After another delicious breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up by our Israeli guide – whose sole job would be to explain what is going to happen to us in Jordan, get us across the border, and then leave us in the hands of our Jordanian tour guide. The border crossing was pretty empty; it was just after 8am and we were the first to show up to cross. After going through the usual security questions (a little more in-depth, as you’re in Israel), we were allowed to leave Israel, and walked across “no man’s land” to the Jordanian side, where we had to go through immigation. The thing about Jordan is that it’s an Arab country, and a constitutional monarchy. And you see pictures of the leaders everywhere. I mean, everywhere. (For those yahoo liberals who are convinced that George W. Bush is some kind of dictator, they need to tell me where all those pictures of him are, cause I don’t see them in every storefront and building in Los Angeles!) Once we were through security and customs, we were met by our guide, who took us to our rented taxi for the day. Our driver’s name was Osama (“Very scary!” said the guide with a laugh), and I’m sorry to say that the western idea of deoderant hadn’t quite made it to him. Oh dear. We now had a 2+ hour drive to Petra.