jordan day 3: dead sea

from mount nebo, we descended right down to the lowest point on earth to one of the highlights of our trip, the dead sea. even though it's called "dead sea", it's not really a sea, but is actually a really big lake.

first glimpse of the dead sea! palestine is just beyond the mountains there...

our package included the use of the private beach at the dead sea hotel and spa, which is better than using the public beaches. for a fee, the hotel allows guests to use their bathroom and shower facilities and their beach is cleaner too.

while waiting for our driver to make payments at the counter... here's the private pool for in-house guests only.

and these are for the use of outsiders who paid for the use of their beach. but we didn't come to the pool here, coz we were dead hungry after frolicking on the beach and salty water that we were dying for lunch!

floating effortlessly in the salty water! in fact, don't even try to swim, coz you're so buoyant that you'll loose control and risk dunking your head into the water. the water is super salty and you'll start tearing coz the saltiness will get into your eyes.

and it's said that we'll never get sunburnt here, no matter how long we stay in the water coz lowest point on earth also means furthest away from the sun. hence the uv rays are the lowest here.

we only get black from doing the mud spa! lol... the dead sea area has become a major centre for health research and treatment for several reasons: the mineral content of the water, the very low content of pollen and other allergens in the atmosphere, the reduced ultraviolet component of solar radiation and the higher atmospheric pressure at this great depth. each of these qualities have specific healing properties.

crystalised salt on the beach! the salt content is said to be so high that no fish nor any water organisms can survive in it.

after an hour or two at the beach, we were dead tired and our stomachs were growling! so our driver took us for yet another arabic buffet. no photos this time, as we were really exhausted and too hungry...

after a late lunch, we were on our way again... going further south.

still in the vicinity of the dead sea area... the drive was awesome! 

then our driver stopped at the roadside so that we can take this signature shot of the dead sea. see the crystalised salt at the water's edge! 

then right opposite the road, our driver pointed to that brown "formation" and told us the story of sodom and gomorrah from the bible.

from wikipedia (coz i only caught snatches of the story from our driver, as i was bz photographing the crytalised salt in the pic above!): In Genesis 18, three men came, thought by most commentators to have been angels appearing as men, to Abram (Abraham) in the plains of Mamre. After the angels received the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah, his wife, the LORD revealed to Abraham that he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, because their cry was great, "and because their sin is very grievous."^[Gen 18:20] In response, Abraham inquired of the LORD if he would spare the city if 50 righteous people were found in it, to which the LORD agreed he would not destroy it for the sake of the righteous yet dwelling therein. Abraham then inquired of God for mercy at lower numbers (first 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally at 10), with the LORD agreeing each time.^{[Gen 18:22-33]} Two of the angels proceeded to Sodom and were met by Abraham's nephew Lot, who convinced the angels to lodge with him, and they ate with Lot.

Genesis 19:4-5 (KJV) described what followed, which confirmed its end:

4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, [even] the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter.

5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where [are] the men which came in to thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. (NRSV: know them, NIV: can have sex with them, NJB: can have intercourse with them).

Lot refused to give his guests to the inhabitants of Sodom and, instead, offered them his two virgin daughters "which have not known man" and to "do ye to them as [is] good in your eyes".^[Gen 19:8] However, they refused this offer and threatened to do worse to Lot than they would have done to his guests, and then came near to break down the door. Lot's angelic guests rescued him and struck the men with blindness, thereby revealing to Lot that they were not ordinary men but angels, and they informed Lot of their mission to destroy the city.^{[Genesis 19:9-13]}

Then (not having found even 10 righteous people in the city), they commanded Lot to gather his family and leave. As they made their escape, one angel commanded Lot to "look not behind thee" (singular "thee").^{[Genesis 19:17]} However, as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed with brimstone and fire from the LORD, Lot's wife looked back at the city, and she became a pillar of salt.^{[Genesis 19:23-26]}

 that longish "formation" is said to be lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt...

