Back into the groove since my folks left, I've managed to score bits of fun here and there... let's see what I can remember:
A couple weekends ago, Liz and I joined a few of our roommates for a night out at the Irish Village. We all had a pretty good time, except maybe my friends wife - whom I'd met that night, who had to endure many repeated barely understandable drunken ramblings with me about Pakistan.
Roommate Tonie(^S.African bloke in this photo^) had to send the following pictures my way. The willa was in Mirdiff, I have no idea where that is, but it's one of the most classic villa's yet:
We also found a new place to live, and moving will commence by the end of this weekend inshallah! It's still in Umm Sequim II, across the street from Wasl Rd, and is a hell of a lot cheaper! I'll save roughly 500 usd monthly, we won't have to live with 11 others, I hopefully will have no allergies, and it won't be in the yard of a mosque!!! Yay for us!
Tomorrow night we are going to go to a Halloween party, and I managed to get away with a 17 dhs costume! Pics to follow after the move...
Also just found a sweet album, check out Ernest Ranglin for some jazzy-reggae grooves.
day 5: we left the dead sea well refreshed and ready for some sights. we started by going to the top of a nearby mountain, where the 12th century Karak castle was located. The castle was one of dad's favorite places as he said he felt like he was in a Zelda video game. Here we are on top of the mountain:
After leaving there, we had a longish drive on the King's Highway down to Petra. Unfortunately, we also had to listen to the taxi's beep the whole 3 1/2 hrs as well. That was the last time we used that driver.
When we got to Ma'an, we checked in our place then moved to the 'Little Petra'. We didn't have much day time left, and this Petra was free. It was pretty sick... here's the 'rents checking it out:
We then slid outta town to catch a Petra sunset:
day 6: we woke up and went to catch a full Petra day. We rented a personal guide, and got a buggie ride for mom and dad... do to some confusing negotiations, we ended up with a minimized tour, but we still managed to see 80% of the goods, and all of the major sections of an official 'Wonder of the World'. Here's a little of what we caught on camera:
At the far side of the venue they were offering donkey rides, and since a personal goal is to ride as many new animals as possible, we picked one up each! I couldn't get over how natural pops rode the donkey. It's like he does it everyday.
Petra was pretty amazing, and most photos don't do it justice. When you hear that it is a whole city made in the mountain sides, you can't really imagine how many carvings there really are, or how big they are! It's definitely something you must see in person.
day 7: we were going to do a couple nights in Jerusalem, but I backed out, and played it safe. I knew that we'd be ok, but then again, thought that seeing automatic weapons by the Israeli army was a pretty unnecessary thing for my less-traveled folks. Needless to say, we had a couple extra days to knock about in Amman.
We decided to go down to the big souk (english: market) to get some gifts for people back home. It was a madhouse! Eid was around the corner (ie: next day), so everyone was out to buy gifts for their loved ones. My parents had no idea how foreign markets would be... and the one in City Centre didn't disappoint.
We moved from there exhausted, but not ready to miss the roman theatre next to the market. Here's a foto of Amman taken from the top of the theatre:
day 8: During our last day on holiday, we thought it'd be cool to get a Turkish Bath:
We had NO idea what to expect, and what we got was something that wasn't even close to entering our minds. Mom thought it would be about a big luxurious bath, with lots of oils and soaps, and cleaner than a swiss whistle... followed by a masseuse who gave you a proper face massage and sent you on your way... NOPE!
We first got neked, threw on skimpy towels, and re-congregated as a family in a little steam room. Not a bad start. Then we sat there for no less than 45 minutes. Dad and mom were in an out about 10 times (completely hot and sweaty and feeling confused) before a lady took mom to the next ( and last ) phase. While dad and I pondered on what was going on we waited patiently for our collector person. Dad let me go next and it went like this:
Lady (nasty lady) has you lay on a cement table neked on your chest. She takes a glove with little bumps on it, I think the glove probably played a role in the 'Hostel' torture movie at some point, a glove that has probably been used on no less than 2000 people. It was black-rubbery, and gave the impression of the dirtiest thing in the room. And starts scrubbing your body... hard! Hard enough to leave my-skin-has-been-removed red marks. She does have the decency to splash a bucket of water on you after this scrubbing. She then gets you to lay on your back. She then does the same to all of your front, including a nice bucket splash. Following this you go sit next to a sink on a cold cement bench. She then pours a bucket over your head, scrubs minimal shampoo in a small portion of your head and drops another bucket on you.
That's it... you're done! I highly recommend it! HA!
Following that awkward experience, we headed toJerash, a city of the Decapolis and considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East... at least it was something to do...
