Blogs from West, Jordan, Middle East - page 2

Today was the official last full day of our tour around Jordan and as we all climbed into the van that would take us north to the city of Jerash, we all came to the somber realization that the end was near. Driving into northern Jordan, I was amazed by the number of refugee encampments that we had driven by. Our guide Faisal had explained that not all of these were Syrian refugees but many of them were Palestinians living in the encampments for over 10 years. He had indicated that estimates range from 1/3 to about 40% of the Jordanian population consisted of refugees. That high proportion of the population just amazed me. We pulled into the Jerash ruins which are considered to be of the best preserved Roman cities in the Middle East. I ... read more

After the busy day touring Petra yesterday, I woke up looking forward to a quiet day on the road. I am not sure whether it was the hours of walking and hiking over rocks, the standing for hours cooking or if I was good old fashioned cranky, but I simply couldn’t face the breakfast buffet today. To say that it was sad would be kind to breakfast buffets everywhere. This one was plain old blech, in my professional opinion. I made do with some lackluster coffee colored water until Haytham picked us up and we headed towards Wadi Rum to check out the desert of Jordan. This trip is winding down too quickly, so I was determined to make the most of it- good breakfast or not. I am often asked why I have not yet ... read more

1er octobre 2015 - Jour 8 Nous avons un long trajet de 4h ce matin pour remonter ver le nord et rejoindre notre dernier arrêt, la Mer Morte. La route longe la frontière avec Israël qu'on peut apercevoir avec sa barrière de barbelés. De nombreux postes de contrôles militaires sont situés le long de cette route et nous arrêtent régulièrement pour contrôler nos passeports et le permis de notre chauffeur. Durant le trajet, Ehab nous remet à jour nos connaissances d'histoire biblique sur le parcours de Moïse et le baptême de Jésus dans le Jourdain. D'ailleurs ces événements sont également cités dans le Coran puisqu'ils sont tous deux considérés comme des Prophètes. Lorsque nous atteignons la Mer Morte, nous constatons à quel point le niveau de l'eau a baissé ces dernières années car on voit clairement ... read more

today we left madaba and headed down the kings highway first stop was herods palace the fortress of mukawir where it is supposed herod beheaded John the baptist this palace was built similar to masada on to of a steep hill though not as steep or as high it only took us about 30 mins to walk up and even Esthers mum made it up, from the top we had a 360 degree view impossible to capture on film today was much clearer than yesterday and we could see Jerusalem in the distance. from here we drove parallel to the east coast of the dead sea stopping wherever there was a view through to the dead sea between the mountains, one of these was the wadi al mujib and we stopped overlooking the al mujib dam ... read more

After breakfast there was really nothing more to hang around for so it was time to move on. At the end of the 1km dirt track from the Bedouin camp is a 'B' road. We asked one of our hosts the best way to get back on to the Desert Highway. Do we go back the way we came or continue on this minor road? The answer we were given was to continue on the road for about 20 minutes and we will join a main road that will take us to the Desert Highway. We looked in the direction that the Bedouin was pointing and all we could see was a range of mountains!! We didn't try to ask what the terrain was like. ‘OK' and ‘not bad'seem to have different connotations in Arabic. As ... read more