Last time we wrote to you, we were in Aqaba, at the southern tip of Jordan. We both felt a little bit under the weather shortly after we got to Jordan, and then Istanbul has been so exciting that we could not find the time to type the blog till now.
We also forgot to mention a couple of things on our Egypt blog: Firstly, we wanted to acknowledge Cathy’s photographic contribution to our blog and secondly, we forgot to mention that Amelia scored the first goal when we played football (soccer) in Aswan – brilliant effort Amelia!
Not to rub it in for any of you who are either preparing for another busy season or for those who just came out of a busy season (you know who you are), but we are writing this blog from the shady rooftop terrace of our hotel in Kalkan on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey where we are enjoying beautiful weather, warm temperatures (30 degrees Celsius or around 90 Fahrenheit), amazing hospitality and great food. Anyways, back to Jordan…
Aqaba, and our accommodation in particular (International Arab Divers Village), turned out to be a nice little gem. Abdel, the owner and a retired naval officer, was an extremely friendly and gracious host; Lucky, Abdel’s limping white puppy lab was absolutely adorable; and we enjoyed 24-hour free WiFi. On our second day in Aqaba, we decided to explore the town and as we were walking down the hill from our hostel, we scored a free ride to town from two electricians, who were working on the neighboring property. On the ride to town, they pointed out Eilat (Israel) and Taba (Egypt), all within 15 kilometers across the Red Sea. We spent a fairly uneventful day roaming Aqaba, surfing the web and organizing a trip to Wadi Rum, a famous desert in the south of Jordan.
The next day we took a taxi to Wadi Rum Village from where we joined a six-hour 4WD tour with a non- English speaking guide and a Spanish couple (mostly non-English speaking as well). Most of the day was spent pointing at sights and trying to figure out the historic importance behind it – Lawrence of Arabia, who’s he again? We also saw wild camels, which when viewing our photos, you will notice were an awesome subject. In the late afternoon we arrived at our Bedouin camp. The tent was comfortable and big (we got a 4-person tent to ourselves), but the non-flushing toilets and lack of a water bucket to assist with the flushing were a bit challenging. We got some good sunset photos, but overall we had to conclude that Wadi Rum was not nearly as exciting as expected, perhaps because we had previously seen fantastic desert scenery in the U.S. and Australia. Here is a link to our photos in Shutterfly or on Picasa (same album on both sites): http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CYtm7Fu5as24&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar
We also forgot to mention a couple of things on our Egypt blog: Firstly, we wanted to acknowledge Cathy’s photographic contribution to our blog and secondly, we forgot to mention that Amelia scored the first goal when we played football (soccer) in Aswan – brilliant effort Amelia!
Not to rub it in for any of you who are either preparing for another busy season or for those who just came out of a busy season (you know who you are), but we are writing this blog from the shady rooftop terrace of our hotel in Kalkan on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey where we are enjoying beautiful weather, warm temperatures (30 degrees Celsius or around 90 Fahrenheit), amazing hospitality and great food. Anyways, back to Jordan…
Aqaba, and our accommodation in particular (International Arab Divers Village), turned out to be a nice little gem. Abdel, the owner and a retired naval officer, was an extremely friendly and gracious host; Lucky, Abdel’s limping white puppy lab was absolutely adorable; and we enjoyed 24-hour free WiFi. On our second day in Aqaba, we decided to explore the town and as we were walking down the hill from our hostel, we scored a free ride to town from two electricians, who were working on the neighboring property. On the ride to town, they pointed out Eilat (Israel) and Taba (Egypt), all within 15 kilometers across the Red Sea. We spent a fairly uneventful day roaming Aqaba, surfing the web and organizing a trip to Wadi Rum, a famous desert in the south of Jordan.
