Amidst my crazy few weeks at work and mum visiting, I managed to take a couple of days off to visit Jordan. Mum and I went for 4 days, rented a car and drove to Petra, Wadi Rum and the Dead Sea. We landed in Amman, and drove the 3 hours to Petra. I realised that I have been too long in the UAE when in Jordan, I had to get used to narrow and bumpy roads, dodgy looking petrol stations and cars whose windows were missing and plastic was held up by tape instead. Jordan is quite a poor country, and it's so easy to think that the whole of the Middle East looks like the Gulf states, when the majority of this region still live in pretty paltry conditions.
We got to Petra in the evening and were told that we could catch Petra at night, where the 1.2km path to the Treasury would be lit up by 1,000 candles. It was an amazing experience, to walk in the dark in this ancient city where people walked more than 2,000 years ago. We settled in front of the Treasury, which was lit by hundreds of candle. They then had a traditional oud player who played music so haunting, and then a flutist and singer too. Truly surreal..
We rose bright and early the next day to go to Petra before all the tourist buses and it was the best decision we made! Petra is a very different place with 100 people at 7am compared to the 20,000 when we left at 2pm. We walked the length of Petra and made our way up by donkey to the Monastery. It was truly magnificent - the history, the scenery, the technology they used 2,000 years ago, and mostly the people. People still live in Petra, not in the tourist site, but in surrounding areas. All the people who work with the donkeys, horses or selling trinkets are people whose families have lived in Petra for centuries. They still live in Petra, in tiny villages around the tourist site.
After we finished Petra we drove south to Wadi Rum, a magnificent desert (where Laurence of Arabia was filmed). We got a guide to bring us around, and again the hospitality we received in the little Bedouin camps was absolutely amazing. People there have nothing but were so welcoming and were so insistent that we have tea with them. It's an amazing contrast to the UAE, where people had been living in similar circumstances 50 years ago, but who because of oil, have gotten so rich that they don't have to live in the desert anymore.
After such a tiring day, we left Petra the next day and headed to the Dead Sea. I treated mum to an afternoon at the Movenpick beach and spa and it was gorgeous. They gave us Dead Sea mud which I slapped on very willingly and just floated on the oily water. It's quite a surreal experience floating. Some guys tried to dive in but no success! The water also tastes bitter, not salty like I expected. Definitely fun, and a must do, once in a lifetime experience!
We then made our way to Amman in crazy traffic and left the next day. The trip was definitely too short and I did not manage to see everything i wanted to, so maybe another trip some other time. It was so refreshing to be in a country with such a long history, where one could go to the mountain where Moses one stood, or the alleged Baptism site of Jesus. The people were definitely the highlight of my trip, so warm and absolutely welcoming ... it made me reflect on how cynical we can be about people's intentions.
I am heading to Egypt next week for 9 days, so looking forward to that!
Pictures are posted here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelle_d/
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