dusk... this is still the dead sea, but not so pretty anymore. these were the black mud that a lot of the jordanian pharmaceutical companies use to produce facial mask, scrubs and a host of other beauty products from.

after driving along the straight main road for some time, our driver turned into a side street, stopped by the roadside and fiddled with his tires.

earlier, he asked if we want to take an alternative route that's not in our itinerary, which is said to be really special and bla bla bla, for an extra fee (i forgot how much he asked for). he said it's really spectacular, but wouldn't tell us how spectacular it is from the usual route. but as we were so tired and exhausted from being out in the sun for so long, that we declined and told him to just stick to the itinerary. in the end, he said he'll still take the alternative route, as a "special gift" to us, because it's just too spectacular and we shouldn't miss it. whatever lar...

anyway, as he was fiddling with his tires, i opened the car door to see what he's doing and saw that he's letting out air from the tires. having been camping in the desert, i knew immediately that we'll be driving through the desert and confirmed it with the driver. he said he'll be taking the back route to our next destination, which is "far more spectacular and special" as compared to the usual route. and it'll cut about 1 hour from our traveling time.

the drive through the desert was beautiful... 

but it got bumpy and bumpier, as there weren't any proper road... and it's quite tiring bumping along for an hour on this kinda road that i felt as if all my bones were rattled loose!

after awhile, we began to climb up a long, narrow and treacherous dirt road on the side of the mountain. it has turned dark by then (it was the beginning of winter and the days had gotten shorter) and there weren't any street lamp on the road. we caught glimpses of the drop below us (the road didn't have any railings) and was praying real hard that our driver won't miscalculate the turnings!

the "spectacular" surprise that our driver had in store for us...

halfway up, our driver stopped at a clearing and showed us the above sight. he said we were too late for the "most spectacular" view, as the sun had already set. but if we'd arrived just half an hour earlier, we'd be able to see the whole of the desert glow up in the setting sun. luckily we didn't agree to pay him the "extra fee"! 

it was another half an hour ride before we arrived at our destination, where we were all dead tired and just can't wait to check into our hotel, take a hot shower and go to sleep! but our driver tried to sell us a "very good and spectacular arabic dinner, with dance performance bla bla bla". we declined because we were still full from our late lunch and also i was suffering from slight car sickness. furthermore, it's not like we've not seen any arabic dances before. we're from dubai, for god's sake! he kept trying to get us to go for the dinner and we guessed it's because he gets to eat for free. during all the meals he's brought us, the proprietors only ever collected money from the 4 of us (usually JD10 per person ≈ RM45), but never him. so if we didn't go with him, maybe he'd need to take care of his own dinner and not get free meals! we stood our grounds and just went up to our rooms to retire early for another long day the next day.

jordan day 3: mount nebo

(from wikipedia) Mount Nebo (Arabic: جبل نيبو‎, Jabal Nibu. Hebrew: הַר נְבוֹ‎, Har Nevo, ) is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 817 meters (2680 feet)above sea level, mentioned in the Bible as the place where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land that he would never enter. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land and, to the north, a more limited one of the valley of the River Jordan. The West Bank city of Jericho is usually visible from the summit, as is Jerusalem on a very clear day.

the stone commemorating pope john paul II's visit in year 2000

just fooling around...

the brazen serpent 

the sculpture of the brazen serpent, which has become a symbol for mount nebo, is a modern replica of the biblical brazen serpent. during the exodus journey, god sent a plague to kill the rebellious israelites. god also instructed moses to erect a bronze serpent on a pole to stop the plague and all who looked up at the raised serpent survived the plague. thus the curative serpent around the staff became the symbol of pharmacies until today.

viewing platform erected for pope john paul II

if you stand on this platform, you can enjoy the panoramic scene that moses apparently saw more than 3000 years ago. and if you're lucky and the weather permits, you will be able to see the dead sea and several cities on the west bank of jordan river. at sunrise, even the streets can be visible and by sunset, you can also enjoy an amazing view as the sun sinks behind the mountains of jerusalem.

