There were a bunch of peddlers in Petra. These guys could speak five languages fluently, and were illiterate. It was quite a shock to hear a Bedouin talk in a Cockney accent. They sell a lot of jewelry (silver bracelets for a Dinar?), rocks, knives, books, stuff like that. Some days I bet there are more peddlers than tourists. No shortage of tourists the day I was there, though.

When you go to Petra, lay out a couple days. It takes a few hours by car to get down there, and the shortest you can walk through Petra is a couple hours one way, really. There are other Petra tours (like a climbing tour) you can do, too. The guide says it takes four days to really see it all. You can skip the horse or carriage/buggy rides. You only go a mile, maybe less, on the horse. Might as well walk.

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Shopping in downtown Amman is a trip. Lots and lots of shops, probably between 6-12 basic types. Everyone is buying or selling something. The written prices are more of a guide than a price. It's all labeled in Jordanian numbers, of course. (Oh, I found out why the numbers are different. They use Indian numbers here. I'm not sure why they do that, but it's what those numbers are, anyway.)

We also went through a food market. Guys all hawking their fruit, sheep heads sitting out, liver that was probably gutted that day. No flies, which is interesting. I don't think there's enough water for them. Hmm, that doesn't stop the flies in Australia, though. Downtown has the Roman Apitheater, too, but more about that later. Gotta run for the airport.

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We got to eat the traditional Jordanian meal the other day. We had just visited the military academy and culture school (for foreigners shipping to the Middle East), and we went over to the officer's club. We had yet another coffee, and then in for lunch. They had several tables setup with a cooked lamb on each. It is cut up a bit already, with the head in the middle. It's all on a bed of rice, and you pour hot watery yogurt on it. You eat with your hands. Er, hand, just the right one. You rip off some meat, grab some rice, and ball it in your hand until it's vaguely egg shaped, and have shaken/squeezed most of the liquid out. You then move it to the top of your thumb, then push it into your mouth, like flipping a coin. It was quite tasty. The Major who showed us around said they have it a couple times a month in most families. Some use chicken, but lamb is traditional. Yes, I ate the tounge. Thank goodness nobody offered me eyeballs.

Right, the ampitheater. It is right downtown, and well preserved. They use it for concerts even today. I hear the ampitheater in Israel is better, but this one is just fine. We had a volunteer tour guide, who showed us around so we'd go into his shop afterwards. He told us how Amman was Amman before it was Philadelphia (there was some carving to support that), and pointed to some temples up on the hilltop we handn't seen the other day. They were named after Bathsheeba (sp), and were reportedly where she lived before David had her husband killed. Something along those lines, anyway. The guy's shop was good, and we bought stuff.

Things I'd wish I'd seen: Bethany beyond the Jordan, where Jesus was baptized; any Orthodox church; Lot's wife (she's a pillar of salt); Umm Qays, a Roman town; any of the Crusader castles/palaces; Jerash, another Roman town, just an hour from Amman; Madaba, where they have a bunch of old churches and mosaics; maybe the port city of Aqaba. Jordan is made up of the old nations of Bashan, Gilead, Ammon, Moab, Daran, and Midian, by the way.

This is it for my travelog on Jordan. Maybe I'll post more as I think back on it, but you can stop hitting Reload to see the latest!