Sonya and Travis

Hashemite Arab Kingdom of Jordan – Part II

August 31st, 2010 Sonya

Aqaba

Aqaba is a town at the very southern tip of Jordan. It is a seaport and is at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, a gulf of the Red Sea. Famous historically for being raided by T.E. Lawrence during the Arab Revolt, the town is now a popular resort and diving location. We arrived in the city late evening, and checked into the lovely Golden Tulip. It is a three star hotel, comfortable with air-con and a pool – definitely a bit of a step up from the places we had been staying at! We rested after the drive from Petra and decided to walk around and look for some food. We stumbled upon a nice little pizzeria a few blocks away from the hotel and decided to get pizza, mint tea and gelati for dessert. Dinner was delicious and great value. It was a warm, balmy night but we were pretty tired and decided to wander back to hotel, stopping by the bottle shop next door. Yup, the first bottle-o we’d come across in Jordan. Apparently, Aqaba is much more lenient with alcohol in comparison to the rest of the Kingdom. The shop had almost everything imaginable… but we decided we’d try the Jordan-brewed beer, Amstel (brewed with the assistance from the Netherlands company).

Red Sea

The following morning we decided we would do a bit of snorkelling in the Red Sea. After stopping by a local shopping centre to buy sunscreen and some sheets (for camping in Wadi Rum), we followed to the LP suggestions and went to a resort called Royal Diving Club on the southern coast, almost bordering on Saudi Arabia. On the way there, driving down the coast of Red Sea, it was hard not to notice how blue the Red Sea is. The deepest bluest sea I have every seen!

We reached the resort and the staff there promised excellent coral reefs nearby and vast marine life (within the Red Sea Marine Peace Park) – and they were right. We spent a good part of the day snorkelling and enjoying the beautiful underwater views. Travis had brought his underwater camera cover so we got a few underwater shots as well. It was a bit of an expensive exercise (entry fee to get into the resort – 15 JD each, and another 15 JD each for equipment hire) but was definitely worth it! Whilst the resort was targeted for western tourists, and many girls wore bikinis, I did see an Arabic lady wearing a full body swimsuit which was a first for me!

On our way back to Aqaba we stopped for a bite at the Ali Baba Restaurant which offered a plentiful range of mezze..we had some grilled fish, baba ganoush, olive salad and chips.

Wadi Rum

We decided to head back towards Wadi Rum for the afternoon and to spend the night there. After the entry ticket collector who advised standard accommodation rates were 25 JD per person for the night, including dinner and breakfast (the most we were to spend in Jordan!), we hired a 4WD (and driver) to get to the accommodation site. Wadi Rum is famous for being the dessert which T.E. Lawrence journeyed through during the revolt. It is the largest wadi (valley) in Jordan and travellers often go there for hiking, rock climbing or just to experience the nomadic life of the bedouin and the beautiful vastness of the dessert. Given we were in Wadi Rum during the hottest part of summer, we planned we would be there from mid afternoon to the following morning. Our 4WD trip there was, well, scary. The 4WD was basically a two-seater in the enclosed area, and the ute-like back with two rows of seats on either edge, was where we were seated – unbelted and just holding on for dear life.

When we arrived at the camp it was already near sunset. We noticed many couples perched romatically on high rocks, clinging onto each others hands and waiting for the sun to set. The driver introduced us to the guys that run the camp, two bedouin brothers who suggested we find a nice spot to watch the sunset… So we wandered around the camp area. Naturally, Travis wanted to climb the highest rock and I was quite happy with the mid-level cliffs. The desert was so quiet, not a building in site, just one or two bedouin camps in the distant. Very vast, very orange. After the sunset it was still quite bright, we explored a little bit more before heading back to our tent to get ready for dinner. Our tent, by the way, was huge (not like our Nullabor two-person tent!). It was about 3metre’s high and we were infact ‘sharing’ with a family of four, as the tent was partitioned in the mmiddle. This meant we could hear their conversations (they were French, so we didn’t understand a word), and see their outlines on their their side of the tent. Dinner was in a communal tent, decorated beautifully, bedouin-style. There were about eight low tables (for each of the parties) and cushions around each tables decorated with kilin-like cloths and candles. It was very cosy. While simple, the food was delicious, probably one of the nicest meals we had in Jordan… chicken, rice, salads.

After dinner, Travis and I decided to have a bit of a walk. The whole area was lit up with stars. It was completely beautiful. We walked, talked.. it was such a surreal feeling, being in the middle of this beautiful, ancient desert. Would have been nice to sleep outside!

The next morning, we were woken up by the giggles of the French children in the tent… so we woke up and had breakfast with everyone else. We were the only travellers from an English speaking country it seemed as everyone was chattering away in their own languages. French. Italian. Spanish. German. Arabic.

At about 8am we hopped on the 4WD back to the Wadi Rum village, back to our Citroen and headed towards the Dead Sea Hwy.

Wadi Araba and Lot’s Cave

Along the Dead Sea Hwy we noticed the arid lansdscape that is Wadi Araba. While not as famous as Wadi Rum, it seemed very vast and uninhabited.. but who knows! It was a long drive with very few towns along the way. We stopped at a rest house for some turkish coffee where I remember getting inquisitively stared at by some local kids.

As we drove on we eventually saw a vast expanse of light blue which was our first sighting of the famous salty Dead Sea.

Our first real destination along the Dead Sea Hwy was Lot’s Cave. As a little girl I remember learning about the bizarre stories of Lot, his wife and his daughters and so was excited about checking out this biblical site (seduction, incest..what else could invoke such curiousity?!). Our GPS took us around in circles for a while through a small town but we eventually found it with the help of the LP. There was a half-finished museum at the foot of a hill which we understood to be for the purposes of Lot’s Cave (or Prophet Lut’s Cave as the sign indicated). We drove around and eventually we found a man who introduced himself as the caretaker/guide to Lot’s Cave. He told us to drive up the steep hill to the parking area and advised us that he’d meet us there. He got there about 3 seconds after us and took us up the steps of the hill. Yep, more steps. Lots of them. It was superbly hot and right in the middle of the day. There appeared to be no other tourists or people around which made us realised how unexplored a lot of these sites are, despite their biblical significance… We confirmed with the guide, that we were in fact the only people that had visited so far that day. At the top of the hill we found the cave. A big cave about 3m deep. More interesting to me was that during the Byzantine area a church was built directly around the cave so around the site were remmnants of stones from the church. Our guide also showed us that under the sandy surface we were standing on were metres and metres of mosaics which had not yet been uncovered (due to the heat). The plan is to build a covering around the cave before removing the surface to expose the 5th to 8th Century artwork. Not sure how long that will take by the looks of things! From the cave was a great few of the Dead Sea, fields of bright red tomatoes, aubergines, date trees, potatoes and banana trees and a nearby Potash industy. We gratefully tipped the guide (managed to get rid of the 5USD the little bedouin boy in Petra gave us!) and continued on.

Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan

Much to a lot of people’s surprise, the official site where Jesus Christ was baptised is in Jordan. Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan was sanctified by Pope John Paul II in 2000 as where John the Baptist preached. The site is on the border of Israel and Jordan, where the Jordan River divides the two countries. Back then though, there was no Jordan.

The site was populated with a handful of tourists with whom we were to tour with. Some Singaporeans, a British family, a couple of Irish teachers and a Syrian Travel TV group who were filming a program of travelling around Jordan. So during our tour we had a film crew capturing our every “ooh and ahh” moment. The Baptism Site is quite large. Interestingly, there are about 11 different churches from various denominations built around the site. We saw the site where Jesus was to have been Baptised and then got to dip our fingers into the very unimpressive (and dirty) Jordan River. The interesting sight was the Israeli flag only a few metres away across the ditch and a mirroring area on the other side for tourists in Israel to do the same.

Floating in the Dead Sea

After leaving the site, we considered taking a dip in the Dead Sea. However, it was still so hot so we thought we’d have lunch instead. The Dead Sea Panorama is a bit of a drive up but provided a lookout point over the Dead Sea. It has a restaurant and museum which we wandered through. We decided to eat at the restaurant, it was empty except for an American couple. We ate grilled meats of lamb, chicken and kebabs, shanklish (local blue cheese with tomatoes, onions and parsley), a walnut dip and bread. It was simply delicious and the service equally great. The restaurant is supposed to be popular with locals on the weekends.

After eating we decided to brave the Dead Sea. We had the option to go to the resort, pay a fee of 20 JD where we could comfortably walk into the sea, take a few snaps and have refreshing fresh water showers after. However, there was the alternative option of parking on the side of the cliff, climbing down to the bay and having our own private swimming area. Of course, we went for the latter. It was still extremely, unbelievably hot even though it was about 5pm in the afternoon by then. Travis went in first. I went in. It’s such a funny feeling having that buoyancy in the water, you can barely swim and the best appraoch seemed to be just to float on your back. We took the obligatory photos and headed back to the car covered in salt. The sand on the banks of the bay was salty, and there were salt formations growing on the rocks in the area. Quite amazing.

Tired and salty we decided to find a hotel. We decided to give the pricey resorts in the Dead Sea area a miss and head back to Madaba. I was craving the kebabs we had in the local coffee shop a few days earlier! We stayed at the nicest little hotel called Marian Hotel. It had a balcony with a beautiful view of the pool and the city below.

Israel border

We had this idea that it would be easy to cross the Israel border and spend a day or two visiting Jerusalem, Nazareth, Bethleham, Jericho. So we thought we’d give it a go the following day. It was so close! We drove to the first crossing – King Hussein Bridge. Unfortunately, it appeared cars weren’t allowed to cross the border only buses and taxis. So we drove another 30km north to the Sheikh Hussein Bridge. This is where it got interesting and a little confusing. We drove to the Jordanian gate firstly. A bunch of handsome, young officers looked at us and at our car. After showing them our passports, our car registration and utilising hand signals we managed to communicate (or so we thought) that we wanted to drive our car across to Israel for a day). They seemed fine with it and encouraged us to drive down to the Israeli gate, so we did. At the Israel gate we faced further communication issues. The officers there looked at our passports and car registration but we quickly came to understand they wouldn’t let us through with the car. We couldn’t figure out why. We drove back to the Jordan gate and a few of the officers came to our car, looking to assist us. About 10 minutes later we had conjured up a crowd of about 6 or 7 Jordanian policemen all keen to help us. We used our Arabic guide book and managed to figure out thast we need our car registration translated from Arabic into English (or Hebrew perhaps?), however the closest place to do that was about 20km away in a town called North Shauna. And the place closed in 30 minutes. We (or should I say Travis) decided to give it a shot. Imagine trying to find a specific car-registration translation place in a town. It was tough, but we found it! Alas, it was too late. We literally got there about 5 minutes after it had closed. What an experience!

