Category: Middle East 2017

 

Friday 6 October

This morning we depart Amman and head south.  We pass lots of street stalls selling brightly coloured pomegranates, eggplants and tomatoes.  We have no photos of these because it seems like an intrusion, but the colours and displays are wonderful.  Enhanced by the many olive and date trees bearing fruit.

We travel down the 5000 year old Kings Highway, which is covered in what appears to be 5000 years of litter.   Our guide blames the wind.  We keep uncharacteristicaly quiet but it is evident to us that this litter is no breeze.

Amongst this barren landscape we are delighted to see the odd farm

We visit the Greek Orthodox St George’s Church which houses the oldest map of Palestine in existence – all in mosaic and done in 560AD.  I also learned that St George was a Greek – who knew?

The Dead Sea is depicted top right with a turtle in it (actually, Cherrie tells me it is people in a boat) and Jerusalem lower right in what appears to be a walled city.

From there we proceed to Mt Nebo.  Now, the Bible has never been a page turner for me and I only remember what was drummed into me in scripture lessons at school, but so much of what we are about to see almost moves me because it is so familiar.  Mt Nebo is where it is said Moses saw the Promised Land.  Where is it?

Oh, cripes there it is

I am grateful that this land was not promised to me.   If you look carefully you can see the River Jordan, in which it is said Christ was baptised.  From here, as the Christian crow flies, Jericho is 27kms, Jerusalem 46kms and Bethlehem 50kms.  We’re right amongst it folks.  Having seen the promised land, it is said Moses died. Frankly I’m not surprised. It is said he was 120 years old!  No one knows where he is buried but there is a wonderful Church on Mt Nebo which was built in 350AD in honour of Moses.  Over the years most of the church was destroyed but the wonderful mosaics have been preserved and it is now a modern chapel and a Franciscan community.  Pope John Paul II visited in 2000 so it got a good makeover for that.  It has been beautifully done.

We see what it called a rolling stone (with apologies to Mick) which is used to seal up tombs.  And, it is said, was moved from Christ’s tomb

We have an hour for lunch each day, which is hardly enough time to finish the feast before us.  Always with a delicious lemon mint drink, always with what are referred to as salads which consist of hommus, baba ganouche (unlike the one we enjoy in Australia – this with tomato, cucumber, cardamom etc as well as the eggplant), other dips, fatouche (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, toasted pita bread croutons), falafel and lots more.  Then there’s the main course, which may be lamb, rice and yoghurt or chicken and rice etc.  Far too much food goes to waste.  And waist.

We were to visit a crusader castle after lunch today but our guide informed us yesterday that there is simply not enough hours in the day to fit it in.  Having led a few crusades in our time, we are not concerned. We do however drive past Shobak Castle en route to Petra

We are now headed to Petra, which is probably our primary reason for being in Jordan.  We pass through countryside which is much the same everywhere

 

And the greening of Jordan program did not impress Cherrie

We arrive in Petra at 5pm and we commence a cooking class at Petra Kitchen an hour later.  We join five others (Harvey and Laurie from California, Yuan and Beau from Beijing and Corinne from Amsterdam) and learn to cook lentil soup, baba ganuj (Jordan way), a spicy tomato dish called galayat Bandaranaike, tahini salad, cucumber and tomato salad, rice with chicken and my personal favourite Bedouin pizza.  Something to do with all that beef mince left over from Tony.  It is a fun experience but I am so exhuausted from this holiday lark that I barely stay awake.  It’s a late night for us, nearly 10pm when we get to bed!!

Tomorrow, the lost city of Petra

Wednesday 4 October
After a 3 hour flight from Dubai to Amman with Emirates we are singing the praises of Qantas.  Honestly, the service on both is chalk and cheese.  And we prefer cheese.

We were met at Amman airport and transferred to our luxurious hotel.  We are staying at the Four Seasons and it’s probably a good idea to stay in luxury in a city such as this.  The airport is quite a long way out of town, 30kms, and the drive made me feel like a foreign correspondent.  Except for the journalistic skills.  We are clearly in a different culture and very different landscape.  There is nothing western about that drive at all.  It looks like the television images we see of the Gaza Strip.  Desolate, sandy, barren hills, some with olive groves, some with camels (farmed for their milk) but most with nothing.  Then there are the ones with houses, all the same.  Square, just off white, with square windows cut in.  The scene reminded me of a design presentation at day one of rehearsal, with a white cardboard set model.  Little boxes on the hillside.

As we neared the city the density of the buildings obviously increased and from our hotel window we see just buildings.

