...in Jordan
Months ago I decided we had been in the Middle East too long, not to have done any exploring in the surrounding areas. So I googled Fly Dubai (the equivalent of Ryan Air / Easy Jet / One Time aka the low cost airline) to see where it flew and what deals we could get. No major deals were on unfortunately, but having always been curious about trying out the dead sea, I decided to see if any of the destinations headed to Jordan. Amman, as the capital, was on the list, which we thought would be a good place for our first Middle Eastern adventure (out of Dubai).
I booked the tickets, looked up tours and booked hotels. After much um-ing and ah-ing I decided against booking a tour and that we should do our own thing instead, so hired a car... then promptly forgot all about the trip, since it was still a good few weeks away.
When the time for the long weekend away drew nearer, it was only then that I realised that I hadn't checked when my next assignment was due before booking...and as it so happened I had booked this long weekend away, the weekend before my end of year research project for this course was due! OOPS! So not quite the best of timing to be going away, as in the all the years I have been studying so far, assignments have always been left till the last minute, so the final year end project was no exception, I'm afraid to say.
Nevertheless I made a minor start to the project before our weekend away and for the first holiday in a long time, I even left the books behind (again learning from past experience, that I very seldom get to them on holiday, and land up just lugging the heavy text books around unnecessarily, and since we had planned to only take hand luggage with an extravagant allowance of 7kgs each, I couldn't really spare the excess wait anyway).
So we were off! We arrived in Amman quite late on the Thursday evening. The car rental company I had booked through, for some reason was not at the airport, so we had to wait to be picked up and taken to their offices. Very trustingly, we got in the car with 2 Jordanian guys, not having seen any ID or having a clue where we were going or even which direction we should be going in and it was dark...so I was quite relieved when about 8 minutes later we did indeed arrive at what looked to be a car hire office.
We were given our dodgy looking car, which was on empty and set off on our way in search of a petrol station. Once we got more into town, bearing in mind it was late and dark, and we were putting all our trust in our TomTom, we became apart of the craziness that seems to be a Middle Eastern trait...really bad driving...and the ride was interesting to say the least! We eventually arrived out our hotel, which looked in complete darkness, which was a little concerning, as I hadn't thought to inform them that we would be arriving late. But thankfully when we tried the door it was open and someone was at reception.
We headed to the bar for a few drinks before heading to bed, only to be rudely awoken early the next morning (probably around 7am...not quite the time you want to get up on your first day of holiday) to some very loud and annoying banging. The hotel was clearly undergoing some renovations that the front desk had not thought necessary to inform us about, or for them to be considerate enough to start working 'later' on a weekend day. Eventually when we could take the banging no longer, we got up and headed to breakfast, which unfortunately never quite made up for the banging. From there we packed up our stuff (since we were only staying one night) to go in search of the touristy things (which the reception desk could not quite even help us with where to go etc etc). Tom Tom came in handy as it brought up the Citadel which was one of the places I had on my list of things to do and whilst we were there we spotted the Roman Amphitheatre, another on the list to do.
The drive to the Citadel was interesting, as it was now daylight and we could see a little more of the city than the night before. Amman you could say (well in my opinion) is a combination of Africa with Italy...and clearly a lot of history to be told.
After our sightseeing and walking, we headed to Rainbow Street, which is a famous street in Amman that has been rejuvenated with cafes and restaurants, where we stopped for a drink and some food before heading off to our next destination. Petra....
Petra, the ancient Nabataen Capital is about a 3 hour drive away from Amman, spanning through the dessert on a long highway. Mark and I kept ourselves entertained with car games (yes...good old twenty questions came into play, along with some other silly games). We eventually arrived in Petra and found our way to our hotel, Taybet Zaman, which was very quaint and unique in idyllic setting. After settling in, we headed to the pool to cool off and plot our next move. We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon chilling at the pool, and planned on going into Petra early the next morning.
By 7.30 the next morning (because as with everywhere in the Middle East summer is most definitely here and the heat is out in full force early in the day) we had had breakfast and were at the Petra Gate. We were heading to the Siq, to walk through the famous long, narrow fissure between two overhanging cliffs, before getting to the beautiful Red Rose City which had been carved into the stone. It was quite some way, so we were given options, we could either go by horse, donkey or a horse and cart....all of which were a bit smelly...so we decided to walk it.
From Petra we headed off to our next destination...the long awaited Dead Sea, which was another 3 or so hours drive away. Before leaving the hotel, we spoke to a friendly porter who asked us if we were going to take the scenic Kings Highway or the highway to get to the Dead Sea and going through the map with him, we decided we would take the scenic route. So we set off, following our trusty TomTom again. As soon as we were out of Petra,we seemed to turn off onto a very narrow (yet 2 way) road. All was fine, until about 45 minutes later we were still on this tiny little road, heading over and through the mountainous dessert, with very little else around us and monitoring the kilometres on the Tom Tom we realised even although we had been driving for some time we hadn't actually gone very far. A little concerned (but relieved I had needed to make a toilet break before we had actually arrived into Petra the day before, and landed up putting in petrol at the same time... and I just need to add that the toilets were not so pleasant and that one in particular was a rather dirty, stinky, hole in the ground!) But nevertheless we were thankful for it now...since there was absolutely nothing around, and most certainly no petrol stations, which yes, also meant no toilets to stop at. Nevertheless we eventually seemed to catch up with a car in front of us...a 4x4 which was going slowly on the windy, bumpy road. I also need to point out here that we were NOT in a 4x4, and rather a dodgy rental car, which over the bumps and lumps sounded like it could fall apart at any minute. But relieved to have some people in front of us, we carried on going....and going...and going...when the tar road ended and we ended up on a gravel road for some time, before it turned into a tar road again (which was repeated a couple of times). I of course also had to make a toilet stop somewhere en route in this nothingness, which also meant, I guess, that it was unlikely I was going to be seen, since there was absolutely nothing and noone around.
We caught up to the 4x4 in front of us again, which we were happy about and even passed another car who was heading in the opposite direction to us. And that was about it for the next 2 and a bit hours...no other people or cars in sight! Until we eventually came to cross road that joined another highway. We came up alongside some other cars, which appeared out of no where, and all of which turned right (including our trusty 4x4)...yet our TomTom was telling us to turn left. Which we did and once again we were the only ones on the road, until we came across another cross road, which at long last seemed to join up with a busier road, and a few more things to see than just mountains/dessert.
Then there it was... the sea and the start of some civilisation again. We are still not sure which road we took, as according to the map there should have been a fair few things to stop at or at least pass along the way, on the Kings Highway...
We eventually found our way to the Marriott Hotel, which was absolutely lovely. Safe and sound we headed straight to the pool, where we yet again spent the rest of the day relaxing, with the beautiful backdrop of the Dead Sea behind us.
We spent the rest of our time chilling, swimming and eating, before it was time to head back to the airport (thankfully only an hours drive away this time) for our flight home. It was a lovely long weekend away, which I'm so glad we got to do, even if it was just before my end of year project was due. We arrived back into Dubai at 2am the next morning, which gave us a couple of hours for some sleep, before it was time for me to head into work, and for Mark to head back to the airport for his next and FINAL flight to Joburg for work. Woohoo!!
Next up...we need to find a new place to stay, buy cars, ship our stuff across etc etc, since we finally know where we stand a little more (only 1.5 years later)! Mark has a new job, starting 24 June...so it's official we are staying in Dubai for a little longer! But not before we head off on another holiday...this time to London for a quick catch up visit with friends and family...before heading on to another long awaited city...NEW YORK!
