Lazy Days In Aqaba

Yay! Vacation time! 

'What?' I hear you say... 'You are on a 7 months vacation, and you need vacation within a vacation?'. Yes, we do! As in Amalfi and Marmaris, we need time to absorb the experiences, catch up with ourselves, and relax. 

So we took another taxi shared with our English friend Helen, to South Beach 12 km south of Aqaba. It took only about an hour and a half from Wadi Rum, so it didn't feel like a lost day of travelling. We stayed at Darna Village which is across the road from the public beach.

We spent 5 days doing nothing but sleeping in, snorkelling, and relaxing. We didn't even bother going in to Aqaba; we were sick of cities, crowds of people, and the general tourist scene.

A room with a wonderful view!

When we opened the door to our room, we were greeted with some towel art, something quite typical in the Jordanian hotel industry.

Our location allowed easy snorkelling access to a 7.5 km coral reef with stunning coral and beautiful fish. We snorkelled every morning around 11:00, ate lunch, rested, and were back in the water again around 4:00!

Friday is the day that Muslims go to the Mosque to pray, (similar to the Christian Sunday) and Friday and Saturday are generally holidays in Jordan. We were quite curious to see what would happen on our beach on the weekend (we arrived on Wednesday). Well, it started the night before, with many Jordanians barbecuing on the beach, with the delicious smell of chicken waifing through the air, yum, yum! Many families put up big tents and stayed the night. Aqaba is a fairly conservative area of Jordan. Most Jordanian men swam in shorts and a t-shirt and most women wore a bathing suit that fully covered their bodies. They were all laughing and smiling, and having a great time. Nice to see!

The sunsets over Egypt were wonderful.

We decided to make our last night in Jordan special by going to Tala Bay Resort for dinner and drinks. Dorte had marinated tiger prawns, and Andy had one of his favourite meals, beef tenderloin, soaked down, of course, with a good bottle of Bordeaux.

Alcohol is severely restricted in Jordan, it is mostly found at international hotel chains such as the Radisson, or Movenpick, etc. In other places such as Petra, it is prohibitly expensive (price gouging by hotelier agreement, I think, being Jordan's top tourist attraction). Jordanian wine is expensive (about 22 Cdn on average), and not that good, for the most part. It is equivalent to a $8-9 bottle of Canadian wine which gives you a headache in the morning ('nuff said!). Named after Dorte?

Andy made the decision not to dive in Aqaba, as it had been about 15 years since he made his last plunge. However, for those as rusty as Andy, there are many PADI dive centres offering 11/2-2 hour refresher courses for about 65 JD (100 Cdn). A full PADI certification would run about 350 JD (500 Cdn). 

The picture below is taken from our hotel on South Beach. If you look through the second lamppost on your left, and across the ocean to the sandstone hill, you have the Egyptian/Israeli border. On the left is Taba, Egypt and on the far right is Eilat, Israel. There was a lot of trouble in Egypt's Sinai peninsula. We were glad of our decision not to go there.

We have travelled Jordan from north (Jerash) to south (Aqaba), a really enjoyable country. We flew to Amman and boarded a Qatar Airlines flight to Kathmandu, Nepal via Doha in Qatar. The flight was full of young Nepalese men going home after having worked in Qatar for three years on construction for the World Cup in 2022. They are home for four months, and then they go back to Qatar for another three years! There were only three women in economy class - Dorte being the only caucasian. An interesting experience! It is raining and 21 degrees in Kathmandu according to our pilot, something that doesn't happen very often in desert conditions of Jordan, and a weather we haven't had since we left Vancouver three month ago.

We are both excited to start the Asian part of our trip (3-4 months), which promises to be very different than Europe and the Middle East. Trekking, mountains, snow, jungles, river rafting, and helping write a hiking guide (our last volunteer experience) all await in Nepal. Stay tuned for our next adventure update!!!

Nomadic Trek in Wadi Rum, Jordan

We took the 6:20 bus from Petra to Wadi Rum, and got dropped off at Jordan Track's office at 8:30. It was a nice ride through desert, but the rocks looked slightly different.

We are only 4 people in the group: Helen (UK), us and Farahd (FuFu), our guide. He is 20 years old, and was born in Wadi Rum village. His father has two wives, and he is one of 8 children. He has a great sense of humour, and he Andy had a lot of friendly banters over the two days. FuFu would claim things like he used an American M-16 rifle to kill 1000 rabbits a year. Andy would laugh at this, and pretend to go along with the story. FuFu also threatened to leave Andy alone at night in the desert to see if he could survive. Andy threatened to leave FuFu alone in the high Canadian Artic for one hour and on it went!

Wadi Rum is a spectacular desert scenery; the mountains rise up to 800 metres from the desert floor, and the corridors of red sand just add to the dramatic scenery.

We walked part of the old caravan route between Aquba and Saudi Arabia, and saw sign posts (the first graffiti?) carved into the rock by the Thamud tribe, about 2000 years ago showing the way for the caravans.

We stopped for lunch and siesta in the shade of this big rock for a couple of hours, as it is too hot to walk in the desert at that time of day.

Up and down sand dunes we walked, through open areas where the sand was whipping us forward due to the high winds in the afternoon, so a true desert experience.

When we reached camp around 16:30 and after 18 km of walking in the sand, we were tired, but very proud of ourselves. We sleep in beds in tents perched along the mountain, and the meals were served outside around the fire pit.

It was wonderful with a hot shower provided by solar energy, and we got a free body's scrub washing off all the sand! We walked away from camp to see the sunset, and caught a glimpse of it.

The 12 other people at our camp, were all on jeep tours, and they were impressed that we had walked all the way to camp. Dinner was literally 'something we dug up', as it was cooked in a hole in the ground with burning wood at the bottom, then the food covered with a lid and sand to keep the heat in. The chicken and the veggies tasted wonderful. 

We walked away from camp to see the stars, and what a sight. The  Milkey Way was right above our heads, and so was thousand of stars. It was almost as if you could reach out and touch the stars, and it was so silent - it was simply magical.

After dinner, the Bedouin guides entertained us with song and music, and then it was a well deserved bed time.

Nomadic Trek Day 2

For once it was a treat going to the wash room in the middle of the night, as the moon was up, and lit up the camp and sourrounding dessert. An amazing sight.

We left the camp after breakfast around 9 am, and took off on our day hike in the dessert. It is an amazing landscape, and hard work, but interesting to experience by foot what the Bedouins have done for thousand of years.

We stopped several times for short breaks in the shade, and the temperature difference was amazing as it was 5 to 10 degrees C cooler in the shade - what a relief.  The movie Lawrence of Arabia was filmed here in the early 1960s.

We had a tea break at this rock bridge, which was quite a challenge for Andy, due to his vertigo, but he made it up there.

I (Dorte) am typing this part in FuFu's grandparent's Bedouin tent in the middle of the dessert, where we had lunch, tea, and a 2 hour siesta as it is too hot to walk around in the dessert. Very nice of them to host us, and another interesting experience. It is a hard life being a Bedouin!

A nap!

The kitchen!

After 14 km hiking we were back at camp, and went in a jeep to see the sunset. Another spectacular sight!

The next morning we were taken out of the desert in a jeep, and we were very pleased we didn't have to walk to Wadi Rum Village in the sand!

This trip was definitely an unforgettable experience!

Petra Kitchen

After a day in Petra, ice cream, a change of clothes, and a beer at the Moevenpick Hotel, it was time to go to Petra Kitchen for a Jordanian cooking lesson. Petra Kitchen is a local initiative for visitors, to get a hands-on experience of Jordanian culture, by working with a team of local men and women to cook an evening meal and then eat together.

It is amazing how many different dishes you can make of largely the same ingredients: tomatoes, onion, lemon and garlic.

Chef Andy cooking Lentil Soup.

The ingredients are all locally sourced, the tableware comes from the women's ceramics workshop, and the aprons, tablecloths, and napkins are all hand-embroidered by Jordanian women.

We had a lot of fun during the 3 hours, and the food was great. We have all the recipes, and will definitely make some of the dishes at home - so watch out next time you come for dinner!

Petra - The High Place of Sacrifice

We made our way through the Siq again, admiring some of the many carvings and geological formations.

We then climbed up yet more steps cut into the rock, 

and after 40 minutes, we were rewarded with a spectacular view of one of the theatres from 170 meters.

The High Place was the venue for important religious ceremonies honouring Nabatean gods (probably including human and animal sacrifice) and it was perhaps also used for funeral rites.

Instead of going back the same way, we took the Wadi Farasa trail, which in a couple of hours would take us down to Petra City Centre. We only met a handful of people, so it felt like we were the only ones there. It was great not having to say "No Thank You" very politely to the many Jordanians trying to make a living off the tourists in Petra, as they were largely non-existent on this trail; Camel/Horse/Donkey rides, tea, postcards, water, trinkets, etc were repeatedly offered, often with the caption 'free" which basically meant an expensive tip was required! The nice thing in Jordan was that when you said 'no thank you' very politely and looked them in the eye, you were left alone. The local Bedouins were generally very polite and respectful!

The Lion Monument had probably been a drinking fountain with water coming from the lion's mouth. Use your imagination to see the lion; hint: right eye is visible!

