At the end of January, Nancy and I made a short (1 week) trip to Jordan. We were in the UK and it seemed like Jordan would be far enough to the south to provide some warmer weather. We left a cold and snowy England for Amman where it was warmer, but actually not as warm as I expected for somewhere that far south. It was a pretty unstructured trip - we had a flight on EasyJet and a hotel in Amman for a couple of nights. Beyond that we had no definite plans.
We arrived in Amman in late Thursday afternoon and took a taxi to our hotel - the most adequate Hotel Toledo. Amman is a large city (over 3 million people in the greater urban area), an old city (its been around since biblical times), and quite hilly (that made it difficult to get a sense of where you were in relation to anything else - a confusing city). That first night we walked down the hill from our hotel to the center of the old part of town. Nothing very impressive, but we had a nice vegetarian meal at the Restaurant Hashim, the oldest restaurant in Amman - a nice outdoor dining experience.
The next morning, Friday, we met with a friend of a friend from Sacramento. Merrill, who herself was from Sacramento, had been working in Amman for 4 or 5 years - teaching at an English school there. Our good friend Margaret in Sacramento had put us in touch with her before we left. The three of us had brunch together on Rainbow Street, a nice gentrified area in the old town, and she gave us a few tips about where to go, what to do and see and assisted us with the rental of a car. It is likely an interesting life being an English teacher in Jordan.
On Saturday morning we decided not to hang around in Amman any more but to head out for the south of the country. Our rental car was conveniently delivered to our hotel and, even more conveniently, the rental car man drove with us until we were on the outskirts of town (in exchange for the taxi fare back). I don’t think we would have been able to navigate our exit from Amman by ourselves - it is an extremely complicated city to drive in. While Amman is obviously a very large and important city, neither of us felt any attachment to it - it had a nice old section, some impressive new large modern buildings showing some serious present day investment but nothing that made us want to return.
We drove south towards the Wadi Rum area. This is the desert area just north of Aqaba and the Red Sea. It is the area where Lawrence of Arabia did some of his work with the Bedouins and it has become one of the spots where tourists can experience the desert. We signed up for a 4-wheel drive trip into the desert, a nights camping in the desert and, yes, a camel ride back to our car.
We were awoken in the middle of the night by a storm. It was an incredible storm that went on for hours - thunder rolled around the valley, lightening lit up the cliff behind our tent as if it were daylight, the rain poured down and streams were running down the valley floor. I went outside to find a waterfall that was gushing out of the cliff behind the camp. Epic stuff. I think it was quite a significant storm by Jordanian standards - it was talked about a lot over the next day or two.
By the next morning (Sunday) the storm had passed and the streams of water had disappeared. Unfortunately the storm had somehow caused our camels (we were supposed to ride back to the road on camels) to get lost in the desert (that's not very encouraging). Plan B was brought into play and we drive back to the road and picked up different camels for a trip into the desert from there. I must say the camel ride was interesting, but the camel is not a comfortable animal to ride on (at least not for the novice) and I soon regretted the 2 hour ride that we had signed up for. I think 10 minutes would have been sufficient. There was a lot of lurching around and the way they kneel down for the dismount or get up to start moving is decidedly scary requiring some serious holding on.
In Aqaba we were just going to do a quick look around, dip our feet in the Red Sea and then head back up towards Petra where we wanted to stay that night. In search of a cup of coffee we went into the local McDonalds (shame on us) - very clean, quite nice, and, above all else, free wi-fi. We ended up staying for a burger and fries and ice cream (even more shame on us). We followed this up with a trip to the beach where we found all the men folk swimming in the sea while all the women dressed in their black tunics and veils and were sitting on chairs on the beach - very strange. We did the obligatory paddle in the Red Sea, took a few photos and then off we went back up north towards Petra.
The next day (Monday), we did have an early start into the ruins of Petra. Petra is a world class site and the Jordanians are not bashful about charging for entry - the price for a ticket was US $100 per person. The price included a horse ride to the entrance of the canyon. Nancy took the ride, I didn’t - I had had enough or riding on big smelly animals.
The Treasury is so impressive because it’s sandstone front has been protected by the canyon walls from the elements. Other structures at the site were surely as impressive or more impressive but they are more exposed to the elements and some of the detail has been eroded away. Petra was built by the Nabataeans - a culture that I was not even aware of. They were successful for a short time in that part of the world controlling the trade from the East to the Middle East and Southern Europe.
