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Published: January 6th 2016
Jordan – Arriving in Amman in the evening. We will be spending a week here, so decided to rent a car. Which was a great idea, except for the driving around Amman part, and arriving at dark, did not help. The directions from the guest house told us they were difficult to find, stating there are no street names…. We used the GPS on Ed’s phone, but Siri was waaaay to slow, not rerouting until long after we had made the incorrect turn. Downtown Ammon traffic revolves around as many cars as possible in pentagon traffic circles. With every right Siri told us, was a choice of 3 rights. But eventually we did get there. Little did we know that getting out of Amman in the daylight would be even harder?
Hawa Guest house was run by a Dutch woman and her Jordanian husband who were great at recommending ideas for our week. We spend 1 day wandering around Amman, enjoying the ruins of The Citadel, the new Jordan museum and meandering around the downtown area.
The next morning with clear instructions from Eefje, we headed to Jerash, about 25 minutes north. She recommended it
as worth the short drive to see it. An hour and a half later we ended up on a one way street heading toward the Presidential palace. The very nice soldier with his machine gun, politely gave us instruction to turn around. So we went back downtown and started over again…. By now we had deemed our GPS useless and did it the old fashion way, stopping and asking people for directions, and then did finally get there.
Jerash is very impressive. Described in our guidebook as Pompeii of Asia, occupied since Neolithic times @10,000 BC, but became a very large Roman ‘provincial city’. It consists of a large colonnaded oval forum, hippodrome and two amphitheatres as well as many other ruins. The condition of the area was very impressive. What had started as just a quick morning stop over, and staying at the ruins, we managed to drive thru Amman at rush hour traffic late that afternoon. They were working on the roads and forced us thru narrow city streets. As we all crept in the traffic, we see (well Ed sees, I am too busy making sure no one touches the sides of our car,
as traffic lanes are non-existent.) a bright blue $265k MClaren, door handle to door handle with the rest of us, driving all of about 15mph. No picture, I was too busy J
We arrive in Madaba at dark and our first impression is disappointing as the city streets are covered in garbage, strewn everywhere. But our guesthouse is nice, and we are directly across from St George church where the oldest Mosaic map of Palestine @549 AD was found @ 1885 on the floor of an old Byzantine church.
We meet Tim Tower, a retired engineer from Seattle who has bicycled thru Israel, Palestine and the south of Jordan to here. Fascinating to listen to his stories, as he described the warmth and welcomes he received throughout Israel and Palestine. He was born and raised in S Africa during Apartheid and really came with an interesting perspective of the situation. He has spent 9 weeks cycling, so we were impressed with his feat. Once we drove the King’s highway thru Wadi Majib which is 2000ft deep and 2 miles wide, consisting of 18 miles of switch backs, we were amazed at his accomplishment.
After dinner at a very nice restaurant and came out to find the streets being Zamboni-ed. So we were feeling a lot better about this town.
We get up in time to see sunrise at Mt Nebo. The church, unfortunately is still closed, but it is pretty amazing to know that Israel is just there, 26kms away. But I can’t talk Ed into making a detour. Another trip.
The rest of the day is travelling down the King’s Highway. All canyons are called wadis, and there are some major wadis up and down this road. The scenery is beautiful, up and down the wadis.
We struggle with the signage, as it is not always in English, and many times the signs are quite a ways before the intersection, so by the time we get there we are not sure which way to go. We end up back tracking more than we prefer. And at some point, we realize that the Jordan map we have is more a tourist map than road map.
A lunch stop at Karak castle built in 1142 with a long stone wall
around the exterior. After Jerash, we are not as impressed with the ruins, but the underground tunnels/rooms were extensive. Eventually we get to Wadi Musa before sunset.
Petra – built by the Nabataeans @ 400 BC lasted as a major city until 100AD. Sometimes, just the shear timeline of these places is most amazing. Looking at the Karak castle, ok it’s kinda cool, but by 1100s there was a lot of impressive architecture – Angkor Wat being one of them. But Petra 400 BC, the carvings and size and sophistication of the construction is just amazing.
It is a winding walk thru slot canyons similar to Zions, and then all of sudden, The Treasury is smack in front of you. Carved into the stone, the 2 story face is 130 ft tall, and 100 ft wide. The appearance could be similar to any Govt building with its columns, except for the Egyptian Gods carved into it. Supposedly an Egyptian Pharaoh hid his treasury there while pursuing the Israelites. When we first arrived we could see and hear a drone, flying all around the Treasury, with 5 guys directing it. They let us and others
The Monastery
Using people for scale, The Monastery is much bigger than The Treasury. The Monastery is 165' tall and 150' wide.watch the screen as The Drone flew close in. We were told they were filming a documentary for The Smithsonian. It was fascinating to watch, as The Drone showed us great detail of areas we would not normally have seen.
