Comments on: The Round Trip part 17: Impenetrable

By: sh

sh — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:17:33 +0000

Gaudí not having ventured this far, if there are no signs explaining stone structures on the sides of roads in these parts it usually means they’re things the state doesn’t want us reminded about. These look restored or at least patched up so someone must know.
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Yuval, your news that one now needs to be assigned a travel agent before being allowed into Jordan comes as a great shock. I’ve been to Aqaba twice via the Arava crossing, the first time about a week after it was opened. I had no clue what to expect then and was only there for a half a day but the feeling you describe of being far from home was exhilarating. Apart from the sound of the muezzin at prayer-times, what sticks in my memory was sitting on furniture made out of palm fronds that you could see being made nearby and drinking Coke from a bottle ceremoniously opened in front of us by the boy waiting on the tables, the label of which was shown for our approval first as though it was a choice wine; and in town on the sidewalks, water stops consisting of ceramic jugs hanging from a metal bar that thirsty passersby could dip into the drinking water below to refresh themselves as they shopped. When I returned a couple of summers back all those big international hotels with liveried guards in front of them had hogged the waterfront and it felt very different.

By: Dhalgren

Dhalgren — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:02:26 +0000

I’m glad you were able to escape your would-be Jordanian captors unscathed, Yuval, or rather with your credit card unscathed. You should have let Ibrahim and his brother know that, while you might appear to be traveling alone, you actually have a virtual audience following your every move, replete with Google map markers. The Kingdom of Jordan would do well to maintain cordial relations with the Nation of Yuval on his round trip.

Anyone have any idea what that peculiar structure by the road was?

By: AYLA

AYLA — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:02:33 +0000

just a shout-out, Yuval. I was on that same road near the Arava Greenhouses and into the Faran yesterday (Monday), and I kept looking at the trampers/hitchhikers to see if they were you! Also, I’m reading this just after saying goodbye to the amazingly nice green-product exterminator, Rafi, who just left my home. While explaining why the products were safe for my dog, he said nothing of insect castration. There are interesting things to find along that desert road, route 90, of course (mud house building on a moshav connected to kibbutz faran, for example), but not much to eat.
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I would just like to say, since you’re in touch with your female side, try taking the prisoner-phenomenon you experienced with Ibrihim and the man whose job is to be his brother–which I think is not only because of the new law; one experiences the same thing in Sinai with the drivers who then own you until you leave–and multiply it by being a woman, you will understand, well, a bit more about what it means to be a female tourist in some of our neighboring countries.
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here’s hoping you got good and lost.