Well, I didn’t expect it to be this long, and I know you’re all interested in Part Two of our Jordan trip diary (and I do promise to be better with Parts Three and Four) but life has been busy. Let me bring you up to speed on what’s been going on.
Hiram and I have indeed been busy. We went to Atlanta for the National Rifle Association national convention, and it was great fun. I hear over 70,000 people attended during the three days it ran! So many lovely new firearms out – they are fantastic! The NRA is consistently just about the most polite conventions I’ve ever attended – the people are just wonderful.
Also, we got to see our dear friends, Congressional Medal of Honor winner Sammy Davis and his beautiful wife Dixie. We had planned to have dinner together, but could not make our schedules mesh, so next year in Houston for sure!
We also got to talk to Norris Jernigan, the Intelligence Specialist for the Enola Gay atom bomb drops in 1945. He is a darling man, alert and spry and lots of fun with a great sense of humor. It’s not often you get to chat with someone who was part of one of the seminal moments of world history. We all thank him for his courage and his service.
At our last meeting our Sons of Confederate Veterans camp honored me with the coveted Ladies Appreciation Medal, the highest award a lady can receive from the SCV. We cannot be voting members, but I was named Matron of Honor (which I say is sort of like being a den mother) for the camp several years ago and have always attended the dinner and the meetings. (Hiram is one of the top officers, and he and I do everything together.) The 130th National Reunion is in July, so I’ll send pictures after that.
More writerly, yesterday I sent off the completed manuscript for CADENZA FOR TWO, my contribution to Dreamstone’s music-themed Regency Romance summer anthology.
Here’s the cover for THE JULY FOURTH MURDERS, which is being released on June 14 – which, appropriately, is national Flag Day – when we authors are doing a launch party in Glenwood AR in conjunction with the VFW. The book is great fun; four authors, four wars (Revolutionary, WWI, WWII, Viet Nam), four murders. Mine is WWI. Will post pictures next time.
Next time I will also post some tales and pictures of the treasures we got at the Plano Gem and Mineral show we attended a few weekends ago. Those of you who love jade and dragons be sure to come by.
Last minute news – my local chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt has asked me to talk about the ins, outs and sensible way to travel in Egypt at our next meeting! Wow – to be actually asked to talk about Egypt! Bliss!
Now – here is Part Two of our Egypt/Jordan trip diary – Enjoy! When I left off last time, we had just gotten on the bus to leave for Wadi Rum, which is perhaps the closest we can get to Mars on this planet. Getting there was quite complicated. We were in this big nice roomy tour bus (as roomy as tour busses can ever be!) but it would not go over the desert to the Wadi. We stopped at a lonely gas station (Joe’s, I believe) in the middle of nowhere. Our luggage was transferred to a pickup – a very overloaded pickup I might add – and we were scattered among a number of 4x4s. Then we set off across what looked to me to be trackless wasteland. The 4x4s have no seatbelts and Fearless Leader had warned us all that it would be a bumpy ride… and that those with back troubles should bring a brace. I did, and it was so annoying and useless that I abandoned it at our suite when we left. The ride really wasn’t that bad, at least not to those of us who daily navigate the Dallas streets with their ever-growing potholes.
The drive took about half an hour, but the scenery was so magnificent we really didn’t care. Sadly, it’s too big and majestic to be really caught on phone cameras. The wadi has been used in any number of science fiction films, most recently THE MARTIAN.
What had been described as a ‘Bedouin camp’ was really nothing of the sort. On first sight I thought it was a set left over from one of the sci-fi movies. The place was called the Bubble Luxhotel, which I thought was a silly and cheesy name… until I saw it, and then it fit perfectly. It really is made of bubbles! There is a giant multi-part bubble that is the lobby, the bar and the restaurant, all very elegant. Then there are 26 individual ‘cabins’ each on its own platform deck with its own tiny hot tub scarcely bigger than a spaghetti pot (which I didn’t try, as when I saw it I knew if I got in I would not be able to get out) and a three connected bubble domicile. The cabins (for want of a better word) are kept inflated by air pumps, run by solar (as is the whole complex) power, but with backup gas generators in case of trouble. There is a two door airlock, and if both doors are opened at the same time the whole cabin starts collapsing on you. You only have to do it once before you learn!
There is a living room bubble with a clear plastic wall looking out over the wadi. The bathroom bubble is tiny, functional and blessedly opaque. The bedroom bubble has indubitably opaque ‘walls’ up to about six feet or so, but the ceiling is a dark ugly grey… which when the sun goes down magically becomes transparent, so you can lie in bed at night and watch the myriad of stars above you. There is no telephone other than an intercom-type to the front desk (and perhaps the other rooms, I don’t know) and no television, though there is plenty of electricity. The only problem I had with the place is that while the floor is level and solid, the walls curve out and around (it is a bubble, after all) and that played hob with my balance. I staggered around, my perceptions as skewed as if I were blatantly inebriated. (Which I wasn’t – didn’t even have any alcohol on this trip, but I seldom drink anyway.)
