Going To The Desert

We were lost.

No matter which way we would go or whose directions we would follow, we kept showing up at the same spot over and over and it didn't get frustrating only because we were with good company (Tania & Thorston). We were repeatedly stopped at military checkpoints due to our proximity to the Jordanian border with Israel and the disputed Golan Heights and we had to open both the trunks and our bags countless times to show the solders our stuff.

We finally made it to the Roman and Byzantine ruins of Umm Qais, from where there are great views of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. The theater that could seat up to 3000 people was pretty impressive and made of black basalt.

Off in the distance we could hear the Israelis doing target practice and the sounds of the heavy artillery cannons being fired really ruined the beauty of the location and the ruins for us.

Umm Qais is right on the border with Israel and the Palestinian Territories and very close to the Israeli controlled Golan Heights. After a quick bite in the outskirts of Mafraq we continued our way to the desert.

After a long drive through the desert we arrived to Azraq. We had finally abandoned any hope of seeing the castles on that day and started planning our stay at the Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, but when we arrived there all we got was an amazing sunset as the Reserve was closed for maintenance.

We spent the night at the semi luxurious Al Azraq Hotel, in the oasis town of Azraq which ended up being a good choice since it was just a few kilometers south of Qasr Al Azraq, the first castle we would visit the following day.

Gaby

Change Of Plans

We had been going back and forth about visiting the Desert Castles or not. All together it can add up to a whole day of travel just to see a few sites and we didn't want to have someone looking at a watch while we looked at things, therefore we didn't want to join a tour group, but at the same time, there was no public transportation available.

Things happen for a reason and we clearly were at the right place at the right time. As I was being taught how to make art in bottles of sand (layers of different colored sands) the German couple we had met at Bethany beyond the Jordan stopped by to say Hi. "What are you doing next? Where are you going? and the next thing we knew was that the four of us were heading northwest to Pella. Yes, right, our big backpacks were a couple of hundred km south and with only one extra change of clothes and enough toiletries we decided to take on this opportunity.

Deeb Hussien and his wife run the Pella Rest House in the middle of the Valley in the border with Israel where we spent the night and got to eat delicious home made dinner and breakfast the following morning. Thorsten and Tania have been on the road for 14 months and we enjoyed listening to their stories over mango juice with Rum in the terrace of our hotel, overlooking the Olive trees orchards.

We started the next day very early hoping to be back at our hotel in Madaba that night, but we ended up spending the night in the desert, Azraq. But hey! It's not about the destination! It's about the journey, right? and the four of us had a great time together. We got lost so many times between military checkpoints and the lack of signs that we ended up asking a guy that was coming out of his house for directions He must have seen the stress on our faces, or it could be purely Jordanian Hospitality but he asked us to park the car and have some tea with him. We sat in the sidewalk in a circle that kept expanding as his wife, sisters, grandchildren and other members of the family joined us. His wife and I totally hit it off right away and she insisted on doing my nails with Henna, like hers, as well as writing my name in the palm of my hand. Tania wanted no part of it, but my philosophy is that both hair and nails grow and although Henna penetrates the nail, in a couple of months they would be back to normal. Steve was able to secretly snap a photo of this typical "all black covered woman". A bunch of home made cookies and tea were brought to us and we all chatted for a while.

At a certain point she invited Tania and myself to join her so she could show us her garden and animals. The cow had had a baby and it was great news to her. It was interesting that as soon as the men were out of sight (Thorsten and Steve), she lifted her black veil and allowed us to see her features as chicken ran around our feet and she proudly introduced us to other neighbor women.

With a bag full of cookies and my bright orange painted nails, the four of us continued our travels.

Gaby

Jerash

We woke up in Amman to find that it had rained the night before. I saw some of Sue's neighbors washing their cars which I found odd. Later on, when we got to Sue's car to leave we found that the rain was full of sandy color dust and left all of the cars dirty! We got dropped off on the side of the highway and did our farewells to Sue.

