel, which was really good. They had a big patio where everyone hung out in the evening and ate a good buff'e of all the foods we had longed for. Look at the pic!
The same day we arrived we went to Petra, it was just down the hill in town where we entered. It was great! We explored Petra for 2 days, literally we went everywhere! There was lots of little hikes up the mountainsides and Roman and Nebatean ruins to discover. In the hostel we met many fantastic people, some of which we planned a desert trip to the Wadi Rum desert with.

Another early and exhausting day saw us travel out to the desert and explore much of what it had to offer over the next 15 hrs. Luckily we were a group of mainly young and fit people who could climb the awesome rock formations and sand dunes. In the evening we set camp in an open beduin camp. We ate together and after we played some drinking games with a bottle of vodka and some tequila. It was a fun night that was a perfect ending to the tour, the star filled sky above our beds was one of the highlights.

No rest for the wicked! The morning after we were a bunch that took the bus to Aqaba on the red sea, finally something wet!
For three days we just had a great time, relaxing at a little resort outside of town. The snorkeling in the red sea was great, just a few metres out in the water and you had coral reefs, ship wreck, a tank (that the king had placed there),etc. We hung out with some fantastic people we had met along the way, a German couple and a Lebanese couple, hopefully we can catch up with them some time. In the water we saw: Lion fish, sea turtle, moray eel, lots of angel fish and Nemos and more!

After all Jordan was a great experience!

Good old London

It feels like we haven't really started travelling yet, since London is common ground for both of us, more or less. But it is nice to be back and see the good old places and some friends. We are going to catch up with a few friends of Aaran's tomorrow night at the "slug and lettuce" in Fulham, where there will be no slugs and no lettuce I am afraid. There will be snake bites, a mix of beer, cider and black currant, they sound better than they taste (I have a bad memory of them from my first week in London some years ago).

Today I dragged Aaran to some art museums, the Tate modern and Tate britain. They were both good as always. Above is a picture from Tate Britain.

I have actually never been to Abbey road, the no 1 attraction for Beatles lovers, maybe because I am not one of them. But since it is something that I am curious about we will go there tomorrow.

By the way, thanks for a great going away party and day after.