Still in Jordan

Ok, we're back in Amman, which means I'm able to properly write about our travels. I left off with the bathhouse, relaxing, but to be honest, a little awkward. Ask me about it in person some time, including "number 39 from Syria."
Anyway, after a couple days in Amman we headed south to the perhaps main attraction in Jordan--Petra. To avoid spending 70 jds (Jordanian Dinars) by taxi, we take the local bus. /its crowded, slightly smelly, and we're only mostly sure its going where we need to go--not the last time we'll have that feeling. It only takes about 3 hours to get to the town of Wadi Musa. Wadi means valley or river, Musa is Arabic for Moses. We stay at the Mussa Springs hotel, by Ain Musa (which means Springs of Moses, following along?). This is one of the places scholars believe Moses struck the rock to create a spring of water for the Israelite's to drink in the wilderness, its also the town right outside Petra.
Petra is a two thousand + year old city carved into the walls of a canyon. This form of construction protected it from years of abuse and left it in magnificent condition, with the exceptions of any images of people, those were destroyed by religious zealots (the iconoclastic controversy). The most famous of these carvings has to be The Treasury--as seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. This is the first site you see after walking through the narrow canyon to get into Petra. It was pretty awesome, although some of the majesty and mystique was ruined by the arguing salesmen trying to get these poor women to rent a camel or donkey to carry them back up to town. On Saturday Griz and I explore the sites, walking around in the sun for 6 hours, it was a blast, hiking forgotten trails and exploring empty tombs. One of our favorites was The Monastery, a massive structure carved up atop one of the near by hills, it was up 800 steps and about a good bit of hiking. The site is just as big, if not larger than the Treasury, but with less touristy stuff around.
After a long day we headed back to the palatial Mussa Springs hotel--it cost us only 6jds per night per person, so like less than $10. And we got what we paid for, two bathrooms per floor, no tp (we stole some from the visitors center), pillows that felt like someone threw sod in a bag and slapped it on a bed. There was, however, one gem of Jordan--nay, of the whole Middle East--available to us. MBC 2. Words can only begin to describe its beauty. MBC 2 is a b-rated American movie treasure trove, all subtitled in Arabic, with a repeating group of maybe 8 Arabic commercials--favorite quote from Griz: "Chai latte Jadid". There were non-stop hits like "The Arrival" "Bugs" (not the animated one, but more like Starship Troopers in a subway) and "Barbershop II, Back in Business." After a long day of walking we gorged ourselves on hollywoods scrapings from the bottle of the barrel. Also watching the "bowchicka wow wow" Axe commercial in Arabic is pretty funny.
WE made it back to Amman, after a bus ride were our presence may have almost started a fight--there was lots of yelling and pointing at us, eventually things settled down, except for the dirty looks. From there we started to plan out the next 25 or so days. After all, we have only a plane ticket home on the 24th, the rest is up the in air. Of the 6 major things we wanted to see in Jordan, two were done. The rest would need to fit in the next 5 days. We set off on Tuesday for Madaba, a city just south of Amman. From there we took a tour of Jesus's Baptism site, the Dead Sea, and Mount Nebo. The baptism site was really interesting, and very inspiring, standing in the steps of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. The Jordan river is significantly smaller these days, having to provide water for a much larger population, so the pool where Jesus was baptized is very different now.
The Dead Sea was neat-o. Its at the lowest point on earth (about 440 meters below sea level) and at one of the hottest places in Jordan. The Sea has no outflow, but water is evaporated at a rate of one million liters per day, leaving all the mineral deposits behind. What you end up with is a body of water with about 10 times the salt content as the ocean. We both went for a swim and you cannot help but float. Also, I became quickly aware of any tiny cuts and scraped on my skin. Griz took a picture of me at one point while a little bit of water had dripped in to my eyes, its a funny sight, you can sea the pain on my face.
Mount Nebo is also a very historic place. Because Moses disobeyed God (striking the rock instead of speaking to it--see above, Ain Musa) we was not allowed into the promised land. It was from atop Mount Nebo that he looked into what would later become Israel. He also died at the mountain top. In one short trip we had seen two immensely important sites from the Bible and Christian history.
We are now back in Amman, again, at our "home base." Tomorrow we are off to Jerash, an old roman town in the north, and then to Egypt on Friday. Friday also marks the halfway point of our trip, and its going by at an unusual pace, sometimes very very slowly, but then again, we are in the land where history came from. How do you measure time in a country that was thriving before the Romans or Greeks?

p.s. some new pictures are up