Ok. . .now i am just on a roll, but since i am, you benefit my getting to look at more pictures of mine. this time it is Spring Break where we took 17 students from VCU Qatar to Thailand as part of our Field Study Program. basically, it is a chance for us to expose our students to life outside Qatar and their ‘known’ environment. an amazing adventure and an amazing opportunity.

Thailand

so how about this, huh? now that i have this whole picture thing figured out, i told you would write more stuff (of course i didn’t say when i would be writing), but the fact that i am posting TWO posts in the same day, does say something about my motivation—more likely than not, however, it just shows my guilt.

so, to appease, please find below a link to my photos from my trip to India this past Christmas break. I went with Muneera, Rehanah, Aaleeya and Lizzy. We tried staying in the Western portion of the country, and because India is such a HUGE country, it will take me many times going there to discover it all.

India :: 2007

To say that our journey was more than intense, does not do the word ‘intense’ justice. for every magnificent good there is an equal and opposing bad thing that could be said of India. and while i will try and not dwell on the bad, there was a lot that was amazing about this and in retrospect, it is this good stuff that will i remember far longer than any of the bad.

ok. . .it goes without saying that i suck at updating this blog. . . even on a irregular basis like this. please bear with me, i think i have finally hit upon the ideal solution for this—and all the while it has been staring at me in the face.

what has caused me no mount of stress about this blog (and perhaps the biggest contributor to my lack of diligent updates), has less to do with actually writing something here (i always have something to say, right?), but more to do with the editing, the classifying, the ordering, and finally presenting the pictures i take. . . especially those on holiday. not that you care, but it really makes me sweat knowing that i should be updating this site more, but knowing how much effort it takes to do the above, i would just rather flake.

well, flake no more. the answer to my prayers (literally) comes in the form of Flickr (does the word ‘duh’ ring a bell here?). anyway, from here on out, and mostly when i travel and have LOTS of photos to share, you will find a link to a Flickr collection that you can peruse at your leisure. like now, with the last installment of my Jordan trip (lo, these many months hence…nearly six to be exact!).

so, without further ado:

Jordan :: part III

Ok. While this is NOT a miracle, I do have part two of my Jordan trip ready for your enjoyment. There will be a third and final installment shortly. Then. . .and only then, can I begin on my India trip.

Enjoy!

Jordan :: part two

In any event. . .

Happy New Year. . .if somewhat belatedly and haggardly.

This time, however, I have a pretty good excuse. . .I just got back from a trip to Jordan and have 500+ photos I am trying to organize and share. As you can see, it has taken me a while to get only a small portion of this trip ready (hence the roll out of part one). . .but it is a cool part. . .a place I have wanted to visit for nearly 30+ years. So, welcome to the Petra slideshow tour.

Six of us from VCU-Q (Cathy, Levi, Lizzy, Muneera, Nancy & myself) headed there for the Eid al Fitr break (the celebratory end of Ramadan), and had an amazing time. Hopefully, these pictures will do it some justice.
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Just so you know, if you click on any thumbnail picture in this post, it will launch the slideshow, starting from that picture and present you with the image in a larger format. During the slideshow, just click either side of the photo [on the right-side of the picture to advance or to the left -side to go backwards]. Oh, and [Close X] will obviously close the slideshow and bring you back to the post.

Alrighty then, shall we begin…

The journey into Petra begins with a slow, downward incline into a canyon. You can begin your descent either on foot. . .or by horse. We chose the latter. It was fun a ride, but for the shortness and bumpiness. . .I am not certain as to if it was worth it. Definitely a tourist thing.

Once you make your way into the canyon thoroughfare, it is good kilometer+ walk to the actual city of Petra. The canyon (the siq) itself is a natural wonder enhanced with way stations to the various gods of the Edomites (yes, those very same ones mentioned in the bible). The next five or so pictures really don’t do it the justice and majesty of being there, so I won’t bother trying to describe it with words. Enjoy the view.

Perhaps the most famous of all the monuments at Petra, the Treasury is the first thing you encounter as you exit the siq. It is an awe inspiring site, and the one thing I was most excited to see. Of course, there is a lot more to see than just the Treasury, but as you can see in the next few pictures, it is pretty amazing. Oddly enough, it is only a few rooms deep and not an extensive system of caves as I always believed it to be. Granted it is carved out of stone, but for some reason, I always thought it was the door to a grand collection of rooms and storehouses and what-not. By no means, did it diminish my encounter upon discovering that it was not a big as I thought, it just made me aware of how fantasy and reality rarely, if ever, coincide.

One of the more curious aspects of visiting Petra is noticing the variation in colors that comprise the site. So many blazing shades of red and orange.

