Thanks For Reading...

The end of the Epic means the end of the blog, but that doesn't mean the end of my travels. Keeping a blog has been a whole lot easier than e-mailing home and forwarding everything around, so in the future I'll always do it this way. “2008 Epic” probably won't be an appropriate name for everything I do in the future, so I'll post all my travel stories at a new blog with a different name. I might even put some personal stuff on there too (but not too personal). Here's the address...

mikespendlove.blogspot.com

As an engineer I've always liked working with numbers. I thought a few well-thought statistics might put the Epic into perspective. Here's what I came up with...

34299 Miles traveled
4263 Photos taken (not counting the ones I deleted)
80 Days spent traveling around the world
68 Malaria pills ingested
42 New stamps in my passport
25 Airplane flights
15 Total countries visited
5 Wild rhino sightings
2 Countries visited with corrupt military regime governments
2 Destroyed t-shirts that I'll never wear again
1 Pair of new flip-flops worn completely into shreds
1 Busted camera lens
1 Complete revolution around the globe
0 Muggings or abductions
0 Picked pockets
0 Cases of ebola, AIDS, or traveler's diarreah

The Epic has been the experience of a lifetime and every day that I've had the internet available to me I've looked forward to sharing my stories and photos with those who are interested. I appreciate all the comments that people have left, as they remind me that home still exists and is waiting for me. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write them, including the school-teacher from Northern California, the random kid from Indonesia, and one of my old flames. To those who didn't leave comments; usually I don't either when I read blogs. Thanks just for reading.

Salt Lake City

One of my favorite parts of traveling is coming home. After a thirteen hour direct flight from Amman to Chicago, a four hour layover, then another three hour flight across the US, I finally arrived back in Salt Lake City. I love coming home. Whenever I travel, and especially when I travel in third world countries, I always come home with an appreciation for everything that makes life better in the United States. I love being able to drink water out of the tap. I love that our streets are clean and that public bathrooms are sanitary and don’t cost money. I love that government officials and law enforcement officers take pride in helping the community rather than just looking at their jobs as a way to extract money from people. I love that there is justice in the United States and that opportunities are better here than they are just about anywhere else in the world. Life is good in America.

With thirty-four hours between the time my flight landed and the time grad school starts tomorrow, I had a lot to take care of today. In a nutshell I ran a whole lot of errands and spent a few hours backing up my pictures and getting them ready to print off. I also got onto iTunes and found some of the South African songs that I blasted in the Toyota Yaris while road-tripping two weeks ago.

The Epic trip already feels like a long dream. So much happened during that eighty days and I saw and experienced so much that I just need some time to mellow out and let it all sink in. In the meantime I’m sure that grad school will keep me busy… and thoughts about future trips. I think that an overland trip from Sweden to South Africa could be pretty cool. Maybe I’ll be able to pull that off after I graduate in 2010…

Amman

My time at Petra was limited today so I had to do some serious prioritizing. The Treasury is by far the most spectacular site at Petra and if there was one last thing I wanted to be sure to do, it was to make the forty minute hike up to a viewpoint where visitors can look down on the Treasury from above. I wandered through The Siq at 7”00 this morning and when I got to the bottom of the Treasury at the end of it, there were literally only three or four other people there. Visiting the most incredible places in the world is great, but it's not often that I get to see them without the crowds. Seeing the Treasury like that today would have been enough to make the entire trip to Jordan worthwhile; even without Wadi Rum or my first day at Petra.I had just enough time to make it to the viewpoint and back before I had to catch a bus to Amman, so I had to hustle. My Lonely Planet book had about a paragraph in it describing how to get to the viewpoint and fortunately that was enough to make it very obvious. I passed by a giant ruin called the “Palace Tomb” on my way to the trailhead and after climbing several hundred steps; some of them ancient and some of them reconstructed; I reached the top of a cliff from which I could see almost every ruin in Petra's ancient city. Another ten minutes of hiking took me to the edge of The Siq and as I approached it I saw The Treasury about a hundred feet below me.I was hoping that by the time I reached the top of The Siq the sun would be high enough that the Treasury would be lit up by it, but unfortunately I was just a little bit too early. If I had had another hour or so I would have been there for the best view of the day, but like I said, the bus to Amman was on it's way and if I missed it I might have missed my flight back to the United States. The great thing about being at the viewpoint that early was that except for a few lizards, I was the only one up there. It was a lot of fun just to climb around a few of the different rocks along the edge of The Siq and try to find the best view of the Treasury down below. I'm really glad that I made that hike, but to be perfectly honest, the Treasury is a lot more impressive when looking up from below it. I think that's true of any structure that's impressive because of it's size - things never look as big when you're looking down on them.

