My last day in Jordan. Mount Nebo, Jerash and Amman.

  I remember waking up on Friday 23rd of November 2012 with a 'slight' hangover.  Yes, my only hangover from my entire holiday!  I had over done it with birthday wine the night before.
At around 9am my final taxi driver came to pick me up.  He was a young lad who had been recommended to me by his brother working in the antiquities museum.  Obviously he was cheaper than the advertised drivers in the hotel but the only down fall was that he couldn't speak a word of English.  NOT a word!  When I sad bye to Mohammed at reception he was pissing himself laughing saying I was going to have to improve my Arabic quickly. He did know the driver though and told me not to worry, he was a good guy! (Thank God, I was feeling pretty stupid at that moment.)
I got into the car knowing that I was going to have a peaceful journey (A blessing with my headache.) and thank God I could communicate pretty well in gestures and mimes.  We set off to Mount NEBO where Moses  looked out over the Promised Land of the Israelites. Unfortunately it was raining and therefore when we arrived my view of the Promised Land was a huge black cloud.

 Some interesting places  I could have seen much better on any other day.

Amjad, the taxi driver, desperately trying to locate the River Jordan and the city of Jerusalem, which can be seen on a good day!

After about 3 minutes of contemplation on the mountain we wandered off to the nearby museum/church which had more amazing mosaics. ( And also a curator who was as round as he was tall, a true Arabian Weeble.)

On the floor of Nebo

 On the walls of Nebo

 Lots of Byzantine men messing about on water.

We said goodbye to all the mosaics and headed off for Jerash, just North of Amman.  It was cold and wet and to be honest the Northern part of Jordan seemed a complete dump from inside of the car. Anyway, we soon arrived in Jerash, went for a delicious road side kebab.  We were finding places to eat really hard as everything was closed for the holy day of Friday.  There really was nothing open.  Anyway the kebab tasted OK but to honest it made me really ill later.  My only bad food occasion during the entire trip!!

Jerash was OK but to be honest I was suffering from history fatigue, I was thinking about my flight home, I felt pretty lonely and I had slight stomach ache in the rain!!   Ummm, not good!!!  But Jerash is an amazing Roman ruin of a city set on the side of a hill.  it was a vast and imposing place and I walked around for a hour or so until it just got far too wet,  too dangerous and too slippy.

 Up close shot of a fancy plinth.   

 Imposing entrance gates.

 Jerash was totally deserted because  of the weather, being a Friday and being low-season. I had the Roman  Road all to myself.

Looking down and over into the modern city.

 Tea sellers who were hanging out trying to make a living.  The two guys on the right had amazing English. Totally learnt on the job by pouring mint tea out for tourists.

Singing in the rain!

It had been an atmospheric experience but I was ready to go and Amjad then drove me into the city of Amman.   Amman seemed much smaller than I expected and it was a confusing maze of loads of traffic circles...rather like Milton Keynes in a parallel universe.  Obviously, being a Friday I wasn't seeing it at it's best. It really was pretty deserted.  Anyway, I finally got dropped off at a Book Cafe off  Rainbow Street. I grabbed all my luggage and said bye to my taxi driver.

I had entered another world...An  interesting tiny bookshop on the ground floor and a pretty funky cafe with really bright retro walls on the first floor.  I sat down ordered a coffee and relaxed with a book. It felt good to finally be inside!  I had a couple of hours to kill before I was meeting an old colleague of mine Jenny.

I got chatting to this guy who was sitting nearby. He was a lovely  and for a couple of hours me and Yan chatted.  He told me about his work as a freelance journalist  going into the Zatari camp.  (The camp for Syrian refugees which was just a short drive away.)  We talked about travelling and about his trip to St.Petersburg and also about all of my adventures. It was a very enjoyable and unexpected  few hours.  Yan, it was great meeting you! 

At about 6 pm I left the bookshop and walked in the rain to the cafe where I was going to meet Jenny. It was absolutely pouring down by this point and a young girl walking behind me asked if she could share my umbrella with me.  It was funny, me and her battling against the wind and the rain. I invited her for a coffee because I was a bit early.  Wow, what a girl she was!  Another great personality to chat with.  Her family were Christian but she still felt restricted in her lifestyle in Amman.  She had just started University but really was desperate to leave.  Her English was amazing.  She also told me that she was a Lesbian and finding it really hard to talk about. Poor girl was bright, funny and completely frustrated  by her controlled lifestyle.  I really had met a couple of characters in a very short length of time.  

 Jenny finally arrived and the three of us chatted for a bit longer.  Then Jenny and I left for her flat.    She cooked, I chilled out and we chatted.  It was a good end to my holiday but to be honest I was starting to feel ill from the rather grotty road side kebab earlier and I was totally bloody FREEZING and wet through.

