View from our room

Back in May, when I had come to Jordan for the first time, one of the places I had visited is a place called ‘Tree of Life’. This was one our way to Mount Nebo. It is a mosaic handicraft store.

A mosaic store, in this part of the world is really not that big a deal. What made this place special is that – first, the artisans make the art right here. So, you can see how the whole thing is done.

Second and more importantly, all the artisans are physically handicapped. Wael (who himself is in a wheelchair) and Hashim had started this place to support the physically handicapped but artistically talented folks. They have a Handicapped Foundation in Jordan.

Last time, I had met them and Hashim’s Bulgarian wife – Zoy. After looking at all the beautiful stuff, I had to tell them the truth – “I have no idea what my wife will like. I will come back and I will bring my wife.”

“Promise?”, Hashim had asked.

“Promise!”

As I walked in, Hashim and Wael, both greeted me and then raised their eyebrows. I suspected they vaguely remembered.

“Remember me?”, I asked.

“America?”, Hashim asked

“Yes!”

“where is your wife?”

“Aha! So you do remember me”, I said as I pointed to Sharmila.

Wael was so happy that he took Sharmila to the artisans to show how they were making the art pieces.

After a lot of choosing and negotiating, we finally picked up something. Zoya and Hashim were both very helpful. It is too big and heavy for us to carry. So, they will take care of delivering it to our house.

Before we left, we asked “Can we meet the artist who made this?’

And that is how we met Josef (the blue shirt gentleman in wheelchair – who is originally from Palestine) who was deep in his work when we went to thank him for his work. And let him know that his work will have a new home in America.

I am so glad (although feeling a bit lighter in the pocket) that I was able to take Sharmila to this place. And support a good cause at the same time.

The self proclaimed world’s smallest hotel is this small VW jalopy that Mohammad Abu Ali opened up to guests in 2011 after he retired. His sole purpose is to put his village on the tourist map! He was getting quite a few of them too as we saw! The picture also shows the President of the country visiting the hotel!

You can read up more about this here.

Instead of taking pictures and moving on, we decided to sit down and chat with Abu Ai. Pretty soon, Basel, who often takes care of him came by and joined us.

Abu Ali started chatting with us while making some Bedouin tea for us.

“Hindia?”, he asked with a typical H added by many folks in this part of the world.

Then he went in looking for something and coming out, he gifted me a 2000 year old coin from India that the gypsies had brought. It has a picture of a soldier with a horse on one side and a king on the other. They are very faint – but if you wash it, you can see it.

“How did you get it?”, I asked

Basel translated it in Arabic for me.

Immediately, this septuagenarian started moving his hand around pointing to the ground and started making a “Brrrrr… beep beep” noise.

“Ah, a metal detector!”

Turns out, he goes around the mountains with his metal detector looking for old artifacts.

We had a fabulous time. It is meetings like this that makes trips to foreign countries so enjoyable and educational. Get to truly know the local people and interact with them and understand how they live their lives.

Evidently, he enjoyed our conversation too. As we took leave, he asked us to wait, went inside his house and gave me another coin. Again 2000 years old – but from Jordan area – around the time of Nabatean people!!

It is like somebody cut multiple parallel lines down the mountain with a sharp knife. And people built caves into the sides to live in…

Fairly awe inspiring how the folks built these castles so far back with so little access to technologies and tools we are used to today.

Highly recommend this place (Sajiah). Great food and very reasonable prices.

The menu has the picture of a Bedouin old woman. I understand aa lot of old Bedouin women smoke. And the women tend to have tattoos between their eyes (as you see here) and on their chin (not here).

10Km of walking and 15,000 steps later, we took refuge in the Cave Bar!! A bar opened up inside what used to be a big cave. They claim to the be oldest bar location. Certainly not the oldest bar. Just that the location is very old!!