That evening we were weary from the hiking but there was a little bit of light left so we headed out of Petra for the north. We were heading for the village of Dana, where there is a relatively new “ecological preserve”. The journey turned out to be somewhat eventful - it started with wind and rain as we left Petra and then degenerated into sleet and snow. Finally as we headed up the hill towards Dana the fog and mist came in. We were crawling along at a snail’s pace trying to find the right turning to our village. A little later than expected, after a missed turning and a slow drive down a dirt road we finally found our hotel.
The next day we explored the village of Dana - not much there. For the most part it was a ruined village on the side of a canyon with beautiful views across the surrounding country. There were several hotels, with little sign of any guests - it was the low season and the troubles in Syria had made it a particularly slow off-season.
With nothing to keep us in Dana we headed out continuing north towards Kerak where there is a Crusader Fort. It was an impressive looking fort but we couldn’t find the entrance so we decided that the most impressive thing was perhaps the view of the fort from the outside and so we continued on towards the Dead Sea.
We wound down the side of the mountain to the lowlands of the Dead Sea. I think that somewhere nearby would be the lowest point on the planet. We did pass the Sea Level sign halfway down the side of the mountain.
Following the dip in the sea, you are supposed to rub yourself with mud. It’s supposed to be therapeutic. I doubt it, but I fell for it anyway and rubbed black mud all over my body. It took a lot of work to get clean again.
The next day, Wednesday, was our last full day. We headed off for the “Baptism Site”, allegedly the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and started the whole Christianity thing rolling. To be honest, it was a bit of a mud hole - murky polluted water, the odd plastic bottle floating in it - nothing commensurate with the expected stature of the place.
What was interesting was the Jordan River. Again not a very impressive river, quite small, but Israel was on the other side so you have Jordanian and Israeli soldiers watching over each other. From the Israeli side several people were dipping themselves in the river. Obviously a deeply religious experience for them - they were dressed in white gowns and they walked down steps into the water and submerged themselves in the muddy water. It was a little comical too - these people were not youngsters, they perhaps shouldn’t be swimming in flowing water. To add insult to injury, when they emerged from the water, their white gowns were all clingy and transparent - not a pretty site.
Rather than stay in Amman that evening, we decided to continue on and spend another night at the Dead Sea. Amman is just way too complicated to drive in, so we stayed on the major road that skirted the city and headed back out to the Dead Sea. On the way back there was another torrential rain storm. It made driving a bit scary with mud washing across the road, cars stalled here and there and yet everyone else keeping up a pretty high speed. We survived and checked in for our last night in Jordan at the Movenpick.
Thursday our last day we started with another swim in the Dead Sea (no mud this time). We then headed off towards Mount Nebo and Madaba. Mount Nebo is another biblical spot - it is allegedly the place where Moses saw the Promised Land. He saw it and then promptly died at the ripe old age of 124, or so they say. Nice view so if you are passing you might as well stop - but for a non-believer such as me, not that impressive.Madaba was a nice town but we were about done and the weather was cloudy and cool. We had lunch, bought a few trinkets, and got ready for our flight home.
As usual, here are some photographs from the trip - the highlights and everything.
We arrived in Amman in late Thursday afternoon and took a taxi to our hotel - the most adequate Hotel Toledo. Amman is a large city (over 3 million people in the greater urban area), an old city (its been around since biblical times), and quite hilly (that made it difficult to get a sense of where you were in relation to anything else - a confusing city). That first night we walked down the hill from our hotel to the center of the old part of town. Nothing very impressive, but we had a nice vegetarian meal at the Restaurant Hashim, the oldest restaurant in Amman - a nice outdoor dining experience.
The next morning, Friday, we met with a friend of a friend from Sacramento. Merrill, who herself was from Sacramento, had been working in Amman for 4 or 5 years - teaching at an English school there. Our good friend Margaret in Sacramento had put us in touch with her before we left. The three of us had brunch together on Rainbow Street, a nice gentrified area in the old town, and she gave us a few tips about where to go, what to do and see and assisted us with the rental of a car. It is likely an interesting life being an English teacher in Jordan.
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| Amman |
After brunch we were off on a walkabout in Amman - down to the old part of town, and up the hill to the Citadel, the Roman ruins standing over the old part of town. The Roman ruins were interesting enough but not spectacular. The more interesting stuff was down in the bustle of the town itself - the markets, the butchers shops, the veiled women, the male dominated society (very few women walking around), the cute kids, ...
On Saturday morning we decided not to hang around in Amman any more but to head out for the south of the country. Our rental car was conveniently delivered to our hotel and, even more conveniently, the rental car man drove with us until we were on the outskirts of town (in exchange for the taxi fare back). I don’t think we would have been able to navigate our exit from Amman by ourselves - it is an extremely complicated city to drive in. While Amman is obviously a very large and important city, neither of us felt any attachment to it - it had a nice old section, some impressive new large modern buildings showing some serious present day investment but nothing that made us want to return.
