Amanda S

Took the car on a much longer trip out to see the ‘Desert Castles’. Due to my lack of map reading ability and the poor signage our intention of driving to the North of Amman and starting our circuit East from there didn’t happen as we ended up after a number of U turns and a helpful police escort on the southern road to the East. Once we were safely on the main highway in that direction we had a good day! Drove towards the Saudi/ Syrian/ Iraqi borders in theNorth East and stopped at the ex-oasis town of Al Azraq. Not a pretty place, once a caravan stopover and now a big truck stop on dusty crossroads. Spent a while at the Wetland Reserve there and joined the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature. ... read more

Staying in the largely Christian town of Madeba not too far from Amman. Spent a few hours this morning looking at the sights of the town. It’s known for the late Roman and Byzantine mosaics that have been found under houses here in the town centre. Some lovely mosaics, the most well-known is a map of the area in the main St George’s church which shows biblical places on either side of the Jordan river, including the city of Jerusalem. They think that the congregation would have stood around the mosaic while the pastor read biblical with the pictorial map to help them see where the stories happened. In the afternoon we took our hire car out for its first trip, to the Dead Sea. It was a steep descent, up here the land is quite ... read more

As soon as you enter the area of Wadi Run you can’t help but be impressed by the magnificent scenery. We had booked a 2 day one night 4WD tour with Rum Tours. We were met by our Bedouin guide Suliman at the visitors’ centre and spent the next two days with him in an old blue Pajero. We spent the first day driving around from one beautiful scene to another, getting out of the car for short walks up dunes or rocks for better views. Had a taste of history with ancient Nabatean writing guiding caravan traders on rocks and the adventures of T E Lawrence, who spent some time in the area in the Arab Revolt. Suliman made us an excellent lunch sitting in the shade enjoying the vista. The night was spent at ... read more

Finally arriving somewhere that you have long wished to visit can put you a little on edge. We walked down the long siq towards the famous and much photographed canyon like entrance to Petra wondering could it be as impressive as the pictures and other people say. When we turned that final corner and came upon the gap with the rose coloured façade of the Treasury peeping through all our concerns vanished. Much as with other well photographed icons such as the Taj Mahal there is nothing to compare with being there and seeing it for yourself. The Treasury is truly impressive, carved out of the cliff face rising to a great height and in a beautiful soft colour is something very special. This of course is not all there is to Petra, it’s a huge ... read more

Began our holiday with a visit to the Roman amphitheatre in the old city. It seated 6,000 people and was used for musical performances. Nearby is the much smaller Odeon which seated a mere 500. Strolled around the downtown area of the old town following the guidebook’s walking tour, didn’t take long, up and down steps and sloping streets. Amman is set in a series of steep valleys so it looks attractive with sand coloured houses up the slopes but that means that all walking requires going up or down steep flights of stairs between buildings or walking along the less steep roads. Traffic is quite manic with lots of cars, honking horns and little application of the rules of the road. Shared a big pitta bread covered in goats cheese for lunch which we ate ... read more

Kuching Town We've now spent a week in Kuching town, with three days out to Bako National Park. Four full days was really too much in this pretty but small town, however it seems to be a place that people end up in for a while stuck between flights. We've stayed in the 121 Lodge which has been great, quiet, clean and helpful staff. Everything is in easy reach as the centre of town is small. Lovely riverfront walkway, plenty of places to eat, the local Sarawak Lhaksa is excellent. The best thing we've done here is go to Semenggoh Orangutan centre. We've now been three times. It's easy to get to on the public bus and only Rm3 each way and anther Rm 3 entrance fee it's a cheap half day trip. The two times ... read more

Three days in Bako National Park Just returned from another excellent trip into the Borneo jungle. This time we were in Bako National Park, right in the south of Sarawak. We stayed in the basic hostel accommodation provided by the park, it was great to get back to a hot shower this afternoon! Bako is a stunning place, with a number of picturesque beaches, good hiking trails, forest with limestone cliffs. It's popular as a day trip location so the early and later parts of the day a wonderfully quiet. We saw lots of proboscis monkeys, some up quite close, as well as silver leaf monkeys, a flying lemur, numerous birds and a few snakes, plus more butterflies and stick insects. The day walks are all well marked, some of them with some steep climbs, all ... read more

Mulu National Park Returned now to Kuching after 6 wonderful days in the huge Mulu National Park in Sarawak. We stayed in surprisingly luxurious accommodation at the park HQ, big bungalow with a garden to sit out and watch the birds. The weather was also kind to us, it only rained at night and only one leech was spotted in the whole time! The park is a World Heritage site and known particularly for its caves and bats. We did lots of long (and short) walks around the park and visited all four of the show caves. These are spectacular in their size. The caves are all different with species of insects, bats and swiftlets living in them that the guides point out. One day we did what is called the Garden of Eden Valley walk, ... read more

A few days in the kingdom of Brunei We have had a very enjoyable few days in Brunei, staying in the capital BSB. We traveled here by ferry from KK, very easy and traveled first class; this only meant that we had a view. They kept the temperature unbelievably cold. Emerged after a couple of hours in jumpers to the heat of Brunei. We have spent our three days here doing a lot of wandering around the streets. It's not the shining Arabic city of my imagination but a small and pleasant place with some huge buildings. We've been on ferry boats and water taxis to look at the surrounding forest and stilt villages, spent hours in the (again freezing cold) Royal Regalia Museum, with lots of information about the sultan and a fine collection ... read more

3 Days and 2 Nights in the Jungle Returned to KK yesterday after spending a couple of nights staying at Uncle Tan's, a basic river camp outside of Sepilok. Before heading off we had a rewarding visit to the Orangutan rehabilitation centre at Sepilok. We were luck y enough to see 6 adults and two babies, some of them quite close and they were around for quite some time, very special. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience at Uncle Tan's, I was a little unsure before going about how basic it was going to be but it was fine. We were fortunate with the weather which was dry and not too hot. The staff were very friendly and good guides, both on the river and on the short treks into the jungle. We saw many primates, including ... read more