Jordan

走近了沙漠，我有了一个发现—还珠格格里香妃和她的男朋友在沙漠里幽会谈恋爱的故事是瞎编的！满天的红沙，拍在电视，电影里的确浪漫，可是真的走在沙漠里，烫脚的沙却让你不想在那里逗留一下。而如果他们在沙漠接吻，后果是严重的-满嘴的沙，说不定就把牙给咯了！而如果想玩沙丘滑板，要先爬上烫人的沙坡不说，往下滑的时候阻力还特别大，试过的团友们都说这一趟沙坡爬的真不值得。

不过无论如何，我，还是在中东的沙漠混过一回了！

既然土耳其，叙利亚都有古城，约旦怎么地也应该来凑个热闹。不过和以往的几个不同，约旦的古城花了大力气建造皇帝的坟地和教堂，却不见民居和市集。而且在规模和高度上都是有过之而无不及。

走入一个小道，左右两边都是白来米高的巨石。整座城就是在巨石里凿出来的。

第一座小庙，其实也不小。只是和后面看到的比起来，绝对是小巫见大巫了。

三三两两的骆驼在等待游人光临他们。就算再多的苍蝇在他们的头上嘴边飞，也丝毫不打搅他们。真是有定力的动物！

一大群的寺庙。

骑骆驼飞奔的蓝衣少女。

原来她是赶着去摆摊呢。她和她的姐姐，母亲热情地请我们一起喝茶。

路边小摊卖的人形娃娃。看着有点像电视里的
用来诅咒人的人偶，有点恐怖！

卖彩色石头的小男孩。他姐姐告诉我们他只有3岁大！想我3岁的时候上托儿所被人抱着都还天天哭呢！


其实我们一路来都发现，穆斯林国家的孩子特别早就出来赚钱了。建筑工地上随处可见10多岁的孩子。旅游景点牵骆驼，马的都是7，8岁的小孩。穆斯林国家的50%的人口都小于18岁。看来这些国家未来的劳动力资源会很丰富。

走累了躺会儿。

听说最大的庙在山顶，我们抵挡住了骑驴的诱惑，拔腿向上爬！一路上看见驴粪无数！
这个还只是在半山腰呢！

终于看见大庙了！

山顶的景致不错！

下山的时候是正午，看我的人影！有点像M&M的logo.

We went on a desert safari in old Toyota Land Cruisers. What we saw was camels, rock carvings, and sand of different colors. Desert and some history. The truck ride itself was less exciting than we were expecting, but the scenery was great.

Here was our truck. Note the big horn on the hood.

Some people sandboarded, but the reviews were poor (really hard getting up the hill, equally hard going down - and that was with people that had some experience surfing or snowboarding) so I didn't.

Here is by far the most successful (a surfer, naturally)

We saw some carvings in the mountains, mostly depicting camels crossing the desert - apparently these were meant to convey that the desert is crossable here.

A wall behind which Lawrence of arabia lived for awhile:

Here's a "bridge" suspended above a hole in a mountain. It's solid enough, but was a pain to descend from, especially on dark-colored rocks in the hot sun. As usual Sue was ahead of me.

After a day of driving we settled into a bush camp. A bush camp involves just camping outside without facilities - no showers and the washrooms are defined as 'girls on this side, boys on that side, use the shovel to bury anything solid'.
Here is the timeline on a particularly eventful bush camp day:

5pm - almost there; help push truck after it got stuck in the sand; walk a few minutes to join the truck at the site

5:30 - it's windy and looks like a cold night (even though it was around 40 Celsius during the day); decide to set up a tent. Notice afterward that it's still windy.

6:30 - someone found a spent mortar shell in the distance. He'll be taking it home and adding it to his trophy case. Removed the detonator as that would make it likely to be taken at customs or airport security.

7 - playing soccer barefoot. Using very small nets so that no one gets tempted to kick too hard, especially given the wind. I realize what I had forgotten since high school: I'm terrible when I have the ball, but I'm not bad on defense. I sub out after under an hour as a result of having gotten and burst a blister, and now having a big flap of skin (1.5x1 inches) hanging off the ball of my foot; clean, disinfect, and bandage it.

During soccer, some folks were playing Twister.

830 - someone saw what seems to be a camel in the distance. We go to it, it's a dead horse. Clearly it's been dead awhile - it barely smells and when someone dropped a pebble on it the sound was like a drum - the skin is now tightly bound leather. It looks like this horse died during childbirth.

900 - we eat hamburgers tonight, probably the least healthy meal of the trip.

10pm - a few of the guys can play guitar, one of the guys brought a guitar, so we're crowding around him singing favorites of the 90s mostly. Oasis, Green Day, that type of thing...

11pm - pretty much everyone is asleep. Some can still be heard near the truck by those that aren't sleeping. One bangs drums outside peoples' tents and sleeping mats, I'm fortunate enough not to hear it.

Through all the climbing, walking, swimming, running, carrying, and staying awake challenges we've had on this trip, Sue has kept up with me or pulled ahead. I'm impressed and pleased, and made the right decision of travel partner and life partner.

I was recently offered my choice of either 2 camels or 2 Egyptian woman in exchange for Sue. In light of Sue's recent performance I respectfully declined the offer.