Umm Qais

So, we decided to instead visit Umm Qais, a remote historical town in the north of Jordan (very near to where we already were). We followed the Israel-Jordan border which meant there was hardly any traffic, but we had to stop at countless checkpoints along the way. Most border guards were professionally friendly “Where are you from? Australia? Welcome to Jordan!” however one was suspiciously over-friendly. First he checked our luggage (which none of the others did) and then, offered to give us a tour of the area showing us how the the Israeli occupied Golan Heights was just below us. He wanted photos with us, which we took with him and left the checkpoint asap.

Umm Qais, also known as Gadara, is one of the ancient roman cities. It is less explored by tourists due to it’s remote location and was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis. It is also, according to the Bible, where Jesus performed one of his miracles of casting demons from two men into a herd of pigs. From the ruins you can see the Sea of Gailee across the Jordan Valley.

Jerash

After Umm Qais, we headed towards Jerash (another more famous ancient Roman city, another of the Decropolis). Passing through Irbid, the drive was quite hilly and scenic. Jerash was a bustling city and much of the town revolves around the ancient ruins. We decided to visit the following day as it was getting late. So, we headed to Lebanese House for some dinner. A bit of a fancy place, where actor Richard Gere, King Hussein, Queen Nour and other famous Jordanians, Syrians etc have dined, we felt slightly under dressed in our travel-wear. We ate a yummy meal of mezze and headed to Hadrian Gate Hotel for the night.

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked down the Jerash ruins. The site has been very well preserved/restored and we could see why this was one of the most popular Roman ruin site in Jordan. Jerash ruins is consistent of two large amphitheatres, the famous Oval Plaza which use to be a bustling Roman market place, catherdrals, theatres, a hippodrome (ancient sports field for chariot races) and baths. We wandered through for a few hours.

Desert Castles

After Jerash we headed towards the East (against advice of the hotel caretaker who told us it was too hot!) to the Desert Castle region. After a long drive we reached Qusayr Amra, my favourite castle. It is a Unesco World Heritage site and use to serve as a bathhouse and lodge ro the Umayyad people. As soon as you walk into the castle you notice some of the risque murals painted around the wall. Very unexpected. Like all the ruins in Jordan, the castle is believe to have been occupied during the various periods. Constructed in 705AD it was then occupied by a Muslim Prophet, Walid, then the Umayyads..

We continued east to Azraq. This town has a bit of a sad story. It use to be an oasis and an important source of water for Jordan but in the 1990′s the water was reduced significantly and the oasis and surrounding wetlands eventually depleted. Much of this attributable to the surge in population when Palestinian refugees fled to Jordan in the 60′s. At Azraq we decided to find accommodation and have a late lunch. We had some kebabs, and walked around, stumbling across a store filled with copious amounts of freshly made turkish delights and other Arabian candies.

The following day headed to Qasr Al-Azrag a huge grey stone fort where TE Lawrence and Sharif Hussein bin Ali stayed during the Arab Revolt against the Turks. Quite an impressively huge fort with huge big stone doors which had a brilliantly-engineered hinge and keystone archways. We had a guide walk us through the place, including the room where Lawrence would have lived during the winter of 1917.

Amman

With Iraq only another few hundred km’s east we thought we’d head back west to Amman, our destination being the Royal Automobile Museum which houses the King of Jordan’s massive car collection. Whilst not a huge car buff in any way the museum was definitely far more impressive than the local WA car expo we once went to.

Headed back to downtown Amman to look for accommodation for the night. City Palace was fully booked so we continued walking down King Fasiel St looking for somewhere to stay. After visiting some very questionable and extremely unappealing places, we found a nice little backpackers, Cliff Hotel (which coincidentally was in the LP). The place didn’t have private bath facilities but as far as we were concerned it was far more tourist -friendly than some of the other places we had seen, so we settled for a room there. We’d heard something about a jazz show at the Amman Citadel that night, so went to a mall to buy some tickets. The mall was very westernised, having various Amercian stores like TopShop, Mango, Body Shop etc. And people, including women were dressed ‘western’ (as opposed to those in the downtown area) – the girls were beautiful with their long dark curly hair and olive skin. We went back to our favourite Hashem Restaurant, just across the road for some falafels and mint tea before heading to the Citadel. The show was amazing. We appeared to be the only tourists, so it was predominantly local Jordanians in their 20′s and 30′s. If it weren’t for the Arabic words we would have thought were in Australia or the States. The show was great! Arabic-Jazz Fusion music in the heart of Amman, held within a historical site which had been lit up in brilliant coloured lights. I really liked the first band. Sounded like an Arabic Muse, very emotive music. The second band had a great pianist and played some famous jazz tunes. The third band was led by a pretty Arabic woman in a sparkly top who had a strong sultry voice. The language never sounded so good!

So that concluded our last night in Jordan. The next morning we headed out of downtown Amman towards the airport back to Doha. Thanks Jordan, what a great country!

Tags: Aqaba, Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, Dead Sea Highway, Desert Castles, Israel Border, Jerash, Lot's Cave, Umm Qais, Wadi Rum
Posted in Jordan 2010 | No Comments »

Welcome to Jordan

August 10th, 2010 Sonya

Whilst in the Middle East visiting Travis, who is working in Qatar, we decided to spend a week in Jordan. Nestled between Israel and Palestine to the west, Syria to the north, Iraq to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, the country is regarded as one of the most beautiful, historical and safest of the countries within the Arab/Gulf region.

Amman

We arrived in Amman firstly, after a short transit at Dubai. Upon arriving at the airport, I found it to be similar to the other ME countries I’d visited – Dubai and Doha – language and dress wise. We had decided to rent a car as a lot of the main attractions are out of the capital Amman. We ended up getting a little Citroën

The drive to our hotel in downtown Amman was interesting. Whilst Travis was getting aquainted with driving a manual again, I was clicking away on my camera – the view was amazing! Amman is such a hilly city and looked a lot older (what I had pictured the ME to look like) in comparison to the cities of Dubai and Doha. Our hotel was literally in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Amman. Parking was hard to find and we had to roll our luggage (adding more to the potential for stares from locals) to the hotel. With our standard budget-accom approach to travel, the hostel (City Palace) was exactly what we wanted – clean, basic and a great location. After a quick unpack we wandered down to the city streets. The trusty Lonely Planet provided us with a suggested walking tour which we tried to follow. In the end we ended up walking up to the Amman Citadel – an archeological site located ontop a hill in downtown Amman. The Jabal al-Qal’a, as it is known in Arabic, is over 7000 years old and is considered one of the oldest continually inhabited places. Whilst we had missed the oppportunity to enter the site as by then it had closed, we could view the Temple of Hercules from the adjacent park which also had wonderful views of Amman city. On our way back through the streets, past the busy markets we passed the Grand Husseini Mosque. We had dinner at a popular local restaurant, Hashem, which specialises in falafels, bread and hommus and some yummy mint tea for only 1JD per person (about $1.6 AUD). After, we went to a sweets shop and bought an array of middle eastern sweets such as pistachio baklava, kunafa, ballorieh, besma.

On the morning of our 2nd day we decided to check out the Citadel and Roman Ampitheatre in daylight. Upon arriving outside the Ampitheatre a friendly local man in an icecream van came up to us and frantically advised us not park there as he said we would get fined (parking signs are not clear at all in Amman). He pointed out where to park, to which we headed. Upon arriving at the carpark we found him waiting for us!! He kindly said goodbye and left us his card and contact details! An unexpected friendly start to the trip…

Mt Nebo and Madaba

We continued our trip leaving downtown Amman and headed towards Mount Nebo. After a very scenic, windy route (thanks to the GPS) and being flagged by another car (with non-english speaking local tourists) looking for the same site, we reached the place. It was very quiet, not many people at all. Mount Nebo is where Moses was shown the Promised Land. From the moutain (800m high) you can vaguely make out the Dead Sea, and on a clear day Jericho and Jerusalem as well (we couldn’t quite see that far on the sunny day we were there). All the holy cities of Bethleham, Jerusalem, Jericho are only within a 40 km radius from where we were standing.

We stopped by Madaba after Mount Nebo. The infamous Madaba map was our first destination. Located in the Greek Orthodox Church there is a section of the church floor covered in mosaics. The mosaic depicts a detailed map of the Holy Land and is thought to be the oldest map of Palestine (6AD) from the Byzantine period.

Kerak Castle and Dana Reserve

After seeing pictures online of Dana Reserve I was convinced it was a Jordan-must see. Only about 30km or 40km from Madaba, we thought it wouldn’t take too long. But, alas we were wrong. We had decided to take the scenic Kings Hwy south, which passes through the beautiful Wadi Mujib (“Grand Canyon of the East”). Having visited the Grand Canyon earlier this year, I was more impressed by Wadi Mujib, perhaps by the history of the gorge (known in the Bible as Arnon River) or it’s unexpected vastness… Anyway, the drive took a lot longer than expected due to the steep hills and narrow, windy roads.

Passed through the Kerak Castle, a Crusader castle inhabitated since the Iron Age. A gentle elderly Jordanian Bedouin man introduced him as our guide – took a while for us to accept his request to show us around , but we were glad he did as he was very thorough in his explanations and brought us to many underground rooms which we probably would not have visited ourselves.

Then the sun was setting quickly, and our GPS couldn’t quite locate Dana Village (where we were hoping to stay that night). Eventually, we found the village, located on a elevated plateau in a valley of large mountains (see photo) . By the time we reached, it was pitch black. The village is quite small and has a handful of hotels. On our way, we had rung to arrange accommodation with one of the hotels there. We arrived late and had a quick dinner of hummus, flat bread, a tomato and meatball dish, eggplant dish and mint tea – quite delicious! We talked briefly with the hotel keeper about Dana Reserve hikes, and decided we would do our own hike the following morning. That night, we watched the rest of Lawrence of Arabia on Travis’ laptop (great movie!). In the morning we headed to Dana Reserve for the hike. Arriving at the entrance of the Reserve, we found that we needed to walk about 2km down a steep hill to reach the camp, in order to speak to a camp guide who would instruct us on the trail locations. It was hot. We reached the camp and decided on the “Cave Trail” (someone thought there was a geocache reading on the GPS, hmph!) . We did not see any caves, in fact to this day I think we ended up making our own trail, but we got some nice photos anyway! I think Dana Reserve is meant to be rich in birdlife and plant species but it was just way too hot (for me) to do any proper hiking.