 the panoramic view...

then moses climbed mount nebo from the plains of moab to the top of pisgah, across from jericho. there, the lord showed him the whole land. then the lord said to him, "this is the land i promised on oath to abraham, isaac and jacob when i said, 'i will give it to your descendants'. i have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."

and moses the servant of the lord died there in moab, as the lord had said. he buried him in moab, in the valley opposite beth peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. --deuteronomy 34:1-6

 on our way to our next destination, we saw many bedouin camps around. some of them have brick houses, but as they love the outdoors so much, they'll still have tents as well and would live in the tents when the weather is good.

day 3 to be continued...

jordan day 3: greek orthodox church of st. george in madaba

first stop for our 3rd day was madaba, about 1.5 hour south of amman. it's known as the "city of mosaics" in jordan, due to the the 6th century byzantine mosaic map of israel that was unearthed on the floor of the greek orthodox church of st. george.

at the entrance of the church. need to buy a ticket to enter this archaeological site, even though it's a functioning church. 

those people with their heads bowed were not praying, but were actually looking down at the mosaic map on the floor. 

parts of the map that they managed to preserve, with detailed information of the ancient cities and important landmarks, including the earliest representation of byzantine jerusalem, marked as "holy city".

 this was how the full map looked like...

after visiting the church, our driver said he has a surprise for us and will show us something that is not part of our itinerary but something amazing that we should see, at no extra charge. he said this is the latest archaeological site that was just unearthed recently and not known by a lot of people. but as the land belonged to his friend, he is able to show it to us. however, it would be good to give his friend a small tip after seeing it. not knowing what it was, we agreed.

we arrived at the top of a hill, with some abandoned bedouin settlements dotted here and there.

our driver's friend brought us to an shed and threw open the doors. inside, we saw a big mosaic picture on the floor, with a burnt mark in the middle. according to our driver, before the mosaic was unearthed, some bedouins were having a bonfire out of doors and it was directly on top of the mosaic, hence the black burnt mark on the mosaic.

anyway, we were not really impressed with the mosaic picture, as the whole thing seemed dubious. so we just stayed for a few minutes (didn't even bother to take photos) and then moved out.

then we saw this adorable baby donkey, just 4 days old! we were more interested in taking his pictures than that of the "archaeological site". 

upon leaving, we didn't even bother to give a tip to the owner, but our driver gave him JD 5 (≈ RM22!) and then "reminded" us that we've forgotten to give the tip and said he's paid on our behalf. so we had no choice but to pay him back! yeah, we felt kinda cheated there!

anyway, on the way to our next destination, our driver made a stop at one of those roadside tourist traps and said we can spend a bit of time looking and shopping around for souvenirs there.

 first they gave us some introduction to mosaic making... most of the people who worked in mosaic making are disabled and is a government-supported industry.

very detailed work and some masterpieces can take up to 3 months or more to complete...

we spent about 30 min there, where i bought a small square mosaic (like coaster size) for a blardy cut-throat price of JD 10 (≈ RM45). even that also i was conned coz i think it's only JD 7 (≈ RM 31) and they overcharged me! whatever...

day 3 to be continued...

airport drama

i started this post some 2 weeks earlier, before i flew back home for the chinese new year. so it will not include the airport drama that i encountered for THAT trip home... will save it for another post (if i kuasa to write about it!).

---------------

i think i've mentioned before that i'd be going on a short trip. that place was here:

3 hours flight from the desert...

even though this was only gonna be a 3 day trip (technically 2, minus the traveling time), i was quite excited coz we won't be engaging the service of any tour operators, but planned things out ourselves. or rather, i planned everything, coz lovely lily said for me to plan everything and she'll just tag along.

i did my research, read thru the lonely planet book, surfed the web and came up with such a detailed plan!

print screen of the notes in my phone... reason for including the local writing is, the majority of the people in georgia don't speak english, and according to a colleague who've been there, they can't really understand our pronunciation of place names too! so it's better to write the local language and show it to them when asking for directions and stuff...

anyway, our flight was scheduled at 2.15am, so lovely lily and i arrived at the airport at 12am. we checked-in and went thru immigration but when we got to the departure hall, we were shocked to see it was packed! lots and lotsa people, all sitting around, some in groups on the floor and some even sleeping on the floor! we were shaking our heads and thought, "this is the price of flying budget". an ang-moh colleague, who grew up in india, told us later that that's exactly the scene in most public places in india... 

so anyway, we wanted to get some mcD, having skipped dinner due to last minute packing, but the queue was horrendous, with people (mostly men) queuing like this:

literally sticking to each other!

so we gave up on mcD and went to costa coffee instead. the queue there was long too, but not as horrendous as mcD. and since it's over-priced gourmet coffee, the crowd there is more erm... different.

after getting our sandwiches, we went to look for a seat and settled down for the wait. at 5 minutes before boarding time, we heard this over the p.a. system: "passengers for flight number xxx, kindly make your way to the information counter for more details of your flight status". puzzled, we went to look at the screen and found that our flight has been canceled! WTH?!? in fact, most of the flights on the screen were shown as canceled.

slightly panicky, we went to the information counter and asked the airport staff there but they just told us to go ask the airline staff. some information counter! so we made our way to the counter near the departure gate and saw that a crowd had already gathered there. i tried squeezing to the front, but couldn't find a chance to speak to the staff there because a lot of people, staff and stranded passengers, were all speaking at the same time. so we hung around, trying to listen in on the various conversations on what was going on. alas, we can't gather anything and were still in the dark.

after a while, we went to sit on the bench and waited, hopefully there'll be some announcement or change of status for our flight. we saw a group of ang-moh looking passengers and gathered that they must be georgians. so we sat near them coz then if there are any changes, we'd know as well. 

we slept on and off sitting down on the bench. luckily my camera backpack is tall enough that when put on my lap, it comes up to my nose and i'm able to rest my forehead on it and doze. now we know why there are so many people sitting and sleeping around there!

after and hour or 2, we heard some commotion and saw that some of the georgians were gathered around a man in uniform. so we rushed over as well, and again, couldn't get up front to find out what's really happening. i asked a georgian woman standing in front of me if she knows what's going on, but she just glared at me, pointed to her ears and shook her head, indicating that she don't speak english. not very friendly, huh lady?

anyway, the man in uniform took down our names and then went away. another man, i think the tour leader for the georgians, spoke english and i asked him, "what now?". he said they're going to try to put us on another flight to doha, and then on to georgia from there. so more waiting...

sometime around 6am, i was woken up by some loud talking and shouting. some of the passengers have had enough and were arguing with the airline staff. but the fact remained that our flight was still canceled, so i went back to sleep.

after a while, some airport staff came to distribute sandwiches and water, but didn't come over to the section where lovely lily were sitting. we also didn't go over to get it coz we didn't wanna leave our seats, which may be taken up by someone else when we come back, with the airport so crowded! and we weren't interested in eating anyway, so we went back to sleep.

at about 7am, lovely lily woke me up to say that another lady from the airlines has come to speak to us. as usual, a crowd has already formed around her, but this time i managed to squeeze to the front. she said that they still have no flights for us and is sending us away from the airport. her staff will arrange hotels and will inform us of the next available flight. i asked if we can get a full refund for our tickets, since we're not georgians and have decided to cancel our trip. so she got one of her staff to arrange for us to go over to the arrival hall to have our "exit stamp" canceled and promised that we'll get a full refund.

while waiting for things to be sorted out, i asked the staff who were handling us about the cause of the flight cancellation. she said it's bad weather. puzzled, i mentioned that we saw some flights taking off and dubai's weather were excellent that day. she said the problem was not the weather in dubai, but at the places where the aircraft were coming back from. the flights were not able to come back, so there aren't any aircraft to take off to the next destination! haiz... that's how budget airlines work...

long story short, we arrived home at 9am, totally exhausted and feeling icky from sitting in the airport the whole night. what a disaster! and at about 3pm, we received an sms informing us that there's a flight scheduled to georgia at 7pm and for us to make our way to the airport immediately. but we ignored it coz we've already lost one full day and it's not worth the trip anymore. furthermore, we've already canceled everything. luckily the proprietor of the b&b that we've booked was understanding and said he won't charge us for no show, as it wasn't our fault.

oh yes, the airlines did give us a full refund, including the internet fee of dhs 8 that they charged for credit card transaction during booking. and it only took them a little over 2 weeks to make the refund, even though they said will take 1 month.

jordan day 2: ancient greco-roman provincial city of gerasa

the last item on our itinerary for the day was the ancient ruins of gerasa in jerash. actually it was already 2pm when we arrived there and was supposed to have our lunch first, but as the skies were really dark and gloomy, our driver thought maybe it was better for us to finish touring here first before going for our lunch as he feared we'd have to miss this site if it rained.

however it did rained, even before we went in but we still waited around for the rain to subside, since were there already.

 started our tour from here, the outer south gate, which is about 5 minutes walk from the ancient town centre of gerasa.

started to pour again... not good! 

the colonnade (sequence of columns) at the oval forum, a trademark in many roman cities. the oval forum functioned as a marketplace as well as gathering place of great social significance, and often the scene of diverse activities, including political discussions and debates, rendezvous, meetings etc.

 cardo maximus, or main street, that normally runs through the city and lined with shops and vendors.

corinthian columns... all the roman columns were made up of sections and were never one whole long piece of  stone.

if you stuck a key between the sections in a column, the key will move up and down, especially when there's a wind blowing. this explains how some of the structures were able to withstand the wind, rain, the flow of time and even earthquakes. 

at the north theatre... the guy in red behind there is our guide for gerasa.

it's a big complex and lotsa walking involved! (i know gina will be commenting about how tiring my trips are! :P) here, we're walking up to the temple of artemis, where the columns are.

the ruins of temple of artemis.

ruins of a church.

original mosaics on the floor of the church.

walking towards the south theatre.

bagpipers entertaining the visitors at the theatre.

view of the oval forum from the top.

some original stones on display.

this was how the original temple of artemis looked like.

back at the south gate

by this time, we were famished! we were practically begging our driver to bring us for our lunch, at nearly 5pm! more like dinner, huh? so he brought us to this arabic restaurant some minutes' drive away.

oven baked arabic bread. 

typical arabic bread. 

 hummus, a kind of dip for the arabic bread, made from chickpeas.

tabouleh, also eaten with arabic bread, made from parsley, couscous etc. 

fatoush, a kind of arabic salad. very yummy! 

arabic pickles... very salty, but appetizing. 

the main, a combo of grilled meat. of course this wasn't mine. i asked for only chicken meat... :P this meal came up to JD10 (≈ RM43) per person.

when we got back to amman, our driver asked if we want to have some desserts. since it was quite early, we said ok. so he brought us to this famous sweets shop, habibah sweets. 

the lower floor is the shop part, where they sell arabic sweets, baklavas etc by the kg.

the upper level is the restaurant part, with waiters in vests and all. 

this was what our driver recommended we order, hot and cold kunafa. it's cheesy and very sweet! to be honest, too sweet for us, so we were having some trouble finishing it. i forgot how much we paid for this... probably JD2 (≈ RM8.50)

after stuffing ourselves with kunafa, we went to this souvenir shop next door. it's a shop targeting tourists and we're sure the prices were marked up like crazy. so we didn't buy anything, other than a cake of dead sea mud soap.

even tho' jordan is a muslim country with about 90% of their population are muslims, but given their jewish and christianity origins, we often see these paraphernalia sold in shop run by local muslims. this is definitely something we'll never see back home!

it was a long and tiring day, so we retired quite early that night.