Hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. I spent mine exploring the Holy Land (in Jordan) a little and was blown away with the amazing experience.
We (Rico and I) landed in Amman, and explored the town a bit. The city is sooo cute (from some photos I've seen, it looks a little like Israel).
Buildings are all clustered in the same off-white/pinkish colour and same design, just different heights. And because it's very "hilly", ups and downs, it gives an interesting effect to the image. We had a feast in some local restaurant that night, smoking shisha till it came out of our ears, lol. The traffic is chill and the people are really friendly and helpful (or trying to help at least).Then off we went to Petra (Wadi Musa). A 3hour drive south through red dry land. South and then west becomes very mountainous. Petra took my breath away. It is such a cute town and the surrounding mountains and roads hugging it, are stunning! We dropped our bags and went to the main gate where we were about to embark on our hiking journey to one of the 7 wonders of the world. Words can not describe this place and neither can photos. It's almost unbelievable. An entire 'city' has been built in rock, about 2000 years ago. It took us about 2-3 hours to reach the top (we weren't aware of this) and once there, we found the cherry on the cake. The aweinspiring Al Deir, a religious meeting place(monastary) in those days. I stood in front of this grand carved rock and struggled to get it all 'in'. It was overwhelming!
Then we had a chat with the Bedouins selling their jewelry over a cup of strong coffee and mint tea. There are donkeys, horses and camels everywhere (including the unfortunate 1000s of people wandering the sites) and so we each grabbed a camel to relief us of a portion of our descent. And THIS was another highlight of my life. I raced on a camel!!! The crazy (yet beautiful Captain Sparrow looking) cameltender listened to my request to go faster, so got on the saddle with me and we went as fast as these camels could go!!!!
They listen like horses. So Rico and I were in our own race. This to me was ecstasy!!!!Then afterwards another feast at a local spot, including Petra 8% beer and local red wine. The weather btw was fabulous!
Then a beautiful drive to the Dead Sea(3hours).
Along the road we saw many goats and sheep with their shepherd and dogs.
We were soon floating and I was trying to do a few moves and flipped over.
What a disgusting experience, hahaha!! Take a small glass of water, put 42 spoons of salt in there and throw it over your face. (the water is just to make it splash). If you play with salt again, you might realize salt has an oily texture to it. The water felt like this, a bit greasy. It evaporates fast, leaving a thick white trace all over your scalp and body, and then you begin to itch. I'd rather use a lilo. Covered myself in mud for some free spa treatment and soon I was surrounded by some 10 local men, staring at this woman in a costume (they are not used to it, it's like this in Dubai also, hehe)Then on our way back to Amman, we saw the Dana Village down in the Rummana Mountain ranges.
We drove passed Mount Nebo (where Moses was buried) on our way to Madaba (the town with the most memorable places in the Holy Land) and you could actually feel the Jesus/Bible vibe around these areas. I could just imagine an Arab Jesus, with his long robe walking with sheep through these beautiful farmlike stony yet green bushy fields with an air of Peace, Love, Calm and Joy:) In my mind everything came together, as if I understood the history. Israel is afterall just on the other side of the Dead Sea where we were.We had lunch in Madaba (which is an interesting Arabic Christian town) at some real skanky local diner. I ate fresh chickpeas for the first time (comes out like peas).
Back in Amman, we stayed in the Old Town, at backpackers. Short and schweet. Rico allowed me take the lead in the trip, but mostly we went with the flow. Oh, how fantastic is it that I go through immigration with just a stamp in my lovely South African passport, and Rico pays 20JD (R200) and wait in a queue to get a visa with his Swiss passport, haha!! In Jordan, everyone has the same habit: "Where are you from?" (reply) South Africa. "Welcome". :)
Bless in bliss
Mwah
A
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