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And Moses looked out....
....and saw Jordan, and to the distance....a dust cloud After Wadi Rum we had decided to head to Madaba, a small town near Amman known for it's historical sites and mosaics. We were also excited to hear that thanks to the presence of Catholics, alcohol could be found in abundance in Madaba. Now, I must explain.....before we set off on this adventure a friend gave me one simple command “Alex, have a great time, but please do this for me.....drink the national beer of every country you visit”. There may have also been mention of photographing the evidence, at which I have failed, but as for the drinking of national beers, I have been doing quite well. Jordan, being an Islamic country, has rather a limited selection and availability of alcohol. Indeed I didn't even know if there was a national beer.
But there is more to Madaba than just the free reign on alcohol. For starters, it is one of the best sites in Jordan from which to visit the Dead Sea. Now, here's the thing about Jordan.....public transport is terrible. As tourism is still a growing industry, there is limited competition along popular bus routes and sometimes you find there is no bus at all, and the
Original Mosaic
One unearthed at Mount Nebo only way to get around is by taxi. For getting to the Dead Sea, this means chartering a taxi driver for a few hours so that he can drive you out, wait for you then take you back. This turns out to be a rather expensive proposition (at least for budget travelers), but we knew it was our only option.
Taxi driver organised, we headed off to the Dead Sea with a stop at Mount Nebo first. Mount Nebo is a sacred site, and supposed to be the mountain from which Moses saw the Promised Land.....all we saw was a dust storm! There was some excavation works in progress and many pretty mosaics had been unearthed. It's a popular stop off for tour groups and I have to say this detracted a bit from the experience as the tour guides each tried to talk over the top of each other to make themselves heard, wandering around with placards of the tour company trying to muster their group together, saying things such as “All people from such and such tour, meet at the sacred stone in 20 mins. Toilets are to the left and the lookout is up ahead, may
Two mud covered monsters
failing at looking scary I suggest.....” blah, blah, blah.
The Dead Sea is a highly saline due to continuous evaporation of the Sea; it is also about 400 m below sea level which is kind of cool, but the best novelty by far is floating on your back.... may not sound exciting, but due to the salinity you are extra buoyant and can float like a boat in the water. Nick summed it up nicely, “...drowning in the Dead Sea - epic fail” (apparently a couple of people per year still manage it). Swimming was loads of fun! Particularly for Phoebe who felt like she was wearing inflatable rings again, but I have to admit, I was as excited as a young girl myself. We made human rafts by linking legs together, and we also tried standing upright in the deeper water....you cannot touch the bottom no matter how hard you try! We also did a running race in the water which was silly but so fun; we had to make extra sure not to get the water in our eyes or mouths as it is terrible!! After a little swim Phoebe and I ran off and covered ourselves with black mud which
Obligatory Dead Sea Photo
floating on your back reading a book is supposed to have 'therapeutic properties'. We stood around while it caked onto our skin, then back into the Dead Sea to wash it off. Afterwards we headed into the pools on the shore where we mucked around a bit more, although this time in the 'un-buoyant water' that wasn't salty (or as much fun). We did find some toy boats that we could sit in and Phoebe in all her excitement, somehow cut her foot on a nozzle in the pool. This promptly ended our time at the Dead Sea as Phoebe could no longer swim, so we all went back to Madaba, tired and worn out from so much activity.
The following day we headed into Madaba town and suddenly found ourselves doing a spot of shopping. Madaba has a multitude of mosaic and carpet shops and competition is rife. One carpet and one mosaic later we settled down for lunch in a bar that served alcohol. Having done some research we now knew what we were looking for. Not the locally brewed but internationally owned 'Amstel' but the locally brewed,
locally owned 'Philadelphia', that takes it's name from the capital Amman, once called Philadelphia. Luck was
on our side as they did indeed stock Philadelphia and I triumphantly drank the beer and given it was such a feat, even took photos.
We headed back to Amman to stay again with the lovely Nijmah, to relax and to give Phoebe's little foot injury some time to heal before we were to head off to Syria. I had used all the first aid skills I could muster treating her foot, and while it was not infected it didn't seem to be healing as much as we would have liked. So we took her off to the 'Italian Hospital' which is no more Italian than me and I think simply takes it's name from the fact it was on 'Italian Street'. However service was prompt and to Phoebe's infinite relief the doctor said all was ok and to keep dressing it as we were (she was rather afraid of stitches). Adding to Phoebe's happiness was that she was being carried around by us instead of having to walk. Heading back to our hostel we walked past a shoe shop and what should we find outside but a pair of sandals exactly like the ones that got eaten by the escalator in Hong Kong (albeit in green, not navy blue). Inquiring about the price we were told 10 Dinar...about $AUS15!
The next morning we said our final good-byes to Nijmah and the staff at the hostel. They begged Phoebe to come and visit them again in 15 years or so. We all got big hugs and the traditional Jordanian salutation: one kiss on the right cheek, three kisses on the left. As we were off to Syria, we weren't exactly sure of success in crossing the border so finished with “Good-bye, we'll come back tonight if we don't get let in”.
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Sharleen
non-member comment
Hello all! I've been so eager for the Jordon blogs and very pleased to say I've not been disappointed. It all sounds so beautiful. Hope you managed to arrive safely in Syria, I'm looking equally forward to hearing all about it. Keep taking care and having a wonderful time Sharleen xx