Jordan

Day 1 Thursday Nov. 27, 2009

For the Eid el Adha/Thanksgiving break, we went to Jordan with our friends Mike and Nada and their baby Malcolm.   For our first day (Thanksgiving Day), we had a driver take us to Wadi Musa, the town outside ancient Petra.  Mike, Seth and Kristal went walking around town while Malcolm took a nap.  That evening, Kristal got reservations at Petra’s Kitchen to take a Jordanian cooking class.  Nada and I cooked while the boys watched Malcolm.  Our menu:

Soup:

            Lentil Soup (different than Egyptian Lentil soup)

Cold Mezza:

            Arabic Salad

            Baba Ganuj (very different than Egyptian)

            Bagdonesiah

            Cucumber with yoghurt

Hot Mezza:

            Galaya Bandura

            Araies Lahmah

Main Course:

            Magloubah

After all the dishes were prepared we sat down and enjoyed this huge feast.  There were a few other Americans there, including a guy from Hutchinson, Kansas, that sat with us so we had our own little Thanksgiving Day celebration.  Even though there was no turkey, potatoes, pumpkin pie, or cranberries it was still a very nice Thanksgiving and it made it easier to be away from family. 

Day 2 Friday Nov. 28, 2009

We were awoken quite early by the mosque outside our hotel.  Today was the first day of the Feast of Sacrifices and the mosque kept on chanting the same phrase over and over again for over an hour.  We headed off to Petra, the ancient Nabitean city carved into the cliffs.  To get to Petra you must hike about 30 minutes through a high gorge, called a Siq, that was ripped through the mountain by an earthquake thousands of years ago.  If this was all there was of Petra we would have been impressed enough.  We really enjoyed this walk though the high Siq.  The colored limestone was gorgeous and shown in all shades of reds and oranges that dazzled in the morning sun.  Along the way were remains of tombs, statues, and most impressive:  a water channel carved into the entire length of the wall that brought water to the city of Petra.  In some areas you could still see the terracotta pipes.  

 

 

When I didn’t think that anything could compare to the wonder and beauty of this Siq, I caught a sliver of a glimpse through the narrow gorge of a large building, a few more steps and the world opened up to a huge court yard in front of the miraculous Treasury of Petra. 

 

First Glimpse

We spent some time resting here and admiring the grandeur of the Treasury and then set off again, exploring other tombs and sanctuaries.  After every turn we were rewarded with more awe inspiring views of ancient royal tombs, domestic dwellings, and religious alters.  Looking at the map and book, we realized that we weren’t even at the city center yet and couldn’t believe how big Petra really is and decided we needed to quicken our pace in hope of seeing even a small fraction of this magnificent city. 

 

 We decided to take the trail up to The High Place of Sacrifice.  We should have read the book a bit more carefully in order to realize just how “high” this place was.  Let’s just say we have a lot of respect for Mike now after he carried Malcolm up the mountain in his backpack carrier and it was a good thing that Nada had fallen behind us, because by the time she caught up with us at the top, she was quite freaked out that her husband had carried their baby up that so-called path.  The view from the top was well worth the climb though.  We were amazed by how large the city of Petra was.  We could see tombs and dwellings pocketing the surrounding mountains for miles.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy our view in peace.   A local Bedouin lady was up there and kept bugging us for baksheesh (tip) by showing us pictures of her kids, gifting us pretty rocks she had found, or pointing out which way we should look.  At one point, Kristal left the camera bag with her jacket on top with Mike so we could climb out to the edge and get a better view.   When we returned my jacket was missing.  After several minutes of searching, the lady conveniently “found” my jacket and we had to reward her with some baksheesh.  Although we weren’t rested from our hike up and we didn’t get to enjoy our picnic lunch at the altar, we decided to start our way back down to get away from the annoying lady. 

 

After seeing how huge Petra was from atop the mountain we decided we need to head straight for the Monastery, which of course was clear on the other side from us but it was recommended as a must see by several friends.   On our way we only got side tracked by the Amphitheater and a few temples.   As we started up the mountain hike to the Monastery it started to rain.  We climbed up to one of the ancient cave dwellings to wait out the worst of the rain.  Nada was already worried about bringing Malcolm up this mountain after climbing the last one, with the rain she was worried about the rocks being slippery, then we saw a Red Crescent ambulance come and eight men carrying someone on a stretcher down the mountain; that was the straw that broke the camel’s back so she and Malcolm were not going up to the Monastery.   They went back to the museum while the rest of us set off up the mountain at a quickened pace so that we wouldn’t be caught in the dark coming back down.  By the way, in case you’re wondering, donkeys don’t care if they push you out of the way on narrow mountain paths.  This climb was well rewarded; you are so busy watching your footing on the path that you don’t realize that all of a sudden you are at the top and you look up onto a huge open plateau and just around the boulder on your right you can see the Monastery looming out of the mountain.  By this time, the rain had stopped and the setting sun was shining all of its orange rays onto the grand building and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  With the setting sun, we knew we needed to get off the mountain fast, which we did.  Unfortunately, we still had about an hour and half hike back through the Petra city center, back to the Treasury, and through the Siq with only the light of the moon to guide us.  It was a spectacular night walk back, but we were exhausted by this time.  We stopped in town to eat at a shwarma place that our friends recommended.  

Day 3 Nov. 29, 2009

We drove up to the Dead Sea today and got a day pass at the Dead Sea Resort and Spa.  We had lunch by the pools and then headed down to the beach for a dip on the sea.  The weather was perfect, just warm enough not to be cold in the water.  We could see the West Bank of Israel on the other side of the sea.  The feeling of floating in the Dead Sea is indescribable.  I know because several friends tried to tell us about it before we went, but we just couldn’t comprehend it until we felt it for ourselves.  Floating out of the water without any effort at all was incredible.  The most fun was standing and letting one leg completely relax and laugh as it floated up to the top.  If you get out further than mid-chest level, you cannot even force yourself to get your feet down to the bottom no matter how much you tried; trust me we tried.  The deeper you went in the water, the high out of the water you floated!  What I wasn’t expecting was to see the salt crystals built up along the shore and to find huge chucks of crystals on the ground like rocks.  Also, the salt water did not dry out your skin as I would have expected, but instead our skins felt like it had oil on it.  Then we went over to the mud hole and got some good Dead Sea mud and rubbed it all over ourselves and each other.  We had soooo much fun this day!  After our fun in the Sea we went back up to pools (there were five of them) because Nada and Kristal just had to have some fun on the water slides. 

 

 

Day 4 Nov. 30, 2009

Today we drove north of Amman to the ancient Roman ruins of Jerash.  These are one of the most intact Roman cities in the world.  We had the treat of hearing a Jordanian bagpipe in the South Theater which is a rare, unscheduled event.  The construction of the theater and the acoustics were amazing.  After lunch we headed back to Amman and visited the Citadel and had a great view of the Amman Forum.