Despite another crappy start to the day, pun intended, this time I managed to get out of my pyjamas before going out for breakfast with my nurse although getting there with all our gear (we decided, well mainly nurse did, that today was the day we were going to Petra) was a five minute mission that nearly destroyed me.
I had a quick shower at the hotel, more to cool down than get clean, my face a mask of tight pink torture, and got dressed while Djalma packed our bags and got us both ready to leave. After a day of nothing but pooping and sleeping you'd have thought I would be much better, but no, I was drained, lacklustre and emotional, but obedient. With our bags on our backs we headed to a nearby restaurant to get some breakfast, I made it there without wanting to poo myself, the little 'STOP POOING!' pills seemingly effective but I still couldn't face anything – food nor water. Yesterdays patient loving nurse had been replaced over night with energetic, bossy nurse and this one wasn't taking no for an answer 'Sarah you have to eat, blah bah blah... nag nag nag'. What is really annoying is that I know this, which I told him but it wasn't any good, he pushed me to order something from the menu, none of which I could face with such a rotten tummy, so I just burst into tears, what a sissy. Immediately yesterdays nurse was back and he came round the table to give me a hug and then let me off with a few nibbles on some dry flat bread which I forced down just to appease him.
After my emotional outburst, the thought occurred that I might not be ready for a two hour bus ride, through the desert, with out air-conditioning and so he suggested that we try and find a room with air-conditioning to stay another day while I recuperated. I, being obedient and with enough presence of mind to see that this was a good idea, agreed and he left me in the restaurant with the bags and went to try and find a vacant room. No such luck at 8.30am so he came back a short while later with two options; 1) go back to the same hotel and stay in the only free room with air-conditioning but which the owner admitted was more like a fan and not cold at all, or 2) get an air-conditioned taxi to Petra. We settled on the second and got straight into a taxi which Djalma had already agreed a price on - 25 Dinar for the two hour drive. I bundled into the back seat to lie down and enjoy the breeze from the car fans while Djalma, stayed up front wide awake enjoying the view of Wadi Rum (part of the desert where Laurence of Arabia was filmed and absolutely stunning).
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| From Aqaba, Jordan |
We stopped just once, so I could use a small schools toilet – no western throne here dammit! And then were on our way again, we stopped near the hotel and after Djalma had agreed prices and rooms – we were on the roof again but sheltered properly and this time in actual beds not just on mattresses – I ejected myself from the back-seat and into the cool lobby of the hotel to lie on the couch for the next five or six hours.
Once it had cooled down a bit and the construction site had stopped making noise we headed up to the fifth floor, the roof, to our new open-air bedroom. The view out was stunning, although after a good look round we hit the bed to read a couple of books we picked up from the communal shelf in the lobby. Still not feeling the best but having eaten a bit more – some brown rice which Djalma had been on an absolute mission to find, I was feeling a bit better, not enough to go out walking though. We stopped reading to watch a particularly beautiful sunset behind some mountains and then were quickly back in bed making the most of the remaining light. I finished my book, which was OK – Too Close to Home – and then watched Inglorious Basterds to keep myself entertained, pretty gruesome but good and then time for one last toilet trip (all the way down to the ground floor) before bedtime.
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| From 2 Petra |
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