JORDAN - p2
We arrived in Petra quite early which gave us the unusual chance of being a bit fussy about accomodation. We had been recommended one hotel by the last place we stayed but had also heard of the Valentine Hotel - a favourite with backpackers. Unfortunately the Valentine had no rooms left so we decided to try the Petra Gate ( another recommendation ). After trying the bed out and deciding that the mattress ( well foam ) was too hard for Cliff we tried the Peace Way Hotel across the road. Nice beds etc so we asked the price - 50 Jordanian Dinars a night - WHAT ?? Then he came down to 30 and finally settled on 12 a night - amazing what they will try if they think they can get away with it !

Next morning it was off to Petra. We bought a 2 day pass each as we had been told that we would need 2 days to see it all, also the price for 2 days was little different than one day. We trekked down to the entrance of the Siq - this being the beginning of a 1.2 km long gorge ranging from 1 to 3m wide. At the end the sight of the Treasury just showing through the end of the Siq was amazing. We were faced with a carved building approximately 40 m high with rooms in the rock face itself. It was like being put into a film set - in fact Petra is where some of the filming for Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom was filmed. Having watched the film we were a little disappointed that all of the tombs and the Monastry consisted of only one room and not the huge complexes we had expected. From the Treasury you walk down the Street of Facades and on to the tombs ( around 7 in total ). From there along the Street of Columns towards the Monastry. The Monastry turned out to be about 2 km away all uphill, apparently 800 steps, blimey this was a killer ! Finally we got there and it was worth the hike as this was probably more impressive than the Treasury at the beginning. We managed all of this in one day so did not return the following day - mainly as it is a 2km walk before you get anywhere near the beginning of Petra itself.

Had we not seen so many rock formations, tombs cut into rocks, houses carved out of rocks to date we may have been slightly more impressed with Petra but would recommend it if you are in Jordan.
The Treasury.
Looking up towards the sky at the front of the Monastry
Some of the brilliant colours in the rock.
From Petra we went down south almost the the Saudi Arabian border to Aqaba - Jordan's only coastline, along the Red Sea. They swapped 6000 square km of desert for 17km of coastline with Saudi Arabia in the 1950's. Aqaba is the diving centre for Jordan and ours for the next few days. We tried a couple of hotels that had their own diving clubs asking prices and finally decided to treat ourselves with a 4 star hotel after they advised us that the diving would be free - we just needed to rent equipment. They were also kind enough to give us priveldged parking for the bikes ( see picture below ). Off we went to The Royal Diving Club in the morning only to find out that the person we spoke to at the hotel obviously did not understand what we were asking him as the diving was not free at all. We decided to do one dive that afternoon as we were there. The corals and fish were beautiful and we saw a turtle ( although he was not impressed by being made to move so that we could see him more clearly ). On return to the hotel Cliff complained bitterly with the reception but to little avail - we were offered free dinner in lieu of any reduction in the room price. So we ate well that night, although it was wasted on us as we really were not that hungry. We went to see the Red Sea Dive Centre to book for diving the next day with them - this time for two dives. Our first dive was magnificient and so much better than the Royal Diving Club. There were less people and Ahmed really knew his stuff and where to find the interesting fish. We played with Clown Fish that came out to see if we needed cleaning as we passed but the highlight was holding a Puffa Fish. This is a strange creature - when frightened it puffs itself up to around football size and shape - it has quite large pretty eyes and a small round mouth. To touch it was hard with small spikes around its skin - Cliff found this out the hard way - trying to hold it in the palm of his hands rather than with his finger-tips which caused him to drop it. On our second dive we swam around an old army tank that had been sunk a couple of years ago on purpose to create more places for the coral to grow and add interest to diving expeditions. We left the following morning although rather late as both Cliff and I have been having stomach cramps for a week or so now - on and off - but that morning we felt worse so asked to be woken up at 11.30 - half an hour before checkout time. We made it to Wadi Rum which was only 50 km away with no problems.
Hotel parking for bikes - left hand side.
Two rather dodgy looking divers before the off.
Wadi Rum - where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed and where the real T E Lawrence raised the Arabs to fight the Ottomans. This is our first real desert and had to be done in a 4 x 4 vehicle or camel. The bikes are not geared for riding in sand ( and neither are we ). We got ourselves the only cross-eyed jeep driver we could find and headed off. The ride was extremely bumpy but the scenery magnificient - it is so hard to show scale in photographs or the overall panarama but it was massive ( see picture below that shows two jeeps crossing in front of us ). We only did a small section of the site but this took 3 hours by pick up. There were several naff stops - i.e. Lawrence Spring - which was not there but in a cave with a water pipe coming out of it and also Lawrence's House - about 20 breeze blocks still standing in a straight line ). Climbing the sand dunes was hard work but good fun on the way down. We stayed to watch the sunset and then headed back to our tent that we had rented.  This was pitched behind the main restuarant on the sand.
OK - get your glasses out - there are (honest) two jeeps crossing this desert scene - almost dead centre.
A traditional Beduoin Tent - these people live in these tents and there are hundreds of them scatteredt around the desert - rather them than us in this heat !
Footnote about Jordan - Jordan is a country where the people are extraordinarily friendly, in fact, they are so bloody friendly that you can't even get lost without their help. Whenever you stop they say "Welcome to Jordan, where are you going, can I help you ?" Even when you are simply waiting at traffic lights. If you do ask directions beware they will tell you something rather than admit that they do not know and therefore cannot help you.

Also we have learnt in the last day that motorbikes are banned in Jordan except for Military and Police use - but the King does have a Harley. It was his father who made this ruling and therefore it cannot be changed by anyone except the ruling King. Apparently they were banned due to them being used for terrorist "ride by" attacks and the increasing accident rate with scooters. It is probably good that this law is in place here as judging the the standard of driving god help them on a motorbike. An example of the driving occured one day whilst heading for the Iranian Embassy - Cliff was squeezed into the barrier by a Merc driver cutting Jenny up altogether. Cliff got off his bike, parked it in the middle of the lane and gave the driver a verbal what for - the inside lane were so interested in what was going on that one car ran into the back of the other ! This provided Cliff with the example that he needed to say to the Merc Driver " See what I mean".
FOOTNOTE. We got up on friday morning and partially loaded the bike's before going for breakfast, when we returned to the bike's some bastard had been fiddling with them, Sarajavo Sid (a soft green dragon that Jenny had brought of off a deaf guy in Sarajevo) was on the ground and a rubber piece had been removed from the scottoiler's on both bike's, thus rendering them useless and leaking oil ( all over the rear tyre, which would make riding danderous) , the next three hours were then wasted on finding a solution to this incredibly annoying problem, We fixed them using a peice of plastic tube, some superglue, some insulation tape and a couple of cable ties.

It is my sincerest wish that the bastard resposible gets the worst possible form of cancer and dies a long slow and painful death. (this is the polite version for those of you reading this that have a gentle disposition).
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