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Dead Sea
Rich and some others floatingJordan was fantastic. The people are lovely, very friendly and most of them just want to speak to you without any desire to sell you useless tat. The first night was spent at the airport hotel as we arrived really late on in the evening. The next day we headed for the Dead Sea and went for a swim which was great. With the salt content at around 30% it's true what people say about bring impossible to sink - it needs to be experienced to really appreciate it.
After The Dead Sea we headed for Petra for 2 nights. We hired a driver in Amman by the name of Ibrahim to get us down there as we had unknowingly missed the 6am bus for the day and there is not much by the means of public transport in Jordan. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a pain in the arse. Anyway, Petra was great, the pictures do not do it justice. The Treasury is huge and stunning. We also walked up to The Monastery which is over 800 steps, and is hard going 20+ degrees heat even first thing in the morning! We got there about 7am, and left
around 4pm. You really have to see to believe the scale of the site. We meet loads of local children who appear to live in and around the caves. They we asking for biscuits.... we gave two boys one to share and moments later there were kids coming out of every nook and cranny demanding biscuits.
The next stop was Wadi Rum where the Bedouin live in the middle of the desert with virtually nothing around them. We had a jeep tour of the desert, which was unbelievable - the solidarity is astounding. We both climbed a HUGE rock to walk over the natural looking bridge. We stayed a night in the desert in one of these tents. Now this is a first for me and all I can say is girls you would be proud or think I am completely insane. I am not sure if the photos reflect how basic it was, they heated tea over a fire, which was heated by wood found in the desert, and the light came from a gas container with a small bulb looking thing! It's insane to think people survive on so little and do not want for anything.
Petra
The Treasury Certainly makes you think about material stuff and how it really isn't needed.
After Wadi Rum we headed for Aqaba, to catch the ferry/fast boat. We got there at 10 am in the morning as we'd heard there was a boat due to leave at noon. When we got there we found out that the boat was cancelled and the next one would leave at "about 2 or 3 o'clock". It ended up leaving late at 7:30 pm and that's something we're getting used to pretty quickly. Getting on the ferry was fairly insane with people literally throwing all sorts on board (TVs, freezers etc). You had to find a gap in the loading and then dive on board before the next lot came. The long, tedious day was made alot better for meeting some great guys (Aric, Iik and Yoshi) at the ferry port who were travelling around the Middle East - hope you're all safe and sound.
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