 

Entry to the hotel included a full security check.  Mirrors under the car, open the boot to check for unsavoury things or people and then a friendly wave through.  All luggage and people scanned and xrayed on entry to the foyer.  But then we were met by a surfeit of friendly, welcoming and ever so slightly intrusive (but very well intentioned) staff wishing us a happy stay and ensuring us of their undying attention.  We may test that yet…..

We are exhausted but its only 6pm and so we go down to the 151 bar on the ground floor for a drink and snack (at eye watering prices!).  Lots of the patrons were smoking hookahs, the vessels with hose pipes, lots of smoke and flavoured tobacco.

Cherrie complained of passive hooking and so we retired to the room.

Thursday 5 October
This morning we meet our tour guide (Murad) and driver (Raed) for the next five days.  It takes us all of today to learn the pronunciation of their names.  How handy it would be for the travel agency to advise us the day prior as to the phonetic pronunciation of those we will spend much time with.  It would save embarrassment  for both parties.

We set off for a full day tour of Jordan’s capital, Amman.  It is a modern, bustling city full of cars with apparently non functioning indicators.  Or drivers who have not yet discovered what that little stick to the side of the steering wheel is for.  We visit the Citadel which sits on the highest of the 7 hills in Amman (actually it used to be 7 hills but the city has expanded to such an extent that there are now more than 20!).  The Citadel is a historic site dating back to the Bronze Age.  There we see the Temple of Hercules (built by the Romans)

The palace, built in 720AD stands against the modern skyline

The Archeological Museum is a simple affair but its here that we saw the oldest figure made by man in 8000BC

And even Tony Abbott is represented (no doubt because of his ancient views on most things)

From there we moved to the Amphitheatre, built by the Romans in the 2nd Century and which has perfect acoustics.  A small house though, resembling many of those of Christine Dunstan Productions in the past

We also visit a private art gallery of Khalid Shoman, whose family founded the Arab Bank.  It’s set in a wonderful house and is an eclectic and interesting collection

After lunch, during which our tour guide indulges in a hookah

we head north, within 20 kms of the Syrian border (yikes) to the ancient city of Jarash.  We take the road to Damascus, but you will no doubt be disappointed to learn that I remain the same troublesome woman I always was.  No conversion for me.

Jarash is a walled Greco-Roman settlement, again dating back to the Bronze Age.  It’s a large site with lots of archeological works still happening.  It has, like so many sites in Jordan, been severely affected by earthquakes over past centuries and so lots of columns etc are no longer standing.  However Hadrian’s Arch is there still, dating back to 200AD and the huge colonnade around the oval shaped forum.

Back to the hotel at the end of a long day, we eat early and simply and retire to prepare for tomorrow when we head to Petra.

So, the adventure has begun.  We are travelling with a mini iPad this time (now that I’m retired), so a blog is even more challenging, for those of you who read it as well as those of us who aspire to write it. This is our travel diary, primarily as our  holiday record, so if you don’t enjoy it please log off now!  Or anytime the boredom sets in.  So, here we go…..On Tuesday afternoon we depart from Sydney domestic terminal, where we bump into my old (and I mean that in every sense of the word) friend Michael Lynch, providing an amusing diversion for us.  It’s a convoluted itinerary from Sydney to Dubai, courtesy of Qantas frequent flyer points.  Serves us right for being cheapskates I guess.  Sydney-Adelaide-Melbourne-Dubai, with a convenient 3 hour stop over in both Adelaide and Melbourne.  By the time we reach Tullamarine we are somewhat over flying and consider a five week holiday in the bleak city instead.  But, hey, the bright lights of the Middle East are calling.  When we take off at midnight we have already been on the move for 18 hours, having woken for an early airport run.  We have been looking after Bartie Arnott-Smith for the past 6 weeks while his mother Susie was in the UK. It was wonderful to have a dog around Quamby again and we loved every minute of it.  Coincidentally Susie arrived back in Sydney the day we depart so we did a sunrise handover of the Bart.

We will miss him but we expect that there will be plenty of distractions coming up.

An uneventful flight to Dubai except for some unexpected and significant turbulence 40 minutes before we touch down.  So dramatic was it that there were some screams from alarmed passengers.  Not us, of course.  But it didn’t last long fortunately and was explained by a Boeing 777 a few miles ahead of us.  We apparently got caught in the wake and a slight alteration to our flight path corrected everything.  A smooth touchdown.  We have 7 hours here before boarding our flight to Amman and so we had the good sense to book a hotel room in the airport.  A cuppa, shower, snooze fixes everything.   So, soon on to Amman and the beginning of our long planned holiday in Jordan and Morocco.