Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts

Under the Desert Stars

As I planned out our trip in Jordan, I originally slotted for us to be in Aquaba. With diving & snorkeling, I thought it would be a perfect quick stop on our way to Petra.

Then, as I read more and asked around, I heard more and more about Wadi Rum.  Since we already swam the Red Sea in Egypt, I decided that it was a special opportunity and so we booked up a tent in a bedouin camp.

What made it the area so appealing? It's most famed for it's ties to T.E. Lawrence (of Lawrence of Arabia), as he travelled through the area during the Arab Revolt. But while many may visit for that reason, all will come away remembering by its nick name of Valley of the Moon Rock; the name is certainly earned by it's unique rock landscape among the dunes. It was made a protected area in 1998, meaning that there are no large hotels nearby, so if you want to stay, you'll want to arrange to stay at one of the bedouin campsites in advance.

Since we were arriving from the Dead Sea, we had a half day on either side of one evening in Wadi Rum. You drive up through the gates, purchase your ticket while trying to avoid being heckled by the people selling goods & services, then drive on into the village to meet your guide. We found our man, left our car and hopped into the 4x4 to ride off into the desert.

 
The guide was a fantastic idea; even if you had the proper car to drive in the sand, likely you'd get lost among the endless sand, dunes, mountains and more sand. With a map in hand, I could only figure out landmarks after we'd passed them, there's no way I could have found my way through the desert without roads or any sign posts. Our guide was a local bedouin who knew the area by heart, making it seem easy and we spent our first afternoon driving through the white desert part of the park.

 
While the sites you see are similar throughout the park, there's still a lot to admire in the unusual rock formations. The rocks themselves look almost like a melting birthday cake, flat on the tops and sides, with colours dripping down the sides, like icing that has sat too long into the sun.

Teeny Paul puts those giant rocks into perspective


The landscape is covered with rock bridges, formed by the sand and winds forces on the rock over thousands of years. It's a hugely popular place for rock climbers, but dangerous as well as some of the rocks can be soft and give way if you don't know what you're doing.

 
We spent the afternoon driving, exploring and hiking, finally ending up to hope to catch the sun set, only to see sand sweeping across the plain instead. Unfortunately the wind made our plan of camping under the stars a lot less enjoyable. We ended up trying it anyways, but it made for a noisy night without too many stars for us to view.

Despite a restless night, we woke up the next day ready to go. We were visiting the Rock Bridge of Um Fruth, one of the more famous rock bridges. We didn't have time to climb the Rock Bridge of Burdah, so we had to be content with just one. It's not really a hike but not really a climb, rather a scramble. We were told to take off our shoes, scurry up and wait our turn to cross over the bridge.  To finish off our morning, we drove past the Seven Pillars, the thousand year old paintings of camels and finished up at Lawrence's Spring.

 
If you aren't a hiker, this may not be the place for you - the landscape is stunning, but you may not find it enjoyable to sit in a very very bumpy car all day. If you do hike, I thought one full day was enough time for us, but others we met at the camp had stayed longer and still seemed to be enjoying it. The camps are rudimentary, with stuffed mattresses and local traditional blankets, or if you went our route, blankets to sleep on the rocks. Some camps may have toilets & showers, others you may find yourself roughing it, so decide what you feel comfortable with!
Desert, Jordan, Wadi Rum
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Lowest Point on Earth

I spent a lot of time planning out our Jordan itinerary, trying to figure out the best driving routes since we were being our own tour guides, finding the best timing and making sure we were in the right place at the right time. Usually, I'm more laid back, go with the flow, but with so much to see in Jordan in such a short period of time I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.

We planned to spend our first night in one of the Dead Sea resorts, getting 24 hours there. I figured this would be enough, but I was wrong.

Access to the Dead Sea can be either through public beaches with an entrance fee, or private resorts that border on the Dead Sea itself. We went with the latter and stayed at the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort and Spa; it is definitely a resort, with pools, restaurants and bars for everyone's tastes. We got there just around check-in time and immediately got into our suits and headed down to the "beaches" of the Dead Sea. The area down by the sea was under construction when we were at the hotel, so it was noisier than I would have liked with out many good places to set your things, but they had a few changing rooms and access to the sea, so everyone just got on with it. They provide you with little rubber slippers to wear (which were a bit of a flashback to the jellies of my childhood), which supposedly help reduce your chances of slipping. 

 

When we got down to the water, we noticed a few big clay jars filled with mud that everyone was slathering themselves in. We decided, hey, what the heck, let's join them, so we grabbed clunks of the goopy mud and slathered it on ourselves, head to toe.

 
After we felt satisfied that every body part was caked, we went into the water. While everyone says you just float, I was still surprised. I REALLY floated. I stood there, let myself fall backwards, and my face didn't even get wet I was so buoyant. It was an odd feeling, laying there, facing the sun, floating along. You can't really even paddle yourself since it's hard to get your body parts to stay under the water. There's no splashing around (since the salt water would burn your eyes, trust me), simply relaxing. As time passed, all the mud washed off me, leaving my skin feeling soft, so I got out, rinsed off, re-applied and did it all over again. 

 
Later on, when I was reaching prune stages of water exposure, we decided to head back up to the resort to relax. We found a bar with perfect views of the sunset, enjoyed a cocktail, then later in the evening a bit of hookah. After a relaxing dinner, we called it a night.

 
Then, the next day, we woke up and did it all over again. We wanted to get down to the Dead Sea early to give us plenty of time to clean-up before we checked out at noon. It was even more tranquil getting there before the crowds and taking in the serenity of the water without people in it.

Just like that, our time in the Dead Sea was up. Despite all my planning, I found myself thinking about throwing plants to the wind and spending more time at this mysterious place. In hindsight, I'd planned it all backwards. We should have gone out to do all our hiking in Petra and the Wadi Rum before coming to the Dead Sea to relax, but it still gave us a great first taste to what Jordan has to offer.
Dead Sea, Jordan
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Driving Jordan

Lately I’ve been looking for new types of experiences in my travel. I know I sound horribly spoiled when I say I’m a bit over cathedrals and ruins, but the truth is I’m really looking for things now that give me a new perspective and a better insight into the local culture, not just something I’ve done before.  Part of this is trying to get an authentic feel for the places I go, away from the tourist packed streets, shops and restaurants, and into places that you discover on your own or through locals, so I’ve been focused on independent travel. I’ve found when you’re in a tour (especially depending on the tour or country) you stop in places that were built to serve the giant buses of tourists that stop in some of the most popular destinations of the world.

Jordan was one of my first true experiments with this outside of Europe, because not only were we not with a group, but we decided to drive ourselves. We figure, if we can drive in Istanbul, we can drive most places?

 

 So, after picking up our car in Amman, we started our explorations.  While our first overnight stay was at the Dead Sea, we had planned a few other pit stops on the way where a car would be necessary.

First was Mount Nebo – this is where Moses was said to stand out and see the promised land of Israel. You can see the vast expanse of desert around the mountain, dotted with lakes (or pools) and even the Dead Sea in the edge of your view. There is a church on site which supposedly has beautiful mosaics, but it was closed when we visited, so we snapped some shots, took in the expanse of it all, then started our drive towards the Jordan River.
 
The road weaved back and forth on the desert plain, taking you from a mount to one of the lowest areas in the world. You passed bedouin tents with fires out front and can imagine a lively scene at night with music, dancing and laughter around the camp fire. In some places, you may have been stopped by a shepherd moving his sheep across to the other side of the road, in no particular hurry. It highlights the way that many locals live and the bedouin history of the area.

 The Jordan River was easy to find after joining the main road, thanks to many signs in English that dotted the highway. Along with the signs, we found tons of people selling fruits, vegetables and who knows what else along the road to those who can be enticed to stop. You can't drive yourself through the sites at the River Jordan, so we waited for the bus and crammed ourselves in along with everyone else, giving me flashbacks to my days boarding the buses in Istanbul.
 
We walked around the site with the guide, who I think was mainly there to make sure no one wandered over into Israel. The main place to see is the site where historians think Jesus was baptised. Nowadays, it's not on the river, just a sad pool of water that doesn't connect to anything else and is not fit for anyone to dip as much as a toe in. There are the relics of a church nearby that were likely built to commemorate the importance of the site. 
 

 After that, we followed the path down to the river itself. It's a slow moving river, flanked on either side by rushes, and so narrow that you can see the Israel side a stones throw away (really, less than 50 metres away). The Jordan side seemed more relaxed, with people watching, talking quietly among themselves and sitting to take in the tranquility.  The Israel side is full of people in white robes, immersing themselves in the water, either to clean themselves or have themselves baptised by others. We sat for some time, just watching - it may have 5 minutes, 30 minutes, I can't recall now, but just taking in the nature and scene around us.
 
Then it was back to the crowded bus, back to our hot car, and back on the road. As we drove, we saw the way of life in Jordan. More street vendors selling fruits, waters and knick knacks. More shepherds along with their gaggly looking sheep, and even some with camels, sat beside the road, perhaps waiting to spit on the next passerby. I was happy to be in control, making our own pace and picking our own stops, but for now, we decided to keep on going and headed further down into Jordan.

Jordan
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The Ancient City of Petra

I don’t really keep a formal bucket list of world travels, although I probably should. And if I had been, for the last 3 years, Petra would have been at the very top. While in Turkey, we never went despite the close proximity. And finally, after over 2 years overseas, I found myself there.

I was a bit worried that I’d be disappointed, like we were with Israel. With such high expectations, it’s easy to feel let down by the weight of your aspirations for a place.

And yet, my expectations were exceeded even! While parts of Petra could be a let down, with crowds of people all herded down the main road towards the site, avoiding giant clumps of horse and donkey droppings along the way, other parts were spectacular.

The first day, we arrived in the afternoon but decided to visit anyways. With it only being 5 more JOD per person for the second day, it was worth it even for a few hours.  We made the long trek down the siq to the treasury,  with many heading the opposite direction toward the exit after a long hot day around the site.  The Treasury, the most famed and photographed portion of the site was still crowded with tourists, so we grabbed a quick glance, then continued on with plans of coming back early the next day.



 As we wandered, we came across some nearly unmarked steps leading up into the mountain, and after seeing a couple coming down, decided to follow the steps up to wherever they lead, which even with a map we weren’t certain of.  We climbed and climbed, taking some stops to allow me to catch my breath and drink some water. We didn’t pass many tourists, although we did pass some local Bedouins, some hawking goods, others simply playing with children or piping a tune on a lute. It felt a bit like stepping back in time. When we finally found ourselves at the top, we realised we had stumbled upon the walk to the High Altar. In addition to the altar, it afforded fantastic views over the colonnade below. We watched the other tourists, like little ants following a trail, and gave our legs a rest before heading back down and to our hotel.

Only perhaps an eighth of the way up to the top
The next day we had big plans. I had so much I wanted to see and to see before the crowds! The park opens at 6, so we made sure we were there by 6:45 (it was a vacation after all). We were nearly alone on our walk into the siq, before the buses came and dropped off the crowds, and got a great view of the treasury coming in.  The next thing to tackle, before it got too hot, was the Monastery. This is another of Petra’s long walks, all the way to the far end of the site. An hour walk and 800 steps up, some people pay for donkeys to get them to the top, but we chose the old fashioned way. There isn’t much to see on the way up, so other than a few quick stops, we powered our way through. We arrived just as the sun was peeking out from behind the monastery – not great for photos, but it made for a breathtaking site.


For the afternoon we headed back down the main road, which was in its heyday was wamped by markets and town halls. Now, it’s still a main thoroughfare, perhaps not quite as full of the hustle and bustle of its past, but still busy with tourists and vendors selling magnets, scarves and little camels. We had lunch on the hill next to some of the old churches, then went up towards the hillside tombs. Before we got there, we found yet another set of steps leading up, just to the left of the first tomb. So, our spirit of adventure high, Paul convinced me to make the climb despite my tired legs. He had to remind me throughout the climb that it would be worth it. We made it to what we thought was the top, only to find more climbing ahead of us. Finally, we were at our finish, all alone, enjoying stunning views down onto the treasury. With no one to block our views, no one to hassle us for horse rides, we spent some time taking it all in and amazing at what you can find just off the beaten path.

The tombs
After finishing up our day in Petra, we grabbed some food then wandered back to Petra in the evening one last time. The part I had been most excited about was Petra by Night – as they light up the Siq and Treasury with candles, it seems a bit like it would have been thousands of years ago before electricity and tour buses. Unfortunately, they don’t do any crowd control, so we found ourselves herded through the Siq with 250 other people. While the scene was still eerie, the ambiance wasn’t as tourists talked through the Bedouin music and afterwards played with the candle bags til they caught fire and burned out. Paul and I hung around waiting for that final moment of silence before being ushered out by the staff and back on our way.

While I wish my final impression of Petra was more magical, I still loved my time exploring the city. It has something for everyone; history, geogology, nature, architecture and the mystery of an old time. It certainly deserved its spot on the top of my bucket list and hopefully it’s made the top of some of yours!
Jordan, Petra
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