Day 11: Petra from the top

Today, we went to see the non touristic side of Petra. Petra is the western name for Wadi Mousa and the word Petra is Greek for "stone". As the name implies, the ancient city of Petra is carved entirely out of the sides of the arid, barren hills of the region. The hills themselves are unlike any that I've ever seen before.

The curvy road near the entrance.

We first entered through the gate and walked about 5 minutes along the curvy road that we walked last night. Then we walked out of the road and towards a pepper tree. We rubbed its leaves on our hands to smell its delightful aroma. Next to the tree is a narrow path that we climbed. And then we climb some more. And then more.

We stopped when we reached a small plateau. The view from here is simply astonishing. As you can see in the picture below, the people who lived in Petra carved caves to live in. Today, the Bedouins, which are Jordanian shepherds, live in these caves, although the Petra Bedouins don't actually raise sheep anymore, but rather, they pester tourists to buy souvenirs.

Beautiful, and hot...

 We continued walking up and down these hills for a while. I wasn't sure about the direction we're heading in, but the destination was the High Place of Sacrifice. The next interesting thing we saw was this rock that looks like a ship. The tour guide never mentioned it, but it really does.

A Ship?

 Okay, after this, there was only hiking and nothing of historical or cultural importance. So, I'll let the pics do the talking (otherwise, you'll just be reading "we walked up, we walked down").

I love Petra's rocks!

The sleeping camel

Red rocks

Purple rocks

I see a train?

A donkey belonging to the Bedouins, with ancient obelisks behind it.

So high up. See the tiny white speck? That's a building.

Blue lizard!

We are now at the High Place of Sacrifice. Now our tour guide will kill off one of our members to appease the gods.

The High Place of Sacrifice isn't special looking. It's a small flat plateau where the ancient people carved out a hole to hold the blood. After visiting this place, we hiked down. At this point, we have walked for over 3 hrs in the blazing Middle East sun. The hike down and the walk back to our hotels took 4 hrs. So, more pics.

We had lunch over in that hut.

Funny story here: The sign said "Danger: Don't Wander Off the Path!", so people went off the path and made cairns (aka stacked rocks). Quite dangerous, in my opinion, because it was really steep.

Pastel

A beautiful caved. Who needs paint when the rocks are so colorful?

Tombs

Tomb city

Delectable desert desserts.

Almost there..

Down there is touristic Petra. Will be doing that tomorrow.

Finally, we have arrived at the touristic part of Petra. From here, we were harassed by Bedouins trying to make us ride their camels or donkey back to the gate. We were warned by our tour guide not to ride these animals or ride with out own intuitions because they always offer it at a ridiculous price. However, by this time, we learned to haggle. To haggle in the Middle East:

1. Name your price
2. Walk away and hear the seller gradually lower the price
3. Finally after a couple of steps, the seller will succumb to your price. Walk back and purchase your item. Put in a bit of extra money for tip.

Side note: I always wanted to ride the donkey, but after seeing how they abuse that poor animal, I didn't. They would just randomly whip it for no reason from time to time and it makes me cringe.

So, then we split up and walked back to the hotel. I drank my last gulp of water here, not knowing that the distance back to the hotel is 3km. And so I walked 3km without water in the 40C/105F heat. Nearly fainted, but it's good to be young because you can still make these stupid mistakes. When I got out of gate of Petra, I bought a 1.5L bottle of water and drained it completely within 5 minutes. I went for a swim in the hotel pool later and then we had a HUGE dinner:

The dish is called Magluba. Its rice and chicken with yogurt on the side.

Day 10: Mt. Nebo, the Grand Canyon of Jordan, Madaba, and Al-Karak Castle

The view from Mt. Nebo

We set off at 9am again. Our first destination was Mt. Nebo, which was the mountain where Moses was buried. There was a new visitor's centor on this site, but the whole place was small and not very interesting in my opinion. From the top of Mt. Nebo, on a clear day, we can see Jerusalem.

Next, we head to Madaba. In Madaba, we get to see an ancient 6th century mosaic depicting a map, albeit not the most accurate version, of the Holy Land. The map was made by Greek Orthodoxes. If you can tell, there is the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, and then Eilat and Aqaba, etc.

A 6th century mosaic of the Holy Land

Then we head to Al-Karak Castle. On our way, we stop at Wadi Mujib, or what they nicknamed the "Grand Canyon" of Jordan. The name did not disappoint. It was simply gorgeous, but not as steep or large as the Grand Canyon. I still think both are equally beautiful.

Wadi Mujib - The Grand Canyon of Jordan

With roads and the dam. Would love to hike here.

After a while of driving on these mountainous roads, we went back to the normal roads and we get to see wheat farms. They said that when the International Money Fund, IMF, gave Jordan money, they told Jordan not to try to grow wheat. So, for a very long time, Jordanians had to import wheat from the US, an expensive choice that forced the government to subsidize wheat to make it affordable. This is one of the little things that made Jordanians, and many other Middle Eastern countries, angry at the West. Perhaps if the US helps some of these countries a bit more like they help Israel, they may start liking the US more. Currently, according to some poll, only 14% of Jordanians have favorable view towards the US. Never noticed though, because they were all nice people.

Al-Karak Castle is a castle built by the Crusaders in the 12th Century. The Muslims captured it later, and that is all I know about this place. It is a very big castle with high, impenetrable walls. It took the Muslims like two years to capture it, mainly by just waiting for the Crusader's supply to run out. The Castle is built on top of a hill and it's a very strange castle (well, I haven't seen a castle before this) because it isn't a tall castle at all and a lot of its structure is underground.

The Walls of Al-Karak. If you squint, you'll see small slits for archers.

Somewhere inside the castle

Tunnels in the castle. There are bakeries, temples/mosques/church, etc. down there.

After Al-Karak, we went to Wadi Mousa aka Petra! We arrived in the evening, just in time for Petra by night. After a bland dinner at a touristic restaurant (there are many touristic places there), we walked to the gate and then into a candle lit path. The path is curvy and only lit by a single trail of candles on the floor. We walked for about 2 km before we see an impressive field of hundreds of candles under the famous Treasury, giving it a golden glow. Unfortunately, the camera cannot capture this moment. Sometimes I wish I know some photography tricks the pros use.

We sat there in front of the Treasury and listened to a man perform a song using a traditional instrument. The lyrics were, of course, about some praises to Allah because it was 2 days before Ramadan, the holiest month of Islam. They served some sweet herbal teas too, so it was a very relaxing setting. Below is a GIF of a video of when they told everyone to simotaneously flash and take a picture of the Treasury:

Hmm, the quality sucks when you convert it to GIF. Basically, you were suppose to see the Treasury.

 Bonus pics:

Country roads of Jordan.

A typical house/building in Jordan

 A strange Jordanian tradition is to leave their houses unfinished at the top. This is so that when they get rich, they can add another floor to their house.

Day 9: Jeresh and the Dead Sea (again)

At 2 am, I was woken up by a knock. Outside my hotel room was my tour guide and my "roommate". Long story short, I became really good friends with him because we pretty much did everything together throughout the trip.

At 8 am, we went down to breakfast and he introduced me to the other members of the tour who flew into Jordan with him. The demographic is as follows:

-A couple in their 60's (British, retired)
-A solo female in her 40's (Scottish)
-A solo female in her 40's (British, theater director)
-A solo female in her 50's (British expat from Qatar, physio)
-A solo female in her late 30's (American, HR manager but quit her job to do a 9 month world trip)
-A mother in her 60's and her son who is 38 (Italians with British roots, the son is a doctor)
-A couple in their mid 30's (Woman is New Zealander and the man is British, I don't think they work)
-A mother in her 60's and her son who is 18 and a huge nerd to say the least. He didn't participate in most physical activities, like hiking or swimming. Sigh, instead, he read books about historical wars, like the Angola War. He likes to ask me math questions because he plans to study mathematics.
-My roommate: A solo male who is 30 (British, doctor)

We went to the tour bus at 9 am and we introduced ourselves and then the tour guide, Zuhir, started telling us stories about Jordanians vs. Syrians, how good Saddam Hussein was, King of Jordan, and many more. An hour later, we arrived at Jeresh.

Herod's Gate, Jeresh

 Jeresh is a very well preserved, ancient Roman city. It is located just North of Amman and there was a small river running next to Jeresh. The first thing we saw was Herod's Gate. I don't know how much of it is original, but the structure is impressive none the less.

