Jordan and Snow

 
Hello Again,

After successfully planning their vacation in sunny Jordan we find our hero TJ and the Camel Queen onboard an A310 Airbus about to land in Amman Jordan.  The Captain’s voice booms over the intercom….I’d like to thank you for flying with us on Royal Jordanian Airlines. We are about to land in Amman Jordan, the time is 3:05 and the temperature is 0 degrees Centigrade and snowing…..TJ looks deeply into the eyes of the Camel Queen and speaks…..This ain’t right, I didn’t fly all the way here to be snowed on. We knew it might be cold but nobody said anything about snow……… another adventure begins. 

A representative from Jordan Select Tours gathers us up and whisks us through immigration, securing our visas, through customs and on to baggage claim.  We are quickly handed off to a driver double parked in the busy street.  The Camel Queen in the voice of an excited schoolgirl shrieks “can you believe it, we are in Jordan”.  TJ acknowledges her comment and continues to shiver.  Looking over the snow blanketed landscape on our way to downtown Amman, it’s quite clear that “we aren’t in Kansas anymore”.  Much like drivers in Houston Texas the Jordanian drivers are unaccustomed to driving in the snow and it is very apparent by the large amount of fender benders seen on the way to the hotel.  Upon arriving at the Intercontinental Hotel it is apparent that they are serious about security.  There are barriers that are raised and lowered as cars enter and exit and guards stationed at the underground parking entrance.  In America, we take a lot of things for granted.

Our driver Mohammed was a Kuwaiti who is living in Jordan.  His naturalized American wife and newborn son are in America and he hopes to join them there soon.  For eight days he drove us all over the Jordanian countryside braving the snow, rain and heat.  His English was good and we were able to communicate pretty well.  After each little story we included a link to some of our pictures and another link to some additional information about the place if anybody is interested.

Amman
Amman is a big city built on the many hills, the houses and buildings cascade over the hills providing breathtaking views wherever you look.  Origins of the city date back to 7,000 BC.   It is a city of 3 million people, about half of the population of Jordan.  The Citadel is located on one of the highest points in the city.  The Hill of the Citadel dates back to 1800 BC, however what you will find there today are Roman Ruins from around 100 AD.  From the Citadel there is a great view of the large Roman Amphitheater in Amman, it seats 6000.  At one time some of the Dead Sea scrolls resided in the Museum at the Citadel, this is something we wanted to see but did not because they were recently moved to another museum.



Jerash,

We drive for  about an hour across the snow covered fields and then like magic, the snow disappears and we are in Jerash.  The first sight we see is the Arch of Hadrian, a monument to the Roman Emperor, it is a massive arch and in very good condition.  Our driver stops and purchases our tickets, sending us out to wander among the Roman ruins, little do we know what lies ahead.  Our first contact is with a freelance guide trying to sell us postcards and earn a tip.   As we walk along he is calling out things he knows about the site… pointing to a large hole, Roman food storage… pointing to some stone ruins, Roman shop… and so the tour continues, we are unable to get him to leave us alone, at some point, we give him a few dinar and he leaves us alone.  
 
We walk past the Hippodrome and toward the restaurant where we are to meet our driver and the guide whose services our driver had secured.  In front of us lies the ancient city of Jerash.  As we enter the Roman city, we walk on Roman built roads where you can see ruts from the wheels of their chariots.  In the center of the city there is an major intersection that has colonnaded roads leading to Philadelphia (modern day Amman), Damascus, Jerusalem and Saudi Arabia.  Remains of temples, tall columns and theaters can be seen all around us.  Only when you climb to the highest point and look down upon the city do you realize how large the city is and how magnificent it must have been in its day. To our American eyes it seems odd to have a modern city built up around Roman ruins thousands of years old.





