The 4:30 wake-up call was not very well received by two really tired travelers. We manage to get downstairs in time for breakfast. Well.. for coffee... lots of coffee.
We arrive at the airport without incident... we go through the checkpoints.. and gets lots of stamps on our passport, tickets, boarding passes etc. They don't seem keen on computers here...but they are whizzes with these ink stamps! We drag our bodies onto the airline and doze off immediately for a 90-minute nap... and the plane magically lands in Amman. We are all rather airport shy now.. and all greatly relieved the flight went so smoothly.
Here is the Jordanian flag and the usual click will play for the national anthem. Go ahead.. You know you want to do this... Click it.. a little cultural awareness won't hurt you!
We are met at the airport by the tour representative and whisked through passport checks, luggage collection, and visa procedures just as quick and easy as can be... things are looking good. We meet our Jordanian guide at the bus.... his name is Basem, which in Arabic means "smile". Another good omen.
During the drive from the airport to our hotel, our guide told us more about Jordan than we learned about Egypt in the two weeks we spent with Morad, our Eyptian guide. Things are REALLY looking up.
Here we notice that the men do not wear turbans but wear the keffehyeh and agal... the little table cloth thing with the black wool ring holding it on their heads.. In Jordan keffehyehs are red and white... in Palestine and Syria they are black and white. Anyway the guys look very sheik-like and exotic. Many men and women, however, wear modern western dress... much more than in Egypt.
Cuz: Also, the men don't look as "oily" as they do in Egypt.... plus they have the most gorgeous eyes I ever saw...
The Safir hotel is really lovely, and located next to the Prime Minister's office. The hotel isn't huge, but it has an atrium with glass elevators. We surely are finding the accomodations in the middle east very fine indeed. Can you believe that we can hardly wait to ride up and down in the glass elevators?
In the afternoon we go for a city tour. Our first stop was an art gallery, Darat el Funun (House of Art) displaying the work of Jordanian artists. Interesting, colorful.. but too modernistic for us. We drove through the city and it was amazing the see the souks...or shops. We could spend hours here, but unfortunately, the bus won't slow down so we can jump out.
We do stop at a sweet shop... that sells tea and sweet pastries. It is where the local people congregate and so we all got to look at the Jordanians... and they looked at us. I couldn't help but wonder what they thought. It was a wonderful stop and the pastries were sinful. I am grateful I don't have one of these shops in my neighborhood.
The next stop was The Queen Noor Foundation. You probably remember that Queen Noor is the widow of the late King Hussein. She began the foundation to train Bedouin women in ethnic crafts and to provide an outlet for the sale of the items the women make. The things for sale here were wonderful... from embroidered clothing and woven rugs, to ceramics and silver work...incredibly lovely. So many kinds of artistic work on display and all for sale. Oh, did I mention that it was very expensive?
We returned to our hotel in the late afternoon after a wonderful day. We love Jordan already... it is very clean and an economically stable country...and so different in so many ways from Egypt. It is amazing how different the two countries are.
Other than dinner tonight and a most welcome bedtime... we have only one more thing on our list of things to do today. Bassem showed us where to find a super market.. and you know this is one of our favorite adventures. So we walk to the market to take a look at the kinds of food and products the people here buy... it is kinda like peeking into their kitchens and their lives a bit.
The next morning it was luxurious to lay in bed until 6:30! Our sheets seemed to be only half-sheets or something.. they didn't fit the beds and during the night we each worked ourselves into a tangle of bedclothes. At breakfast we found that everyone woke up tied into knots with their bedding... Hahaha.. I get it...this has been a massive practical joke played on the Americans by the housekeeping staff; but some of us were more amused than others.
Off to see the King Abdullah Mosque... very fine, although fairly modern. The mosque is very beautiful and we were all quite impressed. We learned that the word "Islam" means peace. Keep that in mind when you watch the evening news.
We saw many people on street corners who had been to Hajj. They were selling things from trucks. Basem said they were from the Russian states, making money for gas to get home.
Then continuing our tour to The Citadel. We saw the ruins that contained evidence of several periods of Jordanian history... Byzantine, Roman, Umallayd. Many of the old buildings have mosaic floors.. which have been covered with plastic and sand to preserve to future excavation.
We visited a small museum here.. it was incredible. They had several portions of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the jars in which they were found. This was amazing. The ones we saw were made of copper, which I found surprising. We saw much statuary and pottery... some so thin that it is called "egg shell " pottery. Our guide promises us that there are thousands of pieces of it are laying on the ground in Petra. Ooh.... we will look for it! And yes.. pick it up and bring it home!
We also see the first known statues of humans from the Neolithic period... they looked a lot like modern art.. like Picassos, in fact! I don't know any more if artistic creativity is moving forward or backward. This is very strange indeed.
Cuz: One of the interesting items here besides the artifacts was what we named "jar o' kid". When a young child died they were interred in a pottery jar and buried under the family's living room. That way the child stayed within the family circle. A very interesting and touching custom...
After the jewel of a museum, we walk to the Temple of Hercules, a lovely temple with several ornate pillars standing. Here we can overlook the old part of the city of Amman which used to be called Philadelphia. Shakespeare was right.. there really isn't anything new under the sun... is there?
Here in at the Citadel, there is an old Muslim cemetary... it is suspected that there is a large portion of the temple under the cemetary... but it will not be excavated until no one can remember who is buried there.
Our tour continues into the "high rent" district. Million dollar homes and the American Embassy. We should always know where our embassy is.. so we can stay away in time of unrest! Our guide tells us that it is illegal to photograph the embassy, or the guide could lose his license. Very unfriendly, that American ambassador.
Because of the stable economy here in Jordan, the menial laborers come from Egypt... and the house maids come from Sri Lanka or the Phillipines.
Our city tour complete.. we head for the hills.. and lovely rolling hills they are too. We are on our way to see the Dead Sea. When we arrive, most of our group changes into swimsuits for a float. With the hign mineral content.. a person is too buoyant to swim.. it is impossible.
Cuz and Gypsy just decide to wade in the sea. The water is heavy and oily feeling. And just a couple feet from the edge of the water, you start sinking into deep, black, thick, silty ooze. This is the famous black mud of the Dead Sea. We see folks walking around covered in the mud.. drying off. It is a lot like the Costa Rica mudbath.. but this is warm bottom sludge instead of hot volcanic mud. However, the incredibly high mineral content of the water and the mud cause it to be highly regarded as a beauty and/or medical treatment. Basem tells us that many people are sent by their doctors from Germany to bathe in the waters and the mud and it is the only known cure for psoriasis. Huh... imagine that
We rinsed off our feet and legs when the bathers were finished bobbing around. I had gotten the edge of my skirt wet and it dried like cement.. only it looked like wet glue. And my hem was hard as a rock and hurt my legs. After we rinsed off our feet we still felt oily from the water (although the water really was not oily.. just felt like it)... but at least we didn't look so sandy.
After a lovely buffet lunch at the Dead Sea Spa, we stopped at an outlet that sold Dead Sea products. I bought some black soap made with the sea mud. I thought it was a hoot. But when I got home and tried it... yes, it makes nasty, gray, muddy looking lather... I liked it so much that I went on line and bought some more over the internet. I swear it leaves my face cleaner than anything I have ever tried... it is all that mineral, sludge... and I don't have to worry a bit about psoriasis.
The man on the camel will lead you through Jordan...