The next day we took a taxi to Wadi Rum Village from where we joined a six-hour 4WD tour with a non- English speaking guide and a Spanish couple (mostly non-English speaking as well). Most of the day was spent pointing at sights and trying to figure out the historic importance behind it – Lawrence of Arabia, who’s he again? We also saw wild camels, which when viewing our photos, you will notice were an awesome subject. In the late afternoon we arrived at our Bedouin camp. The tent was comfortable and big (we got a 4-person tent to ourselves), but the non-flushing toilets and lack of a water bucket to assist with the flushing were a bit challenging. We got some good sunset photos, but overall we had to conclude that Wadi Rum was not nearly as exciting as expected, perhaps because we had previously seen fantastic desert scenery in the U.S. and Australia. Here is a link to our photos in Shutterfly or on Picasa (same album on both sites): http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8CYtm7Fu5as24&emid=sharshar&linkid=link5&cid=EMsharshar
or
The following morning we were crammed into the back (literally) of the jeep and found ourselves wedged between bags as we were rushed back to Wadi Rum Village. This is where we probably made the biggest mistake to date – we listened to our host rather than our gut, prior to booking accommodation in Wadi Musa, the town next to Petra. Mohammed (the owner of the Bedouin camp) suggested staying at the Petra Gate Hotel, which supposedly is far cheaper and better than most other budget hotels in town. Upon consulting Hostelworld.com, it sounded like a bargain as this hostel was voted #1 by travelers. Mohammed made the booking for us and off we went on the 2-hour ride on a public minibus to Wadi Musa. The drive was fine, but the blaring local music, the seemingly psychotic bus conductor and the winding, twisting ups and downs of the road made us a bit edgy.We arrived in Wadi Musa and checked into the Petra Gate Hotel – an absolutely awful hostel that won best hostel 2008 of Petra (there are about 6 hostels in the area). For a measly 25 Jordanian Dinars (about $50 AUD), here is a quick summary of what we got: tiny room that barely fit our backpacks, a busted bathroom door, a broken plastic toilet seat that eventually fell off the toilet, and at night there was a scorpion crawling on our wall which was swiftly killed and removed by one of the very nice hotel employees who slept on the floor of the lobby. Needless to say, first thing in the morning, we transferred to the hotel across the street and for just 3 JD more, we got a much larger and cleaner room with a TV - oh and almost forgot, it had a toilet seat too – what a convenience! We should however point out that Nasser, the owner of the Petra Gate Hotel, and his staff, were very kind and wonderful hosts. Most impressive to Val was the Filipina who worked at the Petra Gate Hotel and spoke Arabic fluently. Nasser even drove us to Petra’s entrance gate in his own car, free of charge.
Petra is considered the most important archeological site in the Middle East and is renowned for its rock-cut architecture. The Nabateans constructed it as their capital city around 100 BC. In 1985, Petra was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. For you movie buffs out there, one of the Indiana Jones movies was filmed here and a huge billboard boasting Harrison Ford can attest to this fact. Petra was the star attraction of Jordan. The narrow 1.2km-long canyon, known as the Siq, opens up the most impressive of the Petra sights, the striking façade of Petra Treasury (Al-Khazneh) and its stone façade turns into an eerie orange/pink at sunset. Our full day Petra excursion also saw us hiking to the Royal Tombs, the Street of Facades, the colonnaded street and the Monastery (Al Deir) as well as The High Place of Sacrifice, reached by a 45-minute climb from the Street of Facades, offering unparalleled views across the valley. Just for completeness sake, we watched in awe as one rather aroused donkey was trying to copulate with another donkey, unsuccessfully. This went on for at least 15 minutes before one of the farmers took care of the donkey’s urges by throwing rocks at him and dragging the female donkey away. As we were leaving the site around sunset, the cutest puppy followed us out the gates, and had it not been for a naughty teen that chased after it, the puppy would probably have followed us to our hotel room.
The following day we organized a full-day taxi ride from Petra to Madaba (about 30 minutes south of Amman) with a taxi cab driver from Aqaba named, Mousa. We quickly noted that Mousa practically has friends from all over the world. He proudly showed us a guest book with comments from previous customers, all speaking very highly of him – as we soon noted, rightfully so. He was a real character, spoke to us in 3 different languages, he was very accommodating, always smiling and trustworthy. As part of our full day 250km odyssey, we visited the crusader castles in Shobak (where he posed for a photo with us) and Karak, the Dead Sea (had to give it a miss because it was too expensive for us considering that we were only going to be there for about an hour); and Mount Nebo where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land. Unfortunately, the Moses Church with its impressive and well preserved main floor mosaic measuring 9m by 3m was under reconstruction for the Pope who visited a week after our visit.