Catching a bus to Amman turned out to be quite a hassle; possibly the biggest hassle of my entire trip. As is the case with any developing country, in Jordan there is no such thing as an assigned seat on a bus, or, for that matter, a reserved seat on a bus. When the bus to Amman finally pulled into the parking lot in Wadi Musa this morning a hoard of about forty Arab men chased after it and crowded around the door, each of them hoping to secure one of the precious few seats aboard. I played along because I knew it was the only way to get to Amman and I ended up being one of the lucky few sitting down in the bus when all the seats were full. What happened next completely shocked me.

About five Arab men surrounded me and shouted and tried to intimidate me, apparently trying to convince me to give up my seat for one of their friends. One of the men lied repeatedly to me, telling me that the bus was not going North to Amman, but South to Aqaba. The situation escalated and within seconds three of the men grabbed me by the arms and legs, wrestled me out of my seat, and threw me across to the other side of the bus. I stood up and the man collecting fares at the front of the bus motioned for me to get off.

Obviously I was upset by the fiasco with the bus to Amman, but I think that kind of situation is very uncommon in Jordan. Only ten minutes later a few of the remaining passengers hopeful for a ride to Amman arranged transport in a minivan and I was on my way. The Arab men in the minivan apologized profusely for the behavior of the others. One of them offered me a cigarette and when I told him I don't smoke, another insisted on buying me a drink at the next stop. Like I said, I think situations like that are very uncommon in Jordan. Even so, a Danish man who was riding in the same minivan offered some perspective on the whole thing... “It's interesting to experience racism from the other side.”

After arriving in Amman I had just enough time to see a couple of the city's most visited sites before heading for my hotel. I wasn't all that excited about Amman - I only came here to catch my flight home tomorrow morning - but visiting a country's “big city” always offers some insight into the local culture. Before today I didn't realize how much Ancient Greek and Roman influence there there is in Jordan. To some extent the architecture at Petra was inspired by that of the Greeks and Romans, but in Amman it's much more obvious.

The city's most iconic site is a giant, ancient amplitheatre in the middle of downtown that was built in the same style as the Greeks. I made the amplitheatre my first visit of the day and spent about an hour climbing up and down the steps and enjoying the views. The great thing about the ruins in Amman is that they're in such a different environment than any other ruins I've visited before. Everywhere else I've visited ruins, with the exception of Rome, they've always been either on top of a giant hill or out in the middle of nowhere; completely isolated from civilization. In my opinion that's how ruins should be; visitors should be able to enjoy them without dealing with the pollution, noise, and chaos of a big city. At the same time though, it's different to see just one set of ruins that is right in the middle of everything; it's interesting because it's so out of place. Even in Rome the ancient ruins feel much more isolated than those in Amman.My last bit of sightseeing on the epic trip was at an ancient set of ruins called “The Citidel”. The Citidel is more destroyed and less impressive than the amplitheatre, but I spent a few minutes at the National Archeological Museum nearby and that turned out to be worth the visit. In Jerusalem I missed visitng the Israeli National Museum because I just didn't have the time and I wished that I could have seen some of the Dead Sea Scrolls that are on exhibition there. It turned out that I got to see some of them in Amman today. The National Archeological Museum has a few well-deteriorated sets of the scrolls, but it was more than enough for me. I've heard so much about the scrolls and have seen images of them on TV and in magazines, but nothing is quite like seeing the real thing. As I looked over the fragments of the scrolls today I saw for myself the tiny ancient Hebrew characters and the weathered brown leather that they're written on. To be honest I really don't know much about the scrolls beyond just the basic history of them, but seeing them was still pretty incredible.My last free hotel room from American Express was tonight at the lavish “Le Meridian Amman”. I spoiled myself with a long, steamy hot shower, then ate lamb with warm pita bread and hummus at the hotel's Lebanese Restaurant. After dinner came an hour long soak in my large bathtub.

It has been seventy-nine days since I left home on my flight to Bangkok. That seems so long ago and I've become so used to having mind-blowing experiences every day, but it always feels good to go home. I'm looking forward to finally arriving in the United States tomorrow afternoon.