We asked around and finally found a pickup truck going to Jerash. We crammed in and got going. It continued to rain dust on the way and we were still surprised by this. After an hour or so we got to the Roman ruins of Jerash and got out. Later we found that we had been left 2 miles up the road from the actual entrance.

Jerash is one of the best preserved Roman cities in the Middle East and is one of Jordan's top tourist destinations. In one of the old coliseums they had actors reenact chariot races to give the visitors a feel for what Jersah was like during its heyday.

The ruins were big and pretty well preserved. We especially liked Hadrians Arch and the Cardo Maximus, the colonnaded main street (which was the towns main market street) and still had the wheel ruts from the Roman chariots. I must admit that after seeing Ephesus in Turkey and Palmyra in Syria (and all of the lesser ruins in between) we were a bit burnt out of roman ruins and struggled to keep our excitement up as we explored Jerash.

On our way out we ran into a German couple who were in our tour through Bethany Beyond the Jordan. We started talking to them and eventually they invited us to join them in their rental car to drive through the north of Jordan. We had left our backpacks in our hotel in Madaba and only had the clothes on our back, but it was too good an offer to pass up on.

So we agreed and climbed into their Ford Focus. Our next adventure had begun.

Steve

Amman

....Our evening ended up with us drinking beers in a smokey Irish pub in one of Amman's wealthy trendy neighborhoods, hanging out with Sue and others from Amman's expat community. Culturally it was a million miles away from the poor neighborhoods we had seen earlier in the day in that same city.....

Earlier that same morning our minibus from Madaba had taken us downtown to see the older, more traditional part of the city. We walked through the shops in the Souqs (markets) and got a feel for the downtown area. Although Amman has a long history, it is not an old Islamic city and never rivaled Damascus or Cairo as the great cultural centers of the Middle East. In fact, much of the cities growth has come recently from refugees.

In the last 20 years Amman has been the recipient of millions of Palestinian refugees. The old part of town has a vast camp of them but many came with money. This money has changed Amman to a modern, spread out city with expensive cars and wealthy neighborhoods. This trend has continued over the last couple of years as Iraqi refugees have invested more money into the city. So the Amman of today is essentially two different cities; the poorer and traditional downtown and the wealthy suburbs with swanky shopping malls and western fast food restaurants.

Through Hospitality Club we meet Sue, who is working for her countries embassy in Jordan and we talked about her life, living in Jordan and the country itself. We ate at a typical Bedouin restaurant smoked a narguile (water pipe) and afterward headed to the Irish Pub. As we hadn't been to that type of place for quite a while it was a bit of a culture shock for us at first. It was nice to see another side of the country from what we had gotten used to for the last couple of months and we really had a nice time.

After enjoying the ambiance and culture of Damascus so much we found Amman to be a bit disappointingly western and modern. That evening we stayed with Sue and the next morning headed out for the Roman ruins of Jerash.

Steve

Mt. Nebo

Mt. Nebo is located only 9km northwest of Madaba. The site was in the spotlight in 2000 when Pope John Paul II visited it and recognized it as being the site where Moses is said to have seen the Promised Land, a land he was himself forbidden to enter.

We flagged down a taxi right outside our hotel and headed there.

The mosaics that are still in the floor of the adjacent basilica date from 530AD and are exceptionally well preserved.

Moses, who died at age 120, was buried in the area, although the exact location is the subject of speculation.

Aside from its religious significance, Mt. Nebo commands sweeping views of Jericho and the Negev - the Promised Land. It is a really beautiful view and an impressive site.

The huge bronze sculpture, Italian designed, symbolizes the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross and the serpent that "Moses lifted up" in the desert.

We got our picture taken on the spot where both Moses and John Paul II had stood and we have to agree that the views were amazing.

It was a short trip from our base in Madaba that we really enjoyed before heading to Amman, the Jordanian Capital, to spend the night.

Gaby