After visiting Armenia, meeting with friends and family and attending ceremonies of centennial of Genocide I left Yerevan to go to Amman, Jordan to meet with an old friend. When I decided to travel around the world I made a conscious decision to meet with people I have not seen for years along the way. The main reason I chose Jordan to meet my friend was to see Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world. Petra was a three hour drive from Amman. We rented a car to drive around. When I was making a reservation for the rental car by mistake I reserved a manual stick shift car. I have to mention it has been about 18 years since I last drove a stick shift car, but that was not even an issue after I realized how driving is so different in Jordan. My first surprise happened when I was driving in the freeway to go to the hotel, when a young man jumped over the divider of the freeway right in front of my car on the fastest lane. This happened a few more times during my four day stay in Jordan.One of my discoveries was that people either take really dangerous risks or they absolutely trust driver’s abilities to control the car not to hit them.

The nest day we traveled to Petra. We stopped in a couple of places just to observe the culture and also ask some questions from the locals about the surroundings and places to see. I was impressed by their knowledge of English language. Even the bread bakers knew basic English, enough to communicate. People seem to live a simple life in the suburbs of Amman. The simplicity of life in these countries makes you wonder if we really need all the extra noise and business we have created around us. I felt a connection with Jordanians although this was my first trip to Jordan and I have no Jordanian roots. The simplicity and purity of people awakened the feeling of oneness in me. People in developing countries are much kinder and friendlier than we believe they are.

Petra was an amazing experience. Visiting sights like Petra always leaves me in awe of how advanced our ancestors were in engineering complex cities. Petra was a Las Vegas of its time. It was an oasis in the middle of the desert were traders and businessmen came together to exchange goods. It was well worth it to see. The craftsmanship used in building an entire city by carving each building from one piece of stone and the advanced engineering used to bring water to inhabitants and visitors of the city makes it a masterpiece of it’s era. I would highly recommend for everyone to put Petra in their bucket-list of places to see in the world.

Part of traveling around the world is to familiarize myself with the cuisine of each country I visit. I always liked middle-eastern cuisine and of course Jordan was not an exception. It was in Jordan when I realized my eating habits are changing. When traveling from one place to another and paying attention to what I wanted to see or do, I tend to put eating at the bottom of my list. I realized there that traveling for such a long period of time is very different from traveling during a vacation period. I needed to pay more attention to my bodies natural needs. I had to be conscious about not skipping my regular meals and increasing resting time as I was walking and participating in physical activities much more than my regular routine. Having a jam packed schedule everyday would burn me out very fast.

Jordan or more specifically Petra was a great experience. My next stop was Georgia.