This past weekend (weekends in the Middle East are Friday and Saturday) a member of the church put together a two-day trip to some beautiful remote areas south of Amman where many Jordanian Beduins live . The trip was about $75 per person so we had originally decided to not do it. Well Thursday night we got a call from the guy and to make a long story short there were two open spots and he offered them to us.... FOR FREE! So we said yes, packed our backpacks, and left with the group Friday morning after church.
Our first stop was the Shobak castle which was the first castle to be built by the Crusaders in Transjordan. The castle had all sorts of cool things like chapels, tunnels, and secret passage ways that we messed around in. It's most famous for a huge pitch-black tunnel that goes down in the ground forever. It ends at a ditch with the clearest water we've ever seen (especially in the Middle East) running through it. After the Shoback castle we traveled to Dana Village which is a small Bedouin oasis overlooking the rift valley. When it's dark you can look across the valley and see the lights of Palestine (Israel). We watched the sunset, made some beduin friends who showed us their gardens, ate dinner (which was.... interesting) and then had a little dance party. Our beduin buddies played the bongo drums and sang Arab music for hours. They made us dance with them which was a real cultural experience. Our rooms for the night were tents on the roof of the hotel because they didn't have enough rooms inside the hotel.
The next morning Andrew woke up early and went on a little adventure walk, then we had breakfast (which consisted of stale pita bread, jam, tomatoes and cucumbers) and then drove to the Dana nature reserve which is just below the little village. It was a beautiful area and we did a couple hours of hiking. Then we drove to a city called Karak where we had a big traditional mansaf lunch waiting for us (mansaf is the Jordanian national food that we experienced with Ahmed's family in the previous post). Only this time we ate with utensils and there was no goat brain and tongue (darn). After that we had a couple more hours on the bus back to Amman.
Overall it was a pretty awesome deal for getting to go for free!
The Crusader Castle
Beduins in their traditional clothing
(These ones were on the side of the road next to the castle.)
A beautiful home in Dana Village
Our tent on top of the roof of the hotel
(The hotel is from the middle ages so it was terrifying sleeping on the roof... you never knew when it was going to cave in.)
Sunset over looking the rift valley
Us watching the Beduin party
Dancing with the Beduins
The Beduin Band
(The one in the hat is the man from our branch. He grew up as a Beduin.)
Part of the Dana Nature Reserve where we hiked
fun!!!
ReplyDeletedude, are you growing a mustache?? Looking good, my friend!
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