June 8, 2009 – Day 165 – Amman, Jordan

Today we made our way back toward the Dead Sea to the place where John the Baptist worked, the Jordan River, and the widely accepted sight of Jesus’ baptism.

John the Baptist's new church

We arrived at the baptism site and had to wait around for the next guided tour (no choice, guide is required). The site its self is … well… boring. A walk through the underbrush on a nice little gravel trail leads to the remains of John the Baptist’s stone baptism pool. It’s stagnant and little more than a stone step, but the significance of the sight was lost on no one. This is the site that Jesus was (allegedly) baptised and the after effects of that one action have reverberated through every culture on the planet.

The site

After this we wandered down to the Jordan river, which at this end is only a small stream. We sat by the waters edge and looked across at Israel, a mere stone’s throw away but a world apart.

The Jordan ... stream

After the tour ended we were in a bit of a jam. We were expecting a taxi or bus or something to be hanging around the parking lot when we got back but there was none. We asked a couple of girls who were heading down to the beach to drop us off at the cross roads. Their driver offered to take us up to the bus stop but wanted a whopping $13 to do so (should have been 4 or so) so instead we hopped out expecting to walk the 10-12k in the desert sun. No sooner had we began walking than the first TWO cars that passed us pulled over offering us a ride! We didn’t know if it was safe to hitch-hike or not but we haven’t met a Jordanian we haven’t liked and 10k didn’t sound like much fun. We piled in and were off. The driver spoke a few words in English and with our very basic Arabic we were able to have the most common conversation we have…

Him: Where you from?

Us: America…

Him: Ahh Obama…

Us: Yes Obama

Him: Obama very good

Us: Yes, Obama very good

Him: Bush…….. no good

Us: Yes, Bush no good

Him: America good

Us: (Insert his country here) good…

They wanted to take us further but were heading the wrong way, so we waited by the bus stop… and waited and waited… and waited. A guy pulled up and ran into the convenience store we were waiting in front of and on his way out asked what we were waiting on. We said “the bus”. He laughed very loud and said, “You don’t need a bus” and walked out into the highway and started yelling “AMMAN” at the cars as they passed. We stood there horrified, having no idea what to do. Three cars stopped but none have room, and just then the bus pulls in. We breathed a sigh of relief and thanked him for his help anyway and took the long sweaty bus ride back to the city…