We drove south towards the Wadi Rum area. This is the desert area just north of Aqaba and the Red Sea. It is the area where Lawrence of Arabia did some of his work with the Bedouins and it has become one of the spots where tourists can experience the desert. We signed up for a 4-wheel drive trip into the desert, a nights camping in the desert and, yes, a camel ride back to our car.
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| The Desert at Wadi Rum |
We left our car at the Wadi Rum visitor center and set off on our 4-wheel trip. We were taken by our driver in his beat up Toyota pick-up around various interesting sites - a spring where Lawrence might have visited, a building where Lawrence might have stayed, the occasional petroglyphs from some ancient time but what was really impressive was some beautiful desert scenery - majestic cliffs, slot canyons, wide expanses of sand, really massive sand dunes. We did a bit of walking and climbing on rocks and sand dunes and finished off with a cup of tea in a Bedouin tent before we left for our campsite for the night. It was called a camp site, but it wasn’t at all primitive. The ‘tents’ were fairly nice structures and each contained a bed with a ton of blankets to keep us warm in the cold desert night. While there was no hot water, there was water. We were quite comfortable.
We were awoken in the middle of the night by a storm. It was an incredible storm that went on for hours - thunder rolled around the valley, lightening lit up the cliff behind our tent as if it were daylight, the rain poured down and streams were running down the valley floor. I went outside to find a waterfall that was gushing out of the cliff behind the camp. Epic stuff. I think it was quite a significant storm by Jordanian standards - it was talked about a lot over the next day or two.
By the next morning (Sunday) the storm had passed and the streams of water had disappeared. Unfortunately the storm had somehow caused our camels (we were supposed to ride back to the road on camels) to get lost in the desert (that's not very encouraging). Plan B was brought into play and we drive back to the road and picked up different camels for a trip into the desert from there. I must say the camel ride was interesting, but the camel is not a comfortable animal to ride on (at least not for the novice) and I soon regretted the 2 hour ride that we had signed up for. I think 10 minutes would have been sufficient. There was a lot of lurching around and the way they kneel down for the dismount or get up to start moving is decidedly scary requiring some serious holding on.
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| Camels for two |
After our ordeal on the camel came to an end we got back in the car and continued our journey south to Aqaba on the Red Sea coast. Aqaba is the main port in Jordan and the point of entry for most goods coming into the region. There was lots of truck traffic going up and down the grade from the high desert to the coast at Aqaba.
In Aqaba we were just going to do a quick look around, dip our feet in the Red Sea and then head back up towards Petra where we wanted to stay that night. In search of a cup of coffee we went into the local McDonalds (shame on us) - very clean, quite nice, and, above all else, free wi-fi. We ended up staying for a burger and fries and ice cream (even more shame on us). We followed this up with a trip to the beach where we found all the men folk swimming in the sea while all the women dressed in their black tunics and veils and were sitting on chairs on the beach - very strange. We did the obligatory paddle in the Red Sea, took a few photos and then off we went back up north towards Petra.
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| The beach at Aqaba |
The drive north was uneventful - we climbed up to higher ground, passed some remnants of the prior week’s snowfall, saw lots of goats and sheep and by around 4:00 pm we were in Petra. We stayed in one of the nicer hotels (the Movenpick) near the entrance to the Petra archaeological site so that we could get an early start for our sightseeing the next day.
The next day (Monday), we did have an early start into the ruins of Petra. Petra is a world class site and the Jordanians are not bashful about charging for entry - the price for a ticket was US $100 per person. The price included a horse ride to the entrance of the canyon. Nancy took the ride, I didn’t - I had had enough or riding on big smelly animals.
The entrance to Petra is through a narrow slot canyon which runs for around 1 mile to the main settlement. There is one picture everyone sees of Petra and that is of the Treasury Building. It is the most impressive building at the site and it is revealed as you leave the slot canyon. It is breathtaking to say the least.
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| The Treasury, Petra |
The entire Petra site is quite large and I am sure you could spend a couple of days to cover all the different structures. We hiked pretty seriously and pretty quickly for a good 8 hours covering a lot of ground. We finished the day with a strenuous hike up to the so-called Monastery. A building in one of the more remote areas of the site, way up on top of the hill.
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| The Monastery, Petra |
The entire complex is a sedimentologist's dream - sandstone cliffs with every color of sand you could imagine. The structures are carved into these cliffs and typically that is all they are just frontispieces. The interiors are typically unadorned and just square rooms cut into the rock that were mostly used as tombs.
