Whales Ahoy, Cap'n!

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Been a while since last post, and falling behind. Haven't had much net access lately. Currently in a net cafe with no ventilation, surrounded by chainsmoking Syrians... not sure how much longer I can stand it so this may be short 😊

When last we met we'd arrived in Amman. The following day we headed out to visit the fabulous ruined Roman city of Jorash, the highlight of which was a fabulous semi-circular theatre in excellent condition that seats ~3000 people. It was even possible to view seat numbers carved beneath the seats... funny how some things work so well they remain unchanged after two thousand years. Was amazing to just sit on a seat (by seat, I mean rows of concrete benches) and wonder who had sat in the same seat over the past two thousand years, and what they had watched. The ruins also featured a partially restored arena (helodrome? forgotten the term) where they reenact roman chariot races and gladiator matches, marketplace (arora?), and the main northsouth and eastwest streets that all roman towns are built upon. The latter is called a decamenis, literally '10 men', so called because it's the width of 10 men standing abreast, so I took some group photos with us standing 10 abreast, which i think turned out quite well. Both these streets are lined with 30' tall columns and paved with large paving stones - the latter angled at 45deg so that the chariot wheels wouldn't get caught in the grooves. Clever! In places it was also possible to view the viaducts underneath the road, complete with manhole covers every few yards. Again, some things never change.

In the afternoon we all opted in for a half day trip to the Dead Sea, which turned out to be one of the best afternoons of the trip. We were using the facilities of a 5star hotel where we rocked up and ate most of their food, got changed, and waddled down past the swimming pools to the Sea.

As you're probably aware, the Dead Sea is special for a couple of reasons:


1) It's the lowest point on earth, at 400+ meters below sea level
2) It has a saline content of about 30%!((MISSING)normal ocean water is about 4%!s(MISSING)alt)


Because of the high salinity, no fish can live in the Dead Sea, thus the name. The salt (and other minerals) also have another interesting effect - because the water is so dense, human beings just float on top of it. So there we were, 11 bright white bloated whales floating around on the top of the water and having a blast. It's quite a funny sensation, even if you lift your arms and feet out of the water you'll still float, and it's actually possible to adopt a sitting position, as though you were sitting on a chair with your feet tucked under you, and just sit in the water. Fun! Conversely though, if you find yourself floating on your stomach it's quite difficult to get upright by moving your legs downwards, instead you need to roll over onto you back. And for the love of god, don't get the stuff in your mouth, it's feral! Thank goodness I didn't get any into my eyes.

The other attraction of the sea is that the high mineral content is supposedly very good for the skin, so the thing to do is coat yourself head to toe in the rich black mud that lines the shore, bake for 15 minutes until nice and crusty, then head back in and wash it off. Which, being the 'up for anything' obliging tourists that we are, we proomptly did, albeit with rather a lot of giggling from the feminine portion of the group (which, at 9 females and 2 males, and Steve once again abstaining, was rather a lot of giggling indeed). Obligatory blackmail worthy photos were taken and shall be published when i get a chance. It was quite an interesting sensation - after washing the mud off, the skin was extremely soft and slippery. Not sure if it's good for it or not, but it was a fun experience. Afterwards we headed up to the hotel pool for a more relaxing swim, and a bunch of us young'uns spent a very enjoyable return to our youth by taking over the water slide and sliding down in 'trains' and upside down Miss Jane head first adventures. At one point, whilst sliding down head first on my back and unable to see much at all, i slammed at high speed into a cute little 5 year old toddler, complete with a floatie on one arm. In my defense, she had failed to clear the bottom of the slide in a timely manner. Don't bring that shit in here bitch, this be my house!!

All in all, our last afternoon in Jordan was a lovely one that I'll look back fondly on for a long time to come. A final postscript in our Jordan experience was to occur as we re-entered the city though... at one point a convoy of three big black identical 4wds with flashing lights pulled into the street in front of us, which our guide said was either the king, or a member of the royal family. As the stopped at the traffic lights ahead of us, the doors sprang open on the support vehicles and buff looking soldiers carrying fully automatic machine guns (which isn't actually all that unusual... even the postmen carry machine guns over here) sprang out, clown car style, and fanned out to positions in a perimeter surrounding the convoy, presumably to prevent any attack. As the lights changed they piled back in and disappeared down the road at rather more than the posted speed limit, lights flashing, wheels squealing, postmen looking on admiringly.

The next morning we were up at some ungodly hour (admittedly, anything before noon is ungodly in my book, this was about 5am or so) to catch the bus into Damascus, Syria, the oldest city in the world.

But that, my friends, is a tale for another time.

Probably tomorrow.

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Comments

[Marc]

Poor little toddler wont ever want to swim again... you big meanie! Good to see your having a blast, the dead sea sounds like an interesting place. I had once seen a photo of a guy sitting in it like you suggested reading a news paper.

[LeighR]

Hey, you want to swim in my pool, you gotta come prepared to play hard ;)