Jordan in Photos - Highlights from our Time in Jordan

The Jordan portion of our Honeymoon was amazing. I picked out a few photos try to capture some of the highlights of our time in Jordan. Travelling through Jordan was a great experience that shouldn't be missed. 

Sunset over the Dead Sea. At night the lights of Bethlehem can be seen.

We had a great time with the Dead Sea mud. 

Yes, you really can read while you float in the Dead Sea. It's that buoyant.

Relaxating, Dead Sea style

Sunsets from the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea are amazing.

The beautifully calm environment of the Dead Sea.

Looking down the jagged coastline of the Dead Sea.

Our first sight of the amazing Treasury structure in Petra.

Petra was basically empty during our visit.

 

Pamela makes friends quickly.

The natural colours in the rocks in Petra are amazing. 

Lots of opportunities to challenge my fear of heights while hiking through Petra.

Amazing views from amazing places makes Petra a must visit.

The gigantic "Monastery" or Al-Deir is definitely worth the walk up while visiting Petra. Looking closely you can see me in the monstrous doorway.

A closer look at the doorway of the "Monastery" in Petra. 

Having a lot of fun in Wadi Rum

The sand here is so very red and fine. All of our shoes were completely filled with the stuff. Even weeks later the fine sand was still seeping out.

The tented camp where we stayed in Wadi Rum. There were seven of us in the whole camp. Definitely an amazing experience and one of the highlights of our trip.

Nothing like watching the sun fall on another day in Wadi Rum. Bring a jacket, a big jacket, if you plan on visiting in the winter.

The iconic photo of camels crossing the desert at sunset in Wadi Rum. A magical experience in a magical place.

Vertical monoliths are the skyline in Wadi Rum. A climbers paradise.

The colour and texture of the landscape is something not to be forgotten.

While visiting the port city of Aqqaba, Pamela took a camel ride through town. Any place you can ride a camel down the street is okay in our book.

The ancient Roman city of Jerash is a must visit on any trip to Amman.

The remains of  Jerash are a tribute to the engineering marvels of these ancient civilizations. 

A collonade lined ancient street reminds us we're not in Kansas anymore while walking through Jerash.

It's hard to appreciate the magnitude of Jerash until you're standing in the middle of it.

The River Jordan provides a natural border between Jordan, near side, and Israel, far side. This interesting experience was part of our tour of the Baptism Site. 

The reported site of Jesus' Baptism

The ancient map of the Promised Land in the floor at the church in common day Madaba, biblical Moab. 

The view of the valley looking down from Mt. Nebo

Nothing like spotting a castle used during the Crusades while driving down the road.

Yes, Jordan is that good. 

We hope you enjoyed the photos from our time in Jordan. Please let us know through comments if you have any questions about our time in Jordan.


Cheers for Now -


Pamela and Dave

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

Our Spa Day at the Dead Sea

I don’t consider myself too much of a health spa enthusiast, I can count on one hand the times I’ve visited a relaxing health spa so I don’t really know too much about these type of places. I personally like to relax with a strenuous hike or long mountain bike ride. Lucky for me I’m married to an expert in relaxation to help guide me through our spa day, also known as the Queen of Steam, Connoisseur of  Calm, Senora Sauna and the Sultana of Soak.

While staying at the Mövenpick Dead Sea Resort we decided to visit their onsite spa called Zara. We paid our 20 Jordanian Dinar ($29 USD) entrance fee per person and went in, I a little on the fence about the whole thing.  Our first stop was a fancy changing room where we each dawned some fancy bathrobes and slippers, Pamela’s robe was way too big so we swapped and got down to the business of relaxation.

Pamela enjoying getting sprayed

We grabbed a couple of loungers and made our way to the Hydro Pool. Now the Hydro Pool is a large heated therapeutic pool consisting of different jetted or pressure features to help you relax. I’m sure each of the features have proper names but since I don’t know them I’m going to refer to them with names I chose. First we hit the Ball Breaker, or rather a group of underwater seats with jets built into the bottom. You’d sit there and the jets would send water at a high speed at your bottom and anything else in that region, hence the name. After careful maneuvering I found a comfortable spot and we lounged.

Next to the seats I called the "Ball Breaker"

The next stop in the Hydro Pool was the Tumbler, a semi-circular standing area where very strong jets shot up and basically tumbled you around if you let them. Once we figured out to float on the surface and keep our heads-up we were okay. After the Tumbler shut off, they’re all on a timed cycle we made our way over to the Lay-Z-Boy. Now this pool feature has you sit at a reclining angle while gets shoot at you from the back and side, I thought this feature was the most relaxing of the Hydro Pool. Last but not least we moved over to the Elephant Pee feature. Now this was basically two high pressure out of the water nozzles that shot water at you for a massage. One was a direct shot, the male elephant, and the other was a more circular shot, the female elephant. Anyone who’s been around elephants will understand the particular name of this feature. That covers all the different features of the Hydro Pool, all of which we tried many-many times during our spa day.

Enjoying the "Tumbler" in the Hydro Pool

Getting sprayed by what I dubbed "Elephant Piss"

Venturing inside the spa we found several more unique pools we could explore. The Dead Sea Pool 1 is a mineral rich really warm pool for soaking. You can’t float in the pool but it’s the warmest pool in the place and a good place to go when you’re cold. The Dead Sea Pool 2 is about the same salt and mineral content as the Dead Sea just several degrees warmer. You can float your time away in this warm mineral rich pool. After a good soak my skin felt a bit slimy but a freshwater shower cured all that.  Also in the same chamber lies the Kneipp (Foot Massage) Pool. This pool is a colder pool that I guess you’re supposed to sit with your feet in while minerals soak through your feet. I tried it for about 5 seconds and had enough. The water was a bit too cold and I wasn’t a fan of the jets on my feet. If it were up to me I’d call this the pointless pool.

Floating and showing off in the Dead Sea Pool

Upstairs from each changing rooms are the sauna and steam room facilities. These are the only things that are male/female separate so I had to go it alone, without my spa chaperone. The Calderium, aka steamroom, is what I deemed the hottest, steamiest place on planet Earth. I couldn’t last but two minutes in the place and that was with a towel over my head so I could breathe and see. To cool off I’d jump in the 45 degree Laconium for a quick sauna.

Having a little photo fun during sunset

The end of the day had us watching the sunset from what the spa calls Jordan’s best pool, an infinity pool overlooking the Dead Sea.  It was a great end to a great day. Although the health spa isn’t something I’d like to do all the time, I definitely enjoyed our day together with the best part watching the silly grin on Pamela’s face.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave