parental visit part 2: Dead Sea-Jordan

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 Mövenpick 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.