jordan, a personal summation

Good afternoon readers, I am writing this from the infinite comfort of the hostel I am volunteering at in Mitzpe Ramon, Israel. It's been just over two weeks since I departed my lovely second home in Istanbul for Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories (just to be politically correct).

I will begin with Jordan. Wow. What a bizarre (and freezing cold) place.

And it is Jordan where I want to address my troubles with travelling. There are many different kinds of travelers, some like to stay in five star hotels, some are ignorant, some are racist, some are alone and crazy, some are rich, some are students, some are awesome, and some just should have stayed home.

But maybe there is a division in travelling between cultural exploration and sightseeing, both have their pros and cons but what frustrated me the most about Jordan was my lack of ability (or perseverance?) to immerse myself in the culture. There is a certain tone in Jordan, where white western women appear to have made quite a name for themselves, particularly in the most touristic areas. And regardless of what kind of person you may be, I found, as a solo female traveler, I was always treated the same. I didn't stay long in Jordan, just 10 days, because I became absolutely frustrated with my inability to move independently around the country without being hasseled... about money, about my gender, about my origin, etc.


This is much heavier than I anticipated. If you need some relief check out fail blog.
http://failblog.org/


As always there are always two sides of the coin. You have one side, which was that it kind of sucked to be a girl traveling solo in Jordan because men don't leave you alone. I never once felt unsafe, just really tired of being talked to like I wasn't a real person. And then you have the other side, which is that strikingly large number of tourists (11-12% of GDP accordingly to wikipedia, 8 million visitors in 2010) visiting Jordan because it is the "safe place" in the middle east, and with this comes all sorts of people (who maybe shouldn't have left their country in the first place) who trample all over cultural norms and values, wreaking havoc and bringing ideas which seem natural and normal in the west, to a country where it's really not the same at all. Prices increase, and local culture can be lost, and stereotypes from all parts of the spectrum seem to play out in some sort of self fulfilling prophecy.

I don't want to dissuade people from visiting Jordan, this is a recount of my experiences, observations and nothing more. A lot of people I have run into loved Jordan, and there were parts of it which I did enjoy but overall my level of frustration led me to an early evacuation.

So to conclude I will sum up the important events in Jordan with a simple list.

-couchsurfed with a German ex-pat in Amman, a sandcoloured lego city, and finally I was blessed with the means to have normal french press coffee. It was amazing.
-Jerash, got yelled at in every language you can think about transport back to Amman, ended up in a (scary) private taxi for one dinar...which then turned into 8 by the time we got there. I had previously arrived in Jerash by bus for 1 dinar.
- Petra, absolutely crazy and amazing, steeped in history, bedouins and throngs of tourists. Had Kanafeh, an almost fried cheese with sugar pastry stuff on top. Really nice
-saw camels in the desert
-Caught a ride with two crazy dudes from britain and france, got a flat tire in the middle of the desert near a fat dead dog. Spare tire was also flat, and the rim on the spare, was unfortunately bent all out of shape. We drove very very very very very slowly to the next town, were overcharged to fix the flat.
LONG DAY.
-Cruised to Aqaba, where it was finally warm, all day and all night, (about 10km North of the Saudi border, along the Red Sea). And chilled like there was no tomorrow for four days with this rad Vancouverite whom I had met previously in Petra.

And then I left for Israel.


more, later
Larissa

From the west unto the east

Here in the depths of the zillıonth internet cafe in Sarıyer (near Istanbul) I found someone who was able to help me upload photos.

-Termessos

-Beaching it

-Pastoral Vadi and the innumerable fruit trees

-our living quarters

-day off from the farm! We hitched back to Katabaş Beach

-wwwwwaaaaaaaat

-Cappadocia. The most touristic and spectacular place

-reallllly reallly east. In diyarbakir, the Kurdish capital. There is a fıve km wall surrounding the city! It is ridiculously old

Hasankeyf- and what river is that? Oh just the TIGRIS!!!...no big deal

but the story behind these caves of wonder is that the Turkish government is in the process of building some huge dams whıch will flood the 10 000 year old cave city just across the water.

-some older gentlemen who sang some wack songs when we came to sit with them for a spell

Yes. I went to see Batman. 

 ps.the fıve photos above are not mine (they are davids) I forgot to charge my camera, but I was lucky to travel east with people who were substantially more camera prepared.

-out of order Termessos

This section concludes my trip to Turkey. I certainly saw less than I had anticipated but I spent a lot of time hanging out with the people and learning about cultural norms and values. I would love to come back (when the weather is nıce) but now I will try my luck in Jordan.  

more, later

Larissa

Why you close on me baby

There is a lot to catch up on and no personal pictures that I can upload at this moment. So those of you reading will have to bear with this less aesthetically pleasing account

Still in the search of the very elusive, extremely frustrating sun I have made not one but two trips to the beautiful and mystical coastline of turkey. I don't know why but it seemed like the thing to do at the time

 here are the highlights from mid-ish february to the beginning-ish march 

-Termessos: more specifically the theatre. Our hosts brought us 27km out and 9km up into the mountains near Antalya to see this magnificent thousands (of course) year old city. These people definitely had, if I may so, a pimp lifestyle.

-from google images but I think I have the same picture

-learning tavla and then having nearly every turkish person (man) thereafter be completely astounded that a woman had learned to play

-having second dinner with some rogue french canadian musicians who had been living in the mountain forests near olympos and Sasha, a turkish magician with a belly bigger than sinter klaus and a love for G 6's?

 -hitchhiking along the turkish coastline, baking in the sun and eating Finike oranges, with one of my best arkadesh's (friend). We got 8 rides that day and passed by the beach which is on the cover of lonely planet turkey. 

-doing hard labour and an surprising amount of gossiping with the ladies who worked in the kitchen on pastoral vadi farm. A beautiful piece of paradise just outside yaniklar village. This was one of the best weeks for me in Turkey. I will post photos when I get the chance but it was spectacular. Everyday we would open (dig up dirt in a circular fashion around a fruit tree) and close (fill in the hole, after of course we had wheelbarrowed manure to each one). 

IT WAS REALLY HARD WORK. Especially because we were working in a stone field as opposed to a dirt field. Shoveling rocks takes considerably more effort than shoveling dirt. 

See below

~How many rocks do I see before me~

~more than all the turkish tea~

~how many rocks do I see before me~

~one two three four, seventy~

~how many rocks do I see before me~

~more than the oranges in the trees~

~how many rocks do I see before me~

~five six seven, ninety three~

~how many rocks do I see before me~

~more than the fishies in the sea~

~how many rocks do I see before me~

~eight nine ten, one hundred three~

luckily we found a guitar and so were able to sing our favourite song with accompaniment 

We had many good times on that farm. 

Also "Turtles Can Fly" is a beautiful film about young refugees on the Iraqi-Turkish border before the invasion began. I really recommend watching it.

More, later

Larissa