Petra

Petra was once the home to the Nabatean civilization, who carved the edifices out of stone and became weathy by imposing trade regulations around 200 BC. Among the ruins of their civilization is a giant tomb called “The Monestary”, another tomb called “The Treasury”, a massive temple influenced by Greek architecture, an amplitheatre large enough to seat 3000, and hundreds of smaller tombs carved out of the sides of surrounding cliffs.The most recognizable of the ruins at Petra is undoubtedly the Treasury. The building is the most detailed of those at Petra and it features Greek columns and incredible symmetry that collectively make it the most amazing sight in Jordan. The Treasury was built as a tomb for the Nabatean king Aretas III, but most people really don't know much about Aretas and don't care much about his legacy (I had to look up that bit of information in my guide book, I don't know a thing about Aretas either). The Treasury's real claim to fame is that it was the set for the final climactic scene of the movie, “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.I sat around in Rum Village this morning waiting for a bus to Wadi Musa, the nearest town to Petra. As I sat I watched Arabic kids in a nearby dusty field moving camels around and situating them wherever was necessary. I wonder sometimes how many camels would be in Middle Eastern countries if not for tourists. I'm sure there would still be plenty because it's a part of the culture that has been around for hundreds of years, but a camel ride is always a good way to relieve a tourist of a few dollars and the locals in the Middle East are always sure to take advantage of that. Without a doubt the camel population has increased dramatically because of all the business that Western tourists drum up.After dumping off my stuff at a cheap hotel in Wadi Musa and taking a much needed shower, I finally was off to see the ruins of Petra. A long, narrow rock canyon called “The Siq” leads to the entrance to Petra. As I wandered through The Siq a few rays of light streamed inside from overhead, and when I finally reached the end the Treasury came into view ahead of me in all it's bright orange rocky glory. I've seen picutres of the Treasury more than a few times and of course I've seen it in the Indiana Jones movie, but there's always something about seeing a place in real life that is more exciting. I love visiting places for myself and forming my own impressions from the experiences that I have. I enjoy hearing about the impressions of others before I visit, but there's always something about visiting myself. From what I saw today I can verify that the exterior of the Treasury looks just like George Lucas shot it for Indiana Jones. The interior, however, is a different story. I think Mr. Lucas took a few creative liberties for that scene.Later in the afternoon I visited several of Petra's most famous sites, including the Urn Tomb, the Upper Temenos Temple, and the Monestary. Of those my favorite was easily the Monestary, which is even larger than the Treasury and almost as detailed. I spent the rest of the afternoon walking five miles back to the entrance of Petra, then another two miles back to my hotel. I always try to commit to not spend money frivolously while traveling, but I was so beat-up and exhausted after all the walking today that by the time I got back to my room I had downed two giant bottles of water that cost three times what they would have back in town, and I put down two massive ice cream cones that left my belly feeling heavy for an hour afterwards.Unfortunately I'll only have a few hours to see the rest of Petra tomorrow before I have to leave to catch my bus to Amman, but I'm still pretty satisfied with my visit. Petra is one of many places that I've wanted to see for years. It feels great to have finally experienced it.

Wadi Rum

I had two main objectives before coming to Wadi Rum yesterday. The first was to spend a night in a Bedouin style camp, which I did last night, and the second was to take a tour of the desert riding either a jeep or a camel.Mohommad took me back to Rum Village from his camp and after a short hike this morning I met a Polish family at his office who was arranging a tour of Wadi Rum. Traveling solo has plenty of advantages, but there are also a few disadvantages as well. It's bad enough that I have to pay for the full cost of hotel rooms and cabs without splitting that cost with someone else, but I also have to find someone to split the cost of tours with unless I want to foot the bill for the entire thing myself. The Polish family turned out to be perfect travel companions today. A four hour tour of Wadi Rum via jeep would have cost 50 JD, or about 70 US dollars, had I paid for it all myself. By splitting the cost with four others I paid only 10 JD and was off to see the desert in a rickety Land Cruiser.Wadi Rum looks like Lake Powell without the water. Giant orange cliffs tower high above the landscape and bright red sand and a few scraggly green shrubs cover the desert floor below. I knew before I came that what I would see would be very similar to what's in Southern Utah back home, but that's actually part of the reason why I really wanted to see it. I'm used to red rock being unique to Utah. There are very few places on Earth that have such exotic, natural landscapes and I was curious to see how the desert in Jordan would compare to the desert halfway around the world back home.The main difference that I've observed between Wadi Rum and Southern Utah is that Wadi Rum is wide, wide open. The rock formations here rise from the valley floor in large clusters, but in some parts of the desert there is nothing but sand for miles. We spent the day rallying across the bumpy red sand from one point of interest to the next. Most of the sites we visited were wild rock formations, but we also saw an old shelter made of giant sandstone bricks, as well as some ancient rock art depicting camels and a few Arab men. Among the rock formations we saw were a natural sandstone bridge about one hundred feet high, a massive rock that was balanced precariously on two natural columns, and a narrow canyon that let just a sliver of light through to the bottom. Between the rock formations here and those in Utah, I would probably prefer the ones in Utah. Arches National Park, for example, has plenty of geological wonders unlike anything else in the world. Like I said though, I wanted to see Wadi Rum for the Bedouin camping experience and for perspective, not because I was looking for something that would beat the National Parks in Southern Utah. It blows my mind that with all the amazing stuff down there, some people still don't make the four hour drive South of Salt Lake City to see it.Back at Mohammad's camp tonight I climbed a rock made of red sandstone and watched the sun go down with a few other travelers. I originally wanted to take a bus or cab to Petra tonight, but it turned out that it'll be a lot cheaper and easier tomorrow morning. Besides that, I don't mind spending one more night camping in the desert; that's what I came here for. Tonight the Bedouin man set the mood with his crude stringed instrument again and afterwards everyone had another tasty Arab dinner.Of the seven New Wonders of the World, Petra is one of only two that I haven't seen yet (ironically enough the other one is the Mayan pyramid of Chitzinitza, which is the closest of the seven to Utah). If the other five that I've visited were any indication of how impressive those sites are, finally seeing Petra tomorrow should be mind-blowing. It'll be a perfect way to finish off the epic trip.