Our final stop and rest point for the next 2 days was Madaba, best known for its superb, historically significant Byzantine-era mosaics. Particularly impressive were the many mosaics and paintings in the 19th century St. George's Church, though the supposedly impressive Mosaic Map was a bit of a let-down as it was faint and in rather poor shape. On our walk to the Church of the Apostles, we were stopped by a local electrician/TV repairman, who once served with the Jordanian Air Force and obtained his high school diploma from El Paso, Texas in the early 80’s. It was rather interesting to get his perspective on the world order, America and the Iraq war. What was supposed to be a 5-minute chat turned into a 1-hour discussion in his repair shop and carried on in his neighbor’s convenience store where we snacked on Cheetos and sodas. No matter what the opinion was, he was a genuinely nice guy and was only interested in peace and the welfare of his family – fair call!
We then went on to Amman where we spent the next 4 days. It would have been way too long had it not been for Musa Al-Ramahi’s fantastic friends, Mirvat, Rami, his wife Tala and their daughter Talia who showed us around Amman and offered continuous hospitality. Rami (Musa’s best friend) took a full day driving us around Amman, showing us the various neighborhoods before we met up with his good friend Mirvat, who according to one of her 5th grade students, is a sophisticated, yet complicated woman. She is hilarious, full of stories and jokes – we love her! We stopped for refreshments and treats at a local bakery before we went back to Rami’s house were we met his wife, Tala, and beautiful daughter Talia. Tala treated us to tea, coffee and a plate of freshly baked banana muffins where each of us grabbed more than one (we won’t disclose the number of muffins eaten…). After that we went on to see the historic downtown and enjoyed a simple, yet delicious late night treat, being freshly baked sesame bread rolls, cream cheese and herbs.
The following day we visited the King Abdullah Mosque which welcomes non-Muslims and then roamed historic downtown Amman, including the 6000-seat Roman Theatre, the 500-seat Odeon and Hashemite Square. On our way back to the hotel room we stopped at a barber so Martin could get a haircut. It was impressive and quite an experience when at the end, the barber put a lot of full-strength, wet-look gel on Martin’s hair and he came out looking like a local. Not to worry, Martin is mostly back to his normal looks now! We caught up one more time with Rami and Mirvat and went to their favorite hangout, Casper & Gambini’s in an affluent suburb called Abdoun. Unfortunately, this evening meant goodbye to our new Jordanian friends as we were heading to Jerash the next day and had to fly out of Amman at 6:40am the following day. We do however look forward to catch up with Rami in Kuala Lumpur next February.
The ruined city of Jerash, about 48km north of Amman is considered to be an archeological masterpiece. We reached the site after a hair-raising taxi ride from our hotel to the bus station and after enduring a 1.5 hour wait in a hot bus (buses only leave once they are full and unfortunately, our timing was such that we were the first passengers…).
Jerash is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East and is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "Pompeii of the Middle East or Asia", referring to its size, extent of excavation and level of preservation (though Jerash was never buried by a volcano). This site was rather interesting and the ruins that we saw, the Triumphal Arch (Hadrian's Arch), the cart-rutted Cardo Maximus, and the Oval Plaza or Forum (one of the most distinctive images of Jerash - 56 Ionic columns surround the paved limestone plaza) were all memorable.
The next morning, we had to rise at 3:15 as we were picked up to go to the airport at 4am. We warmed up over hot tea and warm pita bread as we both showered in cold water – not very pleasant as Amman during this time of year is still rather cool, but a sure way to wake up!
The flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines was pleasant and uneventful and we arrived in Istanbul on time. Kudos to the Turkish immigration officials who, for the first time during our trip, did not question Martin’s home country and stamped his passport without any dramas – thank you Turkey! We have now been in Turkey for a bit over a week and are truly enjoying ourselves. We will provide you with a further update closer to our departure at the end of May. Hope all is well with you and we continue to look forward to your e-mails and comments.
So long,
Val & Martin
