Things we learned:

Currency: Dinar ( 0.7 Dinars=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Aqaba, Wadi Musa, Karak, Amman, Madaba

We obtained a multiple entry visa for Jordan in Cairo, Egypt.  It costs a bit more, but we got it just in case we were turned out of Syria or Israel.

Jordanians love the royal family and you will spot pictures of them everywhere.

Visit Wadi Rum.  We missed this during our time in Jordan and wish we hadn’t.

A visit to Karak should be short and sweet as there are only 2 hotels in the city…one is expensive and the other is a little less expensive.  Although the Karak castle is on top of a hill, the bus from Aqaba will drop you off at the bottom of it.  You will need to find a mini-bus at the intersection to take you up the hill and it should only cost 0.5 dinars.  Make sure to go through the network of tunnels underneath as they make the castle one of the most interesting ones we visited in the Middle East.

Take the time to see Petra as it is well worth it.  Although the ticket price is 26 dinar (2 day pass), they tack on an extra 12 dinar for the complimentary horse ride and tour.  Even though we did not want these services, we were still forced to pay.  We also hear that this price is continuing to go up and may soon be out of reach for budget travelers.  Haggle for your camel ride and souvenirs at the sight and expect to be approached by vendors who are children.

In the Amman section of the Lonely Planet Middle East book, they mention Abdali Station as the place to catch buses to different places, but this is out-of-date.  There are a couple of other bus stations to catch buses.  For example, go to North Station to catch the bus to the King Hussain bridge (Israel/Jordan border) at 7:00 a.m. OR catch a service taxi.  This is the same station to find transportation to the Dead Sea and Madaba.

In Amman, a lot of women do not wear head scarves even if they are Muslim.

It is better to visit the Dead Sea during a warmer time of the year so that you can enjoy swimming without freezing.

The best thing to do in Jordan is to take time to just walk around.   Many of the things that made Jordan special for us were discovered just because we walked around and kept our eyes open

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Lamb and rice dishes
• Experience: Our picnic on top of the cliff overlooking the Treasury in Petra was one of the best moments on our trip.
• Something to remember: Ali, our awesome host in Amman, who spent the time to answer all of our questions!

Ben´s list…

• Food: These pizza type lunch pastries that were stuffed with toppings on the inside of top and bottom crusts.
• Experience: I have to agree with Deenaree on the second day at Petra, when we hiked up for our picnic above the Treasury and also hiked all the way up to the Monastery
• Something to remember: Floating in the Dead Sea of course.  Oh, and not scraping my back on the seabed next time!

We made our way to the Dead Sea on the Jordan side on our third attempt. The first attempt turned out to be a bad idea because Jordan was hit with its coldest temps of the season. Our sandaled, beached-out selves found the sleet and freezing temps a shock to our system as we searched the bus station for a ride to take us to the destination an hour away. The bus station turned out to be the wrong one anyway so we decided to save our trip for another day. Our second attempt found us haggling with a taxi driver at the Israel/Jordan border to see if he could take a detour over to the Dead Sea for a reasonable price on our way back to Amman. Being a border taxi, he was way overpriced so we pushed our excursion to yet another day. Finally, the third attempt came with sunny skies and a pleasant, reasonably priced taxi driver who accompanied us for the day.

As Petra was a dream destination to Ben, the Dead Sea was a dream destination to me. When I was young, I remember seeing a filmstrip about this infamous body of water and thinking how cool it would be to actually swim in it. Of course, I never thought of this destination as attainable because of its location in the “dangerous” Middle East, but here we were.

The Dead Sea got its name due to the fact that its high salt content leaves no oxygen for animals and plants to flourish. Because of the salinity, people who attempt to swim in the sea will float and the “floating” was the part I was really excited to try. In order to access the Dead Sea on the Jordan side, you must go to a hotel and pay a small fee. It was unfortunate that the weather was still cold because a huge swimming pool greeted us as soon as we walked through the hotel to the back. I bypassed this pool to lose my body heat in the sea.

Unlike other seas, this one was extremely calm and few people were on the beach. The sun was out, but cool temperatures guaranteed us a spot on the beach all to ourselves. When I made my way into the water, I had to gingerly walk over hardened salt formations that were rough on the bottoms of my feet and once in the water, white trails of salt were kicked up with each step. The water was cold and slimy on my skin, but the instant disgust I had towards this texture was forgotten as soon as I sat down in the water and started bobbing. It was as if I was sitting on one of those inflatable pool rafts minus the raft.

