Day 127: Amman, Jordan

We woke up to worse weather. Of course this region experiences the worst weather in 20 years just as soon as we arrive. We bundled up and headed out, trying to make the best of our time in the capital city. We trekked over to the Roman Theater, and then started to make our way up to the Citadel.

En route, we ran into a Palestinian completely overjoyed to see us. Walking down the street carrying a tank of gas and two ceramic mugs, he immediately put down the gas and walked right up to us excitedly trying to talk to us in Arabic. He forced the two mugs into our hands and continued to talk to us, as if we knew exactly what he was saying. We didn’t, but by this time, a crowd had gathered in what we assumed was where he worked. From the glass front, it looked to be a paper mill or a printing press. The men in the storefront looked as amused – and confused as we were. One of them came out and tried to translate. The only thing we understood was that he was from Palestine and was really excited to see us in Jordan, and that the mugs were for us. He tried to fish out other presents from his pockets (a lighter) but I refused and told him to keep it. He tried to take a picture of me (with my camera) but I told him I preferred a picture of him, instead! Then his colleagues encouraged me to put my arm around him, which made everyone happy.

Not two buildings later, some men waved us into their garage to warm up near a fire that they had going in a metal bin. As I was only wearing my barefoot water shoes and my feet were freezing, I jumped at the opportunity. We made small talk – what we could in – and were given steaming cups of tea. I re-gifted the mugs from the Palestinian (don’t tell!) and one of them jumped up when we went to leave to give us a ride up the rest of the hill to the Citadel.

We walked in the gates right around three, and were able to get into the indoor museum just before we were told it closed. After walking around the citadel for a half hour, we arrived back at the front gate to find we were locked in. The whole city had shut down, and we were on the highest point in the city behind locked gates! Luckily, a taxi driver spied us and pointed to another exit.

I really love how all of the buildings are the same color and just stacked right on top of each other. Because the weather was so dreary, I couldn’t decide if I liked the images in color or black and white, so I decided to do both.

Day 12: Huế

Huế was the imperial city of the Nguyen dynasty up until 1945. It’s a much smaller city than Hanoi, with not a whole lot going on in it outside of the historical monuments in and outside of the city limits. We crossed the Perfume River, walked to the Citadel, meandered through The Imperial City, and photographed a lively market before spending our first night in a 14 person hostel room.

The Citadel is the structure that surrounds The Imperial City. It’s basically a wall. Andrew was frustrated we couldn’t get closer – in other words, that he couldn’t climb on and or into it. I wasn’t as enthusiastic.

It was also a little bit hard for me to get excited about The Imperial City as well. (Sorry, Nguyen dynasty) I’m sure a lot of it has to do with how much damage was caused when the North seized the city during the war. It did seem as though more of The Imperial City was open to the public compared to my past visit. Right now, there is a large restoration project going on that was apparent as we walked through hallways filled with freshly painted red panels, and construction hummed in the background. It also seemed as though Korea is helping with this restoration project, evident by the large SAMSUNG sign over the large SAMSUNG tv with a brief explanation of the grounds brought to you by… SAMSUNG!

We walked through the city towards the market area, passing by lots of dragons and food stalls that made for a colorful and entertaining walk. I loved the colors, especially when compared to the dull grey that dominated most of the cityscape of Hue. Vietnam tends to be bright and vibrant in the countryside, but rather dull (and dirty) in the cities. Obviously, this is true of any city/country comparison – the dragons and food stalls tended to brighten things up a bit.

The market was busy. Busier it seemed than the markets of Korea, and of our favorite market experience in Burma. Vendors were one after the other, often several selling the same varieties of vegetables right next to each other. Motorbikes zipped through walkways and roadways alike, and it was as if every stall, or every vendor, or every different kind of good to be sold bled into the next item. Sometimes literally, as meat was chopped up and blood dripped down past baskets of fruit. It was chaotic. and it was unnerving to photograph. Usually, I feel right at home photographing a market (there are quite a lot in Seoul, and I visited many while working on Seoul Suburban), but here I was a little more timid than usual, and soaked up the chaos more than weaving in and out of vendors for photographs.

My favorite part of the market were the hair salons that lined the one end. That is something that was not seen in Korea and I loved the juxtaposition of the fruit, vegetable, meat vendors on the sidewalk while women sat in a salon getting their hair permed, colored, or cut within.