11/5/2022 0 Comments Aisha Birthday PartyToday was our wonderful friend and neighbor's birthday!!! Aisha has become a fast and close friend to Brittany and I in Jordan, texting good morning EVERY DAY, stopping by for tea, and taking us shopping. With her birthday today, she invited some friends over for cake and snacks, and we were included among those friends. After a doctors appointment, I stopped by the mall at Bath & Body Works and bought her some nice smelling lotions and perfumes. Only the best for our Aisha, who has very nice taste. We made her a card at home before the party and put some nice notes for her. We got there with Maha before anyone else arrived, and she was so happy to get our present and note. She said that cards are her favorite part and that she keeps them forever. After a little time, another family came over that she is good friends with, and we all had tea, coffee, and many....many desserts! It was a ton of fun meeting new people and celebrating Aisha. We sang her happy birthday in English and Arabic, all had slices of cake and cheesecake, and chatted away. We had a lovely time, and every time we spend with Aisha reminds me more and more of how much I'm going to miss her when we leave.
0 Comments
11/3/2022 0 Comments Sunrise camel tourI am not a morning person. Especially a 5:30am wakeup call person. However, riding a camel into the desert to watch the sunrise, WORTH IT. We got up sooooo early this morning, and headed over to the main camp building where we met our tour guide and transportation for the morning- camels. Being my second camel ride I thought I would be an expert and more prepared for the jolting of getting up and down...I was wrong. It was still sooo scary haha. But I was on the 'baby' camel of the group and that made me happy seeing as I'm the youngest in the group as well. When I went to get on my camel, Jona's camel behind me decided it liked my head and started bonking me haha. Once we were all up, we headed out of the camp and on our journey into the desert. It was still very dark at this point, and we weren't really sure to be honest where we were going, but that didn't matter because the view was so beautiful. We venture out for about thirty minutes, when the guide stops us at a nice spot, we get down from the camels, and sit on a blanket to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately my stomach started getting a little unsettled so I wasn't altogether there and enjoying the moment, but I pushed through and it was simply beautiful. We sat together in silence and watched as the sun rose over the peaks of the rocks and it was such a peaceful end to our trip. Tons of pictures and videos were taken, many below. I will say none of us are in love with how we looked in them because it was now 6am and we all looked a bit of a mess, but that didn't matter. We all just took pleasure in the moment that we were in the freaking desert, on camels, watching the sunrise. I don't know if I'll ever get to experience that again, but I certainly hope I do. All in all, it was the perfect way for our Southern trip of Jordan to end.
11/2/2022 0 Comments Wadi rum Jeep Tour & StarsBeauty beyond belief!!!! We left Aqqaba early in the morning and headed off to Wadi Rum. We pull off into the middle of the desert, where at first there is seemingly nothing, and then you see a large camp grounds with permanent tents, the bubbles, and indoor/outdoor seating areas. The whole place was so cool. We tried to stay in one of the bubbles, but unfortunately they were all taken. Not to fret though because we were moved into this luxurious tent that was like glamping, with nice beds, a couch, closet, and full bath. Unfortunately we didn't plan well, and nothing starts happening at the camp area until 5pm. They don't serve lunch, but ordered us in some sandwiches thankfully! With that, we went to our tents and took some good naps for the night to come. At 5pm, we shuffle out and there are these pickup trucks with seats screwed into the trunks for our desert ride. We hop up, settle in, and have an INCREDIBLE sunset trip through the desert! It was all so breathtaking and a peak of the whole trip to the South!! We stopped at this part where there's this mushroom looking rock, and a Bedouin tent set up where we were served traditional Bedouin tea. I can't describe how cool that was! They also had some knick-knacks for sale, and Brittany and I bought some henna ink to have fun with later. We hopped back up on the trucks, and watch the sunset as we arrive back to the camp. The guide told us how they filmed the movie The Marshan here and the Dune movies (the second Dune movie was being filmed while we were there!!! We tried to spot the set and we think we did but it was far away). In total the desert tour lasted about an hour and a half and was simply incredible! There's a school group there that was QUITE rowdy and very annoying which made dinner very noisy and annoying. Then the tent area that is supposed to be for relaxing, hookah, and just hanging, was taken over by the 50 of them running around, one teacher even taking out a guitar *queue eye roll*. So instead of being in the warm tented area, we sat outside in this little area and put on some soft jazz to try and drown out their yelling. We still managed a nice night. This next part of the trip was amazing, and definitely not something I planned on doing haha. (Don't worry it's not bad!) So we didn't pay for the star sight-seeing because it was very expensive and all you do is look through one of their telescopes. However, once the kids finally went to bed, we went inside the tent area to warm up, and two of the Jordanian guides for the kids school group came and hung out with us. We sat around a fire and talked, they played some music, and put on Arabian nights from Aladdin which was very funny. Then they said, hey do you guys want to go out and see the stars. Joseph, Brittany and I were like oh hell yes! (Because of all the lights from the camp area it was difficult to see them clearly). So we start walking with them away from the tent and get closer and closer to the exit of the big camp place, and I'm like uhhhhhhhh whaaaaaaat?? I thought we were just going a little further away, but nope. We walk outside of the camp area into the desert away from the lights to get a good view of the stars. Now, this was a big no-no for the Mary rule book of being safe in that you don't walk into the desert with strangers. But, we didn't go too far out, and there were more of us than them haha. I stayed a little further back and was always checking the surroundings to make sure nothing was gonna happen. But it didn't and they were really nice guys who work with kids all the time. The view, AMAZING BREATHTAKING MINDBLOWING!!! You could see all of these stars and constellations, it was just so special. We chatted with the guys and had a lot of fun. We didn't stay out too long and headed back into the camp and bid them goodnight. (Haha sorry Mom and Dad I think I forgot to mention this part of the trip :D). But hey, I'm alive and well and it was such a fun experience. 11/1/2022 0 Comments Red sea snorkelingWith our time in Aqaba, Brittany, Joseph and I went on a boat trip in the Red Sea for a snorkeling adventure! The boat tour was set for a 4 hour tour, with two stops for snorkeling, and lunch on the boat. On the boat with us was a large European tour group with a few Americans, of mostly older people. At one point in the Red Sea, on one side was Jordan, one side was Israel, further down was Egypt and even further we could see Saudi Arabia! The boat had an enclosed bottom deck with glass to see into the water, and an open top deck. We started on the top deck and had an incredible view of the water. Unfortunately starting from the beginning, one of the old men on the boat kept looking me up and down very creepily, and I was in my freaking one piece with clothing on. It was so disturbing because his wife was literally between us and he just kept looking me over. I came very close to saying something, but I was worried it would make things awkward for the next 4 hours, so I just turned around and talked with Brittany, who also noticed him staring at me and the other women. **Isn't it sad that in society it's worse if we point out men making us uncomfortable because it will make bigger things awkward and that it's just that we should accept his creepiness :(((
ANYWAY, we enjoyed the boat ride amongst ourselves as we traveled down the Red Sea for about an hour and a half, until we went downstairs and got to see as we started going over the coral reefs. There was also a plane that had been sunk, on purpose!, by the King for scuba divers/snorkeling. There was also a little fish and coral community that was set up with these like rock homes they put in to promote the growth of the coral reefs and for the fish to live. It was so cool to see! We then stopped the boat and everyone got ready to go snorkeling. We were towards the middle of the line getting into the water. When after 4 of the older people got in the water, they started complaining that the SALT WATER sea was 'too salty' and ew it was getting in their mouths and that the water was too choppy (it wasn't). So instead of just pulling them out of the water, they took all of them out and had us move to another spot, which took about an extra 40 minutes, ugh, which was also farther from where the big coral reefs had been and meant we would only get to snorkel in one spot. Once they found the new spot, Brittany, Joseph and I all ran down and made sure we were first in line because we were getting in that water!!!! They had a few tour guides for the snorkeling portion of the trip, so one of them took the three of us out alone and we had the most incredible time! We left the others and went over to where the plane was and it was sooo cool!! Like there was a freaking plane below us! We then went across to another side of the water under this big dock, which did make me nervous because I know sharks like those areas, but there were no sharks and just beautiful coral! At one point there were scuba divers below us. We swam around and through major groups of fish and just watched them as they swam around. Everything was beautiful and just breathtaking. Towards the end our guide challenged us to a swim race, and oh man I was so close to beating him but I didn't know when to stop so as I started getting a little tired he pushed forward and then said it was over haha. But it was fun and it felt really good that I was swimming like that. Joseph said he looked up at one point and saw the guide and I had smoked him haha. We headed back to the boat where the other group was all already out and eating lunch, it turned out we had been in the water for about an hour! But it was so incredible and worth it since we only got to snorkel in one spot. We washed off and enjoyed a basic lunch of rice, chicken and hummus, that was very satisfying after a ton of exercise. After lunch we made the trek back to the dock, and the tour ended up lasting about 5 hours. There were a lot of ups and downs, especially with how rudely the European group had been treating our guides and us, but we just made it the best we could amongst us and had our own fun with the guides. Later at night we went out and hung out on the beach for awhile with Jona. Then we got clean and pretty, and went to this pretty area right off the area that had a bunch of little shops and restaurants, very Beaufort feeling for my NC people! I tried the local Pinot Grigio, pretty good, and a salmon fettuccini. Joseph and Jona tried camel burgers, which we were like ahh we're riding them in two days, but it's the local meat from the area. Afterwards we went and grabbed some ice cream and just enjoyed the night. It was a really great day and way to spend time in Aqaba! |