In the maniacal way of things, Hiram and I were assigned one of the last cabins which was quite a walk. Apparently the arrangements were unchangeable, but when the staff saw that I walked with a cane they assigned me an electric golf cart and a driver for when I wanted to go anywhere on the property.
After we were all checked in and rested a bit, we went back (I in my golf cart) to the lobby where we all climbed into 4x4s and set off to explore Wadi Rum. It was beautiful. Rocks and more rocks and lots of sand, but still incredible. Since this is Lawrence of Arabia territory, we also saw the real train that he and Emir (later King) Feisal used and figured so much in their story, and then we saw the wadi where during the troubles during WWI Feisal and his men used as a headquarters. This wadi was different in that there had to be a spring in there somewhere, because there was greenery – small trees and plants, which were startling in contrast to the bleak desert.
I don’t know how the drivers found their way around this trackless desert, but as it is their home I felt perfectly safe in spite of no roads and no signs. Every time we stopped somewhere while we were oohing and aahing and taking pictures they were gathering up the few dried stumps of the few weeds among the rocks and sand, so when at the last stop to see the sunset behind one of the great mountains they put all the dried stuff together to build a fire, over which they made Bedouin tea (which is delicious!) and we all had a cup of tea while we watched the sunset. Magnificent! (I know you probably think I’ve devoted much too much time to this stop, but it really was one of the most unusual and magnificent stops in all my travels. (Yes, I know I’m overusing the word ‘magnificent’ but it truly does fit!) I really do want to go back to the Bubble Luxhotel and stay longer.)
Later that night, after a sumptuous dinner in the big bubble dining room, there was what I call a ‘star show’ – a local astronomer with multiple telescopes (one worth $35K!) gave a class in identifying the stars and constellations. Hiram is the star watcher in our family and I enjoy it somewhat too, but as I didn’t think it was worth the $60 ticket and I was absolutely exhausted he went alone and I went back to our cabin, where I sat out on the deck and watched the stars in my own way.
Some more pictures –
The next morning we all slept in, then had a great breakfast and a restful morning. There was a hot air balloon ride option available this morning, but I don’t know if any of our group took advantage of it or even if the weather (which in Wadi Rum means wind) allowed it. I was too busy sleeping. Hiram and I had done a balloon flight over Luxor several trips ago (loved it!) and though I would have loved to see the wadi from the air we didn’t want to spend the considerable amount of money it cost.
As much as I hated to leave the magic place that was the Bubble Luxhotel, there was better to come, so by noon we were on our way to Petra. We had to take the 4x4s back to the gas station in the middle of nowhere where our bus was waiting for us.
Our first stop was in a tidy little town whose name I don’t remember where in a tidy and totally unremarkable little building on the main street is Ain Mousa (Moses’ spring) – the Biblical site of Meribah Kadesh where Moses struck the rock with his staff and the spring was formed. This site was unique in that it was just open – no entry fee, no guards. The building was small and in one end was a rather largish boulder with a fissure down the middle from which water ran. Below that was a small pool and a channel leading under the wall and out of the building. I don’t know where it went. The water has been tested to be almost preternaturally pure, and those who wished could clamber down to the level of the small pool – which was several feet below floor level – and take a drink. Several of our party did, and none of them got sick.
Now Petra has been on my bucket list since I first heard of it as a child, and I was so excited I couldn’t stand it. We stayed in the incredibly beautiful and elegant Movenpick, which was – except for a rather grubby looking youth hostel – the closest hotel to the Petra entrance. And when I say elegant and beautiful, I’m not exaggerating. There is exquisite wood carving everywhere, beautiful furnishings and the mosaic wall (an entire wall!) in the bar is made with tiles of gold. Real gold.
After we had checked in we drove to Little Petra, which is really a miniature Petra hidden amongst white sandstone ‘mountains’. They’re really too small even to be called hills, but so mountainously rough and canyoned it seems only right to call them mountains. Little Petra has its own gorge (Siq el-Barid), impressive rock-hewn façades, water reservoirs, aqueducts and stairways. Little Petra was probably the major caravanserai of the Nabatean capital of Petra. Unfortunately my visit there was pretty much spoiled by a disreputable urchin who shadowed me the entire time there, begging for a tip. This would not have been allowed in Egypt!
