Adventures of Anette: Jordan

Showing posts with label Jordan. Show all posts

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sightseeing in Jordan: Travelling from the Death Sea through Amman to Dubai

Anette 4:24:00 AM

So this is probably my last post about Jordan for this time. I spent my last day in Jordan at the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea's hotel spa called Zara, which indeed was a great way to get rid of some stress before my long flight to Japan. Though I probably should have done some pre-booking yesterday; due to overbooking it wasn´t possible to get the treatment I originally had in mind.

But still thanks to good service from the people working there I got some other good options instead so all in all I was quite lucky.

Taking a taxi from the hotel to the airport in Amman only costed 45 dinars, which is quite cheap considering the distance.

The airport in Amman was truly a mess though. I really felt unsecure there.

One of the guys who worked at the airport took my luggage from me almost by force and took it through the security-check.

But he waited on the other side keeping an eye on my luggage and gave it to me right away. So I thanked him of course but then all he said was "give me money". After all he had looked after the luggage for me so I said I didn´t have dinars but perhaps some euros. I gave him a couple of coins but all he said was "give me 10 euro!"

I really felt uncomfortable and said I didn´t have any more in cash.

Then he pointed at the opposite side of the airport and told me to take out money at the ATM over there.

So I really got upset and said to him that "in my country we don´t do bribes!".

He was gone before I´d even noticed..

The rest of my trip went rather smoothly though. I gave the rest of my dinars (which in fact only was 1 dinar) to a guy I came across who was washing the floor. He seemed like an hard-working guy and I didn´t need the money anyway.

My flight was 10 minutes delayed, but I´ve got about 5 hours until my next plane leaves so I can´t say it matters..

Right now I´m at the airport in Dubai, and I´m pretty happy since I´ve got free internet connection here. The chairs aren´t that bad either.! And compared to the airport in Amman it´s actually nice and quiet as well!

Good night everyone:)

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Jordan

Sightseeing in
Jordan:
Amman

Last days in Jordan! The Death Sea & A Day Trip to Israel

Sightseeing in Jordan:
Petra & the Desert of Wadi Rum

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Travel

Last days in Jordan! The Death Sea & A Day Trip to Israel

Anette 4:51:00 AM

At the boarder to Israel

On Friday (17.09) we had the chance to do whatever we wanted, and after breakfast 6 of us decided we wanted to take a short trip to Israel since the border is pretty close to Aqaba.

So we left by taxi and some minutes later we arrived at the border. Here we first had to pay some departure fees before being able to leave Jordan.

But when arriving in Israel things got a bit worse.

First one of the guards took my passport and started interrogating me about my relations to the other people in our group. He wanted to know how long we had known each other and what our purpose in Israel was.

But finally after some more questions and anxious waiting we could go through the security control.

We thought it had been a funny experience and looked forward to get a glance at the city of Eilat in a couple of hours before returning to Jordan.

But when we came to the place where they gives out the entry permission we faced another problem: In a couple of minutes they were going to close down the Israeli

border due to the celebration Yom Kippur and the border wouldn´t be opened again until Sunday.

So that was the end of our pretty short Israel-ad

venture, haha..

The rest of the day was spent on the beach and on a local market.

Today it´s Saturday (18.09) and the last ordinary

day of our tour.

After an early breakfast we went straight by bus to the Mövenpick Resort & Spa Dead Sea hotel which you might already have guessed is situated by the Dead Sea.

And after lunch we went to have a bath in the salty water. But there was a jar containing heathy Dead Sea-mud on the beach which we of course had to try out. I guess we looked pretty funny covered in the black mud..

But it is supposed to be very good for our skin so why not. Haha..

Bathing in the Dead Sea was an experience! I must say I felt like a balloon, floating around in the surface of the water.

Swimming was pretty strange too of course, it didn´t feel like one could move around as easily as in normal water. Still, it was a bit more relaxed somehow.

Our Mövenpick hotel also has a spa-area which previously has been rated the best in the world. So of course me and my grandmother decided to try it out.

We only entered the area though, and tried all the different pools and saunas there.

But I´ve decided to spend some money there tomorrow and pamper myself a little to calm down before the long flight to Japan.

Tonight our group will leave the hotel at 24:00, and I´ll be the only one left here. My plane doesn´t leave until 17:15 tomorrow, so I still have some time left to enjoy Jordan a bit more. It has been a really exciting holiday, and Jordan is a destination I would recommend to anybody.

Well, that´s all for now.

Take care!

