Adventures in Asia: on the way to Wadi Musa, Jordan

From the Dead Sea Spa Resort, we drove south this morning, along the Dead Sea for an hour or so. This was more or less straight driving, with the Dead Sea to our right and colourful cliffs to our left. We passed through a few villages, but the Dead Sea shoreline seems sparsely inhabited. 

We turned eastward and began climbing. It was here that I found the scenery especially spectacular. I decided to pull over for a couple of photos and to take my sweater off.

We continued climbing and then, around a bend, was this little roadside cafe, run by a couple of Bedouin boys.

Apparently they live next door.

They had couches overlooking the mountains we had just climbed up, so we enjoyed coffee with what must surely be one of the most epic cafe views in the world. 

The little boy had a small toy car I found fun to photograph, for some reason . . .

As you get further into the highlands there are more villages, which are interesting, but also provide opportunities to take wrong turns! I went the wrong way, once. 

About 45 minutes from Wadi Musa we stopped for lunch at village restaurant, where we enjoyed some shawarma. Actually, what had really motivated our stop was Diana's need to use the washroom. Unfortunately, their facilities were not quite what she had in mind!

While you do see pit toilets in Jordan, that is not all you see, and anyway, that level of cleanliness (or lack thereof) is rare, at least in the tourist spots.

Further along, now on the King's Highway, the terrain opened up and I felt compelled to pull over again for a few photos. 

We reached Wadi Musa around 13:00. At Wadi Musa you are back in the mountains, and our hotel, the Petra Moon, is nearly at the very bottom of the town. We parked the car at the hotel, but did not even bother checking in; instead, we headed straight to Petra!

Adventures in Asia: Dead Sea, Jordan

From Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan we got back in the car and headed south towards the Dead Sea. In less than twenty minutes we began passing the row of resorts along the northeast shore of the sea. There are maybe six or seven or so, mostly all in a row, between the Dead Sea Highway and the Dead Sea itself, after which the highway continues for many kilometres along the sea without any resorts (or much else) around. But, for tonight, we were stopping at the Dead Sea Spa Resort.

What has become obvious, and was especially obvious here, was that between the fact that winter is always low season and the particularly acute post-October 7 Israel/Palestine conflict, there are not many tourists in Jordan right now. We did not have the resort completely to ourselves, but it felt pretty close to that. There are 269 rooms here, and I do not think more than 20 of them can be occupied.

We were upgraded to a room at the end of the corridor, up on the third floor, or so.

This is our view. That is the Dead Sea, of course, and the West Bank beyond.

After getting to our room, we hurried down to the beach, eager to get into the water and experience Dead Sea swimming! 

The resort opened in 1990, and they have signs along the path to the beach showing how much the Dead Sea has receded every five years or so.

Basically, the sea has been dropping by one metre per year. They say the Dead Sea is also a dying sea and that without human intervention or dramatic change to water usage north of the sea that it will drop another one hundred metres at which point it will be a "dwarfed hypersaline hot lake" (whatever that is). It must be an odd reality for the resorts as they are being "left behind."

Down at the beach the resort has lounge chairs and tables, but we were not so much interested in relaxing as getting into the water.

We found it every bit as strange and fascinating as you might expect. You do in fact float and you simply cannot move around it like you can in "normal" water. You also have to be especially mindful to avoid getting the water in your eyes or mouth.

In places the salt has collected into chunks, and here was one of the larger ones!

Besides the salty water, the Dead Sea is also famous for its mud, and the resort has a big mud bath at the beach from which you can scoop handfuls of mud to rub on your skin. We tried this out after our first foray into the water, and then went back in to rinse off. I do not know if my body appreciated any of the supposed health benefits, but it was fun!

We enjoyed the rest of our evening at the resort, watching the sunset, enjoying drinks at the bar, and dining at the hotel's buffet for dinner. 