After a few minute's walk, we arrived at the forum of Jeresh, which is one of the most well preserved forums. A forum is a gathering point for the Romans.  All of its pillars are original. The reason why they are still standing is because the Romans were very smart: they put counter weights in the pillars. Yes, the same technology that you see in skyscrapers in today's world was introduced by the Romans. Therefore, even though there were earthquakes in this region, the columns remained standing.

The forum.

The forum from up top.

After visiting the forum, we went to the market place. The market place is quite huge and is all full of shops. Every store was decorated with beautiful marbles, but sadly, they're all either stolen or destroyed.

The market place

Next is the spring. This is one of the places where people can fetch water, but this is the most impressive one in the city. Its walls were decorated with marbles and each "window" (not sure what to call them) had a statue of one of the gods. Water would flow in from the holes, which according to the guide was actually statues of animals and the water would flow out of their mouths. This was one of the main gathering points for women.

The marvelous spring

Of course no Roman towns would be complete without an amphitheater and a temple. In fact, all Roman towns have temples. Here are the pictures of the temple and amphitheater. 

Temple

 

Steps of the amphitheater.

After Jeresh, we went for a dip in the Dead Sea. The Jordanian Dead Sea is a hundred times more impressive than the Israeli one. This time, the water is crystal clear and very deep. There were no mud in the bottom, but instead, they're all rocks. Again, you can't sink in the Dead Sea so it was quite surreal to be staring down into the depth of the the water but remain floating. Plus the fact that we went in the evening made it even more perfect. The sun isn't right above and the water was a bit cooler than usual. We floated for an hour and a half chatting. A very good first day indeed.

Beautiful shore of the Dead Sea.

Day 7 and 8: Crossing the border to Jordan and waiting

Before I came to Israel, I had booked a week long tour in Jordan. The reason why I booked a tour was because Jordanians aren't as fluent in English as the Israelis, who speak nearly flawless English for the most part. Also, the things to see in Jordan are very spread out so transportation would be a huge problem for me.

The tour starts on Sunday and it was Friday when I started my journey from Jerusalem to Amman, Jordan. The reason why I started on Friday was because the Sabbath runs from the sunset of Friday to the sunset of Saturday. On the Sabbath, as people all say, all Jewish establishments close, including public transportation, shops and restaurants.

There are three land border crossing points from Israel to Jordan. The shortest way to get from Jerusalem to Amman is through Allenby Bridge crossing, which would would be about 100 km (62 miles). However, this crossing is intended for Palestinians only and not recommended for tourists. The second shortest way is through the Sheik Hussein crossing, which is in the North tip of Israel. This route would take about 150 km (93 miles). However, this crossing is really near Syria, a place that you should avoid at all cost for the next decade or so. The third option is the option I took. It was about 800 km (500 miles)!! This is the south border crossing at Eilat.

The bus from Jerusalem to Eilat was at 7 am and lasted 4 hrs. After getting off, I took a taxi to the border crossing, walked across the border, and then took a taxi from the Jordanian side to a bus stop. I bought a 2 pm ticket and really thought the ride to Amman would be quick because the tour adviser told me it would only take an hour. However, the ride was also 4 hrs long, with an extra 30 mins going through customs. I arrived at my hotel room in Amman at 7 pm, and ate a not-so-good hotel dinner there and then slept.

The next day was a pure waiting day. After breakfast, I went over to the reception and asked about tour joining instructions. All they said was that the tour members (who are mostly from UK since it was a British tour company) could arrive at noon, 3 pm or 6 pm so just wait in the room. Waiting in the room was exactly what I did that day. The tour guide did check on me at 4 pm, but quickly left. The only thing I did was watch TV and a movie (Ran by Akira Kurosawa, great movie btw). TV was quite interesting actually since it was during the Egyptian military takeover period where the general gave Morsi an ultimatum. Other than that I went out and bought a bottle of water (when you travel, a bottle a day keeps the doctors away) from a nearby store and realized that the hotel is located far away from downtown Amman so I had nothing to do.

Day 6: Masada and Dead Sea

I booked a day tour to Masada and the Dead Sea with a small tour company that was advised by my hotel, mostly because it was only a short walk away. The tour was surprisingly cheap compared to other tours, about half the price actually, so I was really surprised but didn't say anything. Turns out, when I checked the reviews about this tour company, they only provide the driver and not the tour guide. It was a bit late to find that out because I had already paid them.

