Dead Sea, check

Current coordinates are in Amman, Jordan. A group of us four ajnabee girls drove down to the 30% saline Dead Sea. We were stopped for what we thought was speeding but really more of an opportunity for a policeman to propose to our friend who was driving. "Marriage, me?" he laughs. We went down to the Sea, paid 1JD to the man with a bucket of mud and globbed it all over. We now smell like mud and are currently trying to clean up before heading out to a Yemani restaurant.

Amman is quite different from Damascus. Whereas in Damascus the traffic is like a circus on a skating rink, people here drive in lanes, more or less. Here there are no sanctions, and there is Coca Cola (took a picture), McDonald's, various American imports etc. This city also ballooned in the past 60 years. A city of white orthogonal barnacles attached to the hillsides. Everything looks the same, and after some driving around one feels a need for some landmarking more stable than billboards. And after Damascus you wonder if any city can happen in less than 7000 years.

Tomorrow, Petra.