Jordan

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Dear Friends,

My stay in Jordan was only a couple of days long but it was interesting and great fun! I visited Petra at length, went to Jesus' baptism site, had a quick "swim" in the Dead Sea and will be heading to Damascus tomorrow morning.

The border crossing
To travel from Egypt to Jordan there are two main options - either a short trip through Israel or by boat from Nuweiba in Egypt to Jordan's only port, Aqaba. Because I want to travel to other countries in the Middle East, especially Syria, the Israeli stamp on my passport could cause me some future headaches and I decided to take the 2 hour ferry trip. After a chaotic departure I arrived in Jordan in the late afternoon and, together with 6 other foreigners (3 Japanese, 2 Australians and 1 Irish guy), we drove to Jordan's main cultural highlight: Petra!

Petra (means "stone" in Greek)
It's where things start to get rolling (congratulations for those who understood the nice word play ("Rolling Stones" for the others) - sorry, too much Egyptian humour lately)! Everybody has already seen pictures of Petra - probably thanks to Harrison Ford when he rode out of the Siq (a crevice ripped from solid rock by tectonic forces - yeah) to stand in front of the final resting place of the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (it is by far not my favourite movie but I watched it again at the hostel).

Petra was built 2,000 years ago and is the marriage of nature and human architectural genius par excellence with its temples and hundreds of tombs carved into the rocks! I visited Petra for two days - walking for several kilometers through crevices, valleys, colourful mountains, climbing up several thousand steps - all of this under a perfectly blue sky and some 30+ degrees. I believe that the pictures attached will speak for themselves...I love that place!

I also had a great time in the evenings with other backpackers, especially Caroline and Tom, an Australian couple, and Kevin from Ireland!

Madaba/Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan
I skipped Amman for now as I will be back in a week's time for a couple of hours on my way to Oman and decided to stay in Madaba, a much more interesting and calm city close to the Dead Sea. I visited Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan where Jesus was baptised which is a stone throw away from Israel (PS: I did not throw any stone) and headed towards the Dead Sea.

Madaba/The Dead Sea
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the surface of the earth at about 420m below sea level. It is impossible to swim given its high degree of salinity and one floats on the surface effortlessly - actually, doing anything else requires lots of effort! I had the great pleasure to open my mouth at the wrong time and sip some of the water...which left me spitting for 20 minutes. After a well deserved shower, we went up Mt Nebo and watched the sun set over the Dead Sea - a very relaxing moment!

The people in Jordan are less pushy and nicer than in Egypt, which made this part of my trip even better. I am now looking forward to Damascus which I should reach tomorrow during the evening!

I keep you posted!

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Photos

Petra
Picture of me in front of the Treasure in Petra

Chaotic departure from Egypt
Finding back your bag after the short ferry trip...luckily we did not have to go through the same exercise

Petra: the Siq
This path is 1.2km long. Colours change during the day with sun light

Petra: the Siq II
Great experience walking through the Siq

The Treasure - first impressions
This is the first tomb, and most known, that you can see after walking down the Siq

The Treasure - full
The Treasure is fascinating

Temples on the walk to the valley
You can see many temples and tombs along the walk down to the valley

Camels
Camels in Petra carry lazy tourists during most of the day

Love at first sight
One of the many camels that where looking for some "biziniss" in Petra

Time to relax - the Theatre
Impressive theatre carved into the rock. 3,000 people could watch the performance

Another tomb
One of the bigger ones

Beautiful colours
Beautiful natural colours on this tomb, colours inside are sometimes even more impressive

City centre view
The Propylaeum (great word for scrabble) and overview of tombs and temples from the valley

850 steps to the Monastry
Pretty long way to go for Caroline, Tom and me

The Monastry
Impressive building carved into the rock at the top of the mountain

View from the top of the mountain
Chilling at the top

The World is Yours
Little bedouin kid on his donkey looking into the valley

Bethany-Beyond-The-Jordan
This is the place where Jesus was Baptized - I hope though that the water was cleaner when he was in there

Chapel in Bethany
Nice little orthodox church in Bethany for the pilgrims

The Israeli border
A stone throw from Israel - the Jordan is the current border between Jordan and Israel

The Dead Sea
..I would like to order two kebabs and a diet coke for delivery please..

The Dead Sea II
It is just impossible to swim as your legs are pushed out of the water immediately

Sunset at the Dead Sea
On the (long) way back up from the Dead Sea on Mt Nebo

Sunset at the Dead Sea II
Very relaxing moment