Heading Down South

Hey Everybody,

I just got back to Amman after an incredible week in the south of Jordan. We went to Wadi Dana, Wadi Rum, Petra (Betra), and Aqaba. Before I talk about the trip itself, I want to talk about the tourist industry in Jordan for a bit. We had a lecture on it right before we left, and it sheds light on the mentality with which we went into the trip. If you just want to read about the trip, scroll down to the part that says Dana

The Industry

 Tourism accounts for 10% of the world's GDP, but until recently, Jordan has not been a main tourist attraction. However, recent turmoil in the region making Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia unsafe, more tourists are coming to Jordan. Having said that, peoples general fear of the region (and lack of understanding that Jordan is not the same as Syria) has made the number of tourists since Arab spring decrease tremendously. Having said that, the vast majority of Jordan's tourist income comes come medical tourism. As I've written about before, medical care in Jordan is fantastic and inexpensive. Jordan has the best medical care in the Arab world, and consequently, people that can afford it (Gulfies) come to Jordan to use medical care. This is tough on the local communities as they take up beds in hospitals, but overall, it's not that negative. The bigger problem has to do with resources. Jordan has very little water, and tourists, on average, use 3x as much water as locals. Having said that, Jordan's hospitality culture makes giving guests more than the residents logical. How this works on a large scale, though, is questionable.

Having said that, the South of Jordan's biggest economic boom is coming from tourism. Petra's college demonstrates this well with its two academic departments--Archeology and Hospitality.

My Tourist Philosophy

I hate being a tourist. Especially after Morocco, in which I felt like a walking dollar sign, I have attempted to remove myself from situations in which I will feel like a tourist. BUT, if I want to support the local industries, in the South of Jordan, I have to support tourism. What does this mean? Do I spend money on random knick knacks in Petra that I don't need? Do I buy from the person with good english that proves to me that they have fantastic english or the person that recognizes me speaking in Arabic and chooses to speak in slow arabic to me so that we can converse in his native tongue. I don't know the answers, but I will say that the approach I took was the stingy one--I didn't buy random stuff because I didn't need it. I stopped feeling bad when people said their business wasn't good on a given day. I am a student.


Dana

The first place we went on the trip was Wadi Dana, a nature reserve about three hours south of Amman. The place we stayed was overlooking this beautiful canyon. The village was embedded into a cliff overlooking this amazing canyon, and within a few minutes of arriving, we were changed into hiking clothes (pronounced clo-this in Jordan), preparing for a walk into the canyon. As a kid that has grown up hiking in the Redwoods and sleeping on the mountains in Yosemite, I was a kid in a candy store. Words can't do this place justice, so I'll try some pictures. For the record, they can't do it justice either.






That night, some friends and I went and star gazed for a while in the freezing cold desert air. It was magical. In addition to seeing a million shooting stars, we could see the lights of Israel. So close, but so far... We all needed some time away from the city, and Dana was a perfect place to do it. It was interesting, though, because this village only has about 10 Jordanian families living there, with their job being completely devoted to tourism. It is sad the way that tourism changes a society, but at the same time, I got to see this amazing place as a result.

Betra

My visit to Petra was three years in the making. Going there was surreal. It is one of the world wonders for a reason. On peak days, it gets 3,000 visitors, and though I knew that number, I didn't understand how they would all fit in Betra. After going to this place, I get it. Petra was a city thousands of years ago, and now it's an adventure park with amazing views, buildings, history, and plenty of tacky tourist things. Here are some pictures. I took a lot of jumping pictures.

The Magnificent King Abdullah--May He Reign Forever (The only thing to say about the king in Jordan)

Petra was worth the three years of waiting.

Wadi Rum

Wadi Rum is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Jordan. It is a massive expansive desert. We took a Jeep tour in the afternoon and a camel ride at 7AM the next morning, with some campfire dancing and singing in between. It was incredible. Here are some pictures.

Regarding the Jeep tour, I need you to remember that in Jordan, safety precautions are cute, but kind of a joke. Consequently, instead of being inside a jeep with seatbelts, we were sitting on the back of pickup trucks on benches. If we wanted to stand, we stood; if we wanted to jump to our deaths, we could have. In Jordan, you take care of yourself, and it's a lot more fun that way. We stopped at a bunch of cool places.







At night we saw an amazing sunset



And then we rode camels.




From there, we got back on the bus and went to Aqaba. Aqaba is the southernmost city in Jordan, home to its only water port (on the Red Sea), and directly adjacent to Israel, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. It was really interesting being on this side of the Red Sea. I've been to Eilat a few times looking at the Arab revolt flag on the Jordanian side, but it was surreal to be on the Jordanian side. I found myself taking pictures of and with it with a pride that I never expected to have. I feel like a part of the Arab world, and I'm so thankful for that.



We had a chance to go snorkeling and see the reefs of the sea, and it was incredible. I saw a sea turtle, got stung by a million jelly fish, jumped off a two story boat, and had a jolly good time.







That's going to be the end of my post, because I've been working on it for an hour, but I hope that this serves as a good plug to come and visit Jordan. I promise, you are welcome.


Two random stories I forgot to mention earlier

1) Petra Hospitality

While we were in Petra, we were joined by one of SIT's Jordanian volunteers whose name is shockingly: Mohammad. He is from Petra and hopes to eventually work for SIT (and he will). As we were on his turf, he wanted to do what all good Jordanians do when 30 Americans come to visit--play host. Unfortunately for him, our dinner plans were unchangeable, so he couldn't host all million of us at his home. During the day, he told us he had a surprise for the evening. Sure enough, as soon as we got on the bus after a long day of walking around petra, he told us that his uncle owns one of the hotels in the area and that they would be hosting us for an evening at the hotel's pool. Of course, we were stoked. After dinner, we grabbed our bathing suits and in our exhausted state, went to the pool. Let me explain what this means: however many people were staying at the hotel were subjected to 30 loud (and many inebriated) Americans. Instead of viewing this as an annoying inconvenience, the hotel decided to treat us like royalty.

They gave large gift bags to each of our program's staff and small little gift baggies to each of us, containing a magnet (mine has a camel with a subtitle "Desert Limousine"), some Jordanian stamps, and a pin with a Jordanian flag and a big 1 behind it. When I asked why the 1, it was explained to me that the pin means "Jordan first." Jordan is filled with refugees and people from all these different backgrounds, but this pin suggests that no matter what, Jordan is first.

As I've said before, Jordanian hospitality never ceases to amaze me.

2) Tribal Law

For lunch one day, we went to a Shiekh's house in the Badia, and he told us about tribal law. It was fascinating. One of the things about Jordan that is interesting is that there are numerous kinds of courts that people can go through to deal with legal issues--not just the government one. The tribal courts still function today to settle disputes as severe as murder in order to prevent people to go to national prisons. If the tribes can work it out, there is no need for national punishment. I think it's kind of cool.

The thing he said that was the most different from any legal system I have ever heard of had to do with a case of a man who approached a woman and ATTEMPTED to physically harm her. She told her father, and the following punishment was doled out.

1) His family had to give her family all of their camels, goats, sheep, etc. If the receiving family doesn't have enough land for the hundreds of livestock coming their way, the judges make arrangements.
2) His father, grandfather, great grandfather, and two more generations back had to ALSO give up all of their stuff, not to mention had to encounter a HUGE amount of shame for the attempt of this one man. Arrangements are made so that the family isn't left destitute, but it's still a big blow to the family. Communal culture is BIG.
3) In front of all the men, he had to sit but naked on a mattress covered with coal dust. Wherever the coal touched his skin was to be cut off. The father of the woman didn't follow through with this because it was too cruel. Thank god.

Interestingly, the entire legal proceedings are left to the men to do. We all found this interesting, because here, men protect the women. It just seems odd that at no point after the initial crime does the woman face the man that did anything to her.

This case happened in the 1950s, and since then, no similar cases have emerged, probably because the punishments are so severe. I have a feeling that women don't report cases because of how severe punishments are. They probably don't want to bring that much shame to anyone. It's sad, but I have no proof to back up this last statement, so please don't take it as fact.

That's all .