Jordan: anything but just another sandpit

  I if can sum up Jordan in one word, it is 'surreal'.

Where else can you see temples that are as out-of-this-world as those found all over Petra? I mean, they carved the things right out of the sides of mountains for goodness sake! It makes my head swim just trying to picture the people building them way back when.

Then just a short drive down the highway is The Dead Sea. That place has been on my list of places to see for a LONG time. The lowest dry land on earth, and an inland sea that is so salty that you simply cannot sink in it. It was another entirely unique experience for us, and we had a lot of fun bobbing around in the thick water, which almost felt oily against our skin, due to the saturation of salts and various minerals. The rocks on the shore are all encrusted with salts from the water washing over them. I could stand straight up in the water, with my feet not touching the bottom, and the water level would come up to my waist. I still cant get over how cool the whole place was.
It was made even better since we splurged a bit, and stayed in a 5 star resort on the shore of the Dead Sea for our last night in Jordan. The hotel name is Kempinski for anyone interested, and is well worth the outlay. Watching the sunset from the local infinity pool was great, and certainly a step above our usual choice of lodging.

In fact, staying in 5 star comfort was exactly what we both needed, since the two nights immediately prior we were camping on the roof of a dodgy hotel way down south in a place called Aqaba (pronounced Ack-Ah-Bah). Yeah ok, "WHY?" Well, the hotel offered free camping for people who were paying to scuba dive with the hotel during the day, and the only place they could offer us space for a tent was either in the carpark or in the dust and dirt behind the hotel, next to the bins. So we cleared a spot on the roof, and contended with gale force winds for the next 48 hours, which almost blew our tent away. We had to weigh the thing down by chucking a bunch of enormous bricks on the inside of the tent.
The diving however, was a lot more agreeable. The water was warm and clear, the coral was alive and well, and we even saw a huge M40 tank down there, which had been dumped there years earlier to act as an artificial reef. It seemed to be working, since there were fish and various things living all over it.

It was great to dive again, and especially nice not being dry for once, since before arriving at Aqaba we spent almost 2 days exploring the desert around Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a giant desert reserve, and a number of Bedouin tribes live there. Only a certain number of tourists are allowed in the reserve at any one time, and when you do get in, you could drive for hours in any direction and probably not bump into anyone else along the way.

We hired a local guide and his awfully old 4WD to take us around the reserve.
Wadi Rum has some of the most striking scenery of any desert I've seen so far. The endless plains of sand are often punctuated by evenly spaced salt bushes of even height, which kind of makes the whole thing look as pretty as a picture, especially at sunset. The sand is also broken up by enormous rocks, which are often the size of mountains. We climbed some of these mountainous structures, taking part in an activity called 'scrambling'. I haven't heard of it before now, but it is a combination of hiking and climbing without ropes. Dangerous as hell in some parts, but allows you to get up really high really fast. There were a lot of times when we would look at the next section and have no idea how we would get up the thing, let alone back down in one piece later on.
Great fun overall, and well worth the trip out into the desert.

I've covered the remainder of our Jordanian journey in reverse, since I thought it was in line with the outside-the-norm nature of Jordan as a whole.

Every country is great in it's own way, but not all countries give you something completely unique to do or see. And even then, just because something is unique doesnt make it amazing. Just look at the Big Banana. The ruins at Petra and The Dead Sea are two sites that everyone should see. Places like those are what make me think of Jordan as a surreal place. Even the idea of using a main battle tank as an artificial reef is a bit wacky; and I can't think of many countries that would allow a sport like scrambling to take place, simply thanks to OH&S restrictions.
 

Jordan was way more fun than we were expecting it to be, thanks to the constant 'wow' factor. We probably won't go back though, since there are just too many other places we have to squeeze into the trip. But even at this rate, I don't think we will ever truly be 'finished' with traveling.

Till next time
//Brendan


Also: Here is another great little video put together by Kate. This one shows a bit of our time in Petra: