Getting itchy feet, want to TRAVEL!!!

Earlier this evening I watched 2 documentaries. One was from 2011 done just around the time the Burj Khalifa was set to open. I'd seen it in 2007, just partly done. It is still as we speak the tallest building in the world.

Part of me is disappointed because I never got to see it finished and I doubt I will ever travel to Dubai again, part of me knows I hate heights and elevators and I'm not sure I'd want to go to one of the viewpoints where the view is spectacular.  The building sets fear in me. However it is still an engineering feat. Since the documentary was produced in Dubai of course they showed everything going perfectly planned. It amuses me to no end having been there.

The other documentary I watched was on Petra.   I would still love to go back and spend a minimum of a week wandering around the Petra site, choosing a different area of this old Nabateaen city every day.  While I had read a fair amount about Petra around the time I visited it, I still learned much from this documentary. It is spectacular what a desert nomadic tribe accomplished that long ago in terms of both architecture and plumbing considering Petra is in a desert that is one of the driest places on Earth.

Since going in 2010 to Petra, a short 3 hours, where we tried to see and absorb the most, at least when they showed all the different areas of the old city I could recognize the buildings and the tombs. Also since I've always been fascinated by old buildings and architecture, it was interesting to see how all the different styles from the Romans, the Egyptians and the Assryrians, all blended into one to make a unique style for the Nabateaens.

While I want to go back and visit Petra, I was thinking I couldn't just go to Jordan at this point, with all the conflict in the region just to visit. If I went to Jordan, the only thing I could see myself doing in good conscience would be to go offer my services, whatever I have to offer to the Syria refugee camps that are undoubtedly occupying most of the bordering territory between Jordan and Syria.  I could not visit one of the worlds oldest wonders and not feel the suffering of the millions of displaced Syrians, and also the Iraqis.  How humans can do this to one another escapes me.