Jordan

We are sitting in the business class lounge in Amman, scrounging free internet, waiting for our flight to Dubai.
Jordan has been interesting and informative, far more advanced that we thought.

We stayed 2 nights at the Dead Sea at the Moverpick Resort - and I thought they only sold Ice Cream!

The Dead Sea was an experience.  I went down and mudded up with the miracle Dead Sea mud and then layed down in the waters.  It is impossible to drown in it.  In fact it is so hard to even get your legs down.  You just float on your back and then battle to turn over on your stomach.  You can't get the water in your eyes or mouth - stings like hell.  If you manage to stand upright, the waters are so dense that you cannot touch bottom, it just suspends you at chest/waist level.



Petra - The Treasury

I did two treatments of mud, and I convinced Will to do one as well.  His skin has taken a turn for the worse and he has broken out in a rash all over his arms.  Although everyone says, "It's just the impurities coming out", well, I have doubts about that.  They tell you to limit your time in the water to under 20 minutes - like bathing in acid!
People come from all over Europe to "take the waters" as it is supposed to be excellent for psoriasis, excema and other skin conditions.  One of our travel companions swore by it.

We then moved on to Petra, after seeing more Biblical sites: Mt Nebo where God supposedly told Moses that this was their promised land of milk and honey, looking towards the Jordan valley.  Well you had to imagine that, when the Jordan river actually flowed.  They have been taking the water out on both sides, Israel and Jordan, and it is no longer the land of milk and honey.  Well, it is for Israel anyway.  They have turned the barren land into viable farming land.  You can't help but admire their tenacity.



Camel Ride home

Petra is an ancient city on the major trade routes believed to be started in 1200 BCE.  The Nabatean people where believed to have built most of it, but over run by many other civilisations, including the Romans, who added their own architecture on top of the ancient buildings.  They are all carved out of the sandstone.  Unfortunately, it has been eroded over time and will not be there at all for too much longer.





In Jordan's fine dining restaurants, they boast having Australian beef - Stockyard label which comes from the Darling Downs.  We have had two really great steak dinners here, and they also boast Australian Wines, particularly Jacobs Creek Shiraz.  We also had a guy with reddish brown hair and white skin singing country and western songs and Aussie songs as well.  When Will asked him where he was from he said "Iraq" - sure didn't look it - must have been Persian heritage.

Jordan has educated their citizens well, teaching English from year 2.  In fact it is their second official language.  You don't see women around much, except  ducking in and out of a few shops.  They don't participate in life as we know it.   They stay home in their burkas and look after family.  The men are really dumb in my opinion as at the very least, they are halving the economic potential of their countries.  All over the Middle East, men are out in the coffee shops, women at home or working in the fields.  So different from our culture and one I would really take issue with.  Thank God for Australia.  The more you travel the most you know it to be true.