They have an event where they re-enact roman chariot races and coliseum games, and they do it in this arena:
They also have all sorts of Roman pillars like these:
We walked around in the sun for a while, and stopped to see a weird bunch of locals playing music... well, I reckon the only weird part was the bagpipe?!
Our final stop of the day before heading to the airport was stopping again in the city center in Amman at the Citadel. The heritage site is the home of more ancient ruins, and also a great view of all angles of the city. Including the largest free standing flag in the world. You can see my parents getting one last look in here:
As a conclusion: I'd highly recommend this country, but would probably limit it to 5 days in Jordan, and trying to go to Syria or Lebanon or Jerusalem inside the same trip.
I miss my folks already, and am already looking forward to my return to the states for Christmas. If you wanted to see all the photos go here.
day 1: we arrived at night, had a quick wander around 'Jebal Amman', which means Amman Mountain, in Amman the capital city... We sorta just walked around the neighborhood of our 3-star accommodation, Hisham Hotel. Turns out, it is one of the nicer parts of town. I guess many of the embassies are located here, as well as some nicer 5-star places. Here's a photo of a nice garage door.
and here's one of another door down the street.
day 2: we got up and left in the morning by taxi to the Dead Sea. We made a stop in a couple smaller tourist places. We stopped on Mt. Nebo which has a good view over Israel and the Dead sea and others... here's a little map thing they have there:
and here's me and my ma:
We then stopped at the Jordan River, the location of Jesus' Baptism. We had about 10 checkpoints to get there. I guess you could almost call it a 'Green Zone'. It was pretty hot out there on the trail to the river, and it felt good to baptise my toes:
Also got a photo of the closest I've been to Israel... see the flag across the river below.
After a long morning of being on the road, we finally made it to the Dead sea in mid-afternoon. We managed to get our first dip into the lowest place on earth - 400m below sea level, and we loved it! Mom and I were never any good at swimming, so we felt comfortable in the water for the first time. Dad (the good swimmer) on the other hand hated it! He just kept rolling in non-balanced circles! He liked the pool much more :)
The trick to getting in the water is to sit down immediately after stepping your feet in the water. The rocks are to hard to step on anyway. Once you set that foot in, turn and sit. From there you just push off backwards and off you float! On the surface it is extremely oily, and once you touch your arms and legs when you are in, you feel as slippery as a butcher's prick!
I guess the mud along with the salt water is supposed to have some sort of healing power, but for me it was just annoying and sticky. For myself, it only lasted about 4 minutes.
day 3: We checked into the 5-star resort Mรถvenpick hotel that day, and it was pretty amazing... definitely one of the top 3 hotels I've ever stayed at. It was sort of an oriental style setting, and we had some pretty cool amenities. Here's a photo at me at the pool.
We wasted 3 days in the sun and sand getting spa treatments, sheesha, midnight camel rides, and booze! Here's mom with a great exhale:
And this is the camel she rode in the middle of the night:
I'll come back with another post of the rest of the holiday, but for now you can view lotsa more Jordan photos here.
Quite the delay with blogging, with good reason: my parents came to visit!
It was their first ever 2-week holiday(poor Americans and their crappy holiday allowance), and they decided to visit me in the middle east! what cool folks! the first few days we had here in Dubai were spent at the Souks, meeting friends, desert safari's, beaching, shopping, and everything else you do on a trip like this. We then took a trip to Jordan ( the three of us ) and visited the Dead Sea, Petra, among other places. We finished off with a final day in Dubai, and then they hopped onto a 22 hr journey back to Iowa. Whew!
Here's some fotos of our Desert Safari
If you've never been on a desert safari, here's the layout: a 4x4 pickup at the house, strait into the desert for a wild ride on all the sand dunes... this really freaked out ma... she wasn't encouraged much by dad's camera either during this time... it's always more fun doing this with someone in the car screaming every few seconds.
After the initial up and downs of the dunes, they drop you off for some fotos, and a sand-boarding opportunity... here's pops:
We then pop into a makeshift bedouin tent, with seesha/camel riding/belly dancing/henna boby art and moonlit dinner. Since it was Ramadan, they cut off all Belly Dancing, but that didn't slow us down much. Here's the 'rents on their first camel ride.
We spent the next couple of days visiting some friends in Abu Dhabi for a real Iftar dinner. Umar and Sana welcomed all of us to their home for dinner and company with 1-year old Zayneb. My parents loved the Indian food! Have yet to discover a sufficient way to repay them for a great night...
My folks and I had to say goodbye to Liz for a week, as she was stuck in Dubai working while we took our Jordan trip. Details and fotos of this trip to follow tomorrow Inshallah.
Here are further pictures from the Dubai portion of the journey.
