Sometimes tours feel like tours, and sometimes they feel like something really special. Though I've only been on one tour vacation, I've been on dozens and hundreds of Ship Shore Excursions, which are like mini-tours. Sometimes they felt rote, boring and tedious. (For instance: exploring some of the more restricted palaces and cathedrals of St. Petersburg [where you HAVE to stay with your group on penalty of being shot or something equally horrible] or a driving tour of Stockholm...) Other times tours were magical! (Snorkeling with Stingrays in Grand Caymen, Horse riding in the El Yunque rain forest in Puerto Rico, Paris...)
After all of your preparation and careful choosing of a specific tour, specific date and specific tour outfit, the type of tour you end actually up with really depends on sheer, dumb luck.
I'm only mentioning this because, well, my Intrepid tour of Jordan and Egypt started off a bit like a tour tour. (Despite the bus full of seemingly very fun people who had all signed up for the non-tour tour... the cool one where you can take off and do your own thing if you feel like it and it's full of hiking and adventurous, non-bus-sitting, cattle-moving stuff...)
Our very conservative Jordanian guide, Omar, outlined our schedule after we hopped on the bus:
-1.5 hours to Mt. Nebo. A quick stop.
-1 hour to the Dead Sea. A stop, swim & lunch.
-1.5 hours to the Crusader Castle Kerak. A stop.
-4 hours to the village of Wadi Musa.
We hadn't even pulled away from the horrid little hotel/meeting place in Amman and I was bored already. What had I signed up for? (And yes, I had read the trip notes... but still, really?)
Fine.
I settled in and soon enough we were at Mt. Nebo, the biblical site where Moses was shown by God the land his people were promised. And although the top of the mountain is now covered by tourist paths, bathrooms and various buildings built over top of older "holy" buildings. There's a museum too. It's got lots of old stuff.
Where was I going with this? Oh yes, despite all of the new buildings and paths and nice bathrooms and such, it is immediately apparent why God chose Mt. Nebo to show Moses where to take a gander. The view is stunning. The top of the Mt. is about 2500 feet above sea level and looks over the Dead Sea valley and the river Jordan. Gorgeous!
Cattle-call, round-up and roll-call back on our mini bus and we were off like a shot to the Dead Sea. Along the way I noticed row after row after small row of Tomato plants bordering the Dead Sea on small outcropped cliffs. Tomato plants! Being Farmed! Old-style Farmed! Like one-man operations with hoes and shovels and buckets of water (Which, I want to know where exactly it came from! The Dead Sea is SALTY!) and goats! (Okay, the goats really had nothing to do with the tomatoes, but they were there, nonetheless.)
And you know, on the tomato plants grew the ripest, most gorgeous looking tomatoes I've ever seen. It was a shock. The desertous, barren wasteland-looking terrain surely couldn't be so very fertile to yield produce that beautiful. Could it?
Apparently so. And guess what! They were the best tasting tomatoes I've ever eaten. Truly. YUM. Slurp. Tomatoes and cucumbers in the Middle East. Eat them. LOVE them. (My Mom is probably thinking something along the lines of: "This coming from the girl who wouldn't eat vegetables as a child!")
Amman beach camp.
That's where we stopped. I think. It's a day-resort on the Jordanian shores of the Dead sea. In addition to the beach, the facilities included a few fresh water pools.
It was a little piece of luxury during a hard day's sitting in a moving bus, (note the sarcasm) and I loved it! The mob of us changed and high-tailed it for the main attraction. It's a funny thing, bobbing like an apple in water. A bit surreal and very fun. Trying to swim in it was more like ice skating in warm water. You just kind of have to propel yourself in one direction and you'll keep going.
Do you know what a salt bath does to your skin? Well, if you've recently shaved it makes all of your pours feel like a million cuts and scrapes with lemon juice poured over top.
Nice.
And then it makes your pours all squeeze up and get puckery, like someone's face who's just drunk a glass of straight lemon juice (awful lot of theoretical lemons involved in this story, yet no real ones!). And then you emerge from the salt bath with skin that feels so fresh, so rejuvenated that you really wouldn't mind having a dip in the Dead Sea every day of your life because you're convinced that it's the fountain of youth!
