Fun experience at the Dead Sea

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For the next few days, our base is in Amman, a blog about it will come next. Our next little stop is the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth as they say. We hire a taxi from Amman. The main Jordanian strip on the Dead Sea is a mere 50km from Amman, and a return taxi is only 30JD, or around 42usd.

The Dead Sea is said to be disappearing soon due mainly to pollution issues, aka over usage of water in the region. The only easy "tourist" access you have to the Dead Sea is either from a hotel or one of the "beaches". The place is also under high surveillance, as you have Palestine just on the other side of the water...and we all know the sad situation going down there.

Our pick for the afternoon was the "Amman beach". The place is clean, with a mix of locals and tourists. You pay a hefty 15JD (22usd) to have access to the place. There is a swimming pool, way too cold, but more important, an access to the Sea. The beach is what is it, not great, but you do not really come for this...and they do have showers, way more important!

Just before Amman beach, you have the strip of hotels, next to each others, and very similar in style, here you can choose Holiday Inn, Hilton, Movenpick or again Kempinski. My fist reaction with our taxi driver was...wow, this is bringing a serious amount of jobs, but at was cost to the local environment in term of water usage....guess sustainability may not be the word here.

Dead Sea is well below the zero level of the "normal" sea, but most important, the sea is full of salt, a lot of salt, and due to this, you can basically enjoy a floating experience wellknown by millions. So as every other tourists, we had to experience it. Yes I can confirm, it is fun! Just make sure you have a good shower afterward as the salt give you a really "oilly" experience.

The water is pretty warm, but the salt make you actually stay a rather short time in the water. It's more one of these picture spot that we all need to have. But we did it, it was fun, and we were soon ready to head back to Amman for a little more of Jordan. Sun is still out there, and we start to accumulate way too many pictures.

One more little point about the Christmas period. I hate crowds and being overcharged because of the same crowds. At Christmas, overcharging seems to be a worldwide game...well, guess what, Jordan at Christmas is a little paradise. We didn't encounter many hordes of tourists yet. I have to admit we are not scared at waking up at 6am to discover sites, but even, it's still an uncrowded place, and it feel so good!

Greetings from Jordan, we are moving pretty soon...

Love from 3 of us!

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