When we landed in Jordan in the evening, it was such a surprise because its completely different to Sri Lanka, the people look different, the scenery is different, the houses are built differently. Jordan is mainly a huge desert boarding Palestine( Israel). But like all the rest of the countries, we have visited its beautiful. And may I say the people were the nicest people out of all the countries….they went the extra mile to help us, find our way around Jordan. I’m going to put a lot of detail into Jordan because I absolutely loved it!!I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to travel somewhere AMAZING!!
It took us a little while to set off in Jordan because we couldn’t find a guidebook and there was a huge language barrier, so we had no idea where anything was. But when we looked out the window we saw one of the mosques which we needed to go to, so we got up and started walking, to find out that you cant just walk a straight line there and that’s a lot farther than we thought. So after alittle while we got in a taxi ( with a guy who couldn’t speak any English) and went to the mosque. It was this huge blue mosque, with incredible detail but to get this mosque we had to put on these big black gowns. So in we went in our black gowns.
Afterwards, we went to this old roman city called “Jerash”. Its really incredible how this city is still around when it was built hundreds of years ago and have the things made today don’t last more than a year or 2. And its not some crumby place, the city beautiful and the buildings are so detailed with big columns. Some person or many people would have to chiseled every single piece; I don’t think anyone today could get this built.
The next morning, we set off at the early time of 4am, and got into a taxi to Petra, which was even more amazing than Jerash. To get into Petra city, we had to take a horse-n-buggy through the caverns and out of nowhere you see alittle crack and you see this huge building which was the treasury and like all of Amman it had the huge columns and the detail. I could not believe someone carved this into a mountain, hundreds of years ago and all they had was a hammer and chisel and made this master piece. The person who built it doesn’t even get any credit for the beauty. We had to see the treasury and the Monastery. To get to the monastery, Bill said we had to take a donkey. So here we are riding up the mountain on a donkey ( who thinks the best place to walk is 2 inches from the 90 foot drop). We finally get to the monastery and you stand there just staring.. thinking how did they get this done?
Then we get back to the flat ground , still on the donkeys back, and theres nothing but sand and one rock. Guess what happens…..my donkey trips on his own feet and Lily hits the only rock. So now I have a broken camera, and 2 bruises. This will be a story I will be telling for years to come. “ You know when I was in Petra, I fell of a donkey”.
After Petra, we went down to Wadi Ram, where we had to ride camels by this time, I swear this camel is going through me off as well. But it didn’t. A part of the scavenge was to put on a headdress and ride like Lawrence of Arabia. So here I am on a camel pretending to charge on a non-moving camel with this Muslim headdress on. Yes, I have a video of me doing that. But im not posting it. Sorry, just too embarrassing for the internet.
The “Dead Sea” was the next scavenge we head off to do…and may I say I think this is something everyone should do before they die. “Try” and swim in the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea , has not one living in it…..nothing. But to get to the Dead Sea took a lot of effort because our taxi driver, we presume has a restaurant or market as well because on our way to the Dead Sea, he decides he needs to stop every 10 feet to buy “cases” of vegetables.
He didn’t understand English so there was no way to tell him that…we hadn’t eaten our mandatory’s yet.
An hour later, we finally reach the Dead Sea at this cute little resort, we change and go into this sea. And when you try to swim your entire body floats to the surface and you end up looking like your sitting in a lounge chair. It was the weirdest thing. I didn’t understand how that could happen but it has something to do with the natural chemicals in the sea. Then this Jordanian guy comes running down the little hill with a plastic bag filled with blackness. The blackness was mud which we had to put all over our body. We looked so disgusting looking but it was so cool. After you wash off the blackness, you feel so soft and smooth.
After we got cleaned up from the Dead Sea, we went to this bridge which leads to Palestine.
We finally got our mandatory’s out of the way. Which had me nervous all day because it was 8:30 when we reached the restaurant and check in was 10. This game can be nerve-wrecking at some moments.
Jordan was a blast, I wish I could write everything about every place but there is too much and not enough time to write.
But before I say goodbye, I would like to tell you something to really tell you how “nice” Jordanians are. We had to go to this greek-orthodox church to look at a mosaic on the ground of a map of Israel, but when we arrived the church was closed, so we were standing outside of this huge church when this sixteen year-old boy comes and he opens up the entire church for us so we could see this mosaic on the floor. And when we tried to give him some money for being nice, he told us to give it to the church instead. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met. Then afterwards he walked us to the diner where we had to eat the next part of the scavenge.