Sigh.
After a float, a mineral-packed mud bath and a good rinse, I headed to the comfort of the fresh-water pools to chill and soak up some sun before a giant buffet lunch (full of tomatoes and cucumbers!).
--
Have you ever seen the film "Kingdom of Heaven" ?
(The director's cut, NOT the theatrical release, which was RUBBISH! Director's cut was BRILLIANT!) A battle at Kerak castle is shown in that film. Well, let me tell you that the castle in that film was NOTHING like the actual Kerak castle. The terrain was different, the castle was different. It was all different. I mean, I know it was Hollywood and all, but come on. It was supposed to be historical. Sheesh.
What's left of Kerak castle is a ton of dungeons and dark, small spaces and it made me feel like a kid in a storybook adventure, or maybe even The Legend of Zelda. I wanted to crawl around and explore stuff and get good and lost. Except our guide Omar had eyes like a hawk and seemed to realize that I could be a bit troublesome. So he made sure I stayed with the group. Buzzkill.
We found one chamber that was especially cool after wandering around the dark dungeons for a while. A shaft of light descended from a window in the roof onto a pillar of sorts. My whole group was a bit taken with ambiance of the place. The other American on the tour, Matt, even launched into a Sean Connery/Indiana Jones impersonation, "It's the Map Room, Indy", that had all of us rolling.
Then Omar told us the room was the kitchen.
Well. Right. Of course.
--
Our four hour drive to Wadi Musa passed quite quickly because I spent most f it asleep. Water and sun have always done that to me. Doesn't matter if I fall asleep at the beach all day. Get me out of the sun and I just want to curl up and take a nap. So I had a grand nap and then we were there. Yippee!
You might wonder why on earth I was so very excited to arrive at Wadi Musa. Because I know you've never heard of the place, have you?
If you must know, Wadi Musa is the village that borders Petra. We were to spend the next two nights there. It has the most hotels per square foot of real estate on earth. (There are over 65 hotels in that tiny village! The ENTIRE capitol city of Amman only has 45!)
Petra. Wouldn't you be excited too?
I thought so.
After all of your preparation and careful choosing of a specific tour, specific date and specific tour outfit, the type of tour you end actually up with really depends on sheer, dumb luck.
I'm only mentioning this because, well, my Intrepid tour of Jordan and Egypt started off a bit like a tour tour. (Despite the bus full of seemingly very fun people who had all signed up for the non-tour tour... the cool one where you can take off and do your own thing if you feel like it and it's full of hiking and adventurous, non-bus-sitting, cattle-moving stuff...)
Our very conservative Jordanian guide, Omar, outlined our schedule after we hopped on the bus:
-1.5 hours to Mt. Nebo. A quick stop.
-1 hour to the Dead Sea. A stop, swim & lunch.
-1.5 hours to the Crusader Castle Kerak. A stop.
-4 hours to the village of Wadi Musa.
We hadn't even pulled away from the horrid little hotel/meeting place in Amman and I was bored already. What had I signed up for? (And yes, I had read the trip notes... but still, really?)
Fine.
I settled in and soon enough we were at Mt. Nebo, the biblical site where Moses was shown by God the land his people were promised. And although the top of the mountain is now covered by tourist paths, bathrooms and various buildings built over top of older "holy" buildings. There's a museum too. It's got lots of old stuff.
Where was I going with this? Oh yes, despite all of the new buildings and paths and nice bathrooms and such, it is immediately apparent why God chose Mt. Nebo to show Moses where to take a gander. The view is stunning. The top of the Mt. is about 2500 feet above sea level and looks over the Dead Sea valley and the river Jordan. Gorgeous!
Cattle-call, round-up and roll-call back on our mini bus and we were off like a shot to the Dead Sea. Along the way I noticed row after row after small row of Tomato plants bordering the Dead Sea on small outcropped cliffs. Tomato plants! Being Farmed! Old-style Farmed! Like one-man operations with hoes and shovels and buckets of water (Which, I want to know where exactly it came from! The Dead Sea is SALTY!) and goats! (Okay, the goats really had nothing to do with the tomatoes, but they were there, nonetheless.)
