Dead Sea Dreaming

After 35 straight days of sightseeing and travelling it was time for a much needed break, call it a holiday from our holiday. As silly as that sounds we’d stayed in 19 different hotels over those 35 days, never spending more than three days in any one place, using mostly overland transportation of varying comfort/smell degrees and seeing more sights than I ever imagined.  In any case we were tired and figured what better place to rest up then the Jordan side of the Dead Sea.

Tough life

We booked five nights at the Mövenpick Dead Sea Resort and Spa at an approximate cost of $135 USD a night for a Standard King room including a breakfast buffet. We booked our transportation from Amman through a local operator at a cost of 40 Jordanian Dinar ($56 USD) each way for the 45 minute trip from Amman. On arrival we were super lucky to get upgraded to a Premium King Room at no charge.  Our King room was in a private area of the resort village which included access to a semi-private pool and Jacuzzi, unfortunately the pool was too cold to swim in and the Jacuzzi wasn’t hot enough to really enjoy.  The resort village itself reminded us of something from the Flintstones, unfortunately we had the darn Flintstones theme song stuck in our head the whole time we were there.

Sunset at the Summer Pool

The Mövenpick sits right on the Dead Sea so we checked in and went straight to the sea for a float. We had heard floating on the Dead Sea was good but were blown away when we actually walking in and didn’t sink. Getting into the Sea is just a matter of walking in, turning around and sitting back, from there you just float. It’s such a weird feeling at first and goes against all your instincts while in the water but away you float, we had a really good laugh once in. There are signs that recommend only floating in the Sea for a maximum of twenty minutes so after that time we hopped-off, showered off the salt and jumped in one of the freshwater pools to relax away the evening. Watching the sunset from the pool decks or beach area at the Mövenpick is an unreal experience, some of the best sunsets I can ever remember.

Sunset over the Dead Sea

The best part, and there were many good parts, of staying at the Mövenpick is the ice cream. For those of you unlucky enough to never have tried Mövenpick ice cream I would say you’re missing out on some of the best ice cream in the world.  While living in Sydney we used to treat ourselves with a trip to the Manly or Bondi Mövenpick ice cream shops for this goodness in a cone or cup. You can imagine that staying at this resort was like a dream come true for us, an ice cream cart near the main restaurant and a substantial ice cream menu at each of the seven eateries at the resort. Basically we were surrounded by this ice cream dream all week and took advantage of it as much as we could. Pamela had chocolate ice cream on her pancakes in the morning and we followed that up with chocolate ice cream mocha coffee drinks.  Just thinking about it now is making my mouth water.

Food Porn

When not eating ice cream we were probably participating in one of Pamela’s other favourite activities, covering ourselves in the Dead Sea mud and standing around, with everyone else, looking like mud monsters. Apparently applying the mineral rich Dead Sea mud does something good for your skin, I’m still not sure what that is. In any case it looked awfully funny to see a bunch of grown adults, mostly older Russians, standing around covered in mud. In fact, as I write this Pamela has a mud mask on right now. She bought some mud and other cosmetic stuff while we were at the Dead Sea. I’ve never heard of this buying mud business but it seems to be a pretty profitable business.

When not floating, covered in mud, stuffing ourselves at the brilliant breakfast buffet or with ice cream we managed to do a whole lot of nothing. We ate at a couple of the resorts restaurants but weren’t really that impressed with the food except for the breakfast buffet and cheeseburgers. Each night we stayed in and had epically long marathons of the show 24 and went to sleep early in a very comfortable bed. It was very nice to sleep in a nice bed versus an overnight bus or train.

Mud Monsters

Five nights of rest and relaxation were just what the doctor ordered for this pair of weary travelers. We were recharged and ready to hit the tourist trails of Jordan, Egypt and the UAE. We would highly recommend a visit to the Dead Sea for anyone looking for a quality relaxing time. Floating in the Sea is definitely something you wouldn’t want to miss.

All of our photos from the Dead Sea can be found here: https://picasaweb.google.com/117257906652666550268/TheDeadSeaJordan?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave