Petra

I think the kids are ready to move to Jordan! We've been treated like royal princes of Arabia here (or something like that)! We left Eilat this morning around 10 am and by 10:45 we were walking into Jordan. We had reserved with Omar to pick us up in his minivan, and we didn't see him when we came out. So, we called him and he said he had expected us at 10. He had another tour but his
colleague would meet us in Aqaba. We took a short cab ride to the meeting place and Yasir was waiting for us with the minivan. We were slightly skeptical (as is our nature), but all seemed well. Yasir turned out to be a terrific driver and guide. The drive from Aqaba to Petra is about 2 hours. Yasir told us very proudly about the roads we were taking -- first the Desert Highway which extends from Saudi Arabia (20 km south of Aqaba) all the way to Europe, and then the King's Highway to Petra. He told us about the geography of Jordan and about the elevations of various places. He told us about the previous King, King Hussein (and his 4 wives - one Egyptian, one British,  one Jordanian, and one American) and about the current king, King Abdullah (one wife, 4 children [including the crown prince], once made a cameo appearance on Star Trek - he's a big fan). He pointed out all of the Bedouins along the route (lots of them!), Bedouin women with goats or sheep by the road, and camels wandering around (apparently they are very smart and come home at night on their own). He also told us about his own family - a son and a daughter both studying in University, told us about what a modern and egalitarian society Jordan is, an told us that Jordan has peaceful relations with all of the countries that border it (although its border with Syria is closed right now, because of the unrest there). Yasir was very hospitable (as so far everyone we have met here has been) and delivered us safely to the hotel.

Omar met us at the hotel. We're still slightly befuddled by Omar. He was recommended to us by a Norwegian couple we met in Tsfat. He drove them to Petra and back and in their words, he was more than a driver, he was a friend. He is indeed a very friendly guy, but we assume he has an angle and we can't quite figure it out. We had hired him to drive us to Petra and back, so we're not
100% sure why he was meeting us once we were already in Petra. But, we decided to go with the flow, and that also worked out great. We checked into the hotel and they asked us to sit and drink a welcome drink (Tamarind juice). Omar sat with us and chatted a bit, nicknamed Jonah "superman," and tried to get Sylvia to smile at him (she wouldn't). We then went up to our very, very nice hotel room (it's huge! Anyone want to join us?) and then met Omar back down in the lobby. He offered to take us to a nice restaurant for lunch up the hill from the hotel and we figured, why not. So, he drove us in his car to a great place a few minutes away. They were serving an incredible buffet with the most delicious, subtly flavored, fresh, and abundant food that we've had in over a month (the Israelis could really learn a thing or two about cuisine from their neighbors). There was a carrot salad, delicately flavored with coconut and raisins that I couldn't get enough of, as well as an amazing fresh fatoosh. Ella loved the cucumber and parsley salad and the pot roast with the potatoes. Jonah also loved the beef and the chicken which was a saffron curry flavor with green peppers. Abe's favorites were the carrots, the purple cabbage salad, and the cinnamon raisin bread pudding ("ohm ali"). Sylvia has simple tastes - her favorites were the pita and hummus and the watermelon.  All of this for about the same as a pizza and drinks would have cost us in Jerusalem.

As we finished up, Omar appeared again and ordered us tea (delicious!) and coffee, his treat, and sat with us for a half hour or so and told us all about Petra. He offered to get us a driver if we wanted to go this afternoon to Little Petra, and he suggested we come back to the same restaurant for dinner, but he wasn't pushy about it. If Omar's angle is that he makes some recommendations (including a delicious, reasonably priced lunch) to his cousins' restaurants and taxi services, I'm okay with that. We set a time for him to pick us up tomorrow afternoon and he drove us back to the hotel.

Comfy beds!

The Petra Moon hotel is awesome! The rooms are beautiful and luxurious and the staff attentive beyond belief. When we got back after lunch, we found a huge fruit platter waiting for us in the room (which Sylvia has worked her way through quite well - I think by bed time she had eaten 2 oranges, 2 apples and 2 bananas!) along with a letter from the hotel about how happy they are to welcome us, if there's anything they can do, etc. We decided to take it easy this afternoon and save our energy for an early start sightseeing tomorrow, so we headed up to the rooftop pool. Sylvia swam lap after lap (with Abe's hand under her), each time coming out to report to me (e.g., "me great swimmer", "Daddy say 'head up'",  "me playing there", etc).

We came back to our room, changed, and went out for a little walk around town. We stopped at the visitors center and bought a  couple of postcards from a 10 year old kid (for 1 Jordanian Dinar each) and then walked into town and found the same cards were 10 for one JD (Ella was extremely impressed by that 10 year old's sales skills!). We looked at some of the other souvenirs (bottles filled with sand in fancy patterns and shapes, jewelry, backgammon sets, etc) and then came back to the hotel. When we returned, we found that the hotel had left us more treats - towels shaped like a heart on our bed and chocolate cookies on each of our pillows.





































We had reserved dinner on the roof of the hotel at 7 pm, which they told us was perfect timing for the sunset. Since we'd had a big, late lunch, we ordered 2 of the fixed price meals (salads, mixed grill, dessert). They offered to add salads and desserts for the kids as well and a big plate of french fries (no extra charge). The salads alone would have been a great meal. We were amazed that it was almost
all different from the things we had at lunch, but still Jordanian cuisine. What a varied and impressive culinary tradition. There was hummus (of course), tabouleh, 2 tomato salsas (one sweet and one spicy), pickled veggies, babaganoush, falafel (we had heard that Jordanian falafel is tastier than Israeli, and sorry to say, it's true), bread, and more. The main dishes had lamb chops, steak, chicken, kabob, baked potato, ad grilled veggies. The dessert was ohm ali again - this time
with a yummy creme brule top and pistachios. They served no alcohol (Muslims don't drink alcohol), but we tried a very good fruity drink. But, despite the outstanding the meal, the food definitely played second fiddle to the view. Soon after we sat down the sun started to set over the mountain - gorgeous! And as we finished eating, the full moon started to rise over the mountain on the other side. They lit
lanterns around the balcony, and the stars began to appear, we heard the calls of several muezzins blending together from many directions in the city announcing the end of the Ramadan fast today. We came back to the room and Sylvia went to bed while the big kids enjoyed a treat of soft drinks (from the complementary minibar) and cookies and watched Tangled in Arabic on TV.

It's amazing that we haven't even seen
the sights yet, and already we are incredibly impressed with Petra and with Jordan in general. Visiting here has given me, and I think all of us, a much more nuanced and positive view of at least one of Israel's Arab neighbors, and left me at least a little more hopeful for the future of the Middle East.