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Published: February 12th 2011
“Unrest Continues in Cairo” said the headlines as we got ready to leave Egypt and head to the relative safety of Jordan. We left Egypt on January 30, five days into the protests and our departure was uneventful. We took a ferry across the Red Sea to the Jordanian port of Aqaba. At one point we could see Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and Jordan simultaneously.
Wadi Rum
The next day we traveled to Wadi Rum also known as the Rum Valley. It is a large desert inhabited by Bedouin and camels. Our primary activity in Wadi Rum was a jeep tour. All along the journey we saw majestic but barren rock formations often rising 2000 feet above the valley floor. At various stops we
- climbed a sand dune for the view (John climbed, I did not)
- had tea in a Bedouin tent
- saw camels lounging under a natural arch
- climbed on top of a natural arch
- saw petro glyphs over 2000 years old
- saw a water cistern system built 2500 years ago that is still in use today
- gathered scrub brush to build a fire and make tea
The next day we pulled ourselves out of bed at 6:30
and dressed warmly. While I was walking to the restroom, an old Bedouin man flagged me down, shook my hand and started talking to me. I have no idea what he was trying to tell me because the only thing I understood was when he pointed to himself and said “Bedouin”.
At 7am we met our guide Ibrahim and, along with Katie and Alice (two young ladies on tour with us from Australia), we went for a camel ride in the desert. Our camel driver was the old Bedouin I had met earlier; his name was Ali. He looked about 80 years old but had no problems getting around. We rode off for an hour ride into the cool, quiet, desert. We felt like Lawrence of Arabia except the camels stayed at a sedate walk. John's camel was fond of Alice as he kept trying to kiss her, and Alice's camel kept biting Katie's camel. Our guide finally decided to move Alice to the front to avoid any more problems - just like a teacher would do with a misbehaving student.
Wadi Musa
Later that day we traveled to the town of Wadi Musa and took the opportunity
to visit Little Petra. Little Petra is the remains of a way station used by caravans traveling to and from Petra and there many rooms carved into the rock along a narrow canyon. It was a sample of what was to come.
We were all pretty chilled when we got to the hotel so we took the opportunity to experience a Turkish bath. There were four parts to the bathing process. First was a steam room filled with eucalyptus. The strong scent took our breath away and made our eyes water, but after a while we got used to it. Second was a room where we laid on a marble slab and a man threw cool water on us. The slab was so hot in places that it burned and the cool water felt good. Third was an exfoliating scrub and a soapy, oily massage that lasted about 15 minutes and felt very good. Last was a shower to clean off. By the time we finished we were both clean and warm to the core.
Petra
The next day we went to Petra. Petra is an amazing place with beautiful facades, interesting tombs and colorful rock formations. It
The Treasury
Our first glimpse of The Treasury in Petra through the slot canyon.is a UNESCO World Heritage site that is over 200 square kilometers consisting of hundreds of facades, thousands of tombs, a roman temple, a Byzantine church, and a Nabatenean palace. By the 4th century AD, Petra was a vibrant city of the Nabateneans. They were the ones who carved the tombs and facades from the sandstone. Later came the Romans and the Byzantine Christians. Eventually the city went away and the Bedouins moved into the tombs that were, by then, just empty caves. They remained as tenants until the site was designated a World Heritage site in the 1980’s.
As we entered Petra we walked down a narrow canyon for almost two kilometers. Carved in the cliffs were the remains of glorious carvings such as caravans and shrines to gods. The first amazing site is the Treasury. It is the most protected and so best preserved of the tomb facades but there was much more to come. Also along the cliffs we could see the remains of their two water systems. One was for people and used clay pipes to channel water from a spring high in the hills above the city. The other gathered rainwater as it rolled
Swirled Sandstone
This is taken inside one of the tombs and shows the vivid tapestry of colors of the sandstone. down the sandstone cliffs and channeled it into cisterns for the animals and crops. They also carved a huge tunnel to divert flash floods away from the canyon and into the cisterns. This tunnel was rediscovered by archeologists and re-opened to once again channel floods away.