And you know, on the tomato plants grew the ripest, most gorgeous looking tomatoes I've ever seen. It was a shock. The desertous, barren wasteland-looking terrain surely couldn't be so very fertile to yield produce that beautiful. Could it?
Apparently so. And guess what! They were the best tasting tomatoes I've ever eaten. Truly. YUM. Slurp. Tomatoes and cucumbers in the Middle East. Eat them. LOVE them. (My Mom is probably thinking something along the lines of: "This coming from the girl who wouldn't eat vegetables as a child!")
Amman beach camp.
That's where we stopped. I think. It's a day-resort on the Jordanian shores of the Dead sea. In addition to the beach, the facilities included a few fresh water pools.
It was a little piece of luxury during a hard day's sitting in a moving bus, (note the sarcasm) and I loved it! The mob of us changed and high-tailed it for the main attraction. It's a funny thing, bobbing like an apple in water. A bit surreal and very fun. Trying to swim in it was more like ice skating in warm water. You just kind of have to propel yourself in one direction and you'll keep going.
Remaining in that position was harder than it looks!
Do you know what a salt bath does to your skin? Well, if you've recently shaved it makes all of your pours feel like a million cuts and scrapes with lemon juice poured over top.
Nice.
And then it makes your pours all squeeze up and get puckery, like someone's face who's just drunk a glass of straight lemon juice (awful lot of theoretical lemons involved in this story, yet no real ones!). And then you emerge from the salt bath with skin that feels so fresh, so rejuvenated that you really wouldn't mind having a dip in the Dead Sea every day of your life because you're convinced that it's the fountain of youth!
Sigh.
After a float, a mineral-packed mud bath and a good rinse, I headed to the comfort of the fresh-water pools to chill and soak up some sun before a giant buffet lunch (full of tomatoes and cucumbers!).
--
Have you ever seen the film "Kingdom of Heaven" ?
(The director's cut, NOT the theatrical release, which was RUBBISH! Director's cut was BRILLIANT!) A battle at Kerak castle is shown in that film. Well, let me tell you that the castle in that film was NOTHING like the actual Kerak castle. The terrain was different, the castle was different. It was all different. I mean, I know it was Hollywood and all, but come on. It was supposed to be historical. Sheesh.
What's left of Kerak castle is a ton of dungeons and dark, small spaces and it made me feel like a kid in a storybook adventure, or maybe even The Legend of Zelda. I wanted to crawl around and explore stuff and get good and lost. Except our guide Omar had eyes like a hawk and seemed to realize that I could be a bit troublesome. So he made sure I stayed with the group. Buzzkill.
We found one chamber that was especially cool after wandering around the dark dungeons for a while. A shaft of light descended from a window in the roof onto a pillar of sorts. My whole group was a bit taken with ambiance of the place. The other American on the tour, Matt, even launched into a Sean Connery/Indiana Jones impersonation, "It's the Map Room, Indy", that had all of us rolling.
"It's the Map Room, Indy"
Then Omar told us the room was the kitchen.
Well. Right. Of course.
--
Our four hour drive to Wadi Musa passed quite quickly because I spent most f it asleep. Water and sun have always done that to me. Doesn't matter if I fall asleep at the beach all day. Get me out of the sun and I just want to curl up and take a nap. So I had a grand nap and then we were there. Yippee!
You might wonder why on earth I was so very excited to arrive at Wadi Musa. Because I know you've never heard of the place, have you?
The Village of Wadi Musa
If you must know, Wadi Musa is the village that borders Petra. We were to spend the next two nights there. It has the most hotels per square foot of real estate on earth. (There are over 65 hotels in that tiny village! The ENTIRE capitol city of Amman only has 45!)
Petra. Wouldn't you be excited too?
I thought so.
Wow! Really, that is all I can say...wow!
ReplyDeleteThis is fabulous and so are you!!! I love reading about your adventures... keep 'em coming :D
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