The driver picked me up at a bus stop. The van was quite old, and the AC wasn't cold at all. However, the driver was surprisingly great. It was a 2 hr drive to Masada from Jerusalem. On the way, the driver talked about the things we will see, and about the Palestinian situation (most of my Palestinian facts from the Day 5 post came from this guy) because he is an "Arab-Israeli", which is a person who has Israeli ID card, but not all of Israeli's rights. He didn't sound very hateful at all, unlike the guide I had at Bethlehem and Jericho (remember, since Israelis can't enter Palestine, the tour companies had to hire Palestinian guides). In fact, our driver was very straightforward and only told us the facts and nothing more. Basically, this tour works like this: the driver talks about destination while driving and once we arrive, he gave us a certain amount of time to see the place and then we return to the van and then go to the next place. Wasn't exactly what I wanted, but I got what I paid for.

That hole in the middle is where they found the scrolls.

On our way to Masada, we stopped at Qumran, the place where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. We had to buy tickets to get in. Once we entered, there was a theater, but it was still showing something and we only had twenty minutes so we went through the gates and explored the little area. The place was full of old ritual bath houses or something stupid and we all thought that they just found the scrolls buried there and almost missed the cave. The cave was some distance away from all these excavations. Basically, some Bedouins, which are basically Middle Eastern shepherds, went in the cave and found the scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls, if you didn't know, are the oldest writings known to contain verses from the Torah. The scrolls are believed to be as old as 2nd century BC. By the way, it's called the Dead Sea Scrolls because the Dead Sea is literally right across from it.

Masada

One part of the The Fortress of Masada

The view from up top.

The hike down. The entrance is that building down there.

After seeing the cave, we went back to the van and continued our journey to Masada. In the car, the driver admitted that Qumran wasn't interesting at all, but did say that Masada will be worth it. Masada is an ancient fortress, built in the 1st century BC by Herod the Great on a mountain in the middle of the Judean desert and right near the Dead Sea. When we arrived, we were given a time of 1.5 hrs and a strong recommendation to go up by cable car and down if we choose. The ride up was quick but once I started the tour, I began to feel the heat. It was 40C (104 F) and very sunny, as you can see, so it was really hot to say the least. I didn't really care about the history or the layout of the fortress to be honest. The place was basically stones (would be much more interesting if I came with a tour guide). However, the view from up top is simply gorgeous. The pictures that I took can't really describe how great the views were because pictures can't make you feel the heat, height, and depth. Anyways, I really only got to see a bit of the place (40 minutes) since I chose not to go down by cable car. Exploring the entire place can take about 3 hrs at least. I had to hike back to the entrance since I didn't chose to buy cable car ticket for my trip down. The hike down took 40 minutes and I completely drained about 1 liter of water on my way down. It was a fun walk actually: very rocky and I had the opportunity to chat with one of the guy from the tour.

When we reach the entrance, I was soaked with my sweat. The driver said that it's good to be hot and tired because now we are going to relax in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is basically a 10 minute drive away. The beach that we entered was full of tourists and the water was warm and grey. The water wasn't deep and there was smooth mud at the bottom of it. Of course the coolest thing was that you float on the Dead Sea because water is extremely salty. I learned that the hard way when a tiny drop of water went into my eyes and it literally felt like someone poked my eyes with a needle. I also had a taste of it and it was just like putting a spoon of salt in your mouth.

Supposedly, the black mud of the Dead Sea has extraordinary healing powers and cures skin diseases. However, I wasn't very into beauty, so I simply just played with the mud, rub it here and there, and just floated in the sea for about 30 minutes. I was going to be in the Dead Sea in Jordan again (which is literally in the opposite shore of the Dead Sea) so I didn't really spent much time in the water there.

At the Dead Sea. The water was about 30C.

The day ended with a trip to Jericho because Jericho was included in this tour and the Jericho trip I went the day before was unexpected. We were given 30 minutes to see the place and/or eat lunch. I spent most of my time eating lunch and did get to see Jericho from the rooftop of the restaurant. Not very interesting when you have seen the place just the day before. After seeing the Mount of Temptation and the Sycamore tree again, we drove back to Jerusalem. It was a long day really because I got back in my hotel room at 6 pm and very tired. I had to wake up at 5 am the next day to catch a 7 am bus to Eilat to cross over to Jordan so I slept early that day.