Petra

We decided to continue on to the infamous Petra. First, we stopped at Little Petra, passing some wild camels on the way. Although wild, they seemed quite used to humans/tourists and seemed happy for me to snap their photo while they chewed on the dry grass on the side of the road. Little Petra was our introduction to the Nabatean rock carvings so famous in the region. Whilst Little Petra was, well, small, it was quiet and less touristy and made for some nice photos.

We arrived in Wadi Musa (the small touristy town next to Petra), and decided to grab some food. After having some issues parking up a steep hill in our manual car, we decided to check out one of the Lonely Planet suggestions. A little restaurant in the heart of the town, there we ate a shish kebab each whilst contemplating on whether to start on our Petra exploration or wait until the following day. We thought we still had some time (by then it was about 4pm), found a nearby inn, dropped our stuff off and headed towards the ancient city.

We decided on a two-day pass which meant we could go back the following day for a full day. At 4pm it was still extremely hot. Now, my parents had visited Petra the following year and told me how huge it was but I didn’t realise just how big until we reached the Siq (al-Siq). And that’s just the beginning of the main entrance! No wonder they offered horse rides from the Wadi Musa entrance to the Siq. The Siq is a narrow gorge which acts as a pathway for over a kilometre, then reaching Al Khazneh (The Treasury), a ruin widely known for its appearing in Indiana Jones Last Crusade. The Siq is a natural, geologic formation and was used in ancient times as the caravan entrance to Petra. It was one of my favourite parts of Petra, with its high rocks that changed colour as the sun moves over.

Upon arriving at the Treasury, one of the more touristy parts of the city, we were inundated by Bedouins trying to earn their keep for the day. “Would you like to ride a camel Sir? Mam, take a donkey up to the Monastery?” We walked around for a while, probably looking completely in awe and somewhat lost. One of the young boys trying to sell us a donkey ride followed us for about half an hour, telling us the Monastery was most beautiful this time of day. I consulted my LP, which also stated something similar – Monastery being very impressive and much larger than the Treasury. However the Monastery was something like 900 steps to the top! My energy was faltering greatly, as we’d spent the morning hiking in Dana Reserve so I came up with the brilliant idea of taking the donkey up to the Monastery! The poor donkey. And Travis, who followed us closely behind. Fifteen dinar later we were close to the top, absorbing breath-taking views of Petra city from above, as well as glimpses of Wadi Aruba – one of the vast desserts of Jordan, and far less explored than Wadi Rum. The boy advised the poor donkey wasn’t able to make it to the top (although we suspect the guy made an excuse as we saw donkey droppings much further up), but I was rather relieved, he did seem quite tired. Upon reaching the Monastery, we rested whilst admiring the magnitude of the ruin. It just looked so big and brilliantly orange carved into the rock face. We decided to explore further, following signs that promised to take us to places which had the ‘best view in Petra’. After a few, we decided they we all offering about the same deal! We were tired and decided to head back down. It was getting late, we thought we’d visit the rest of the city tomorrow.

By the time we’d descended it was already getting very dark – almost 8pm. By the time we had reached the Treasury the sun had set completely. Our walk back through the Siq was in almost pitch black and I could hear footsteps behind me. If Travis hadn’t been there I’m sure I would have freaked out. When we reached the entrance of the Siq I found out the footsteps belonged to a friendly older Australian man (not a serial killer) as we continued the rest of the way we all chatted and he told us he had been backpacking for over two months catching public transport everywhere! Amazing.

Dinner that night was well-deserved. We were simply starving and tired. We ate at a local restaurant near our hotel, picked up some sweets from a bakery and settled in for the night.

The following day by 9am it was already hot. We had our Petra-itinerary planned – first the High Place of Sacrifice, some 800 stairs high. To prove to Travis I wasn’t a weakling I skipped the donkey this time (embarrassed as I remembered my mother saying she did the High Place AND Monastery by foot) as we walked up. It was actually a relatively a pleasant climb and as we reached the top, I was distracted by some shop stalls selling handmade jewellery and other goods. At the High Place we came across a young boy (or should I say astute business man) around 7 years old – he cleverly managed to sell us (or me) a couple of necklaces (“one for your sister, one for your mum”) as Travis looked over us in dismay. Anyway, he pointed us the route up to the best views (of course) and on the way back, a different track to other sites/ruins. By this point it was midday and indescribably hot. From the High Place we saw the Royal Tombs, Colonnaded Street and realised just how much there was to see in Petra.

We headed down… and took a different route out. No one seemed to be around (don’t blame them, it was so hot), only the occasional Bedouin local trying to sell tea, postcards, jewellery. We explored the area for the next few hours – a bit of random Geocache-seeking by Travis, attempts to take artistic photos at the ruins etc. Some points in the hike didn’t look like it was a proper track, but we managed to find our way back to the main Street. Took our last obligatory photos and decided we’d had enough. Our legs were sore, we were hot and tired (and I was suffering from initial realisation of severe sunburn). We snapped our last photos, said our goodbyes to Petra and headed back to Wadi Musa. It was late afternoon, and we had planned to go to Wadi Rum for the night. A night without a hot shower in the desert sounded a little too painful to me so I suggested we travel to Aqaba first, spend a night and day there and then do Wadi Rum after. Travis willingly agreed, and we continued on our journey south.

Tags: Amman, Dana Reserve, Jordan, Madaba, Mosaic Map, Mount Nebo, Petra
Posted in Jordan 2010, Travels | No Comments »

Dubai – our introduction to the Middle East

August 6th, 2010 Travis

After an extremely long sixteen hour flight from Los Angeles we arrived at Dubai. We had heard that Dubai was a relatively liberal city compared to the rest of the Middle East but still strictly abides by Islamic law so we were anxious about visiting there.

It was an interesting experience riding in the taxi to our hotel, all the sandy coloured buildings, Arabic writings and mosques.

Our first night we had our first taste of Arabic cuisine, with dishes of lamb, hummus, chickpeas and olives.

Day 1 – Desert Safari

The next morning we where introduced to another Arabic culture, the dawn Islamic Prayer (Fajr), which is signalled via a ‘call to prayer’ (adhān) via loudspeakers. It also didn’t help that the mosque was directly outside our window.

We had booked a desert safari in afternoon which gave us the morning to start exploring Dubai. We walked along Dubai Creek towards the Gold and Spice Souks in the Deira district. We spent all morning looking for a clock tower which was somewhat of a disappointment on arrival.

The desert safari we booked with Oasis Palm Tourism via our hotel. The tour included dune bashing and more ‘traditional’ activities including a meal at a camp for 270 Dirham per head. The activities all gave us some pretty unique photos. The dune bashing, which was a convoy of SUVs driving up and down the dunes at ridiculous speeds, was a blast. Many times I was concerned the car would roll, fortunately it didn’t. I don’t think any of the drivers got bogged once. At one spot we were given a chance to ‘sandboard’ which was literally a five second affair sliding down a dune.

On arriving at the camp which was reminiscent of a Bedouin camp, we were greeted by two camels who we could ride, this gave us some nice photos. Inside the very large camp were many areas for eating on the outskirts of a larger performance area for belly dancing, and also an area to try the tradition Arabic clothes (the male thawb and female jilaabah), Henna painting, which Sonya later found out she would be displaying for a month and Shisha smoking of apple flavoured tobacco.

Dinner was a selection of barbeque meats, salads and breads.

Day 2 – Downtown Dubai and Burj Khalifa

This day we spent exploring Downtown Dubai which includes the Burj Khalifa, Dubai Mall and Dubai Fountain.

On arrival to the over-towing Burj our first thoughts were ‘wow, it’s big’. Out of pure luck we happened to be in Dubai a few days after the official opening and managed to go all the way up to the observation deck. The views on the observation deck were amazing, and it was a very surreal feeling overlooking all the other skyscrapers.

For the rest of the day we browsed the adjacent Dubai Mall, one of the largest malls in the world. The mall had a multi-storey indoor aquarium, waterfalls and even an ice-rink. The mall had all the western shops including luxury brands. We finished the day off with another visit to the gold, spice and perfume souks, before our flight back to Perth, which sadly concluding our holidays.

Tags: Burj Khalifa, Dubai MallDesert Safari, Oasis Palm Tourism, souks
Posted in America 2009/2010, Travels | No Comments »

Las Vegas the home of Nightlife! Plus some canyon to the north.

June 14th, 2010 Travis

On our third day in Los Angeles we decided to start our journey to Las Vegas. A road trip through Nevada’s deserts through to Las Vegas, I was sure it would be just like Fear and Loathing (minus the bats). Well, it wasn’t. It was just one long concrete highway with nothing to see or do along the way.

In Australia, if you drive anywhere far, you could easily find something interesting to stop at, a big kangaroo, an old town or some random sign pointing to places you have never heard off. America is different, the large population has turned everything into efficient multilane highways.

On exiting Los Angeles we were presented with the San Bernardino Mountains through which the highway winds around, presenting some amazing views. On the high peaks in the distance you could even see snow. Three hundred kilometres north east of Los Angeles we come across an unusual road sign Zzyzx Rd, apparently this is the alphabetically last place name in the world.

In four hours, we arrived in the evening at Flamingo Hotel, Sonya recommended Flamingo hotel as she had stayed there when younger, and it was also fairly inexpensive at $70 per night. Stepping out of the hotel we were greeted with the famous bright and overly excessive lights of Las Vegas.

Whilst I didn’t see a point in gambling, we both agreed that we should see at least one show, and we thought there was no better choice than experiencing Cirque du Soleil. Cirque du Soleil has a total of seven shows at various hotels is Las Vegas, we chose Mystère which was $72 each for reasonable seated tickets. The show was great, a lot of elaborate costumes and all the acts I had not experienced before. The clown during the audience’s seating at the start was also very funny.

After the show Sonya insisted we try Serendipity 3 for an evening sugar hit, we ordered a ‘Can’t Say No Sundae’ and their famous signature ‘Frrrozen Hot chocolate’. The Frrrozen Hot chocolate was a let down, essentially a cold chocolate drink, but the sundae was fun. The sundae mimicked those you see in the movies, huge, with bananas, cream, nuts and a cherry on the top. Sadly, we couldn’t finish it.

For the rest of the night we decided to checkout The Venetian, one of the most extravagant hotels which with a Venice theme featuring indoor canals and huge Italian Renaissance murals.

Day Two – The Grand Canyon

The Grand Canyon South Rim is roughly four hundred kilometres from Las Vegas or just over a five hour drive. From what I had read, the South Rim offers the most spectacular views, so I wanted to try and get there. Unfortunately, we woke up a little too late and by the time we got passed Hoover Dam and the addition of the slight time difference I calculated we would have arrived very close to sunset. So Sonya convinced me to drive to the Grand Canyon West Rim, two hundred kilometres from Las Vegas or a little under four hours. Sonya made the right call.