Ben and I spent several minutes floating on our bellies and our backs while the taxi driver took pictures. When I tried to lay sideways, I was quickly forced onto my stomach or back and had to stop myself from rolling over like a log in a stream. I swam further out to deeper water with ease; worry-free of sharks or scary sea creatures. Eventually, I made my way out of the water to our beach chairs. Ben had gotten out minutes earlier and salt crystals were already forming on his skin. It looked as if someone had used a giant salt shaker over his body.

As a final activity, the taxi driver encouraged me to check out these buckets full of a black, mud-like substance. He said that this mud was good for the skin so I gave it a try. I applied it and waited several minutes for it to dry. Once dried, I was instructed to wash it off in the sea. It came off easily and as the taxi driver had said, it left my skin feeling very soft. I soon found out that this mud could be purchased in fancy packaging at the hotel store, but my backpack (and our wallet) allowed no room for this. Regardless, I was happy to leave feeling extremely pampered and grateful to have the opportunity to fulfill my childhood dream of floating in the Dead Sea.

Petra is not a single structure or location, but rather an ancient city built by the Nabataeans 2,000 years ago.  Somehow, even with the region under Roman control at the time, the Nabataeans managed to maintain autonomy.  The incredible difference between Petra and other ancient ruins is that the Nabataeans did not build structures out of stone blocks and mortar, but carved them out of solid stone cliffs.  This is spectacular enough, not to mention the natural setting of Petra in red sandstone, which is bisected by a nasty ruptured seismic fault, creating sheer cliffs and very interesting rock coloring.

As we first approached the site headed toward the Treasury, the most recognizable of Petra’s structures, it was already living up to its expectations.  The direct access to the site from the visitor’s center is along a long, gently sloping road that passes some unique rock formations and a few minor carved tombs, just to get the blood flowing.  The road ends where the path narrows and continues to Petra through the main fault rupture, where the rock separated thousands of years ago.  What is left is a natural path about 10 to 20 feet wide with wispy vertical cliffs on each side hundreds of feet tall, known as the Siq.  Our breath was already taken away and we had not seen a single structure!  After a mile long walk through the Siq, which took about 45 minutes with all the delays for photo ops, we finally caught our first glimpse of the Treasury.  Partially obscured by the walls of the Siq, the Treasury manages to flirt with your senses until you actually arrive in the clearing and are exposed to all her immense glory and delicate detail.  We spent the rest of our first day at Petra wondering around the flat portion of the site (just around the corner from the Treasury) seeing the less famous, but equally interesting parts, of the site.  We were also preparing ourselves for our second day there, when we decided we would visit the more hard to reach areas.  The second day was quickly to become one of the best days of our trip.

We left for our second day at Petra early in the morning.  We even went to the trouble of packing ourselves a picnic lunch, which we NEVER do, to avoid having to leave, or pay extortionist prices at the site.  After again walking through the Siq and past the Treasury (and marveling some more) to the main area, we climbed up the cliff to a few carved tombs overlooking the valley below.  Once on top, we had read there may be a way to hike further up to the top of the plateau and get a bird’s eye view of the Treasury.  We started trying routes to the top, but were time after time presented with carved staircases that went nowhere.  After an hour of this we gave up, happy with the magnificent views we had of the surrounding ruins and eager to try an alternative route to the plateau.  After descending, we walked around the back of the valley to where there was rumored to be a restored Nabataean staircase to the top, unsigned and off the main path through the site.  We found it.

The hike up the stairs was long, but we were too excited to care and quickly reached a relatively flat plateau.  As we walked slightly downhill on top of the plateau, we wondered if we were in the right place to find the views of the Treasury we hoped for.  As we pondered, suddenly it appeared before us in all its glory, the view finally freed as we passed a large boulder which had been in front of us.  The wall that the Treasury is carved from dwarfs everything surrounding it, including the building itself.  The people below were mere ants and the views better than we could have possibly imagined.  Best of all, only three other hikers had made their way there on this day and they quickly left to head back down.  We chose a flat rock, spread out our food, and had the most atmospheric picnic of our lives.  It was hard to take our eyes off the scenery and we lingered in eating our lunch, hoping the moment would not end.  Once finished, we packed up, took our last look, for another 10 minutes, and went back to reality.

Our day was far from over.  We still had a longer hike up to the silver medal attraction at Petra, the Monastery.  The hike up was brutal on tired legs, but eventually we made it.  It was hard to think of the Monastery as any less impressive than the Treasury. This was especially true after rave reviews convinced us to climb one last hill that provided a scenic overlook of the site.  Standing at the top we had spectacular views of the Monastery on one side and the huge valley on the other.  Again we sat, alone, contemplating and discussing our trip and how we got here.  Even though our journey is far from beginning, or ending, in these moments we feel like our decision to travel has been confirmed.  Our dreams are being fulfilled.