The Lowest Land on Earth

Sunset on the Dead Sea, Jordan

Yup, the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth which isn’t under water. It is friggin 1,300 feet (400m) below sea level! If you like plop the Petronas Twin Towers here, sea level would be at where the towers’ top spires are.

I am continuing from where I left off in Jordan. After Petra, we headed for the shores of the Dead Sea. (How can we not visit the Dead Sea?!?)

Here’s the post, in pictures. (A picture speaks a 1000 words after all, hehe)


Road between Al Tafilah Town on the King’s Highway, and the Dead Sea Highway (Jordan Valley Highway). Far off in the gloomy horizon, on the lowlands you can see the Dead Sea

After our full day picnic in Petra, and a night in our hotel in Wadi Musa, we made our way north again on the King’s Highway. We drove past the Dana Biosphere Reserve (no, there’s just too little time to visit), and turned off at Al Tafilah, towards the Dead Sea Highway. Once there, we drove on the lowest highway on earth (well, it’s the lowest point on earth, so I figured this would also be the lowest highway on earth, right?), bought some food from the lowest grilled chicken stall on earth, and had a picnic, at the lowest picnic spot on earth, ahem…


Picnic by the Dead Sea


Yippee, the gloom’s lifting – Dead Sea, near the outfall of Wadi Mujib


Finally, our hotel, the lowest hotel on earth (one of the many anyway) Dead Sea Spa Hotel, Jordan – Far off across the Dead Sea, are the shores of Palestine


Hello Jayden, are you cold? 1 year old Jayden at the Dead Sea


Sunset on the Dead Sea …See the salt crystals on the pebbles?


A dip in the Dead Sea


Honey, why don’t you take your shoes off? This water is supposed to do wonders for your skin. And it’s stickyyyy…


Salt encrusted rocks! Check out this old post for Justin mucking around these rocks


Dead Sea Mud! Comes free with the stay in the hotel. The hotel has a spa and even a medical centre! Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do any of that. We stayed only one night, and decided to stay in Amman on the next night to be nearer to the airport as we would be flying off on the day after. On hindsight, we should’ve stayed at the Dead Sea one more night, as the journey from the Dead Sea to the airport would only be 20 mins more than that from Amman. Heck, then we could’ve dug up our own Dead Sea mud! Do you think they’ll let us take it back home??

This is my last post on our Jordan trip of the winter of 2015. From the Dead Sea, we went on to visit Bethany, the place where Jesus was baptized, then stopped at a souvenir shop to snap up some Dead Sea Mud (yeah, they sell the darn mud! It’s supposed to be great for your skin), then headed to Amman’s Rainbow Street for our last night’s stay. Amman was blustery cold and drizzling that night and we realized only then, that we left one of my shirts and Justin’s jacket in the Dead Sea Spa Hotel. Damn! If only it was snowing, rather than drizzling. What a Christmas it would've been...

Petra!

The Treasury, Petra, Jordan

Finally. The Petra photos, after 4 long years of sitting in the friggin hard disk drive. (We visited in Dec 2015). This is a continuation of my recent post on Jordan.

Petra has always been in a place I wanted to visit. Since I saw it in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade movie, way back in the 80s. And I’m not waiting for some crackpot terrorists (like the Taliban or ISIL) to come and blow the place up for absolutely no reason. No, although Jordan is absolutely peaceful without a hint of trouble, I’m taking no chances, so Petra here we come! That was 2015. Here’re the pictures, hehe.


The first view of the Treasury… after travelling thru 1.5km of a narrow crack of a walkway called the Siq (that’s Anu trying to take a picture of the treasury with her phone). The Siq is definitely one of the main allures of this place. Just imagine you being some medieval traveller (or better still, Indiana Jones) and you were trying to get to Petra for the first time. You see nothing, only rock hills, and then you enter a narrow chasm in the 300 – 500 feet high wall. The narrow path, squeezed between the towering mountains, is dotted with mysterious chambers on its sides. And then, lo and behold, you emerged onto this opening with the Treasury in front of you!


Papa and little 1 year old Jayden at the Treasury. No, you can’t enter the Treasury. There’re guards there. But I heard that it’s empty, so what are they guarding? The Holy Grail? (as in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). The Matrix? (as in the Transformers Movie, Revenge of the Fallen). Those horse carts in the picture are for transporting tourists from the ticket counters to the Treasury thru the Siq, and back, if you choose to do so. (You have to pay extra). Otherwise, it’s a 2km walk, with 1.5 of that in the mysterious Siq. We chose the horse-carts. We’d have walked if we weren’t with the kids. Justin pinched his nose the whole time we were in the horse cart (c’mon, it ain’t that smelly). Justin’s just not a fan of animal rides…

We spent the whole friggin day in Petra. We reached at about 9am and left only at 5pm. Some people do just the Siq and the Treasury, and zoom off to another place. We met 2 Malaysian ladies (in another place in Jordan) who did just that! Petra in 30 minutes. Heck, what sort of tour is that? We, on the other hand, packed our bags full of food so that we could picnic in Petra. Most people on group tours do a one day trip from Amman, the capital. They’d typically get on the tour bus at 7 in the morning, trudge thru 3 hours of bus ride to Wadi Musa (where Petra is), see Petra, and then trudge through another 3 hours of bus to get back to Amman by 7pm. We’re not big fans of group tours. We had screwed up one too many to try another group tour again (we’re serial late-comers), at least not until the kids grow up a bit! The last time we successfully did a group tour, was when Justin was a wee 5-month old baby, in Cappadocia, Turkey.


Here’s our home for the first part of our day. A chamber / cave directly opposite the Theatre. We had to find a suitable room / place to breastfeed Jayden. There wasn’t a lot of people there at that time. …Later, (after we left, thankfully) swarms of tourists would clamber all over the many caves / chambers… This was not the first time Anu had to breastfeed in a cave. She did it with Justin in Cappadocia, Turkey


The Theatre… See those steps there like those of a stadium?


The crowd’s coming. Let’s go explore another place. Justin, holding our picnic mat, climbing up the stairs (to the High Place of Sacrifice). I think Justin enjoyed the most in this trip. He was looking for treasure. Every box or chest that he saw, was a treasure chest to him…


Finally, the High Place of Sacrifice (left of the photo, it’s just a broken wall)) …this is the view looking down from where we came from. Far in the distance, you can see the houses of Wadi Musa


View of some of the Petra Tombs (yeah, they’re all tombs… scary, huh?) from the High Place of Sacrifice. We made another picnic stop on the way going down… lunch, and breastfeeding the baby


Camels at Petra – Justin, do you want to ride on a camel or donkey? No, Papa, they’re smelly! But the Monastery is quite far away, and it’s up lots of stairs. No, Papa. OK, then let’s give the Monastery a miss (…but, but, that’s where they found the Matrix in Transformers!) Nope, we didn’t make the trip… (the adults were also tired walking, hehe)


Bedouins in Petra, guardians of the donkeys and camels, that Justin turned down…


Let’s just hang around and explore something on ground level, OK? – Anu and the tombs, Petra – It was a pretty windy afternoon, as you can see from Anu’s hair


Colonnaded Street, Petra


See everyone’s on donkeys, sure we don’t wanna go? Alright, let’s go to that tea shop ahead then …Emm, how do we keep the blasted sand off our coffee?? And my shoes are full of sand!


The mouth of the Siq – Back at the Treasury, waiting for our horse cart to go back


Wadi Musa, where our hotel was – See you Petra!

The King’s Highway

Jeez, why do holidays always seem to end too early?!? Just got back from a 2-week break back home (Malaysia). Now, I’ve gotta get my rusty brain and body working again. The jet lag is still bloody there. Meanwhile, what the heck, might as well send out a post while I’m recovering, hehehe.

Continuing on road trips (which is what we usually do on holidays), here’s a road completely different from the lush green (and friggin foggy) Grossglockner Road. Here’s the King’s Highway in Jordan. These are also from 2015, winter 2015 to be exact. 2015 turned out to be a really productive year for us in terms of holidays. If only every year were like that. If only…


The King’s Highway, Jordan – Mujib Viewpoint, Dec 2015

The first time we mentioned visiting Jordan to my parents, they were like… Are you crazy??? Aren’t there terrorists? What about ISIS?

Which brings me to my point. Why not Jordan? Now, when it’s calm and peaceful? Jordan is full of ancient ruins, Roman cities, Crusader castles, Petra, etc. But it lies at the friggin crossroads of civilization that has always been caught up in the wars of empires and powerful nations. For now, it is peaceful, and I hope it stays peaceful forever. But all around it, are crazy nutcases waiting to do something ‘great’ (I mean stupid), which Jordan would have no control over. (Just look at the mess across its borders in Syria, Iraq and Palestine! Syria used to be known as the friendliest place in the Middle East back in 2008 – 2010 and we would have visited back then if we had time, and see what a calamity it’s become now!)

Anyway, the King’s Highway is one of the 3 main roads which connect Amman, the capital which lies in the North of the country, to Petra and beyond in the south. Here're the photos.


View from the King’s Highway, between the towns of Madaba and Dhiban


Viewpoint of the Mujib Valley, King’s Highway, Jordan – this was where we stopped to eat our lunch we packed from a local restaurant teeming with people in Madaba – roasted chicken, good and cheap – There’re no trees or shade around, so you’ll have to live with being roasted yourself…


Hello honey! No luck with shelter, huh? …Luckily it’s winter


Local handicraft for sale, Mujib Viewpoint, King’s Highway, Jordan


The King’s Highway snaking down into the Wadi Al Mujib


Alright, we’re going up the other side now, looking back at the Mujib Valley

The Wadi (River) Al Mujib runs east to west cutting across the three north-south highways in Jordan. It empties into the Dead Sea.


Just for a contrast, this is the same Wadi Al Mujib on the downstream Dead Sea Highway side just before it flows into the Dead Sea. See how it’s narrowed down from a ginormous valley (above) into a narrow gorge?!?


The Kerak Castle, one of the many Crusader castles in Jordan. (The King's Highway can be seen far below the town and castle, to the left in the photo). The castle was featured in the movie, the Kingdom of Heaven. Like most of the Crusader castles here, it’s in ruins. What d’ya expect, with devastating wars between the Muslims and the Christians, and the land changing hands multiple times between empires? We made a short stop when passing thru

Incidentally, a year after our visit, i.e. in Dec 2016 (when we were in Isfahan, Iran), militants attacked Kerak, and hid in the castle. In the ensuing shootout, some locals and a tourist were killed. Just see how unstable the world has become, …scary, huh?


Here’s a nicer view of the Kerak Castle, ‘borrowed’ from Wikipedia, photo compliments of Berthold Werner


A view of the Dana Nature Reserve from the King’s Highway, photo taken on our way out of Petra, on a cloudy day – Nope, didn’t have time to visit

The bottom line is that Jordan is a nice place to visit and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Go, before it’s too late. That’s all for now folks! Gotta get some work done.

The Ruins of Jerash

More Roman ruins – The Oval Forum, Jerash, Jordan

2017 is turning out to be a bummer! Nothing’s improved so far. A few colleagues have left the company in the last week due to the continuing pessimism in the Middle East and beyond. One of them is a good friend, a true friend in our times of need, Jay. He’s going back to India because the railway project that’s supposed to connect all the Gulf Arab countries from Kuwait to Oman, has sunk deeper into development hell. The three highway projects which we ‘won’ last year have still not been awarded to our Company by the Government. What’s going on? I dunno. I’m gonna concentrate on whatever work I have, and when I have time, …on my blog hehehe.

Meanwhile (until I can think of what to write), here’re more Roman ruins… whether you like it or not.


Roman Theatre at Jerash, Jordan


The Arch of Hadrian, the entrance to Jerash after getting your tickets


Yours truly at the Arch of Hadrian (Anu’s a pretty good photographer, huh?)


Mommy & Jayden dwarfed by Hadrian’s Arch (Can’t say much about my photography skills though…)


The colonnaded street, Cardo Maximus, the main street in ancient Gerasa (ancient name of Jerash)


A race at the Oval Forum


The Oval Forum, Jerash – Looks more like a circle (than an oval) from down here, doesn’t it?


They didn’t build that column very well, did they?


That cloud had been playing tricks with us for almost our entire visit – ended up having to ‘Auto-Brightness’ some of the photos!


Finally, a Jordanian lunch, at a restaurant across the road from the ruins – 6 JD for that (AED 30), not bad huh?

City on Seven Hills

Amman, Jordan – view from the Arab Tower Hotel. The mosque in the picture is the Al-Husseiny Mosque

Happy New Year People!

2017 doesn’t seem to have started out very well with yours truly here. Was down with fever on New Year’s Day. Justin too. And the wife cracked her nice Samsung Galaxy S7 (last year’s birthday present) on the tarmac a few days back. Repairs will cost 45% of a brand new S7!!! That blinking piece of Samsung glass will cost the same as my brand new Redmi friggin Note 4?!? WTF! The wife’s not gonna get it fixed. She reckoned it’ll stick well enough with a screen protector on top not to have the pieces of glass fall off! Oh well, that’s her choice!

Anyway, I’m continuing my post on Jordan, since I’m already at it. Amman, the capital of Jordan, was built on 7 hills, like Rome! …Ya, friggin Rome?! (Everything’s about Rome in ancient times, OK?) People like to build cities on 7 hills. There’s just something about 7 hills that makes cities good. Don’t believe me? Just google ‘City on Seven Hills’ and you’ll get a long list of cities, starting with Rome. Try googling ‘City on Eight Hills’, or heck! ‘Ten Hills’, and you’ll probably get zilch for your results.

Amman has since expanded to cover 19 hills (but nobody shouts about that). Nineteen? Not a cool number. Like Rome, Amman has its own Roman theatre, temples and other Roman things! I guess, Rome was the one to follow then. Here’re some photos of Amman and its Roman remains!


One of our first glimpses of Amman when coming from the Airport – wow, nice view …what’s with the trash strewn all over the field? Some sort of art work?


The streets of Amman, Jordan


A view of the Roman Theatre & Hashemite Square (the space around the theatre) from atop the Citadel


A closer view of the Roman Theatre – the ancients didn’t really think of photographers when they built this place. Don't they know that it’ll always be shrouded in shadows if they build it on the northern slope of a hill? How are people gonna get a nice lighted shot of it??




More views of Amman from the Citadel




The Temple of Hercules …or what’s left of it, Amman Citadel, Jordan


I have no idea what this is, …at the Amman Citadel


Anu and a tree, Amman Citadel, Jordan


Jayden at the lobby of our hotel in Amman. Chess must be a favourite hobby here?