Floating in the Dead Sea is the life!

Monday April 5th - Wednesday April 7th
Staying at the Jordan Valley Marriott at the Dead Sea was the perfect ending to our trip.  We needed some pampering after our hard travels:)!

The Marriott - now that's what I'm talking about!

Our home for the next two days!

Floating in the Dead Sea was one of the things I was most looking forward to on our trip!  I had lots of questions.  I mean - are we really going to float?  Like really float?  How salty is this water anyway?  How smooth will the Dead Sea mud make my skin?  If the mud really works, could I just start digging and take some back in the zip lock that I brought with me just in case?  Serious questions that needed to be answered!

So - yes - you float.  It was kind of weird though, because I remember treading water even though I saw other people floating and then finally decided to just "trust the process" and voila - I was floating - very cool!  The water is 30% salt - 8 times as salty as the ocean.  And if you want to know - yes it burns like hell if you get it in your eye (thanks for "toeing" me in Zann - I am forever indebted to you as I thought I was officially blind after the "wave incident" - maybe trying to swim to Israel was a bad idea after all).  I also got the water in my mouth - yuck.  My mouth felt so dry and I ended up spitting for the next 3 hours trying to get the salt out of my mouth - it was way worse than the salt water concoction my mom used to make us gargle when we were kids and had a sore throat!:)  Also, the salt doesn't ruin your bathing suit but the mud does - just a word to the wise! And finally, the mud does make your skin as smooth as a baby's butt, but I decided to just buy some from the gift store instead of going with the zip lock!

 It was a bit of a process lathering on the mud, drying, and then floating - but we managed:)

First we float!

Not a care in the world!

Now the mud...how much do we need?

you're gonna need more than that...

Perfect!

You've got to let it dry for the best results!

Now back in the water to wash it off - I think our skin already felt smoother at this point! And what is Zann doing in the background - hilarious!:)

This part of the vacation was the pampering I needed:)  Frozen drinks at the lowest point on earth.  Laying around reading magazines by the pool with an amazing view.  Watching the sunset from the balcony.  Aaaaah - I heart the Marriott and the Dead Sea!  We also loved the food which was very "greek" - more hummus, olives, goat cheese, cherry tomatoes, and olive oil on everything - yumm!  I think at one point I said "I want to be Jordanian":)!

The view from our lounge chairs - this is the life!

Drinks at the "lowest place on Earth"!

Now that's low!

Our last night in paradise - drinks, dinner, the sunset and 31(our new favorite card game)!  Well, my new favorite game since I was the winner!  And I WANT my francs people!:)

Around 2 pm on Wednesday April 5th, a driver came to pick us up and take us to Amman to tour the city and then catch our 3 am flight home!  We hadn't planned to tour Amman, but had heard there was some pretty cool architecture and ruins left from the Romans, so the boys looked up some stuff to do and booked it.  We love our men:)! 

First stop - we saw where Jesus was baptised - well actually just the parking lot.:)  I wanted to say thanks to our driver who teased us with the parking lot saying sorry you didn't pay to go on this part of the tour - nice!  Then he pointed out Mount Nebo - the place where Moses viewed the promised land - we didn't book that part either.:(  But in our defense we only had a few hours and we didn't know how far away these sites were (apparently not that far) - I guess we'll just have to do that next year when we come back to the Dead Sea! :)

First stop in Amman was the Roman Theater built somewhere around 169 - 177 A.D. (but I read several conflicting dates - some a bit earlier some a bit later).  With my minimal knowledge of Middle Eastern history (well history in general for that matter), I was amazed to see all the Roman ruins, but apparently the Romans ruled this area from around 30 B.C. to 614 A.D. and designed it to look like other Roman cities with columns, amphitheaters, roman bath houses, and streets - much of which you can still see the ruins of today. 

The Roman Theater

I found this statement about Amman " Amman is arguably one of the first human settlements in history.  Thus, to visit Amman is to learn about the origin of human society."  Very interesting statement that was backed up when we visited the First National Archaeological Museum at the Citadel in Amman, because it housed artificats from numerous civilizations dating back over 7000 years ago! Who knew?!

