(This set of posts comprise an addendum for Time and Place 2015-16, accounting for previous travels and events.) 

I can honestly say that my hotel room in Amman was among the strangest ever…and yet completely comfortable. The photo doesn’t do it justice but it was huge with blankets so heavy they could barely be lifted and windows opening so wide the dry desert breeze and the haunting calls to prayer had full access to my sleepy self.

Amman is a most interesting city, even the little I saw of it. For me, one of the relatively few negatives of traveling alone is that with every detail and task in your hands, there’s sometimes little energy left for big or even small explorations. I did make it downtown and also took a late evening stroll to a local restaurant where men and women smoked hookahs and drank fruit juice each in their separate dining areas. Very welcoming however, the food was tasty, and the people all so very statuesque and handsomely Middle Eastern.

PETRA…is where the magic begins. There’s nothing I can say about the experience of visiting this site-like-no-other. You can google it, get books, see it in various films and documentaries but, really, this is someplace you should put very high up on your Must-See list.

It all began in a dust storm worthy of southern New Mexico which turned us back the first day but the second try was successful and I still feel that I visited the most magical kingdom of all.