That evening we were weary from the hiking but there was a little bit of light left so we headed out of Petra for the north. We were heading for the village of Dana, where there is a relatively new “ecological preserve”. The journey turned out to be somewhat eventful - it started with wind and rain as we left Petra and then degenerated into sleet and snow. Finally as we headed up the hill towards Dana the fog and mist came in. We were crawling along at a snail’s pace trying to find the right turning to our village. A little later than expected, after a missed turning and a slow drive down a dirt road we finally found our hotel.
The next day we explored the village of Dana - not much there. For the most part it was a ruined village on the side of a canyon with beautiful views across the surrounding country. There were several hotels, with little sign of any guests - it was the low season and the troubles in Syria had made it a particularly slow off-season.
With nothing to keep us in Dana we headed out continuing north towards Kerak where there is a Crusader Fort. It was an impressive looking fort but we couldn’t find the entrance so we decided that the most impressive thing was perhaps the view of the fort from the outside and so we continued on towards the Dead Sea.
We wound down the side of the mountain to the lowlands of the Dead Sea. I think that somewhere nearby would be the lowest point on the planet. We did pass the Sea Level sign halfway down the side of the mountain.
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| Sea Level above the Dead Sea |
The Dead Sea was pretty barren - there were no beaches or access points to the water as far as I could see and no life on the water. We headed up to the north side of the sea where all the hotels are. It was all very strange - you drive for miles with barely any civilization at all and then there is a cluster of half a dozen luxury hotels. It would appear that the only way you can gain access to the Dead Sea is from one of these hotels. With the Dead Sea level dropping by as much as a meter per year even the hotels don’t have good access to the water. Our hotel, the Movenpick again, had an artificial one-time beach sitting up above the water and then some steps down to the new water below.
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| Dead Sea Swimming |
We did the obligatory swim thing, though I don’t think you could swim in that water - it is way too buoyant to swim in. It is certainly a strange experience - you bob around like a cork and the water feels kind of oily and viscous. If you have any cuts or sores then you will certainly feel them, if you get any water in your eyes, you will be in agony till you wash the water out. It was an experience but I am not sure it is a pleasant experience.
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| Supposedly its good for you! |
The next day, Wednesday, was our last full day. We headed off for the “Baptism Site”, allegedly the place where John the Baptist baptized Jesus and started the whole Christianity thing rolling. To be honest, it was a bit of a mud hole - murky polluted water, the odd plastic bottle floating in it - nothing commensurate with the expected stature of the place.
What was interesting was the Jordan River. Again not a very impressive river, quite small, but Israel was on the other side so you have Jordanian and Israeli soldiers watching over each other. From the Israeli side several people were dipping themselves in the river. Obviously a deeply religious experience for them - they were dressed in white gowns and they walked down steps into the water and submerged themselves in the muddy water. It was a little comical too - these people were not youngsters, they perhaps shouldn’t be swimming in flowing water. To add insult to injury, when they emerged from the water, their white gowns were all clingy and transparent - not a pretty site.
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| Baptisms at the Krdan River |
Back on the road again we headed north towards Jerash, a town just north of Amman where there are some very impressive Roman ruins. The ride was interesting as from time to time we would pass through a town and we would get chance to see life going on in the street right beside us. The butcher’s shops were the most interesting with all manner of carcases hanging outside - all with their heads still on - presumably it aids in identification of the meat you are going to buy - goats, camels, cows.
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| Butcher's Shop |
The ruins at Jerash indeed are world class. It is a very impressive site. We spent the afternoon walking around taking way too many photos. We just missed the nightly bagpipe recital by Bedouins in the Roman Amphitheater. Probably just as well, but I understand that the bagpipe demonstrates the acoustic wonders of the Roman Amphitheater very well.
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| Roman Ruins at Jaresh |
Thursday our last day we started with another swim in the Dead Sea (no mud this time). We then headed off towards Mount Nebo and Madaba. Mount Nebo is another biblical spot - it is allegedly the place where Moses saw the Promised Land. He saw it and then promptly died at the ripe old age of 124, or so they say. Nice view so if you are passing you might as well stop - but for a non-believer such as me, not that impressive.Madaba was a nice town but we were about done and the weather was cloudy and cool. We had lunch, bought a few trinkets, and got ready for our flight home.
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| Not everyone has the best of living conditions |
We left our car in the airport parking lot with the keys in the trunk and off we went. It was a great car - a Nissan Micra. A great trip too - an interesting country and great place for a winter break from the UK.
