- Part One -

Crossing Jordan.

Amman Jordan and Crossing the border.

After an exhausting yet exhilirating experience in the Petra Ruins, we boarded on the bus to Amman which took us an hour and a half.  I noticed that houses, hotels, small commercial buildings have the same shape and material.  Square, very regular edges, made in limestone (we call it mactan stone) or marble or a mix of both.  One can only differentiate the variety through the style and the number of windows.  When in the center of the towns, most of the streets are still cobbled stones, but out in the highway, the bus glides in a very smooth asphalt-covered concrete.  Man, talk about road trip!  Like when you're cruising in the highway, no intersections, only soft curves and spanning through the desert where you can see the sun lazily floating just above the horizon, you can't help but imagine yourself drivin a top-down convertible cadillac, juz like what you see in the movies! hehe.

Then we arrived Ahman, wow I finally caught a sight of something familiar, juz like in Manila: Traffic! wow this sure feels nostalgic We'll it's the capital city after all.  Then familiar places appeared one after the other; fast food like: KFC, Mc Donalds and Pizza Hut.. and wait.. starbucks!  Coffee Gemek anyone?   The city was nice, still all the structures, from hotels, to condos, to malls and even commercial buildings, they are all squares hehe.  Well I can imagine why, just like what I witnessed in Petra, the weather can be so hot, yet the stones maintain a cool temperature, I have seen a documentary one time saying  "out in the dessert, it can be very hot during daytime yet very cold during the night", therefore, these type of stones must be the neutralizing factor.  I'm not sure though if this type of architecture is required by the Jordanian Government.  There might be some places where structures are build with an influence from other countries.  Our hotel was nice, the room was nice, lying down the bed was nice, then it was morning! What!?I   thought I just closed my eyes for a moment there, then before I knew it, it was morning!  My lil bro Julian and I fell asleep without changing our clothes, we even have skipped our dinner, which, according to our tourmates, was one of the best dinner of the trip. *sob*

Day 3 - 050608 / 6-7-8

After a huge breakfast and a quickie taygwer photo-shoot, we head west-ward towards the border of Israel.  Up and down the valleys of Jordan, the guide continues his daily monotonous and lethargic lectures about Jordan. I almost all the time feels like he's this routine all his life that his mouth speaks independently, without a concious effort from the brain.  Maybe because he thinks nobody's listening, or maybe it's just how he does his lectures, or maybe... It was all in my mind, was just thinking too much LOLz. 

At the border

Two hours and thirty minutes, we arrived the Jordanian-Israeli border.   We had to alight our bus, with all our luggages and have them go through the x-ray machines.  Exiting Jordan was a breeze though, but entering the Israeli border was a different story!  Just a couple of minutes drive through the DMZ (De-Militarized Zone), we were once again asked to alight the bus and go through a series of security checks.  I tell ya, the experience in this area "is on the level".     After going through a series of inspections, we face interrogation of the Immigration officer; "Where are you going?" "What are you planning to do there?" "How long are you planning to stay there?" "Who're you with?" Then looks at you intently.  In some occassions, they'll ask "when was the last time you saw your luggage?" "are you carrying anything as a gift for someone in Israel?" What?! In my case, I was asked the first general questions, along with "where do you plan to go next?"  Stares at me, then at my passport, then back at me.  I dunno, maybe she had a slight suspicion that I might be carrying a fake passport because I don't look like the man in the picture, or maybe I looked too young for my age; or perhaps, my first name is Christian, and they are either Judaism or Islamic and according to my mom, it could be an eyesore.  Then I was thinking: maybe this young lady is just thinking of an excuse to detain me in the border and take me home after work hehehe! - Delusions of a demented mind.  Then she stood up, went to the other room and I had no idea what she did, but as she came back, she stamped my visa and let me through.  And by the way, we had slight adjustments regarding this: we had our visa's stamped in a separate sheet of paper, not on our passports.  We were advised to do so, if we are planning to enter an Arab country, lest, we would be denied entry.  You can go around it though, by processing a new passport, which was not an option for us since we are going straight to U.A.E. at the end of the tour.

There was one thing that everybody noticed about the Israeli border though; almost all, if not all of the personnel looked barely legal.  Boys and girls as young as 16 I think are carrying guns and patroling the border.  The Immigration Officer who interviewed me looked like she was just in her early twenties if not 19.  Boys and girls who you'd think are just fresh from their prom night are already out in the border, carrying guns, ready to lay theire lives on the line to protect their country, should that need arise.  I was thinking: "At 18, kids here are talkin about cars and nightlife, who's hot and who's cool.  Don't get me wrong, I think they're all good looking, both guys and gals alike.  It's just that, they're good looking guys and gals carrying guns.

Well... after a rigorious inspection and interrogation, all of us finally got through, with the God's grace.  We shared our experiences with each other as we waited for the rest.  Some said that they were asked to open their luggage, some were granted their visa's very easy.  But according to Fr. Francis, the security routine that we had experienced was rather lenient, compared to the last time he went to Israel.  The procedure lasted for almost 2 hours while ours only took around 30-45 mins tops.  And with that, we bid Khalid - the tour guide, the Kingdom of Jordan goodbye as we are greeted by Eitan, our Israeli guide, we set foot to our journey in the promise land.

- End of Part 1 -

(next entry: The Region of Galilea)