Too, there is also the curiousness of how sandstone has survived the span of time it has. It appears that this building in a Dalian process of melting when, in fact, it has taken many centuries to wear down the stone into this configuration. You can barely make out the entrance to this building, while the columns that where supposed to hold up the building have long since eroded away.

Another fascinating aspect of Petra, I learned about, is the fact that until quite recently, it was inhabited. The bedouin have called this area home for centuries and only until fairly recently have the been forced to relocate. There are some 25 odd families that live in and around the area and you will seem them constantly as they try to sell you some trinket they swear they found or made.

This ‘neighborhood’ is not inhabited now, but as you can see neighbors were not few. . .nor far between. In fact, Petra was a city for both the living and the dead as quite often the People of Petra would bury, or store, their dead in and around the same places they themselves would live. What you are looking at is both a neighborhood and a cemetery. The stair-step decoration is to help the dead find their way to the afterlife and remind them about life after death.

I mentioned that you can gain access to Petra via foot or by horse. . .and while that is true, that is not entirely true as you can also take a horse-drawn carriage or a camel down into the valley. These camels are piloted by the bedouins who live in and around Petra and they are always willing to take a fat tourist back up to the beginning of the hike, day or night, as it is only, ‘20 minutes back’. Judging from how they drive, it is a venture best left to the professionals.

As the caption states, this area is filled with buildings. They are crammed in and amongst the rocks like cookies in a cookie jar.

To give you a sense of what it might feel to live in such a place, this is a natural window in the stone that gives on to an amazing site.

Muneera appears to be deep in thought about how to get her stuff moved into one of this “homes”.

Petra was not without its entertainment. This is one of the largest amphitheaters in Jordan and served as both a forum and market place. Petra was a Roman supervised settlement and it was here that people in the region would get their news and hear about events of the world. As you can see, they also used this area as both a cemetery and a place to live.

This is Lizzy as she makes her way through one of the natural doorways in the sandstone house.

In case you were wondering what the interiors of these places looked like, here is a shot of on of the many honey-combed caverns that dot the hills. As I understand it, the living and the dead shared equal space with each other, so these built-in “bunk beds” would have served as living quarters, shelves and a place for grandma. Cozy!

There were many churches at Petra after the Romans took over. This one served as a storehouse and a monastery at differing times during the Roman occupation. If you look close, you can see Lizzy waving to you. What amazes me the most, however, is the the amount of rock you can see was removed in order to create/build this building.

Hopefully, you are beginning to get a sense of how truly stunning Petra is. A surprising feature of Petra is the architectural motif that is played out repeatedly on many of the buildings here. As you can see here, the palace of Petra echoes in design the Treasury that greets you as you enter the valley. Many visitors (and not a few conquerors) assumed that the “jars” that surmount many of the temple ruins held treasure. In fact, these are solid rock and the only treasure they guarded was they architecture they comprised.

Until fairly recently, bedouins still lived in and around Petra as they have done for nearly a thousand years. As of a few years ago most of them where told to vacate Petra in order to make way for more tourist and preserve Petra. Today, only about 25 families live in the valleys surrounding Petra where they work by selling the odd trinket or camel ride to tourists. While theirs is a simple life, it is also hard one.

Believe it or not, Petra had a very intricate watering system. The whole siq is lined with a canal that allowed fresh water to run into the valley, with the majority of this “plumbing” cut into the stone. Here, you can see the aqueduct that feed water to the lower section of Petra.

Ali, our guide, was an invaluable source of information about the ruins of Petra. He was lots of fun to talk to and had wealth of information to share. Poor guy was hit with a barrage of questions all day from all sides. Turns out, he was also a bit of a cad and offered to give us 100 camels for Lizzy to be his wife. Well, at first we were quite surprised by his generous offer. . .100 camels is a lot of loot in this region of the world, but as we came to find out, what he was really offering us was 5 packs of cigarettes in exchange for Lizzy’s hand. Here 100 Camel cigarettes is a lot cheaper than 100 camels. Sorry Lizzy, you missed your chance.

The only freestanding building in all of Petra is the Lady’s Palace that served as the residence of the Queen. No small affair, it housed 50 men and women all in attendance upon their sovereign.

As you can imagine, with all the cliff faces and promontories here, there was ample opportunity for climbing around Petra. A few of us decided to venture up to the museum (which was closed), but it offered a most spectacular panorama of the Petra valley. While you can’t see the Treasury in this shot, as it sits back up in the valley entrance (up to the right and behind lots of rock), you can see the main roadway into Petra (in the foreground) and the Temple of Athena just to the right of that. Off in the distance (from the left), you can see the Palace, the church and many of the ruins that comprise the “local neighborhood” to the right of the church.

The valley begins to narrow again at the far end of Petra before it soars up 800 stone steps to the monastery that sits at the opposite end of the Petra valley. Along the way, there are a few temples, like this one, off the beaten track. What is most notable about this temple are the lions that decorate and flank either side of the door into this one room sanctuary.

After climbing 800 steps and dodging tourists, donkeys and the occasional pile of manure, you finally reach the monastery plateau. Here you can see a view what you hike through just to get to the monks and their retreat. While I doubt you will spot the monastery right way, you get kind of used to what to look for once you spend bit of time here. So, to help you out, if you start with the rock outcropping on the right, let your eye travel down the slope and right as you come to the end of this slope, you will notice a small top to a candy jar. There you will see your goal, a mere 100 yds to go.

Much like the Treasury that slowly reveals itself to you as you come out of the siq, the monastery looms from above, teasing you with that tell-tale candy-jar top.

As you can see, the architecture of Petra is a motif that is repeated to great effect several times throughout the valley. It is such an awe-inspiring place; I highly recommend a visit at some point and time if you get the chance . . .it is well worth it. Try, too, to take in a night tour of the place if you want to see what it looks like in the dark by candle light. It is really something to see, but sadly, my little camera couldn’t capture it. >sigh< Anyway...

This brings us to the end of the Petra portion of the trip to Jordan. I have a lot more to share and hopefully, I will get it up sooner than I have this part of the trip.

Oh, before I forget, say good-bye to Lizzy.

Sorry for the protracted silence. I have been settling in and it has taken me a while to get back into the habit of this. That and I don’t yet have an internet connection at my new digs which means i have to carve out a little time for this. . .and like I said, I am out of practice with this.

There is so much to say, but I just need to marshal my thoughts, and then I will dive in with stuff. So, this roll-out, as it is, will be kinda small (school just started), so I will only report on a few things I have noticed right way.

I have been in Qatar a couple, three weeks now and I have to say I am enjoying my new home. . .quite a bit, in fact. In lots of ways it is not unlike any place you would recognize as being different from parts of the US (the heat. . .like Arizona, the humidity. . .like the South, the malls. . .well, come on. . .they’re malls, how different can they be, right?). There is a lot here that is the same as where I left. Starbucks, Hardee’s, Chilis. . .even the DQ has a place to call home. This is hardly a backwater country without the comforts you might think.

Then there is all the stuff that is different—unusual. Even with that, some of the things are what you would expect to find in the Arabian peninsula: women draped in black abayas seemingly able to float over the surfaces they walk across, the men in white thobes so crisp and white they defy laundry explanation, and camels, of course. Which is not to say these guys are running wild across the dunes. In point of fact, I have only seen them at the souk [market] where you can buy them, and they were pretty tethered-up. I hear there are camel races here so that I look forward to, but still. . .is it really unusual given the place I am.

Then, however, there are the anomalies. . .those things that are unique, totally foreign and rather unexpected. Like the fact that I have to turn a light switch DOWN to turn a light on. Not only that, all the light switches are on the OUTSIDE of the room you are trying to illuminate. I can’t tell you how many times I have walked into my dark bathroom and fumbled for the toilet because I can’t be bothered to try and find the light switch. What has been really odd is the fact that all my clocks run fast (some by a few minutes, others by almost half an hour), the only thing that keeps decent time is my watch. Go figure.

No, I like my new home. I like the daily discoveries of how things are done (or not). I came here for an adventure and I am having them. . .and will have more most probably. But it is these little things, these unexpected things, that I find so interesting. They give me a moments pause and remind me that I am in a different place. A place that is not my usual space. Perhaps because these things are outside my norm they are intriguing. Perhaps too, they are all a part of what makes my new home my N-E-W home.

Oddly, I am not the least bit nervous about this: neither about the flight nor about the prospect of a new life living in the desert. I would think that I should be, but for some odd reason I am quite calm. Usually, I am stricken with anticipation anxiety when faced with such prospects. Not this time. I hope this is a good sign (and will take it as such) and not just some sad attempt on my part at denial…a trait I excel at. Actually, I am still, honestly & truly, very excited about what the future holds and look forward to getting to Qatar and all that life has to offer there.

As preamble to this, I have been thinking a lot about leaving…especially given my recent trip across country. I usually hate good-byes, which seem so final…blunt, even…, and instead prefer the idea of leave taking because it offers the option of a friendly returning. Leaving taking is an older, politer, tradition and one I prefer because it requires both parties involved to acknowledge that there is the possibility to the future and its mutual meeting. I like this.

I have left a lot of people lately, but in each instance, I know that I will be seeing them again and there is no small comfort in that. Even if time were to drag out between visits…as it so often does…it is not an inflicting concern because there is the potential for returning, picking up where we left off and continuing on from there. So, with this in mind, I hereby take my leave (even so soon after starting) and will resume from the sultry heat of my new home.

Until then…