After dinner there was a ‘Petra by Night’ sound and light show at the Treasury, but I was exhausted and didn’t want to go – wise me. Hiram did, and he had to walk all the way there and back, primarily without lights because the staff said they distracted from the show! First of all, you need to know the layout. The Museum is just across the street from the hotel, and the ticket office/staging area for the Petra entrance is on the other side of the museum. Then there is a very long walk through the narrow canyon (which is nothing like the canyon in the Indiana Jones movie!) which is paved with chunks of beaten earth interspersed with Roman road cobblestones.
Well, the Romans need to come back and fix their road, because the cobbles are very rough and occasionally broken. Even in the light it’s rough walking and in the dark it must have been awful. Anyway, Hiram twisted his knee and had to limp back in pain. Plus, he said, the sound and light show was lame.
I could have told him that. All sound and light shows are lame. I hate them.
Anyway, the next day was the tour trip to Petra, but Hiram decided he should stay at the hotel. I went, though I was not looking forward to the long walk from the museum to the Treasury… then I found out they had little golf carts who for an extra charge would take you. Our entry tickets to the city ($50) had been covered in our tour price, but I happily paid the extra $20 for a ride – and was I glad I did! The rest of the tour walked; they were halfway there before my golf cart left. I have the ‘Queen Mum wave’ down pat, and gave it as we passed them. The Brits on the tour howled with laughter; I don’t think most of the Americans got it.
I don’t care how many pictures you have seen of the Treasury, nothing can prepare you for it in person. It is bigger than you expect it to be – a lot bigger. What is sort of disappointing – Indiana Jones to the contrary – is that it is just a façade. The only inner chamber is about 12 feet square and completely sterile. No carvings. No inscriptions. Just plain roughly smoothed stone. And it is closed to everyone. However, the Jordanian government will grant you ten minutes alone in the room (with a guard, of course) – for a payment of 10,000 Jordanian dinars. (A dinar is worth a little more than a US dollar.) None of our party did that.
In front of the Treasury is a large courtyard (to use a rather grandiose word for a simple open area) where there are the obligatory souvenir/refreshment stands and camels. One of the high points of the day was when my darling friend Anita Schubring not only climbed on one of the camels, but then stood up in the saddle! She is such fun – utterly and charmingly mad, but lovable and lots of fun!
To the side of the Treasury a couple of yards is another valley that leads down into the town. The Treasury is just one building – façade – but behind it is a sprawling town that at one time housed between 45,000 to 90,000 people. There was a large amphitheater and several temples and what were probably shops and lots of holes on various levels that were the people’s homes. And it was a loooong way.
I gave out about halfway. There was a long way left to go, with more sights to be see, terminating at a café. There was also – about a kilometer beyond that – a shuttle station that would take you back to the city for free… after stopping at a ‘shopping center’ at the Cultural Village. I knew I wouldn’t make it there, so I and two other members of our tour finally managed to flag down a golf cart to take us back to the Treasury where we could get a golf cart back to the museum. Yes, there are golf carts inside Petra. They pick up exhausted tourists and take them back to the next stage. The road is divided by stages, and each cart can only transport in their own stage… and each stage costs $20 per person. (Can we say birds’ nest on the ground???) And there is no way that you can rent a cart for the entire tour. You’d have to take each stage separately, and of course pay separately too.
Back at the Treasury I had An Idea of how Hiram could see at least the Treasury. It seemed so unfair that he couldn’t see any of Petra in the daylight when it had been one of the reasons we took this trip. I borrowed a phone from a tourist (my phone takes pictures anywhere, at least it did before it broke, but it doesn’t do calling in foreign countries) and called him to see if he could make it to the ticket office at the museum. He said he could, so I took a golf cart back to the ticket office, went to the hotel and got him, bought him a ticket (mine was a day ticket and the guide who had the ticket Hiram had paid for was nowhere around – we did get reimbursed later, however), got us a golf cart to take us to the Treasury and we were off.
Now he says he could have walked down into the city, but then he was (1) hurting badly and (2) we didn’t know if or how seriously his knee was injured and didn’t want to risk making it worse, so we stayed in the Treasury area a long time before getting yet another golf cart back. An expensive workaround, but he did get to see at least some of Petra.
What we did not get to see were the Monastery ruins or the Place of Sacrifice, both on different mountains, 900 steps to one and 700 steps to the other, but I don’t remember which is which. A few of our group did both, but they are much younger and in superb shape. They said that from the top of one of them they could see remarkable views of the Mountains of Seir and the little white shrine atop Gebel Harun (the Biblical Mount Hor) which covers the cave tomb of Moses’ brother Aaron.
We were on the bus the next morning at 7.15a for Sela and Madaba, but because Wadi Rum and Petra were my two favorite stops on the entire trip I’ve talked about them at an unreasonable length and made this post far too long. Next month I’ll tell you more!
Hope you’re having a wonderful summer!