A little bit from Las Vegas we reached Hoover Dam, what an engineering marvel. A huge mass of water on one side and a huge drop on the other. There was construction of a new bridge over the river which I thought was also very impressive. Hoover Dam also marks the crossing from Nevada to Arizona.

Even though the South Rim dominates then West Rim, it still offers amazing views. Another drawback of the West Rim is it has been highly commercialised especially with the creation of The Skywalk. The Skywalk is a glass bottom platform that extends a little over twenty metres from the Grand Canyon wall all one thousand and four hundred meters up. The whole experience is fairly expensive at $71 per head, but is worth it if you are short of time, like us. Now, I say this a lot, but I have never seen Sonya so scared when walking over the glass bottomed Skywalk, having to hold onto the handrail the whole time. After the Skywalk the tour bus takes you to Eagle Point, which offers-breath taking views and isn’t so crowded. We started our drive back to Las Vegas as the sun was setting, not bad for a day trip.

That night Sonya introduced me to In-N-Out Burgers, for six dollars you can buy burgers, fries and drink to feed two, the best value I had seen on the trip.

Day Three – Mexico

Yes, we drove into Mexico. We had a whole day to drive back from Las Vegas to Los Angeles with an afternoon flight the next day, for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to drive into Mexico for a little bit, like I have said, I like to cram as much as I can into my holidays. The Mexican city Tijuana is situated on the America-Mexico border, and located roughly four hundred kilometres from Las Vegas, or a five hour drive.

The Mexico border was just like the movies, plenty of cars and people walking across, what I didn’t realise was how easy it was to cross and get into Mexico. Now call me naive, but I had this image that Tijuana would be a transition between America and Mexico, I did not expect that as soon as you crossed the border you would be hit with the poverty and dirtiness of Mexico. This combined with the GPS map finishing as soon as we entered made me very uneasy. Through luck, we managed to find a place that had a very basic map, and then found a shopping centre. After browsing the supper market, in my opinion one of the most interesting things to do in a foreign country, we had some Mexican food at the food court and then made our way back to the border. As expected, the border crossing into America wasn’t as easy, with passport checks and even confiscation of some of our food. We were glad to be back.

We reached Los Angeles late at night and checked in a budget hotel. In the morning we made our way to the airport and departed America on a sixteen hour flight to Dubai.

Tags: Cirque du Soleil, Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Serendipity 3, Skywalk, Tijuana, West Rim, Zzyzx
Posted in America 2009/2010 | No Comments »

Hollywood, the home of glitz and glamour, Not!

May 5th, 2010 Travis

If we were going to do the whole America thing, how could we not do Hollywood California. We decided to spend one day wondering Hollywood and one day visiting Universal Studio. This worked out to be all that we needed, with the third day starting our drive to Las Vegas.

We booked a rental car for the whole period, which made things so much easier and enjoyable. From the airport the GPS navigated us all the way to our accommodation; Motel 6, which we were pleased to find was just walking distance from Hollywood Boulevard.

It was night time when we arrived at our hotel; we walked down Hollywood Boulevard, enjoying our first view of the Walk of Stars and a quick burger at Johnny Rockets, now about my tenth burger on the whole trip. We decided that we may as well do the infamous Genius World Records to end the night, with the VIP ticket including Ripley’s Believe It or Not! and the Hollywood Wax Museum costing total $27 per person. Guinness World of Records was worn and out dated (they still don’t have the Burj Khalifa in their tallest structures section), not even worth the $9 entry.

Day 1 – Universal Studios
We woke up early for Universal Studios, this was a fun day. Having now visited two Disney theme parks, it was good to get a change of characters. Plus Universal Studios is a full functioning movie studio, housing many current movie studios, sound stages, sets, backdrops and even office buildings. On entering we were greeted with Betelgeuse from Beetlejuice, Marilyn Monroe, Shrek and Frankenstein all who we naturally took photos with. Sonya then recommended we first go on the famous Studio Tour.

The tour started at Stage 25 and passed the office bungalows (as Universal Studios calls them). Passed through some street sets including Courthouse Square which was famously used in the Back to the Future series, but now for Ghost Whisperer. It was cool seeing a whole street and then rounding the corner and finding it was literally just a large painted wall. Toward the Fast and the Furious set (merely two cars on individual robotic arms) was a large collection of movie cars, including the Jurassic Park Jeep and Back to the Future Delorean

We past the Jaws Encounter, Desperate Housewives Wisteria Lane, Whoville from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Norman hiding another body at the Bates Motel and the latest set form War of the Worlds featuring an actual Boeing 747 chopped up into pieces.

After the tour we headed to the Simpsons Ride, the ride which was just a simulation, distracted me from the stunning visuals. Though they did a really good turning it all into a working Krustyland theme park and it was neat seeing a life size Kwik-E-Mart.

A series of escalators took us to the Universal Studios Lower Lot, were we visited Jurassic Park, the ride was very close to that in the actual movie, with a large T-rex at the conclusion. Other highlights were the WaterWorld show, where we both got drenched (yes, the soaked warnings on the benches are accurate), House of Horrors where real actors do there best to scare you (it worked well) and Terminator 2: 3D (a combination 3D and live action show).

