Visiting Jordan

Me, Jose, and his sister crossed the Israeli/Jordan border in Eilat this morning. It's my first visit to an Arab country. We are staying for 2 days with our main goal of seeing Petra: the ancient city entirely carved out of the mountain.

But overall, Jordan has a more "authentic middle east" feel as compared to the Western-like Israel. Though my exposure to the country is limited to the 2 hour drive to Wadi Musa (the town bordering the ruins of Petra), and today's visit in this tourist haven (as Petra is one of the New Seven Wonders of the World). The locals are friendly and seem very genuine.

Jose pointed out one of the main differences of the way Arabs in Israel and the West Bank and Arabs in Jordan will view a Jewish tourist. In Jordan, you are seen as a tourist first, without relevance to whether you are a Jew. In the West Bank, you are most likely assumed to be Jewish before thought of as a tourist.

Arab hospitality is pretty intense. It was hard to tell if it was hospitality because we were tourist - or if it was genuinely part of their culture. For example, we made a pit stop on the way to Petra in the taxi. We stopped at a small stand with a make-shift coffee cart attached to a small temporary house/hut. I was excited to just get to where we were going, but the taxi driver insisted that we get out and have a cup of tea. I was waiting for the "gimmick" or "catch," but he really just wanted us to have some tea (no charge).

All in all, it was a good visit - but in the end, I was glad to be back in familiar territory when I got back to "Western Culture." Being in Jordan opened my eyes to how truly different life is in the Arab World - and that was only a very small snippet of it. It made me realize a tiny bit more (1st hand) how intense and difficult it must be for the Eastern and Western Worlds to meet and understand one another.