Advertisement
Published: November 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Amazing Tilework
You can see how well these are put together. Hey everyone, it has been a little while since I last posted because I thought I would give your eyes a break after writing a book about my Eid trip. Everything has been going well here and I just finished my midterm which only took a measly 3 and 1/2 hours to complete. Classes are going well and I feel like I am really getting a grasp on the language. I was in the French Cultural Center (where I take Amiyya classes) talking to one of my friends in Arabic and a group of Jordanians interrupted us to say that we sounded fluent and spoke just like they did which although probably not true was nice to hear none the less. I felt the need to write another entry because I just got back from a great day trip which I will tell you about after a quick description of the previous time.
As I mentioned in the last entry, I did manage to take another trip down to Aqaba and go snorkeling again. Never have I so much wanted an underwater digital camera. I traveled down with Trey who is a teacher at a school down in Florida here
Walking in Moses' Footsteps
Luckily I don't die here like he did. to polish up his Arabic and eager to see all the sights I do. We stayed there one night and then went down to the south coast which is apparently the best spot in the Gulf to snorkel and it lived up to its reputation. We started in a similar spot to the last time I went but were able to explore a much larger section of the coast because we had more time. We started at the site where a Lebanese ship was sunk to create a spot for the reef to grow to and you could just see the beginning of the coral taking hold. From there we slowly made our way about 600 meters down the coast swimming around this ledge of coral. The way the coral reef is set up in Aqaba is that it goes out for about 150 feet from the shore and then ends at about 4 meters deep or so. This means that you can wade right out and be at the same spot where a hired boat would take you to. I am still amazed at the variety and the colors of the sea life there, we even got to see
a long white eel which was great. It truly is a different world under the water and I am so happy to be able to observe it. My only problem was the trash that we started finding in the water farther down the beach. There were cans on the ground and bags floating in the water which was just sad because of the unbelievable beauty that they were detracting from. Apparently 50% of the trash in Jordan comes from people littering and you see if all the time in the city where people just throw their trash out the window of their cars but it seems so much more terrible to find it amongst the coral. We went out twice before catching the bus back home so that I could frantically study for my midterm the next day. I didn't do too bad, an 87%, and most my mistakes were misreading the directions so I think that snorkeling the day before a test is still ok.
This most recent trip was a bit more historical. Trey and I hired a taxi for the day which was a pretty decent price and gave us the time we needed and the
The Creek Jordan
I thought it was bigger ability to go wherever we wanted. We started off going to Madaba which is the site of some of the most beautiful and well preserved mosaics that I have ever seen. The first stop was a Greek Orthodox church that is famous for its mosaics. We came in during a service and stood respectfully in the back waiting for it to finish and then wandered around taking pictures of everything. The art in the building is amazing and the mosaics are put together so closely that from far away it looks like a painting. Another interesting part about the church is that on the floor is the oldest extant map of the Holy Land and is dated to the middle of the 6th century AD (thank you wikipedia). It was huge and really quite amazing to see it all laid out in tile. From there we went to a museum and then another church, each filled with sprawling mosaics that covered walls and ceilings. In terms of the art, the romans did a much better job on theirs than the Christians who came later, amazing what you can do with slave labor. I won't bore you with description, but you
Enjoying a Good Book
Floating is too easy. can look at the pictures and be bored there.
From there we took the taxi off to Mount Nebo which is the place where Moses died after viewing the holy land that he was not able to enter because he wasn't on God's good side at the time. Looking out from the mountain and being able to see both the Dead Sea and Israel made me think of being in the same spot as Moses when he looked out from the ridge. It was really nice to visit another spot that figures fairly prominently into the Biblical story. There were tourists from numerous nations there and I have some pictures of how not to dress in the album. One of the most interesting things there was a massive metal cross with a snake wrapped around it with its head resting in the spot where Jesus' should be. Personally I think that it is a bad idea to have a snake in the same spot a Jesus, even if it is supposed to symbolize something else, it doesn't get the point across. It was interesting to see that the late Pope John Paul II had also visited the site and
So Hot!
And good for the skin. there were pictures of him all over so I was in sacred company kinda.
We left Mount Nebo to an even more famous religious site, the baptism site of Jesus. When we got there we were put on a tour that took you down to the "River" Jordan. I say "river" because it was more like a small creek that was muddy and about 10 feet wide. I was expecting a mighty mass of water rushing into the Dead Sea but I was very let down. Despite this it was neat to again be in another spot so glorified in the Bible and see the site where the baptism took place. Also across the river was Israel (which we have taken to calling Disneyland here to avoid scrutiny) and I was quite surprised the see the Star of David on the other side of the river. True to form, the Israelis were building a church that was going to be much larger and grander than the on the Jordanian side.
The last leg of the trip took us to the famed Dead Sea which lived up to all my expectations. It is called the Dead Sea because nothing but a few species of bacteria and algae can live in the water. To put the salt in perspective, the ocean is about 3-4% salt and the Dead Sea is over 30% which gives it the amazing quality of forcing you to float. Once you get in and lie back, your whole body is pushed out of the water so that only about 50% of you is actually in the water itself. This allows people to comfortably sit as if they were in a chair and read the newspaper or a book, all while enjoying the wonders of the salty water. I have never been able to swim so easily or stand straight up in the water and have my shoulders above the surface without paddling at all. It is a really surreal experience. It was relaxing hanging out until we were joined by the French tourists and their ever-popular speedos. I wish they were in better shape. The other bonus is that there is mud on the side of the shore that you of course put all over your body and let the sun bake all the toxins out of you before washing it all off in the water. After acting like mud monsters for a bit we made our way back to Amman with the softest skin since our time here.
Over all it was a great trip and I loved the whole experience. I am going to Petra on Thursday and will be sure to write after that. I hope this entry finds you all well and once again you can find the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/luke.bolton514/MadabaNeboCreekJordanAndTheDeadSea. Enjoy
Al-Sarih
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 41; dbt: 0.0419s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb