365 Km to the Iraq Border

I am back from my first little adventure away fro Dubai! We went to Jordan for a long weekend, and it is by far the coolest trip I have been on. I hope there are many more amazing trips in store. The best part about this trip was that it was relatively inexpensive, because I am so close. Dubai is in such an awesome location, that a 3 hour plane ride can get you to some crazy amazing venues, and everywhere flys into Dubai, so getting a good flight time for cheap isn't an issue! Yay for adventure time!

We flew into Amman, Jordan's capital city, on Thursday evening and rented a car and piled in. The best move on our part was bringing along a GPS, which was borrowed to us, and we are forever in our friends debt because of this small gesture. Four white chics renting a car driving through the Middle East in the middle of the night. Enough said. We piled in the car and got on the road, which is difficult, because unlike Dubai, they don't bother to put the English translations on their signs. FAIL. But on major signs, they do, so our first inclination that we were not headed south to Petra was the sign reading "Iraq Border, 365 Km." Needless to say, that is still far off, but a U-turn soon followed. And after interpreting the arabic signs as "dot dot squiggle, dot, squiggle.." we were on the right highway to Petra and made it to the Guest House safe and sound. 

Petra was amazing. It's hard not to have the Indiana Jones theme song going in your head multiple times. I will say there was not a lot of creative filmmaking in that film when he is coming through the Siq to see the Treasury, because that is actually how it is. You turn the corner and get a little glimpse and it is absolutely stunning as you walk into the open area with this massive stone edifice in front of you. It is unbelievably well preserved because it is so protected from the elements. The whole settlement of Petra is crazy to think about. The Bedouin/Nabataean people carved these caves and structures out of the sandstone and lived there for hundreds of years. I will have more pictures coming, but here are a few. Click on the link above to learn more about Petra.

Me walking in the Siq (passage to Petra)- on left is carved out water way that terra cotta pipes
brought water into the settlement- it goes the entire way! Unreal!

Coming through the Siq with first glimpse at the Treasury- Al Khazneh

Al Khazneh (Treasury). Inside is just an empty space. No pathway to the Holy Grail.

Caroline in front of Monastery (Al Dier). This carved edifice was at the top of the very long and hard climb. Many hundred (I think close to 1000) natural carved and worn steps up a mountain later and this is your reward! That and a diet coke and snicker bar.

So that day was amazing, and there are plenty of other pictures, but I have not had too much time to sort through them all. We loaded up the car after buying a few trinkets and plugged in our hotel information for the Dead Sea.

Again, thank God (and Peter- who borrowed it to us) for the GPS. We drove on some interesting roads. And I might add that the world's worst drivers live in Jordan. I'm not sure if they know that the lines on the road are meant to stay inbetween. The GPS kept us on the right path and what we thought was an hour drive turned into a three hour drive and in the dark and over some very treacherous terrain. We were navigating through the desert, saw some wild looking camels, a few Bedouin camps, mountain switchbacks, random small towns full of only men (saw like four women on the road, but hoards and hoards of men) and finally when the Dead Sea came into view we were able to breath a sigh of relief. By far, the scariest drive of my life, and one I will never forget. The highways are not highways, and are not lit up and have no guard rails going through the mountains and often feel like the size of alleyways, but we made it, and didn't hit any people or goats. 

Dead Sea

We checked in to the Movenpick Resort and Spa, went and had some much needed wine and sheesha, and were able to relax. The next few days at our resort were incredible. The Dead Sea is beyond crazy. It really blows my mind. I thought that like the Ocean, that I would have to do a little work to float, but you don't. It is so salty and you float like a fishing bobber. I could hold my body straight up and down in the water and not move a muscle and bob around. It just was the weirdest feeling ever. We rubbed our selves down with the mud/clay mixture and let it heal our skin. I've never felt my skin so smooth after washing off the mud in the Dead Sea and then rinsing off the salt water. Incredible healing powers. 

Contemplating the sunset in the infinity pool.

The salty rocks lining the sea. The crystals are way big! 

Dinner time!

 

I also expected the Dead Sea to be bigger than it was. It is long, but narrow. We could see Israel's West Bank the entire time and road signs told us that "No shooting at Israel was allowed." We also got buzzed a few times by Army helicopters and at night we could see several satellites just hovering right over us. Kind of cool, kind of lame when you're trying to be on vacation.

Overall it was an incredible trip. We had a great time and relaxed in the spa and enjoyed not thinking about school too much. I can't wait for my next trip!