About midnight my taxi arrived and off I went to the airport.  Seeing Jenny really had been just a fleeting moment.

I had arrived into Jordan into the hot perfect paradise of Aqaba and I finally left the country in the dead of a freezing  night.  I really felt like winter had finally arrived.  I was ready to get back home.

What a holiday. It had been a fantastic trip. I had had a great time. Total relaxation and pleasure mixed up with intense historical places and wonderful adventures

.  Great people, wonderful food and just a little bit of wine indulgence on my birthday.  Yep, really pleased I visited Israel and Jordan. Now, the saddest part is that this blog is finished too...oh no.  Got to think of another place to visit.

Where to next?

The City of Mosaics

Madaba is a city which I had never heard about before, but I'm happy to have spent my 41st birthday there.  It's coming up for 3 months since I was here but luckily I can still remember a few things.  The girls above were all art students from the capital, Amman who had come to Madaba for the day to learn more about the art of mosaic restoration.  This photo was taken in the main art and restoration building which was a hub of activity with students wandering around with smashed up jars of  ceramic materials and both new and old pieces of art to restore or design.  It was a great place.

Madaba has a long history. Under the rule of Nabateans, Persians, Moabites, Romans, Byzantines, Ummayads and Ottomans.  It was in general decline until  1880  when 90 Arab Christian families from Karak  resettled the area and refound it's ancient Christian roots.

These Palestinian Christian family photos were taken in 1905.

                                   I bought these postcards in the Church of St. John the Baptist.

I love them.Their faces tell lots of stories.

I started my day in the church of St.George.  Here is the most famous mosaic of the city   A map of the Holy Lands from 542 AD. it was AMAZING and was in great nick.  (One of the bonuses of lying undiscovered for nearly 1500 years.)

The ancient floor map.  The carpet is rolled over it for services on Sundays. 

 I was the only person there.

 Judea

 The city of Jerusalem

 Banks of the river Jordan

The Nile Delta.

I loved it.  It was exuberant and fun art and seemed almost modern and fresh.  When I came out into the grounds of the Church I couldn't resist taking this photo.  Maybe there is a job here for me!

I then wandered around the city.  It was small and easy to navigate and the people in the Information Centre were really helpful.  I loved the 3 museums and got chatting to the guide there. His English was really good.  He told me that his brother was a taxi driver and that he would drive me to Amman the next day for a good price.  I agreed because the prices back on the wall in the Hotel were pretty steep.  More about that in my next blog post!

I wandered around and around and I think I saw every unearthed Mosaic the city had to offer.

The oldest mosaic from King Herod's bath  house in 1st Century BC

                                                                       A Roman  head

                                                  The animals seemed to have personalities.

I then went to the Church of St. John the Baptist and learnt about the history of the city. It was a great place and the caretaker came over to talk to me. He took me on a tour and I ended up in the catacombs which go back to the Old Testament Biblical times.  

He demonstrated that the old Moabite well, which is 3000 years old, still works today.  This well is mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible when the Israelites were fighting the Moabites.

He showed me a reconstruction of Ruth's tent which was supposedly on this site. Again I think she is in the Bible and has a book/chapter named after her.

He then showed me where the tower was and left me to climb up for the great view over the city.  I was feeling in good form.  I was having a great birthday and seeing interesting things but unfortunately the tower was almost the end of me. It was such a cramped spiral staircase with  metal steps you could see down. I was all alone and almost fainted right under the bell.  It was really scary and I couldn't finish the last 20 steps to reach the high window.  I was stuck...I couldn't go up or down.  I was there stuck for about 10 minutes shaking and trying not to fall backwards.  Then  I had to deep breath, close my eyes, crouch down and slowly lower myself backwards back down the steps just feeling with my feet.   Yes, it would have been a sad and pitiful sight...but I forget until it happens that I suffer from such bad vertigo and agoraphobic ! It was the worst few moments of my entire holiday.

After that I was able to go for a well deserved drink.  It was great that alcohol was on sale in Madaba and then back to the hotel.  I chatted to Muhammed the receptionist.  He let me upload photos off my camera on his computer and gave me cake and orange juice from a wedding party  that was taking part in the function room next door.  He was  probably one of the loveliest guys I met on my trip.  When I tried to tip him the next morning he just gave me the money back saying 

 'Don't be so insulting,  I enjoyed talking to you'

At the end of the day I wandered back to the same wonderful restaurant from the previous day and had more of their wonderful food.

All in all my birthday was a success but to be honest I don't think I want to spend my birthday away from all my friends and family again. I missed them!!

Finally at the Dead Sea.

