The Dead Sea in Aqaba

To the next city of Aqaba for a little pause in a nice hotel on the Dead Sea before flying out to Cairo, Egypt on the 13th. Loving R&R on a lounge chair on the beach and then a wonderful Jacuzzi and steam sauna. Adding to the day we had an abundant dinner of Hamur (grouper) fish (with very little vegetables) at a nice restaurant on the sea; however, it was more like a smoking lounge with everyone lighting up with Shisha or cigarettes. You could hear the constant gurgling of the Shisha water pipes from all sides. They love to smoke in Jordan!

Before heading to Cairo we had to take a PCR COVID test within 72 hours of the flight. We were able to arrange this right at our hotel, which was fantastic. We received results the same day via Whatsapp. Both negative thankfully. Inshallah.

Impressions of Jordan….

-people very friendly always saying “welcome”

-Its very easy to navigate through the country and its historic and famous sites

-Good food, especially the kabobs and hummus

-The nation is Muslim so every city had calls to prayer (Adhan) from a mosque minaret loud speaker several times a day.

-Jordanian’s love to smoke

-Hummus everywhere

Now off to Cairo!

The Dead Sea

smoking culture and COVID test

Where are the veggies

Mars, desert and a bubble

We headed to Wadi Rum by driver which was about an hour south of Petra – The Desert of Mountains. This is where many films were filmed to include The Martians, Lawrence of Arabia and Dune (the newest) to name a few. Paul and I hit the sand first thing with a jeep tour to the desert highlights. This desert is a landscape of beautiful red sand surrounded by majestic sandstone and granite mountains of various shapes and sizes. We rode on the back of a jeep on a beautiful day with temperatures in the 70’s, and bounced around like kids in an inflatable bounce house laughing the whole time. I think my internal organs are now located in different parts of my body. We stopped several times to see the vistas, and climb rocks and dunes, each time we were offered tea and food by the Bedouins in their goat hair tents. We had tea at one of the stops and enjoyed the company of tourists from Romania. They were hoot and slipped us some whisky which made the bouncy ride of the jeep more tolerable and even more humorous.

A few times I sat on the rocks or in the sand to take in the atmosphere while Paul climbed up the rocks like a billy goat. I couldn’t believe how silent and still it was here. You hear nothing here except an occasional guide, tourist, camel or a pesky fly that wouldn’t leave me alone.

Besides the expansive desert and rocky mountains, one of the really cool things here were the many ancient rock drawings, Nabatean inscriptions.

We went here for just one night and I splurged on a bubble room. When I get to my bubble I was surprised to see it was air pressured with a double door air lock and made out of plastic. I felt like I was in an inflatable Martian lawn decoration. If I didn’t open the doors one at a time it could deflate into a melted marshmallow. It felt like I was in a space camp or exploration site, even worse, we joked about it being a possible COVID quarantine bubble. Naturally Paul got a big kick out of the whole thing, while he stayed in his spacious tent. At night it was spectacular. I woke up several times to make sure I’d appreciate the stars above me. I was not disappointed. I also went out on my bubble deck at about 5am to take photos and was treated with a large and close shooting star.

At night we were treated to a Bedouin disco with fire, tea, Shisha (Hookah) and a soothing setting by the granite mountain. We smoked Shisha which tasted like vanilla, but I wouldn’t know for sure because I didn’t inhale. Of course, always the contrarian, Paul thought it tasted like anise. It was cool but after a few times at it, we lost interest. Then our Bedouin tea tender (no alcohol here – say what?) got us all dancing. I was admiring his eye makeup and before you know it, he is putting eye liner on me. LOL.

We must be in the desert

The Bubble

Night life in the Desert

The sands of time.......These are the Days of Our Lives

"Laurie of Arabia" in Petra

For the longest time I have wanted to see Petra – one of the seven Wonders of the World. I finally made it there and was not disappointed. First of all, the ancient city of Petra is massive! The city seems to go on for miles with hundreds of ruins to include a temple, a theater, tombs, and cave houses. It’s hard to believe the sandstone carvings on the facades of the many ruins are in such good condition today

Here is a little background:

-More than a 1000 years old

-Inside the Shara Mountains

-Capital of the Nabataean Empire 1st century BC

-Rich from trade of spices frankincense and myrrh

-The Treasury façade was carved into the rock from the top down

-Intricate facades sculptured into the sandstone cliffs

-The Romans came to Petra and took over in 63BC

-A large earthquake and changes in the trade route wiped out the city in the 4th century AD

- In 1812 a Swiss explorer Johannes Burckhardt was responsible for rediscovering Petra

The weather was wonderful with temps in the 60’s but it was very windy and many times I had to turn with my back to the wind as sand, dust and dirt flew by like a hurricane. My new scarf came in handy.

I walked down the same narrow gorge to the dramatic entry way of Al Khazna (The Treasury) as last night (about ¾ mile) but now I could see how majestic and intricate the rocky walls really were. Colors of rose (Petra is known as the Rose City), terra cotta, tan, black and white seemed to ebb and flow on each side as you walked like a lava lamp. Many times you could see carved out channels along each side of the trail which used to carry water to the various houses and temples. I loved to stop and take photos along the way, many times I was by myself as there were few tourists and Paul took a more aggressive hike off the main path. Other visitors would offer to take my photo or me taking a few for them. Naturally I had fun with different angles and techniques. As I walked the path, I tried to imagine the caravans of camels that used to transport goods such as frankincense and myrrh for trade to the city. Gosh, that must have been a site, especially given the trail was at times only 20 feet across.

Meeting up later, Paul and I spent hours in the complex and of course, couldn’t see it all. At a certain point my body couldn’t take anymore so I tried to find a different way out that would not involve a long walk uphill like the night before, however, there is only one way out for tourists, the entrance we came in. There were camels, donkeys, donkey with carriages, etc. One of the donkey guides tells me he can take me out the back way in only 25 minutes. Since the donkey rides looked the smoothest, I decided to take that route. Little did I know I would be riding up steep paved roads to a small Bedouin village. Let me just say, it wasn’t too comfortable and the guide had to walk with me the whole way because that donkey made me very nervous.

Supposedly there were normally 20,000 tourists a day at Petra and now only about 1,000. Good for us but very bad for the locals.

It was a day filled with wonder and delight, and now a lifetime dream has been fulfilled.

The narrow gorge with long exposure of a man walking through in blue

Its hard to narrow down the best photos