It is not always the photographs, some places will just remain memorable.
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Jorden temperature:
Minimum 0 degrees
Maximum 14 degrees.
This is when I knew that I was in for a cold trip. Neither had mittens nor a long coat to keep me warm. Fortunately I had my grand fathers sweater made of kashmiri wool, which was my only hope of remaining warm.
We reached at about 11am in the morning and went straight to the clients office. Those people hailed Suri uncle for his knowledge over the subject. We then finished with all our discussion and headed to the hotel by 4 in the afternoon. Suri uncle (my boss who was traveling with me) and I were invited for a lovely Arabic cum Lebanese dinner by the client. We got back by 10.30 and crashed immediately, as we had an early morning.
Day 2 started at 5.30am. We left the hotel at 6 and were driving to one of the seven wonders of the world- The Petra. It is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. Petra is also one of the new wonders of the world. All that you see around is rocks. Surely my sense of archeology is pathetic, but speaking purely from the aesthetic point of view, all of these rocky structures didn't seem to appeal to me.
This place is only about 150km from Gaza. The guide was telling me that they could occasionally hear bombings. I thought that this was the closest that I could get to the Gaza Israel conflict.
After dropping suri uncle to the airport(since he was leaving that evening and I had decided to stay another day to see Jordan), I went to see a Roman structure, which was at downtown Amman(capital of Jordan). Very typical of the structures that you would expect to see in Rome, or the structures that they show in movies based in Rome.
Finally I got back to my hotel at about 3.30 in the afternoon. I noticed unusual commotion around the hotel that I was staying. The office staff was out on the road and everyone was looking towards one direction, where I could see a lot of tough policemen. Soon found out that the Israeli consulate was a few blocks away. About 5,000 people had assembled there to shows their protest against the bombing in Gaza. I managed to zoom and get a few pictures of the cops standing at a distance. This was simply because I wanted to build a story of my entire trip, with every picture having a small story to tell.
I went back inside and was watching TV in the lobby as all the action that was happening near our hotel was being covered live. Suddenly a gentleman who was standing outside called me outside as I could get a closer snap of the cops. As soon as I walked out, we saw the cops coming closer towards us. They were chasing all the people who had come to protest. Not understanding sensitivity of this issue, I pulled out my camera and got a great snap of the cops beating up a guy. In a matter of 2 seconds, one cop pointed out to me and then 4 of them came charging towards me with their baseball like sticks held high. This is when I stopped breathing and realized that I had done something that I should not have. I was then held by my collar and pinned against the wall. I just started to say-'I am a tourist. Sorry.' I continued to be held tight while they pulled me towards a gang of cops who looked huge and uninviting. At this point, instead of my mind going black, it started to run in all directions. I started to wonder what if I am beaten out of shape? Will the person who invited me to Jordan be able to rescue me? Or will suri uncle have to come back and rescue me? But who would even inform them? Why were they not allowing the hotel managed to talk to them in Arabic and tell them that I am a tourist?
I was just hoping that I would not be physically assaulted and taken into custody. After a few unfriendly moments, we both realized that we were not making any communication, as they were trying to threaten or question me in Arabic and I replied in a language that they understood nothing of. They took my camera and started to open it up. I was hoping that he would not rip my camera apart by crushing it under his feel, like Sunny Corleonie did to the photographer in The Godfather. Considering his size and build, it would take him just one stamp to finish my camera. Fortunately I pull my passport out and conveyed my message to an extent. Mean while a lady, who seemed like one of those protestors, ran out from her car and came to talk to these cops. She held my hand and communicated with the men, which I guess was a plea to let me go. They opened my cam and pulled out my 2GB SanDisk memory card and broke it. He looked straight into my eyes and bit it once again to ensure that it was completely broken. This is when that lady and a few other men came and took me away. I walked back towards the hotel and got a lot of sympathy from the people there, and specially the person who had called me out to click a picture.
We then came inside the hotel and everyone there was telling me about what and why this was happening. I was also informed that a short while back, a reporter and camera man from Al Jazeera news channel was thrashed and taken into custody for trying to capture this event on camera. That's when I evaluated my loss and thanked god that I had lost only a small memory card, that was of an irrelevant company and of an irrelevant GB.
I came up to my room and started to wonder what had really happened. Soon I heard the siren of the police van. I quickly switched off all the lights in my room off and looked carefully out of the window. A huge jeep with a lot of commandos, men who were stronger and better equipped, were driving around the place looking for protestors. People ran into buildings, hid behind cars, and looked for all ways of escaping. The unfortunate ones who were caught by the cops were thrashed out of shape. Just one blow with those baseball size bats, anyone would promise never to get involved in any event of this sort. After some peace in the street, this whole event reoccurred. This time the cops fired tear bombs and were larger number. I had managed to see the entire show as my balcony looked onto the street where all of this was happening.
After all of this tamasha, I rested for a while in the room and waiting for Mohamed to pick me up, as we were going to check out a bar in Jordan. I wanted to see some belly dancers in action, as I was told that Jordan had some of the best belly dancers. However this didn't happen and I had quite a disappointing evenings.
Next day morning the client and I drove to the famous Dead Sea. It is 420 metres below sea level, and its shore is the lowest point on the surface of the Earth on dry land.
The water in this ocean is very salty, around 10 times saltier than most common oceans. The mud bath in this sea is what tourist from all over the world come to experience. The mud here is full of minerals and is supposed to be one of the best ways to cure the skin disease Psoriasis.
The point in the sea that I had visited was around 1 Km wide, with the other side of the sea belonging to Israel. So around 500mts was in Jordan and the other half of the dead sea was Israel. This time, from the car I managed to get a picture of Israel without getting into any trouble!!
After this he dropped me off to the airport. I left Jordan with a lot of memories, which for a change, will not be found in any picture or video!
With this I also completed my first overseas travel for the company. Hope these good times keep rolling!!
-Nikhil