 

The entrance to the Citadel

View of Amman and the Roman Theater from the Citadel

The Dead Sea Scrolls are housed at the First National Archaeological Museum

I can't wait for this vacation to end because I'm sick of taking pictures!:)

Nathan and the Temple of Hercules (which is larger than any temple in Rome itself)

We finished our day with a little shopping at a Bazaar then an amazing Jordanian Dinner that we were all stuffed from and that cost less than $10 total (for all 4 of us)- you know Nathan loved that!:)  Finally on to the airport as our trip was over:( 

Our last meal:(  This was a cheese dessert that I can't for the life of me remember the name of - but it was really good!

No better way to end a vacation than spending the night at the airport!  Gotta protect our souvenirs - especially "the egg" - right Zann?

We had such an amazing time and loved every minute of it!  One of the best trips we have ever been on! 

p.s.  Here is a link to all our Dead Sea and Amman photos.

Petra - The Lost City of Stone

Monday April 5th
Okay, so I have to admit, before we started planning our trip to Egypt in December I had never even heard of Petra.  I have to thank our friend, Diana, for telling us about this "New Seven Wonder of the World" and for making us go!  You may have seen it in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Transformers, or Mortal Combat - no?  Well maybe these pictures will jog your memory - and if you are ever in this neck of the woods - we HIGHLY recommend going to Petra - it was unbelievable what the Nabataeans built all the way back in the 6th century B.C.

But let's back up - I have to mention our second trip across the desert from Sharm to Taba -  Egypt's border with Israel that we had to cross to get to Jordan.  The ride had basically the same scenery as our last car ride, but I did get to learn some Arabic - thanks to our tour guide, Diaa!  I can now write my name - well kinda:)

After arriving at Taba, our original directions were to "walk through Israel to Jordan" where we we would have a car waiting for us.  We were all very confused about this because when you look at a map it seems a lot further than walking distance - which it was.  Thank goodness we received better information from Diaa once we got there - we just needed to walk a short distance then hop in a cab to the Jordan border - much better!  However, we were told it would take about 25 minutes - not so much - but it wasn't that bad either -  it took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to cross Israel and both border controls.

Welcome to Israel

They let us in - Yes!   Now hopefully they will let us out:)
Group shot on the Israel side of the Taba Border which is right on the Red Sea.

Phew - that "walk across the desert" was hard work, but we made it!

Once we started driving in Jordan, I was thrown off by the landscape.  I was expecting the same terrain as Egypt - desert - but it was actually pretty green.  Our driver told us that was because there were natural springs running under the land and that it actually snowed in that part of Jordan sometimes - huh - I never would have guessed that!

View of the Jordanian landscape from the car -okay so it's not rolling green grass and oak trees or anything but more g reen than I thought - way more than Egypt where we saw no green!

It took us about 2 hours to get from the border to Petra where we met our tour guide, Aly.  Aly was THE MAN!  I swear he was the Mayor of Petra because everybody knew him - even the little bedouin children called him by name when we walked past them!  If you use Memphis Tours definitely request Aly!

We started the tour by riding horses to the beginning of the Siq "the shaft" - the narrow passage that leads to Petra.  I thought the Siq was beautiful in and of itself, but Aly kept saying "wait, this is nothing" and boy was he right.  When we reached the end of the Siq the very first thing you see is the Al Khazneh "The Treasury" - unbelievable - carved right into the side of the sandstone cliffs!  I thought I took pretty good pictures, but once I got home I realized they just don't do it justice, so - if you have the chance - GO SEE IT - it's amazing what they accomplished so long ago!:)

Horse ride down to the Siq - ha ha suckers to all the people walking!:)

The beginning of our walk through the Siq

Aly showing us some of the Pagan God carvings by the Nabataeans.

End of the Siq right before it opens up into the City - this was the first glimpse of the awesomeness we were about to see:)!

Al Khazneh "The Treasury" - if you look closely you can see the two "dots" on both sides of the structure- those are the ends of the ladder that they used to build it - we were told they started at the top and worked their way down - hence all the "dots" - amazing!

