Lawrence:
Wednesday, we set out for Wadi Rum, a protected desert area in Jordan and about an hour and a half from Aquaba. We spent the afternoon driving around the desert in 4WD vehicles, stopping at points of interest, including a giant sand dune and the house at which Lawrence of Arabia spent a winter. By the end of the day, we were all covered in a fine red sand and all desperately wanted a shower.
There was no shower in sight, however, since we camped that night at a desert camp set up in the traditional Beduoin style. 
The Beduoins are nomadic tribes that, until recently, set up camps throughout the desert and stay for a couple months at a time wherever they are. Now they tend to stay in one place, relying on tourism to sustain them by running camps like the one we stayed at or working at tourist sites such as Petra. 
They still tend sheep and maintain traditional lifestyles as much as possible, though.
After a dinner of chicken and potatoes made "hangi" style (or something like that, which means the food was placed on a grill which was then placed in a hole in the ground with coals over it), 
we sat around and talked under the stars while the Beduoin men sang traditional songs for us. As they sang, Zaid, the head of the camp, periodically "sang" by grunting rhythmically to the music. I think it started off as a traditional part of the song, but he seemed to really ham it up for our benefit. He also (jokingly) started calling Nora, one of the feistier women in our group, his wife, and kept telling Michael not to worry, that I was safe and that he (Zaid) would make sure no one tried to take me as their own wife. He did, in fact, have two wives and eight children between them...
That evening, we watched the sunset over the mountains and then went for a night hike with only the full moon and gazillion (at least) stars as our light source. Michael got some absolutely beautiful shots from that time.
Indiana Jones:
The next morning, we drove to Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world and, perhaps even more exciting, the location of several scenes in Indian Jones and the Last Crusade. Walking among the ruins is quite unbelievable--the site is the ancient capital city of the Nabateians and was carved from solid rock. They hand carved gigantic columns, tombs, etc out of the beautiful multicolored sandstone so the "buildings" are literally coming out of the mountains behind them. After a guided 4 hour tour throughout the site, we went to dinner and then to a nearby hotel to watch Indiana Jones in the hotel lobby. About an hour into the movie, and just as they were getting to the Petra scenes....the power went out in the entire neighborhood. Crap. We walked back to our hotel in the dark and got ready for bed by candlelight. Just as well, I suppose, since we had an early morning the next day...
We woke at 6:30am to beat the sun and took donkies up to the top of one particular mountain into which was carved a huge monastary. As we enjoyed the view from the shade of a small cave, a little Beduoin girl literally climbed up through a hole in the rock nearby, sat next to us and started chatting away. We found out her name was Tama, she was 8 years old, and she lived nearby in the Beduoin camp with her family. She became entranced with Nora's digital camera and even took some pictures on her own, saying to us "1,2,3, cheeeeeese!". Tama was incredibly bright and very sweet. After she left, one of the women wondered aloud what Tama could have been and done in her life, had she been born into a different situation. We marveled at our own lives, how lucky we all are to have the choices and abilities we do, to get an education, travel, lead extremely comfortable lives. It's just another reason I love traveling--it forces me to put things into perspective and remember not to take my privileges for granted...
Dead Sea:
Last night and tonight we're staying in Madaba, about 2 hours from the Syrian border. It's a great little town and, true to form, everyone keeps smiling at us and saying "Welcome to Jordan!" On the way there, we stopped at several sites, the highlight being the 2 hours we spent at a resort on the Dead Sea. All the stuff you've ever seen or heard about the Dead Sea is true: the water is so salty that you can float with absolutely no effort at all, which is quite a weird feeling. The salt also pours into whatever open wounds you might have and burns the heck out of your eyes if you happen to be unlucky enough to get some there. But, once you get over that, it sure is a cool feeling to be in "normal" water that clearly isn't normal at all. We also all treated ourselves to a mud soak, baked ourselves in the sun, and then rinsed off to leave us with, supposedly, skin that was as smooth as a newborn. None of us really felt that different though...just dirty and funny looking. But it made for good pictures, and in the end that's what matters most, right?
So in the end, what do Lawrence, Indy and the Dead Sea have in common? Not much, except they all got a mention in our blog... :)
Today we took a day trip to Amman, the capital of Jordan, to walk around, get to know the city and do street photography....more to come!
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