After leaving Universal Studio we visited Los Angeles Chinatown for dinner and then the Hollywood Wax Museum. The Wax Museum was very impressive, with amazing details on all the wax sculptures. My only gripe is Angelina could have been improved so I didn’t look like I was standing next to a cross-dresser.

We finished the night with a drive down Doheny Drive which climbed up Hollywood Hills, the way down offered amazing view of the city.

Day 2 – Hollywood Sign, Santa Monica and Pasadena
We started this day driving to Mount Hollywood which has a good view (though a little far) of the famous Hollywood sign. Griffith Observatory also sits on the city facing slope and offers amazing views of Los Angeles, we even went back at night.

From the Hollywood sign we drove south-west along Mulholland Drive to Santa Monica and the famous Santa Monica Pier which has a small amusement park and restaurants. After a picnic lunch we headed to Pasadena. Pasadena is roughly sixteen kilometres north east of Los Angeles or forty kilometres north east from Santa Monica. We walked around City Hall and through its amazing courtyards, from there we walked south to the Pasadena Civic Auditorium‎.

Back in Hollywood, we finished the night with Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Which was only a little better than the Guinness World of Records, and then a night time view from Mount Hollywood, spectacular.

Day 3 – Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and then on to Las Vegas
The morning of our last day in Hollywood, we decided to stop by Grauman’s Chinese Theatre which is famous for its numerous handprints, footprints and autographs set in the concrete in the forecourt. We took the obligatory photos of our hands in the celebrities’ handprints.

Conclusion
Let me just say, Hollywood itself isn’t great. The first things you notice when walking down Hollywood Boulevard are the countless adult, tattoo and drug paraphernalia shops lining the streets. But this with the griminess of the streets, the poor costumes of the street performers and the randoms trying to sell you a ‘star’s home’ tour all work together nicely. I don’t think we would be visiting Hollywood again for a very long time (perhaps never) but it was good to have visited it once.

Tags: Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Griffith Observatory, Hollywood, Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood Sign, Hollywood Wax Museum, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Studio Tour, Universal Studio, Walk of Stars
Posted in America 2009/2010 | 1 Comment »

New York – Round II

May 3rd, 2010 Sonya

After three days in sunny Florida we headed back to New York City. Aside from the weather, the cultural contrast was immediately apparent. New York is like any big city really – plenty of people from all different cultures, many different spoken languages, foods etc. Florida was probably a more concise representation of ‘America’ in it’s many typically American fast food eateries and lifestyle.

30th December

We arrived back at M’s apartment midday and headed to the MoMA where we were meeting Mandi. She had managed to get free tickets for us from a friend so we decided to spend the afternoon there perusing what we had missed the previous weeks. Quite a bit, we realised. The whole Picasso-Cubist era and the French impressionists such as Monet.. as well as the beautiful architecture and design sections. And of course, plenty of abstract art such as the white empty shoebox, and the four yoghurt lids. Highlights would have been Monet’s waterlilies, Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Memory (so tiny!) and taking creative photo’s of M looking ‘aggressive’ next to Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup work (she works in advertising for Progresso Soup!!).

That evening we went to a little bar in the West Village. It was so warm and cosy inside and it felt like being at someone’s house. Travis unknowingly ordered a girl’s drink, the apple cider. HAHA.

New Year’s Eve

The following day Travis and I headed for towards the Upper East Side, and dropped by the UN building and then over to the MeT. It was NYE and the subways were extremely busy. We headed back in the early evening to Mandi’s apartment as we were meeting a bunch of Mandi’s New Yorker friends for dinner that night. Dinner was in Chelsea at a trendy, modern Thai restaurant where I had a green curry chicken and a glass of shiraz. The tables were long and had benches on either side which made it difficult to get in and out of your seat. Another surprise was my trip to the toilet, by which I came across a guy… unisex toilets, very Ally McBeal. After dinner, and after agreeing we would catch up with some of M’s friend’s later at a house party, we went to a bar in St Mark’s, near Sing Sing where we had entertained ourselves with Karaoke a week earlier. Had a blast there (how could one not, with 5 shots at $10!), meeting up with a few of Mandi’s other friends. Ended up staying there for the count down, then heading to another club for some dancing. It was a bit of a crazy night, but definitely memorable – that’s for sure. And we didn’t quite make it to the house party.

New Year’s Day

The following day we had a lazy morning, before heading to Chinatown for some greasy dim sum to satisfy the uneasy stomachs. Tasty, but definitely not quite comparable to Perth standards (or maybe we’re biased?) On our way home we stopped by some Chinese grocery stores to pick up snacks for our quiet night in. We also stopped by Magnolia Bakery, only just across the road from M’s apartment, a place that is perennially busy with cupcake lovers. We bought the red velvet and a chocolate buttermilk cupcake as well a yummy gooey banana concoction that looked deadly. Given we had already chosen to splurge upon the point of no return we also bought a tub of Ben and Jerry’s – some exotic combination of flavours we couldn’t dream of finding in Perth.

2nd January

So thus, that indulgent night concluded the New York chapter of our trip. The following morning we packed our bags, took a walk along the Hudson River in West Village and had breakfast at a intimate little diner, where the quirky waiter mumbled to himself about world politics between orders.

Outside the beautiful brownstone apartment, we said our teary goodbyes, Mandi hailed us a cab and we were off on the next part of our American adventure.

Tags: Cafetasia, Continental, Hudson River, Magnolia Bakery, MoMA, West Village
Posted in America 2009/2010 | No Comments »