Public Address | Cafe | Up Front: Neither Deep nor Wide

Susannah Shepherd

Sat, 08 Feb 2014 16:32:00 +1300

Jerash was great (Bedouin bagpiper), Petra unbelievable (and empty) Dead Sea likewise.

One of my treasured souvenirs of Jerash is a short video clip of a group of exuberant teenage Jordanian girls on a school trip dancing in Bedouin style to the strains of 'Scotland the Brave'.

We also had…

Graham Reid

Fri, 31 Jan 2014 08:56:22 +1300

BY strange coincidence we were in JOrdan around the same time you were and as you say Petra is breathtaking I found Jerash even more so, largely because I could kind of "see" what that city must have like rather better than Petra where so much was leveled by 'quakes.…

TracyMac

Thu, 30 Jan 2014 01:56:13 +1300

I feel pretty much the same, and I've been out over 25 years. I think because I remember the insistence on a twin room back then (Raetihi in the summer – it wasn't the only room available) that I'm not eager to repeat the experiences. Yes, different cultures are different,…

Graham Dunster

Wed, 29 Jan 2014 18:35:24 +1300

Went Jordan and Cairo last January/February and were struck by the lack of tourists the too. Lots of snow in Jordan which curtailed our activities but completely recommend a visit to anyone. Jerash was great (Bedouin bagpiper), Petra unbelievable (and empty) Dead Sea likewise.

Cairo was empty, more hawkers than…

Lucy Stewart

Sat, 25 Jan 2014 09:21:52 +1300

It's comfort, but it's not safety. The Middle East is more relaxed about demonstration of affection between members of the same sex than the West is. It's, can I stand having my relationship constantly misread? Can I handle being assigned twin beds all the time? And it's okay if the…

Martin Roberts

Sat, 25 Jan 2014 07:31:01 +1300

Our group was mostly fairly liberal Australians, and Jordan’s historic and current attitude to refugees made a mortifying comparison for them.

I trust that the Kiwi contingent was not too smug, seeing as we don't even fill our measly quota of 750 refugees and the Aussies are now taking 20,000…

Emma Hart

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 21:15:11 +1300

It’s not that I wouldn’t love to go there, it’s that there’s still a whole lot of places in the world we haven’t traveled that involve so much less stress about our personal safety/comfort, yanno?

It's comfort, but it's not safety. The Middle East is more relaxed about demonstration of…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 16:31:55 +1300

Places We Should Probably Put Off Visiting For A While (inc.: most of the Middle East.)

Don't put it off.

Just go with one of the tour groups like Innovative Travel etc. Heck you NEED a guide to get through egyptian airports at the very least, no really, I could…

Lucy Stewart

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 15:43:10 +1300

I loved Jordan ... Aqaba, Wadi rum, Petra, Madaba and Jerash were all amazing enough that I could get past some of the other stuff. We accepted that my role was to be "the man" and I could fake that role as needed.

Probably the only really depressing bit of…

Gareth Ward

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:41:49 +1300

My father-in-law had a brief period of leave from commanding tanks at Alamein in '42 so a mate suggested they pop over to this "rock city place in Transjordan" they'd heard mentioned. Utterly devoid of "tourism" and with no idea what they were going to find.
I really want to…

Emma Hart

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 12:04:55 +1300

Bottom line: has travel widened your world view?

Our trip through Egypt made me seriously question some assumptions, which is awesome.

But it seems like you had some bad Jordan luck as well…

Man I wish I'd thought of that joke.

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 11:59:57 +1300

Exponential enjoyment?
I'd always thought of Crossing Jordan as innocuous fare...
But it seems like you had some bad Jordan luck as well...

Bottom line: has travel widened your world view?

Emma Hart

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 11:59:49 +1300

I think they thought they had a role to play for the tourists.

We stayed for two days in Captain's Camp in Wadi Rum, which is staffed by Bedouin, and visited the Bedouin Camp at Lawrence Spring. (Pro tip; there's no spring.) There were no women on site at either…

Stephen R

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 11:47:12 +1300

Some friends of mine recently went to Jordan, and relate the tale of the Bedouin who after the organised activities of the tour day, took them back to their tent to meet their wives and see their satellite internet connection, to prove that they were modern, not backward...

I think…

Emma Hart

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 10:30:57 +1300

clerk obviously though two men booked into a double room was a clerical error.

Oh, my travelling companion and I were both Travelling as Straight, when neither of us is. Which in our case meant that we were sharing a room, and only correcting the assumption that we were a…

Bart Janssen

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 09:46:50 +1300

When we did Egypt, Jordan Syria it was before the clusterfuck. So Egypt was packed, never were we at a temple with less than a thousand other tourists, it was amazing but draining.

So for us (me my partner and our friend and great travel agent who had organised it…

Craig Ranapia

Fri, 24 Jan 2014 08:35:19 +1300

I do try to travel as a guest in a house I have freely chosen to come to; to be gracious and patient and respectful of custom. By the time we left Jordan, if one more guy took my bag, pushed my chair in, or reached around me to give…

Geoff Lealand

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 17:42:14 +1300

Excellent travel memories! I have several old browning Brownie photos of my father floating in the Dead Sea during the war years. He would also label snaps of the locals with "A Wog" and "Another Wog". Ah, the past is another country.....

Emma Hart

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:54:12 +1300

I tease, of course. There will be a Capture post, I'm just sorting that with Jackson.

Public Address

Thu, 23 Jan 2014 15:54:12 +1300

Discussion from blog post.