Middle East Part 2 - Jordan

This post I'll tackle 10 items from the country Jordan (listed in the order I thought them - not a ranking).  I was pleasantly surprised by Jordan and felt safe even when going with a complete stranger "who was someone's cousin" for some day trip.

Jerash
Jerash (or Gerasa) is one of the highlights of Jordan in my opinion.  First off the history is just so amazing with it being inhabited as early as the Bronze age (that's really old-like 3200BC possibly) and one of the Decapolis cities.  It's the birthplace of Nocomachus, a famous mathematician for the geeks out there.  Really, its just that so much is still there, it is very well preserved and if it hadn't been for the earthquake of 749AD it would be "pristine."  One general note is that just about everywhere we went on our trip there was signage saying, "this was standing until the earthquake of 749AD."  That earthquake must have been a doozy!

I digress.  The fact is that this city, which is about an hour north of Amman, took all day to explore had amazing ruins. We were lucky enough to see Chariot Races going that day because there was some school group there (I even ran into my cousin's daughter while there which was fun).  While I thought it was going to be cheesy it was fun to see it acted out and they even provided a bit of historical facts to go with the display.  If you are lucky enough to be there when they have the races I would definitely suggest doing it.

Ha - I got 'em!  Whose laughing now?

Dead Sea
Living near the Great Salt Lake I have always wondered what it would be like to float in water.  Every time I tried to go out to the Great Salt Lake the brine shrimp were doing something so it smelled really, really gross and I just couldn't get myself into the water.  I was afraid this would be the same sort of scenario at the Dead Sea but I really wanted to experience the density of the water and what it felt like.  Thankfully, the water was pretty clean and didn't smell at all!  In order to be able to shower after your dip (which is really necessary even though the water is clean) you have to pay.  Most of the hotels cost upwards of 40JD and that just seemed ridiculous. At the end of the hotel row was Amman Beach which only charge 20JD for foreigners and it had everything you would need.

Floating in the Dead Sea was amazing.  I was a cork!  I stood straight up and down with my arms up and feet extended and I didn't sink below my chest.  It was the coolest thing!  We spent about an hour playing around trying to sink and also exfoliating with some Dead Sea mud (its suppose to be good for you - I'm not sure about that but it was fun to do).  Afterwards we had dinner at the Panoramic Restaurant which was totally amazing for sunset views and decent food too.

Hummus
Most Americans have eaten hummus.  Its basically ground up chickpeas, tahini and olive oil.  You would think...how hard can this be to make and how many varieties can there really be?  Let's just say that by the end of my trip I laughed at myself because I was a hummus snob.  Yep...it's true.  I could look at that chickpea dish and tell you whether it was "good" or not.  The best hummus in Jordan happens to be at Hasha's.  This is a little dive place in downtown Amman that the King of Jordan just happens to eat at as well.  It's cheap and some of the best food around.  Yum!

Yummy Hummus in Amman

Wadi Rum
Wadi means valley in Arabic and Wadi Rum means The Valley of the Moon.  This was our desert experience out in the Arabic desert.  It was really neat to ride a camel in the desert, to drive a jeep around the red sand and see massive rock formations.  But, I'm going to be blatantly honest...my friend and I had to laugh because we travelled half way around the world to see something that looks just like Lake Powell without the water.  Really!  I think our guide, Eid, was a little disappointed that we weren't awestruck by the two small arches he showed us.  My friend explained Arches National Park and he started to get the picture. 

So, the cool thing here was not the view but getting to know a Bedouin and asking a bunch of questions about their culture.  It was great to eat in a goat haired tent (although the hummus wasn't good - I was definitely differentiating by this point) and sleep under the stars far away from others.  I wasn't real keen on the Hookah that my guide had to smoke every stop we made or the fact that we "had" to take an hour nap after lunch.  This was definitely a 'forced slow down your pace' place. 

My silly camel ate everything in sight!

Camels and Hookahs
Ok...not camels as in animals, but cigarettes.  And, actually, not Camels, but Marlboro's.  Jordan (and Israel) is a nation which smokes like a chimney and interestingly people either smoke Marlboro's or hookahs.  This area alone keeps Marlboro in business.  Smoking is kind of disgusting to me and I'm allergic to it so this was definitely a negative 10 item.  You can't escape it anywhere; even in food shops. 

Eid, our guide, taking a hookah break

Petra

The magnificent Petra.  This was truly a spectacular spot.  You get the narrow slot canyon and red rock views.  You get incredible engineering feats of hewn ornate rock facades as well as developing water systems.  And, you get some rich history with neat ruins from the Nabataeans as well as the Romans.

We spent an afternoon and then a morning at the site.  By doing this we escaped the majority of the crowds and were able to get views and space away from the typical crowds.  The first day we hiked to the High Place of Sacrifice which gave us a view overlooking Wadi Musa (the town outside of Petra) and the royal tombs.  The view was amazing.  Like all the trails in Petra, there aren't many trail markers per say.  Instead, its a little Bedouin lady selling her wares in a tent.  Just beware of the sign at the bottom of some stairs saying, "best view in the world." We took a few of these that were definitely not the best view and definitely not worth the calories burned.

On day two we hiked to Ad Dier (the Monastery) which is another rock cut façade as well as a view of the region and Jabal Haroun (supposedly Aaron's tomb).   We ran into an archeology group digging and they happened to be from my alma mater, Brigham Young University.  It was really interesting talking with them as they were excavating the waterway systems.  I wanted to join them!  After learning more about the site we took a side trip up to the vista overlooking the Monastery as well as the regional view - this is well worth the extra few minutes.  And yes, there is someone selling something up there at the top!  Here's the funny thing however; they all have cell phones now. 

Each of these hikes were well worth it and weren't nearly as hard as the guide books indicated (I'll throw in a note that I live at 4500' and these hikes were closer to the 2000-3000' range) taking only an hour each way at most. 

Camel Riding
I just couldn't get over how crazy these animals are.  They make funny grunting noises and they are really tall!  Their legs hinge funny so they fold up real tight and they are bouncier than Tigger!  The minute they start walking even a hair faster than really slow you are going up and down as much as forward.  I'd put a video on it but you would get sick!  My hint for this one...lean way back when they stand up or you'll flop right on over their heads! (no, that didn't happen to me).

Amman City
Amman has ruins right in the city which justify at least a few hours of viewing.  They are the Citadel and the Roman Theatre.  My cousin had to laugh because last year when visiting him I was put on national Taiwanese TV (see this post: Chinese New Year Taiwan Style - Part 1).  This time I wasn't quite so famous; however, a young Muslim girl was amazed at how tall I was and had to take a picture of me.  Sadly, I was so enamored with being a celebrity that I forgot to get a picture of her. 

Diving in the Read Sea
Aqaba is way down south and way warm (like 100F warm).  While I was there it also happened to be WAY windy (like >25mph with higher gusts).  That caused some murkiness to the water (not to mention sand blasting when above ground) but overall the visibility was good.  I dove around a wreck for my first time and saw a ton of Lion Fish, Lizard Fish and other fish that have land based names but are really aquatic.  It was actually less expensive to dive there than at other places (I dove with http://www.aqabadivingcenter.com/ and would recommend them again).  I was surprised by how cold the water was and was thankful for a thick full wetsuit. 

Cute fish hiding in a Plume Worm

Ancient Things like Little Petra
Coming from the western US where anything over 100 years is old I had a hard time wrapping my brain around things that were thousands of years old.  Jerash, Petra, and all of these ruins are really old.  Little Petra is outside of Wadi Musa about a half hour.  It is some small ruins at a much smaller scale than Petra with no one there (except the Bedouin sellers of course).  What I thought was even neater was a short walk to a Neolithic village just outside of Little Petra showing that man built housing developments possibly around 9500BC - that's the last part of the Stone Ages!  Maybe Fred Flintstone was for real!?

Stay tuned for Part 3 of my trip - I will have a video showing some of my activities.  And, don't forget to check out the additional photographs HERE.