Adventures in Asia: Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, Jordan

From Mt. Nebo, we drove down into the Jordan Valley and toward the Jordan River. At this point the river is the border between Jordan and the West Bank. Just before the river we turned north and arrived at Bethany-beyond-the-Jordan, the site of Jesus's baptism. For a couple of centuries or so, from something like 300 CE onwards, this was an important site for Christians, but after that (roughly from 650 CE) it was neglected or forgotten, and more recently it was a minefield. Beginning in 1994 the site began to be opened up and archaeological work began. Although the mines are all gone, there are still fairly significant security precautions being taken as you visit, and you have to be part of a group as you tour, you cannot roam freely. A guide and shuttle bus take you from the parking lot a few kilometres to where you can begin walking. 

This is the "spot," which is along a brook that fills up when the Jordan is especially high (look it up on Wikipedia or elsewhere and you can see how high the water can get!).

Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have all visited the spot, and two of their visits are commemorated with mosaics. 

The archaeological work here has uncovered the ruins of the Byzantine church (they are in the larger roofed area you can see in the photos of the "spot" above). Much more recently other churches from other Christian denominations (e.g., Orthodox, Armenian, Catholic) have been built nearby--you can see some of them up on the ridge in the photo below.

Closer to the river is this Greek Orthodox church.

And here you can get down to the Jordan River itself. 

It hardly looks like a river by the standards I am used to--really more like a creek--but it felt pretty special to see it nonetheless. 

The West Bank is just across the river and there were two IDF soldiers standing there (there were Jordanian soldiers on our side of the river, too). Overall it feels like a tense place, but still peaceful, somehow, and three tourists put on special robes the church sells and went on into the river and evidently found it an especially meaningful experience. 

Besides the baptism site, the ancient ruins, and the Jordan River proper, I also found the setting and "wilderness" all around interesting. 

Adventures in Asia: Mount Nebo, Jordan

Diana and I began an adventure to the Middle East (actually, our very delayed honeymoon) on Saturday, leaving Edmonton (where the weather was something like -45 degrees Celsius--so cold the baggage handlers could not load luggage!) via KLM to Amsterdam, where we caught a Transavia flight to Amman. Our YEG-AMS flight was badly delayed, so we sprinted through Schiphol to make sure we reached our gate in time, which, thankfully, we did!

We reached our hotel in Amman last night around 21:00. They upgraded us to a two bedroom suite, which made it possibly the largest (albeit certainly not the nicest) hotel room I have ever stayed in! We went out briefly for some shawarma and snacks, but fell asleep quickly. Diana was somehow able to sleep in until 10:00 this morning, but I was up shortly after the sunrise call to prayer. I had to enjoy the rooftop breakfast by myself, and then, when I realized Diana was still asleep, I went out to pick up a rental car. Back at the hotel, Diana was still asleep, so I needed to wake her up, because we had an itinerary to get to!

We were on the western side of Amman and, although there are some things to see in Amman, we were more interested in the sights outside of the busy capital, so we headed southwest and, after a couple of wrong turns, eventually out of the city. Driving habits struck me as a little less orderly than I anticipated, but I found myself adapting quickly to the aggressive style. 

Our first stop of the day was Mount Nebo, about 40 minutes outside of Amman. This is where the Bible says Moses was able to view the "Promised Land" prior to his death, and today there is a church, museum, and viewpoint here. 

It had been a bit chilly last night, but today was gorgeous and we enjoyed our time walking around and especially the view. You can see down into the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, and across to the West Bank, where the city of Jericho is easily visible and the mountains beyond where Jerusalem is. 

At the lookout point there is a sculpture of the "fiery serpent . . . upon a pole" that Moses used to save the Israelites from deadly snakes. 

The church is built at the site of what was a Byzantine church. 

It incorporates some of the mosaics and remnants of the old church in a very tasteful way. 

Behind the church there is also a small museum with more mosaics and other artifacts. Nearby there is a mosaics workshop, where local artisans produce mosaic art. We had a nice tour here and purchased a (very overpriced) piece to bring home. 

We left Mount Nebo on the west side, descending into the Jordan Valley. 

I was excited near the bottom when we saw our first herd of camels!