We descended steps which zig zagged down the side of the mountain, 

to the Garden Triclinium and the Roman Soldier Tomb, wrongly named so as it looks like the headless man in the middle is wearing a cuirass, but the tomb is Nabatean.

We saw more tombs as well as houses built into the slopes, as we made our way back to city centre. We didn't manage to see it all, but we did do all the recommended highlights, and it was truly amazing.

It is difficult to imagine what Petra must have looked like in it's golden age, when it was a wealthy city, home to tens of thousands of people. What today are ruins were once grand temples and buildings, there were lush gardens in what now looks lush dusty waste.

It was so nice to see ruins that were not Roman, having previously travelled to Italy, Turkey and Greece! We spend some time on a bench admiring the Treasury a final time, before leaving Petra.

Petra - "The Eighth Wonder of the Ancient World"

SHOBAK CASTLE

We shared a car and driver to Petra with Helen, and we made a stop at Shobak Castle. The driver let us off at the foot of the castle, and suggested we climbed down this chute... 

and he would meet us at the castle! Andy was excited about this, and Helen a little bit leery, as we had to go through what once was a secret tunnel leading up, up, up to the castle. This secret tunnel was dug to find water, and the spring was the first thing we saw after getting to the bottom of the shute. It was a bit steep in a couple of places, but we made it. This time we didn't only look at history, we actually experienced it!

Foto of the tunnel curtesy of Watchsmart/Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/x/t/0095009/photos/watchsmart/1457431644/

Shobak Castle was the first castle to be built by the Crusaders in 1115. There is not much left of the castle, and it is under reconstruction.

We stayed at Valentine Inn downtown Wadi Musa (there are no hotels in Petra), and had a great view towards the Petra Gate and the mountains.

PETRA

Petra astounds. Tucked away in a remote valley basin and sheltered from the outside world behind an impenetrable barrier of rock, this ancient city remains wreathed in mystery.

Petra grew wealthy through the Nabateans caravan trading skills, and even challenged the might of Rome. Two millennia of wind and rain have blurred the edges of the ornate facades, but it is still an impressive place.

In order to beat the heat and the tour groups, we took the 7:00am bus from the hotel to the gate, and bought a 2-day ticket. It is a 3 km walk from the Petra Gate to Petra 'city centre', the gentle gradient of 5% concealing the fact that the drop in altitude is equivalent to a forty-story skyscraper, barely noticeable on the way down, but quite an ordeal going back up with tired legs! Part of the walk is the 1.2 km through the Siq (gorge); a 1.2 km path which twists and turns between high, bizarrely eroded sandstone cliffs 150 meters high in some places. The water canal running along one side of the Siq once supplied Petra with water. 

The cliff looks like an elephant!

As we finally stepped out into daylight, this breathtaking vision greeted us welcome to Petra!

The Treasury was designed to impress, and it certainly does 2000 years on. The facade is 43 meters high and 30 meters wide. The function of the Treasury is unknown, and it got its name from the Bedouins as they thought there was a treasure deposited in the urn at the top, as it was carved in the 1st century as a tomb of a king. Inside is just a big empty room.

We then walk all the way through the city centre till the other end of 'Main Street', past tombs, and along the Colonnaded Street, 

and ascended the 800 flight of stairs cut into the rock 

up to the Ad-Deir (Monastery). It was hot to climb the 220 metres even this early in the morning.

The facade is 50 square meters, the doorway alone is taller than a house, and it is very well preserved. This building was either a tomb, temple or both; it used to be an important pilgrimage site.

Well, down again we had a snack in the shade where the Petra markets used to be, and there was also time for some fun among the ruins.....

As if we hadn't climbed enough in the heat, we set out on the one hour trail which runs behind the Palace Tomb, and winds it way up more stairs to a plateau with a wonderful view of the Treasury from above.

There was also a great view of Petra from there.

We had lunch in a cave on the trail - nice with some food and shade.

A sign showed us the way back

We then visited the Palace Tomb, the Corinthian Tomb, the Silk Tomb, and the impressive Urn Tomb, which is the largest of the four Royal Tombs (carved to house the tombs of Nabatean dignitaries) with a main chamber measuring 17 x 18 meters. It is believed to have been carved in 70 A.D. and served as a church during Byzantine times.

We were hot and tired, and had seen and done enough for one day, and we still had to hike the 1.2km Siq out of there..... slightly uphill all the way! Luck was with us as there was a Moevenpick hotel right next to the Petra Gate, and they sold Swiss ice cream - what a treat!

Then we went to the Cave Bar for a beer just because it is located in a 2000 year old Nabatean tomb - rather cheesy!

Well back at the hotel, we had a very nice buffet dinner at the hotel, and an early night!