The caves where were the people lived - a lot of the time amongst the dead - whom they cremated and then kept in the middle of their "house"

The Urn Tomb is behind us to the right - the first of the Royal Tombs

After Petra, we headed about 3 hours north to the Dead Sea for a couple relaxing days at the Marriott - now that's the kind of hotel I'm talking about!

p.s. - Here's a link to the rest of our pictures of Petra if you want to see them.

Highlights from our trip to B.F.E.

Nathan and I just got back from an amazing 8 day trip to Egypt and Jordan with Sara & Josh Teitelman and Sarah & Zann Hawkins.  (We were there from March 31st to April 8th.)  I won't be able to write a detailed blog about all our adventures for a while (lots of "real" work to do), so I thought I would hit the highlights!

1.  We made the most out of our 5 hour layover in Istanbul, Turkey - that's Istanbul not Constantinople:)
The day before we left Zann asked the question, "We have a 5 hour layover in Istanbul - what do we do?", on Trip Advisor and everyone suggested heading down to the Sultanahmet District - so that's what we did!   In the short period of time we actually had (about 1 hour once we got down there) we were able to see The Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia (also a mosque).  Istanbul looked like a really cool city and I would love to head back there! 

Self Portrait in front of the Hagia Sofia - check

Self Portrait in front of The Blue Mosque - check!  Now back to the airport!

2.  We walked like an Egyptian!

3.  I "belly danced" on a Nile River Cruise while 200 Asians took my photo.  (Just click on the picture to view the video).  p.s. - you can definitely make fun of my dancing - I TOTALLY deserve that :) but you can NOT make fun of my old lady shoes - first of all I AM getting old and my feet hurt okaaaaaaaaaay and second I was such a nice person and let Sara T borrow my other sandals because her luggage was lost in transit and all she had was her tennis shoes:)! (Here is the link to YouTube if you can't view it)

I had obviously been overserved - okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

4.  Nathan, Josh and I got to scuba dive the #5 dive site in the world based on this website (although the Top 10 dive sites vary by who you are asking, most dive sites do rank the Red Sea in the Top 10) - Shark and Yoland Reef in the Red Sea!

5.  We rode Camels!  Nathan had our camera during the ride and these are his two *best* shots.  Needless to say he didn't have our camera for the rest of the trip!:)

A "camel thong"...

and a "camel toe"!  Thanks Nathan:)

6.  After living above a Hookah Bar for the last year, we finally got to try it in the middle of the desert!  Special Note to our Parents: Don't worry we can all still run for office - no one inhaled:)  No - it's just  flavored tobacco (ours was apple) that you smoke from the hookah - I swear!

7.  Josh and I got to "Comb the Desert".  (So this isn't funny if you haven't seen Spaceballs the Movie - if not you can watch the clip here.  We both grew up on this movie and I think I must have seen it 100 times when I was a kid - classic for sure!)

"We ain't found shit" (watch the movie)

8.  Nathan backpacked through Israel. We found out quickly when planning a trip to Egypt and Jordan that you need to hire a driver whenever you want to go anywhere.  We used Memphis Tours (they were great - we definitely recommend them) to coordinate this for us.  Before we left, we received an email from our contact about our transfer from Egypt to Jordan - it said - and I quote:

"Our representative will transfer you to Taba Border (of Egypt) and then you walk via Israel to Jordan.  Our representative will then meet you in Jordan"

The Egyptians nor the Jordanians can cross into Israel (without a hard to get Visas) so we had to go it alone.   We thought this was pretty funny (my Mom didn't :) ) because we had no idea how long we would be "walking through Israel" for:)!  The whole Israel process took about 1 hour and 45 minutes but actually went pretty smoothly!

Almost to Jordan!

9.  We saw Petra - one of the New Wonders of the World!  It is crazy to think that Petra was established sometime around the 6th Century B.C. - truly amazing - you have to go to fully appreciate what these people built!

10.  We covered ourselves in Dead Sea Mud and then floated in the Dead Sea!  We now all have amazingly smooth skin - we're going to have to go back for sure!

I'm normally against bathing suit photos, but I'm covered in mud so I guess it's okay!

It was hard to choose just 10 things because the trip was so amazing!  One of the best trips we have ever been on for sure!  We loved the sites, the local people, the food, and our group!!!

Ain't that right uh-huh?  Uh-huh!!!:)