From there, we hiked to the Upper Monastery. Not many people and not very hot, we enjoyed the stair step hike. The scenery was fascinating with the multi colored rock and so many of the ruins in pretty good shape. We had been warned that the souvenir sellers could be aggressive as they lined the stairs, but we found them pleasant with warm friendly smiles. We enjoyed a delicious cup of tea with one of the women midway.
The rest of the day was spent just wandering. We could have easily spent another day there. But we had already scheduled our Bedouin desert safari in Wadi Ram. We meet Attayak, a friend of the owners of the Hawa guest house. Attayak was born in the desert; his father had been one of the extras in The Lawrence of Arabia film, which had been filmed locally.
We spent 24 hours in the
desert and saw one other couple the entire time. The silence and calm of the area was all encompassing. The red sand, and wind carved rocks reminded us of the S Utah parks, but it was the silence that held our attention. Lunch was cooked over a small fire and as we rested in the sun against the rock, it was very peaceful. The 4x4 drive was interspersed with hikes thru some canyons. Attayak showed us several of his family’s water dams, which was a deep well that collected the water runoff from the tall rocks above. His family still camps in the desert 3-4 months for the summer time.
We camped in canvas tents with concrete floors and plenty of blankets, so it was not as cold as I had feared. It is always amazing to see the blending of the old and new, as Attayak got us settled in at the camp, then went back into town to collect dinner and his email messages. He said he can occasionally get cell surface at the tents. His business is run by word of mouth and his website, and prompt replies to emails are critical for him.
Meanwhile we take a short hike among the beautiful stars and contemplate all the generations before us.
Then it is a 4 hour drive, taking the main highway shared with lots and lots of trucks, which cuts out all the beautiful scenery and wadis to Hammamat Ma’in Hot springs, another recommendation from Efjhe. It is a very steep grade to the lodge, to 1000 feet below sea level. The lodge interior is very nice with soft lighting and lots of wood accents. We feel abit dusty, and, feel the need to state we just came from Wadi Rum. The pool is nice and dinner buffet is fabulous.
The next morning, after a delicious breakfast buffet, one of the chefs stated he had cooked in Dubai for several years. Even here, there are few people, and we wonder who will eat these fabulous spreads. But we were told next week the 300+ rooms would be full. Perhaps they were just experimenting for next week.
Then it is off The Dead Sea. We pay the $20 day pass at The Holiday Inn, recommended by Craig and Tina, and it is well worth it.
The temp is warm and it is easy to just walk into the water and sit down, and find yourself floating. Even Ed can float. As his sister said –‘Hubbards don’t float – it’s a Dead Sea miracle’. Hard to believe, but they warn you not to swim on your stomach as your legs will go higher, putting your head in the water and people have actually drowned. We have no idea if that is true, but neither of us tried it.
After enjoying the float, you climb out and there is a bucket of mud. We were told by another person there ‘this is good mud, not watered down like other places’. Not knowing our mud, we accepted his statement. A Palestinian told us that the belief is the mud from the Dead Sea contains the souls of hundreds of thousands of people that have died and ended up in the Dead Sea. Again, not knowing any differently, we just nodded. But whatever the reason, we definitely felt rejuvenated and loved the experience.
Late that afternoon, we drove to the airport and waited for our flight to Bangkok.
Sometimes we
are asked how we decide where we travel. And my usual answer is, ‘well, we just kinda wing it’. This trip epitomizes that. In Istanbul, I really wanted to go to Petra, but we were not able to get reasonable (ie cheap) flights. But we were able to get a good fare (I love Kayak explore where you put the departing airport and it tells you the lowest price to anywhere) to Dubai. We had wanted to visit my brother, so that seemed like a great choice. Then once in Dubai, well we were so close to Kuwait and it was only $110 to go visit Craig and Tina, friends from Peace Corp. And then being in Kuwait, Jordan became affordable. So, that is how all of this trip occurred. And a great trip it has been! Then I found a great airfare to Sri Lanka and out of Delhi back to Istanbul, but Sri Lanka continued to have their monsoonal rains. So finding a decent one way fare, we are now going to Bangkok….
But this is all written 2 weeks later, so we are right now on the coast of Cambodia, winding down and preparing
for our re-entry. Back to Phnom Penh on the 8th, to Istanbul on the 9th, Boston on the 12th and Boise on the 17th. It has been another great trip!!
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Fred
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!!!
More adventure in a week than most of us muster in 10 years!!! Outstanding images!!