Hotel Booking:
Hotels in Aqaba
Hotels in Jordan

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Jordan

Sightseeing in
Jordan:
Amman

Sightseeing in Jordan:
Petra & the Desert of Wadi Rum

Sightseeing in Jordan: Travelling from Amman to Dubai

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links, and I'll get a small commission if you make a booking through these links.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Travel

Sightseeing in Jordan: Petra & the Desert of Wadi Rum

Anette 3:40:00 AM

Here comes another little update from Jordan!
It´s only been a couple of days since my last post, but we experience a lot in short time so I´ve still got some new things to write about.
Yesterday (15.09.) we went to see the old city of Petra. Petra was ranked as number two on the list of the 7 modern World Wonders only beaten by the Great Wall of China, and is currently on UNESCO's list of World Heritage sites.
The word Petra literary means "rock", and it´s a village carved in themountains south in Jordan about 300 km from the capital Amman.
Petra has been influenced by many different cultures like the Nabataeans and the Romans which one can see clearly in the buildings and art from the area.
Still, what really strike it´s visitors must be the beautiful sight of el-Kahzne which still remains intact despite the sands of time and various earthquakes which has done heavily damage to the rest of Petra.
Walking though the narrow siq valley and getting your first glance at this monument is truly amazing and well worth the long way to get there.

Petra

After our trip to Petra we really didn´t do that much. But that is a part of being on holiday, right? At least the trip to the hotel´s swimming pool was nice and refreshing after a hot day under the sun.

Today (16.09) we left our hotel again heading for Aqaba. Our first stop was the so-called "little Petra". This place got its name because it´s kind of a miniature version of Petra with the same sort of buildings carved in the mountains but of course not to the same extent as Petra. Though there weren´t as much to see as yesterday the atmosphere was nice and we felt more relaxed because of the lack of big tourist groups.

After a short stop here we continued to the desert of Wadi Rum where we had an exciting trip by jeep through the vast landscape.

We had lunch in the desert and after that we continued our trip and reached Aqaba in the afternoon. We are staying at the Mövenpick hotel here, an excellent 5-star resort. Everything is superb.!

I'll be back later with more posts from our trip!

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Jordan

Sightseeing in
Jordan:
Amman

Last days in Jordan! The Death Sea & A Day Trip to Israel

Sightseeing in Jordan: Travelling from Amman to Dubai

Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links, and I'll get a small commission if you make a booking through these links.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Jordan

Sightseeing in Jordan: Amman

Anette 8:28:00 AM

Here comes my first update from Jordan!
It´s been 3 days since we arrived at the international airport situated just outside the capital Amman.
I´m traveling with a group consisting of 14 people including my grandparents and our guide, and though the groups average age is slightly higher than that of my own I´m still having a great time here.!
The two first days were spent in or near the capital Amman, starting with a sightseeing touron the 12th of September going to the Roman city of Jerash.
Jerash is situated just about an hours drive outside of the city Amman and is actually often being compared with Italy´s Pompei for some reason or another..! I´ve never been to Pompei though, but anyways.. Unfortunately the remains has been heavily damaged by the flow of time including the great earthquake of 746 AD and today we can only imagine the greatness this place must have had.
Lunch was also quite exciting, seeing the local families dressed up for a nice Ramadan-dinner.
A really exciting day, though I have to admit I spent a lot of the afternoon sleeping due to the long and tiering flight on the 11th September.

On the second day we had the opportunity to take a better look at the capital itself. We entered the grounds of the old citadel in the middle of the town where we had an astonishing view over the so-called seven hills of Amman.
So from the top we had a good view of all over the city, where we could see everything from our hotel to what is considered to be one of the highest flagpoles (126,8 m) in the world.
The citadel Jabal al-Qal'a dating back to ancient times was of course a view in itself. Not to mention the national museum there, housing the famous Death Sea Scrolls which were found by shepherds in caves located near the Dead Sea in the years between 1947 and 1956 and supposedly dates back to between 150 BC and 70 AD.
Today it´s Tuesday the 13th, and today our travel company UnikTravel really got the chance to live up to it´s name.
First stop was the mountain of Nebo which is the place where, according to the Bible, Moses got to see his Promised Land for the first time.
From Mount Nebo our travel continued down the King's Highway to the city and crusader castle of Karak, which again led us to a beautiful sight of the Dead Sea.
After viewing the castle we had hoped for a smooth passing through the rest of the desert landscape. But on the road from Karak to Petra the engine in our bus got overheated and we had to stop in the middle of nowhere. Quite the charm..!
Still we arrived safe and sound in time for dinner and we also got to see the sunset over the mountains where the second world wonder Petra is situated.
All in all I´ve had another great day here. We are supposed to get a new and better bus tomorrow, so.. Fingers crossed;)!