Wednesday 21st November was a really fun afternoon. I loved every minute of it. We drove past the Dana Bio-reserve and I know that if I ever go back to Jordan I will stay here. This little piece of paradise looked like a real gem in Jordan's crown!
We drove down to Wadi Mujib, a massive gorge, which cuts through the landscape like a massive scar.  Unfortunately it closes in the autumn and winter seasons so all I could do was walk down to the visitor centre.  It looked amazing...a really impressive  fissure,cut like a thin slice of cheese through the land.  It's the lowest nature reserve in the world. If I could have, I really think  I would have gone for a few hours of caving, white water rafting or even river rock climbing but unluckily the options weren't there and maybe that was a good thing; with my lack of coordination it would have been a disaster!

A sunny picture of Wadi Mujib taken from here

 The entrance of the gorge

 Me, I look different without my glasses (oh and thanks to my driver for creating the Bedouin scarf!)

I really loved it down in the Dead Sea area because the air was so good.  I was lucky too because in winter it wasn't incredibly hot. In fact it was pretty pleasant, even a bit cold on the cliffs above.
My first impressions of the Dead Sea were great...it was a weird body of water.  The waves didn't lap and there were white crystals everywhere. In fact it didn't really look like water, it was more like some kind of liquid you equated with an alien planet.  As it was windy I didn't see it at it's flat, silky best, but I was still mightily impressed by it.

 Above the Dead Sea.

Behind me was a pillar of salt, which locals believe to be Lot's wife. (She turned to stone in the Bible when she turned round to look back at her city of Sodom and Gomorrah.)  Yes, this ancient city of vice was most probably located near-by.

We then carried on to the sea.  I paid only about 5 quid to enter into a beach spa, I used their changing rooms...they were massive cubicles...enough for a family of 10 in the UK, with heavy wooden doors and massive wooden mirrors all around.  It really was quite atmospheric in there. I rubbed my few cuts on my legs from diving and snorkelling with Vaseline so the salt wouldn't sting them and off I went into the ocean.  I left my stuff with the driver...shit, it's really bad that I can't remember his name.
IT WAS SO FUNNY!!  The water was thick like cream and as soon as you were up to your knees you just couldn't stay upright.  You were totally buoyant   I LOVED IT and it felt absolutely great.  I really think my hour or so floating and paddling around in the Dead Sea were a highlight of my trip.  I could float so easily and I could also manouvere around really well by sitting up and moving my arms...like sitting on a high powered water sofa!  I also loved the feeling of the salt water in my ears.  It really soothed my frazzled ear canals!  The floating was so relaxing too. I would have liked a whole week of floating here, but the few hours had to do.  I also covered myself in mud from a massive bucket of the stuff.  It was so stinky..pure gone off eggs, but hey, I loved the gooey, pooey texture!  I know how much these treatments are in the UK so I was going to make the most of this!  I lost all my inhibitions and went to town.

 Relaxing.

.Getting stuck in at the high-class beauty parlour!

Being low season it was very quiet...it was cold (ish) too.  

For me it was fine but the mud didn't dry completely on my body.

 Sitting here in my little house now in Bicester it seems unbelievable that  I was here doing this just over two months ago.

It brings back great memories.   

Smelling (and looking) like a massive toxic egg I waddled back into the sea and tried to get the mud off. This was almost impossible on my face.  Just the smallest bit of Dead Sea in your eye is agony and when I was drying my hair with my towel I  got salt in my eye and  had to pour half a bottle of water into my open eye to swill it out.  But hey, I felt 10 years younger, my skin was smooth and I didn't smell that bad any more!
Oh, by the way I did taste the sea, just to test it out, and it was truly gross.

It was now getting dark.  I had had a great day.  Castles, gorges, a great driver for company..(.what was his name?!!!  It's driving me crazy)   and the true bliss of floating in the lowest place on earth with hardly any one around, oh... and covering myself in mud and prancing around like a lunatic.

About 40 minutes later I arrived at the hotel in  Madaba.  My welcome was really lovely and the hotel was the best I stayed in over my entire trip.  
The receptionist, Mohammed, was really friendly and I got a fabulous room.  Mohammed told me where the top restaurant in town was, so off I went for the best meal I ate during my whole trip. (Actually it was equal best with the fish meal I had in Tel Aviv)   I loved Haret Jdoudna restaurant.  It was the perfect way to end the perfect day!

   A reminder of my enormous starter with my birthday bottle of  Jordanian wine.

Crusader Castles.

Wow. Wednesday 21st November was a great jam packed day full of fun adventures. It was a great day. I got up really early and my new taxi driver was waiting for me. Damn, I've forgotten his name but he was an interesting ol' guy with a lot of stories and lots of opinions.
 After about half an hour of being on the road we stopped for boiling hot coffee (also so he could have one of his incredibly strong cigarettes)  he was telling me about his family, his kids, his adventures driving across Iraq in the 90s and also sharing his prolific knowledge of his country: Here are some snippets of things he said:
How Iranian tourists are  banned from travelling to Jordan due to the Sunni/Shia muslim rift and the number of Shia holy sites in Jordan which they can't visit.  
How Israeli politicians have sex with Palestinian politicians and then blackmail them.
How Jordan is taking in an unbelievable amount of refugees from Syria, Iraq and Palestine.
How Palestinians still don't have full rights in Jordan ( Over one third of the population of Jordan are displaced Palestinians.)


