I've been finding it difficult to write about Amman. It's a fine enough city with a lively old area and a surprisingly modern and upscale new city. You see, the problem is that it was freezing and pouring with rain (or hail or snow as the case may be) most of the time we were there. That sort of clouds opinions. We managed to have a couple of excellent meals and meet some interesting people. A man named Kair invited us to sit in his café and drink mint tea...

After a long, wet day at Petra, chest cold worsening and exhaustion setting in, we made the only logical decision there was, and booked a trip out to the desert. We headed down to the Wadi Rum with our two other tour members- The German and The Spanish. We spent an hour driving then got shuffled from our car to an open jeep and started touring around Lawrence's desert. We had mint tea with the Bedouins and climbed some rocks. We saw Lawrence of Arabia's house...

Brian learned two new things about me today. First that my whining has a whole other level beyond what he's experienced, and second that I can push myself to do things that no one thought I was capable of when I'm really determined! We crossed the border relatively easily though not only did they stamp our passports on the Israeli side, but they did it without a date, so we had to go back and get a second stamp. There's no mistaking where we've been traveling!...