Tripping to Jordan
We had a fall break during the last two weeks of Ramadan, so when we were out of school, we decided to visit Jordan. I had Delta Miles so we were able to get a trip to Amman, Jordan by way of Dubai UAE. We flew in about 4:00PM and rented a car and drove to Petra where we stayed for a couple of nights. This was a very impressive place, one of those where the pictures can’t do it justice. It is a place we want to visit again. I was able to get my exercise for the month, part of this site is the “monastery” which is on top of a mountain (a high mountain), 800 steps, mostly straight up. The young man at the restaurant at the bottom offered us a donkey ride to the top. His advice was to ride up and walk down. We walked both ways but I learned my lesson, listen to people that know what they are doing. We rode the donkeys back out to the entrance. The Marriott Petra was a great hotel for us; they had good service, nice people and a clean place to stay.
From here we drove up the King’s Highway, which was built along the old trade routes. This would make the road to Fontana seem straight. This was gorgeous county to drive though on our way to the Dead Sea where we spent another two nights. The Dead Sea was fine but it was only a big body of water with a lot of salt, and a bunch of flies. The first night of our stay was under tight security because the King and Bill Gates were at the Convention Center next door to the Dead Sea Marriott. While staying here, we went to Mount Nebo, where Moses looked across at Israel. We also visited the old churches in the area to see the mosaics, pretty neat work to put all the small natural stones together.
From here we spent the last couple on nights in Amman from where we visited the best Roman ruins beside Pompeii. It is hard to believe what they built 2,000/3,000 years ago. I reckon without TV they had a lot of time on their hands. The people of Jordan were wonderful to us, we never felt threatened or anything but friendliness. Not very many Americans, mostly Europeans, few Asians, the Middle East problems are hurting tourism so the people were happy to see us. At Petra, because we started early, before the tour buses, we were there with maybe 10 to 15 people. The bombing happened about 10 days after we left, but the Amman hotel we stayed in was not one of the ones attacked.
Our last two nights of the trip were spent in Dubai, a big plastic city. Traffic was bad, lot of expats and the main activity was shopping. In my mind, no reason to visit again, I am not impressed with shiny hotels in big cities with no traditions or culture.