We walked on to where the canyon opens up onto a large valley. There we met the son of a woman who wrote a book about her life as a Bedouin. She was a 22 year old New Zealander traveling the world when she met, fell in love with and married a Bedouin man. She moved into his cave, took up the Bedouin way of life and raised three children.
We then climbed about 200 meters up to the High Place of Sacrifice. It offered striking views and the path was, in many places, the same one the Nabateneans carved from the sand stone over 2000 years ago. They used this place for animal sacrifice and one can still see the alter with the grooves to drain the blood. On the way down we passed several more tombs and facades. The other beautiful sight along the trail was the swirling colors of
The Monastery
On the mountain 800 steps above the valley, you can see this facade. the yellow, red, purple and blue sandstone.
We only had one day at Petra so in the afternoon we had to pick what part we wanted to see. John and two of our tour companions climbed to see the tomb called The Monastery. The rest of us visited the Roman temple, Byzantine Church and Royal tombs. Both John and I wished we had two days to really see everything.
Dead Sea
Next we headed way down to the Dead Sea. It is the lowest spot on dry land on earth being somewhere between 317 (Wikipedia) and 422 meters (Ibrahim, our tour guide) below sea level. We spent several hours at a day resort which allowed us the opportunity to take a dip. The weather was much chillier than we had anticipated, about 55 degrees with a brisk breeze, but we were not going to let that stop us so we changed into our swim gear and headed for the water.
The Dead Sea is actually a lake with no outlet. Water flows in but evaporates out leaving behind the salt. As a result, the water in the lake is nine times saltier than the ocean. Because it
Dead Sea Swimming
Alice, Katie, John and Alex is so salty, it is very dense and that makes it very easy for things to float. It is called the Dead Sea because it is too salty for fish and animals to live in.
The water was warmer than the air and floating in the Dead Sea is everything it is advertised to be. John could float without effort and we could even float standing upright in deep water with our shoulders above the surface. It was a chilly swim but worth it. We all got out sooner than we anticipated because the salt water stings in unexpected places.
On the way to the hotel, we stopped by the Holy Land Sweet Shop in Madaba. Madaba is our driver Abdul’s home town and he says this sweet shop is the best in town. We all received a piece of naneh which is a warm Jordanian sweet with mozzarella like cheese on the bottom and Crème Brule like crust on the top. It sounds odd but was very good.
Jerash
Jerash is a Roman city that was somehow abandoned and buried by sand and, therefore, well preserved. I have been unable to determine exactly how and why
it was abandoned and buried. Ibrahim said he thought it was a massive earthquake in the 8th century. It was rediscovered in the 20th century and excavations are on-going slowly. It is well-preserved and reminded us of Pompeii in Italy.
Scam Avoided
We were carrying several heavy or bulky souvenirs and wanted to mail them home. We had heard good things about the Jordanian postal system so decided to entrust our loot to them. When we arrived, they weighed our stuff and told us it would be 57JOD (worth about $80). We laid a 50JOD and a 10JOD note on the counter. We were both distracted when the clerk was going through our items to put them in the mailing box. When we looked back there were two 10’s. We knew exactly how much money we had so were certain we had not made a mistake. But we had no way of proving it. We told the clerk what had happened and for some reason he accepted our story. We think it was a case of “cheat the tourist” where the clerk expected us to think we had made a mistake and pay another 50JOD thereby allowing the
clerk to pocket the profit. When we were insistent that we had been cheated, he decided it was not worth the possible confrontation.
Leaving Jordan and Future Plans
Our original flight to Spain had us changing planes in Cairo. Due to the unrest there we had no desire to go back to Cairo, even just to change planes, so with the help of our wonderful travel agent,
Ling Li*, we switched to a different flight.
We are now in Spain near Barcelona doing some volunteer work with a wine conference organizer. The hours are long but the food and wine is fantastic. We plan to be here until the end of February. If anything exciting happens, we will let you know.
* Don't leave home without her!
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Betty Blakney
non-member comment
Wow
Dear Beth and John, Fantastic pictures, especially the layers of sandstone. Thanks for all the historical info you give. Love, Betty