Masada

I got up at 5:30 this morning to watch the sun rise over the Dead Sea. If I had known better I would have waited until 6:30 because the mountains on the East side of the sea block the view of the sun until then, but all it meant is that I sat on the shore watching the sky grow lighter for an extra hour. The views of the sunrise were nice, but I've been spoiled in Africa already. Now it takes a sunrise that's pretty incredible to get me even a little bit excited. I took a few photos of the sky and the reflection of the sun on the water, but I also noticed that the rocks along the shoreline were covered with salt formations. One rock in particular had giant beads of salt that undoubtedly formed from the lake water leaving deposits behind. Later in the day, as I rode a bus South to Eilat, Israel, I saw that on some parts of the shoreline the entire coast is covered with gleaming white salt for miles.I like visiting ruins. I don't know what it is about ruins that does it for me, but ever since visiting Angkor Wat in Cambodia in 2006, I try to visit all the world-class ruins I can that are within a reasonable distance of where I am traveling. The rocky ruins at the ancient Jewish fortress of Masada are not in the greatest condition, but the history behind them makes them pretty incredible.A cable car runs from the base of Masada to the top of it's plateau, but I decided to walk the up instead via the “Snake Path”; the trail that was used by the ancient inhabitants of the place. The weather was hot today. I probably sweat a full two liters of water by the time I finally got to the top, but at least I know what it would have been like to have to climb the thing two-thousand years ago.

I learned a few interesting things about Masada today. First of all, Masada wasn't built by the Jews. Masada was originally a Roman fortress and palace that many people and civilizations contributed to; most notably the great builder King Herod. During the Roman occupation of Israel at about 50 BC the last group of Jews overtook Masada and used it as their hideaway. When the Romans finally surrounded the place, built a giant ramp, and busted inside, they found that the inhabitants of Masada had all killed themselves the previous night. That's another thing about Masada; the deaths weren't individual suicides. About 100 residents lived in Masada at the time of the Roman attack and from them ten people were randomly chosen to carry out the deaths of the rest. Finally the remaining ten drew lots and chose one among them to kill the rest before killing himself. When the Romans crushed through the Western wall of the complex the next morning they found only seven women and children who had hidden themselves. Besides that there was nobody to sell into slavery and no victims of war to gloat over. Today Masada is a symbol of Israel's determination to keep their homeland at all costs, even at the cost of death. Modern Israelis are all too familiar with the slogan, “Masada will never fall again.”, which reflects the local attitude towards protecting the current State of Israel.I spent a few hours wandering through the ruins of Masada. A lot of the ancient structures looked the same to me, but a few were more interesting. King Herod built a lavish palace and bathhouse at Masada, among other sumptuous structures, so today tourists can enjoy what is left of his extravagant architecture. The bathhouse is a pretty sophisticated building considering the technology that the ancient Romans had available to them. Visitors to Masada enter the bathhouse at the dressing room, which featured a floor covered with black and white triangular tiles, then they move on to the “Warm Room”. The bathhouse consisted of a “Cold Room”, a “Warm Room”, and a “Hot Room”, each, or course, which maintained a different temperature. Cold water cooled the coldest of the rooms and two rooms over, in the Hot Room, a furnace blew air through a network of pipes and openings constructed beneath the tile floor. Herod's palace occupied the most prime piece of real-estate at Masada and is perched at the edge of a one-thousand foot cliff at the Northern edge of the plateau. Herod spared no expense and made sure his winter home at Masada was complete with columns typical of Roman architecture at the time and a swimming pool that was filled out of the fortress's water supply. After wandering through the rest of the complex my final visit of the day was at a fifth century Byzantine church that was, of course, built long after the Jews and Romans were through fighting over Masada.I don't remember ever seeing cultures between two bordering countries change so quickly as those at the border of Israel and Jordan. After crossing late this afternoon and taking a cab into the Jordanian border town of Aqaba, I suddenly felt like I could be in the middle of Iraq somewhere. Arabic signs were everywhere and many of the local men were sporting the traditional outfit of a red Arabic turban and a long, gleaming white robe. I saw the same stuff when I was in Dubai, but not like today. Dubai is so modern and cosmopolitan that many parts of it feel just like a European or American city. Jordan is different. Jordan is more raw.

I love riding on busses where I'm the only white man and the only English-speaker aboard. I rode such a bus from Aqaba to a highway junction near Wadi Rum this afternoon. I few of the Arab men on board knew a handful of English words, and between that and some charades we could communicate well enough. The bus was full when I approached it in Aqaba, but in developing countries there is always room for one more. I sat on a tiny platform next to the driver's seat at the front of the bus and was facing backwards so I could see the other thirty passengers staring and grinning at me for the duration of the ride.

As the white man I was quite the novelty. I stared back at my thirty new friends and thought to myself that this could be a scene out of a random Middle-Eastern-themed movie. A few women were on board, dressed in the obligatory black burkas, and several of the men wore Arabic turbans and long white robes. The younger kids were dressed in semi-Western apparel. I was informed by the others that one particular young man, who sported a rip-off New York Yankees hat, wasn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box. The man offered me his cigarettes and made unwanted advances towards me until I finally reached my stop. When I finally got off the bus at the highway junction the same guy got off with me and I had to physically push him away to keep him from planting one right on my lips.

I had another “this-is-absolutely-crazy” moment as I threw my backpack around my shoulders and walked down the sun-covered highway today. The red Jordanian desert surrounded me on all sides and giant orange rock formations towered above in the distance. I had just jumped off a bus filled with people that I've only seen before on CNN, and I was wandering alone through a country sandwiched between Israel and Iraq. Another thing about Iraq - any one of the people I met on the bus could easily jump on another bus and be in the war-ravaged nation in less than four hours. For that matter, if I had no brains I could also be in the war-ravaged nation in less than four hours. I have no intention of going to Iraq this trip or on any other trip until the place is perfectly safe for visitors. With that said though, it feels a little mind-blowing that Saddam Hussein's terrible mess of a country is right next door.

An Arab man named Mohammad Hussein offered to take me to his camp in the desert once I reached Wadi Rum this evening. Even though another man I talked to at the desk of the Wadi Rum National Park office told me that an overnight stay in such a camp should cost only 25 Jordanian Dinars, Mohommad convinced me that because he was including a jeep ride to the camp with the price, 35 JD was a fair price. I suspected that Mr. Hussein was overcharging me, but it was late at night and I just wanted to get to the camp - I was in no mood and no position to haggle.

As we were riding in the Jeep, Mohammed spoke up. “You don't need to talk to anyone else at the camp about the price because I give you discount.”

... I was right. Mohammad ripped me off.

At the camp this evening I wandered past the traditional nomadic Bedouin tents and sat down to listen to a local man sing and play along with a crude stringed instrument. Dinner was a giant feast of pita bread with grilled chicken, diced cucumber and tomato salad, a spicy dish with beef and onions, potatoes in a thin cheese sauce, and a large heap of brown rice. Afterwards I dragged a foam pad and thick blanket away from the camp and threw them on the sand to bed down for the night.Wadi Rum is beautiful, and even though I had only a few minutes to see it today before the sun went down, that much was obvious. Every place I've visited on the epic trip is a place I want to go back to, and Jordan is no different. My summer full of travels is winding down, and although I'm very excited to get home, I've become used to having mind-blowing experiences every day that I'll remember for the rest of my life. I'll miss that the second I get on my flight to the United States.