Mount Nebo
We left Amman headed to the Dead Sea but along the way we stopped at Mount Nebo.  According to Jewish and Christian tradition and the Bible, Moses was buried on this mountain by God Himself.  There are several monuments and the remains of a church which is being restored/rebuilt.  From the top of Mount Nebo you can look toward Israel and see the distant cities of Jericho and Jerusalem.  According to the final chapter of Deuteronomy, Mount Nebo is where the Hebrew prophet Moses was given a view of the promised land that God was giving to the Israelites.  Not far from Mount Nebo, we got watch artisans making mosaics.  It was part of a business and we got to watch the ladies piece together the mosaics, it was more complicated than I expected.  The ladies were quite gifted and made beautiful art pieces.

Crusader Castles
While in Jordan, we had the opportunity to visit Karak and Shobak castles.  These castles were constructed during the time of the Crusades, 1120-1130 AD.  They are not as well preserved as most of the European castles but they are a little older than most of the Classic European Castles you will visit.  It was extremely windy the day we were there.  It was the highest sustained winds I have ever experienced outside of a hurricane, the wind was blowing 50-60 mph sustained and gusting even more.  There were several walkways I would not attempt to cross being afraid I would not make it to the other side safely.  I like walking through all the connecting passageways thinking what life was like back in the Crusade period.



Petra
During my life I have seen many pictures of the Treasury at Petra and I always wanted to go there. Having now been there I can say that it is truly a sight that you should see in your lifetime.  To get to the city you have to walk about a mile through a narrow entrance called the “Siq”.  At one point, our guide told us it was the “law” and you had to walk on the right side of the canyon near to the side of the cliffs.  He then turned us around to look backwards at several rock foundations and skillfully moved us to the left side of the chasm.  When we turned around to continue our journey we found ourselves getting our first view the Treasury through the last few feet of the Siq.  It is a memory I will always remember. All in all we walked close to 7 miles that day.  Additionally we rode camels for a while to give us a break from the uphill walk out of the city.  Within the Nabataea city there are ruins from the time when the Roman Empire ruled this area (around 100 AD).  We sat and ate a small lunch looking out over the theater and assorted buildings. We watched the waitress feed banana peels to a camel, she made a game of it laying it on his nose and making him work for it.  I haggled with a young girl over the price of a onyx camel I wanted to purchase, we started at 30 dinar and I gave up at 10 dinar.  Ten dinar was a fair price and I should have bought it but I was tired of her bargaining strategy and stopped dealing with her, she followed me about 100 feet trying to close the sale.

Wadi Rum
Breath taking scenery is found in every direction you look, the vastness of Wadi Rum and the silence you experienced was amazing.  It made you feel insignificant, like time was standing still.  There have been several famous movies filmed here, Lawrence of Arabia, The Red Planet (represented the surface of Mars) and others.  There is a famous rock formation known as the 7 Pillars of Wisdom, it got its name from a book written by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia).  We took a 4 wheel drive jeep tour of Wadi Rum given by a local Bedouin.  Our guide showed us the village his people lived in and told us that his grandfather was a camel handler for the camels used in the Lawrence of Arabia film.  Part of the tour was a stop at a Bedouin camp and enjoy Bedouin Tea.  The camp was in a natural canyon between two large rock outcrops that provided continuous shade.  The temperature was very cool for being in the middle of a sand desert and there was a quiet peaceful feeling about the place.  The tea was a little sweet but overall pretty good.

Aqaba
Although we are not beach people we both felt we could have spent several days relaxing on the beach.  The incredible design, construction and operation of the MovenPick Hotel is awesome.  Across the Red Sea to the North is Israel, to the West is Egypt.  We walked around downtown, Elizabeth found a dress she liked.  She also found some Karkadeh, Hibiscus sabdariffa flower buds used to make an herbal tea drink consumed both hot and cold by people around the world.  It is also referred to as roselle (another common name for the hibiscus flower).




In Summary
I must say I had a great time, it looked pretty bad the first two days with the snow but we stuck to the plan and had a wonderful time.   Overall we only lost about a half day because of the snow.  I plan on going back to Jordan at some point and seeing some new things and to just relax something that is usually difficult for me but I am trying to get accustomed to.

TJ and EA in KSA