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Published: October 28th 2008
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Almost stripped searched at the Border…
Another new country today - This time it was Jordan. It was noticeable as soon as we got to the Border how much more affluent and westernised Jordan was as a country in comparison to all the other countries we had visited so far - Including Turkey. The streets were clean, the trees were neatly trimmed and the border guards for more alert and organised.
At the border we were all asked to step off the truck to enable to guards to ‘search’ the truck - or in the case get on walk in briefly and walk back off again. We had to remove all of our backpacks from the holdall and put them through an x-ray machine (I did say that they were more organised) - Mind you we did stow all the AK-47’s, hard drugs & alcohol in our day packs on the truck which we weren’t required to bring down.
Once the x-ray process was completed we all stood around outside near the truck waiting for them to give us the all clear to get back onto the truck and pack away our belongings - This was done relatively
quickly, but the clincher was this. All the women were asked to be taken to a separate room, through a gated entrance to be ‘searched’. All eleven of us girls, slightly bemused walked together as a group outside this little room waiting for a guard to take us inside. We stood around waiting with the male guard, while the guys stood by the truck watching the proceedings carefully - separated by an open black metal gate. Thankfully - a female guard eventually strolled over and told the guard not to bother and eventually shooed us back to the truck - we ran back both pleased and marginally disappointed, being half curious as to what they were going to ’search’ us for.
The ruins of Jerash Our first stop in Jordan were the ruins in the city of Jerash. We arrived sometime after 10am to start our tour and already it was a blisteringly hot day. I had spent the first half of my tour searching for something warm to wear because of the weather - Now I was wanting to strip off to my bra & knickers because I was walking around in what felt like an oven.
The Dead Sea
You can see the salt deposits along the banks of the sea bed. We had an allocated tour of two hours. The temperature bar was already reading 37 degrees in the sun at 11am and it wasn’t even midday yet. This was autumn, would you believe. I couldn’t imagine what these people would do when it was the middle of summer - but I was on the verge of passing out because there just seemed no way to get away from the sun.
We were flagging very quickly and we were only half way through the tour. Eventually some of the group gave up and made their way back to the coolness of the coffee shop to wait it out - while the rest of us continued on, looking somewhat worse for wear and certainly a hell of a lot more dehydrated.
Unfortunately the ruins of Jerash were nothing in comparison to the city of Palmyra & Ephesus - which were significantly more preserved and aesthetically better laid out. As far as I was concerned there was nothing within the ruins that stood out with any real significance, certainly nothing that was not better displayed in the two other cities - It just took me two hours, two litres of water
The Dead Sea
Just like any typical beach front. Filled with deck chairs & umbrellas. and 37 degrees to figure it out.
The Dead Sea After our visit to Jerash - all anyone could talk about was a swim in the Dead sea, a chance to cool off after the heat of the tour. I had been eagerly awaiting the prospect of swimming in it since booking the tour but couldn’t fathom how one could swim in an ocean without sinking in it.
From a distance - it looked like any sea would, sparkly as the sun glinted off the surface of the water and misty because of the water evaporation in the sun. Even as we drove in to the car park you could see shop fronts, banana chairs & umbrellas lined along the black sand. We were all itching to get off the truck and almost shoved our tour leader (Reece) off the truck in our eagerness to get out to the water. It was his warning however that gave us some indication that this possibly wouldn’t be the same as swimming in the Med - We were only allowed to swim for a maximum of 20 minutes - 15 would be preferable otherwise it would start to get dehydrate us
All of us swimming
The Dead sea swimming experience and make us sick.
We quickly changed in the change rooms, dumped our things along the beach front and quickly got into the water. The first thing I noticed as I ran into the water were the huge chunks of white salt, some as big as half a brick lying next to the large pebbles. As I entered the water - it was very warm & very slimy, like I was swimming in a mixture of oil & water. It’s hard to describe - but as I waded out even more there came a point when I was forced to float on my back. I could no longer continue wading in horizontally - The water was forcing me vertically to go in one of two directions - flat on my back or flat on my face. I certainly didn’t want to submerge my face in the water, so float on my back the was the only option.
I tried a few times to put my feet down - but instead wound up rolling around as I struggled to not roll over and get my face in the water. I eventually gave up and floated with my feet out
in front of me swimming away merrily. It was then that it hit me - The burning sensation!!! It was starting to sting me in places that shouldn’t be stung and it wasn’t long before me and the other girls were clamouring to get out the water to wash ourselves down in some fresh water. I don’t think we even made it for the full 20 minutes.
I contemplated going back into the water or maybe attempting to soak myself in the copious amounts of black mud that lined the shore but we only had a limited amount of time there and I was on a mission and that mission involved a visit to the cosmetic shop to purchase my dead sea products.
Purchases completed we had our lunch by the road side - a thoroughly unpleasant experience that was a mixture of sardines, flies & 40 degrees before continuing our drive towards our next destination of Wadi Musa - 4 hours away.
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