Yes, MIA! I will blame me being MIA on my recent trip to Jordan, but will try not to be too vocal that it was for less than a week, he he.
So I finally embarked on exploring the neighboring regions, one of my goals of being here. Jordan is a hop and a skip away, about 2.5 hours from Dubai. I originally was going to go a bit later ... maybe in October, but a friend was going in mid-Sept, I invited myself along (hehe) with her friend, and then she brought another friend. As you can imagine, when you have 4 different types of people with different interests and thoughts, we were a bit all over the place with our planning, but finally my friend and I made executive decisions and stuck to it. Although it was a nice change to travel with a group, I also appreciated all the independent travel I have done - just love that freedom and flexibility to do what you want, when you want. We all had a great time and got our individual and group interests in.
But anyhoo, on to the trip. We basically had 4 full days, and we I can now say we really did see Jordan in a nutshell. The 1st day was in/around Amman - Aljoun Castle (12th Century), Jerash (one of the largest and best preserved Roman ruins in all of the Middle East), Mt. Nebo (where Moses was given a view of the "promise" land, and also according to the bible, Moses was buried there by God Himself), Madaba (best known for it's mosaics, especially the one in the St. George Byzantina church, part of it contains the oldest surviving original cartographic depiction of the Holy Land and Jerusalem... dates back to 6th century AD!) -> all "real" and historic cities with tons of religious and historical relevance (versus Dubai!).
Here are a few snaps:
Lyn-Si, Richard, Janci and I at Aljoun Castle
Aljoun Castle
Jerash
Jerash
Jerash
Mt. Nebo
St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba
The famous 6th century AD mosaic "holy land" map
Madaba
After that, with an early start and 3 hour car drive later, we came to Petra at 11am.... juuuuust in time for the mid-day heat. Buuuuut, as we were coming from Dubai where you have heat AND humidity, here it was just hot, so it was a walk in the park for us. Petra, as you know, is one of the "new" 7 Wonders of the World, a truly amazing site.... it was an ancient city built out of sandstone and where the famous Indiana Jones and the Last Crusader had been filmed. It has a super interesting history, it was the capital of the Nabateaen Kingdom around the 6th Century BC, and then later was taken over by the Roman Empire in AD 105 and then the city was expanded and became an important center for trade and commerce. Unfortunately, a catastrophic earthquake not only destroyed the city but also destroyed the water system in AD 600 something. The City was then abandoned and hidden from the world until some explorers, who were disguised as Arabs in the early 1800's revealed this magical city. However, the real excavations didn't happen until the early 1900's and with that and the Steven King India Jones movie, it has become a main attraction of Jordan. Rightfully so! You do really feel like a character out of a movie, walking in between there narrow sandstone rock passageways with really cool rock formations and colors, and then it's like "wah la" you come across the "Treasury" which is simply glorifying!
The famous Treasury
Then comes the other amazing sites:
The Monastery! A good 1 hour climb up 900 or so steps
Next stop.... Wadi Rum! A big o vast desert valley that has beautiful cliffs and is relatively unspoiled except for it is the home to Bedouins, or desert dwelling Arabs. They still live fairly basic lives, often in little "caves" in the mountain and are semi-nomadic. We went through a company called Jordan Tracks and did a jeep tour around some sites around the valley, and then did what is called, "rock scrambling," almost like rock climbing without the gear for 3 hours. Yes 3 hours, to get to this famous Umm Fruth bridge (you'll see this bridge in many advertisements of Jordan, it really is spectacular) and the climb was pretty intense! Maybe it is the yoga I have been doing, but I was a lot more balanced and coordinated than I thought! :-) Here are some pics from the day/night:
This is centuries old and basically symbols that is encarved on the rock to tell travelers where and how to find water.
No lie when I say he was making the tea from scratch!
Our bedouin guide
I wasn't that crazy to jump like that! It's our bedouin guide :- )
You can hardly see it, but at the top middle you see a bridge... well, that is what we climbed up!
At the top!
Mini bridge, 1/0910983234th of the other bridge that took us 3 hours to climb!
Us rock scrambling
Another view of Umm Fruth Rock bridge
Amazing desert sunset
The Bedouins dancing for us
Okay everyone, here is my first time "camping." This is where we slept
Our "camp site"
Alas came our final day... this was to visit Kerak Castle, one of the largest crusader castles in Jordan... much different and much bigger than the Aljoun Castle we saw earlier:
And finally, what we all have been waiting for.... the DEAD SEA!!!! The world's most saltiest water.... the earth's most lowest elevation on land, it is -400 something meters below sea level. It really is amazing driving down... and down... and down. NOTHING lives in the water because it is soo salty. It is known to have many therapeutic benefits for skin and health, and I can attest! After doing a couple of 10-15 minute intervals , with also mudding myself, my skin felt soooo soft and nice! It is really magical! You cannot swim in the water because you are just too buoyant, yes, I tried and failed. It was definitely a highlight of a the trip and a nice way to cap off the journey - maxin' and relaxin' and enjoying the last bit of sunshine, fresh air, clear skies, and just floating away...
The land on the other side of the Dead Sea is Israel!
Unfortunately, and it is hard to see here, but the water levels in the Dead Sea is shrinking... every year it goes down a few inches and this could lead to some trouble.
How cool is that? The water levels were at -400+ meters.
Ahh.... this is the life :-)
Nice view from the Marriott Hotel
That's that! I returned home with smooth detoxed skin and hair, refreshed from all the activity and fresh air, and now.... back to work!