He kept saying that if political strife ever hit his country then where the hell would all the people go?
 "There is just no country free of strife anywhere around. Jordan has to try and keep itself politically stable, otherwise we are all completely f**ked."
OK this is a depressing picture but he was a jolly guy really who kept laughing through his cigarette induced coughing fits.

Shobak Castle,originally called Montreal.  It was built in 1115 by Baldwin I of Jerusalem but was quickly aquired by a French Lord who attacked the trade caravans which passed by.  He also planned to attack Mecca.  This news reached Saladin and of course he wasn't very happy about this so decided on a plan of attack first.

We arrived at Shobak Castle about 10am. It was all pretty desolate really. A massive castle ruin on a desolate hill with just a few villages below.  It was an atmospheric, yet creepy place not helped by the fact that I was the only visitor. A local guide said he would take me around for a quid.  That was money well spent, without him the whole place would have just been a crumbling, dark,creepy wreck.  But he bought the place to life.

 Crusaders kept wine in this storage area in the 12th Century.
The Muslims decided to just store olives (or so my guide said!)

 The remains of the Church from 1185

 Boulders thrown from  Saladin's catapults ..Really?!

Saladin's Islamic inscriptions on the crusader turrets from 1187.

Saladin sieged the castle for two years but unbeknown to him there was an escape tunnel for the canny crusaders.  It was dug through the basement of the castle,through the hill right out into the far plains below.  If I were a fit, brave woman, with no fear of heights and the dark and enclosed spaces, I could have descended into this tunnel as it is still navigable.  Ummm, I might travel alone but I still have strong survival instincts. So I kindly rejected my guide's 'kind' offer to take me down into the tunnel of hell.

We then left the desolation of Shobak behind.  The castle was in direct sunlight but these photos give an idea of the land around.

 Beautifully barren.

Me in the middle of nowhere. Shobak village is behind me and the castle is just to the left.

We then drove off to Karak. it was turning into a highly historical morning.  I've read about Crusaders and the might of Saladin  but now finally I was seeing the places with my own eyes...it was very exciting.

Karak castle was better preserved and obviously had more tourists and funding.  For me though, it lacked a bit of the atmosphere of Shobak but the history was still amazing.  This land had been home to the Moabites of Biblical times and the Nabateans.  But it was in the 12th century, when crusaders came and started to charge road tax  to traders, when the current fortress was first built high on the hill over the town.

Above picture is nicked from here  I never got to see the castle like this because I just arrived through a crazy traffic system which my driver seemed to know like the back of his hand.

The crusader Lord of this castle would throw people off the barricades with wooden boxes over their heads so that they remained conscious for a long time when they finally hit the ground below. Saladin really was fighting against a notorious bunch of money grabbing, sadistic bastards. He conquered the place in 1188 and that  was the end of the Crusader presence in this area of the Middle East.

 The museum was great and I liked that Japan and Jordan were working together.

 Churches which had been turned into mosques. It was so beautiful down here and I'm glad my guide had a torch.

The wall on the right was built by the crusaders over 300 years before the Mamluks built the crappy extension on the left. You have to give it to the Crusaders...they built things to last.

My guide was an old man but as as sprightly on his feet as a mountain goat. His pronunciation was poor but his knowledge was amazing. Here we are in the small prison cells when the castle was used as a jail in the 13th century.

A prayer niche shows the conversion of Churches to Mosques.  Saladin spared  everyone's life at Karak castle apart from the sadistic Lord, who he killed himself.

This was the kitchen.   There was still an oven, pestles and mortars  and a big grain grinder. I loved it.

In neither castle was there a great sense of 'doing things for the tourists'  There were hardly any signs or information.  Because I paid for guides I was fine and I really liked the rough and ready edge of these two castles.  I know it was quiet because I was travelling in low season but to be honest it all added to the creepy menacing atmosphere of these amazing castles.

It was time to leave. I had lunch with my driver and he told me how much he hates Karak because of the awful traffic in the town below.  Luckily today had been a good day and we had arrived early.  I told him it was my birthday tomorrow and he guessed my age as 50.  Cheeky bugger! I tried not to let this get me down and luckily my lunch was tasty enough for me to forget the insult. He told me to have get prepared, we were about to descend  over 500 metres and the  quick descent sometimes gave people headaches.  Yes, I was finally off to my birthday treat...floating in the Dead Sea.