Jordan: Wadi Rum & Dead Sea Day-3 and 4

Half-Day in Petra

We had one more day in Petra before our drive towards Amman and the Dead Sea area. We decided to visit the sites that we missed in Day-2, and then also explore Wadi Rum. "Wadi Rum" is Arabic for "Valley of the Moon", and it is a desert landscape that looks similar to the moon. Actually, it looks closer to the surface of Mars, due to it's reddish rock, so the naming is not too accurate. Anyways, I contacted Omran (our tourist taxi guy), and he arranged for a drive to Wadi Rum in the early evening. We spent the first half of the day revisiting Petra.

Colorful Camels ready for the ride.

The first place we headed to were the three rows of tombs called the "Royal Tombs" which we had missed yesterday - the Urn Tomb, Silk Tomb, Corinthian Tomb and the Palace Tomb. These were named "Royal" tombs since they were of considerably large size, compared to the rest of the city.

Urn Tomb

The Urn Tomb is the first o the right, as you walk from Al Khazneh. It is called so, because it has a carved urn at the top (similar to Al Khazneh and Ad Deir Monastery). The inside looks quite amazing, as the erosion pattern shows up like a rich design on the rocks. The Urn Tomb was later adapted as a Church during the Byzantine rule of Petra. 

Alcove inside Urn Tomb.

Next to this was the Silk Tomb - named so because of the erosion patterns of the rocks. Further down, there are two larger tombs - Corinthian Tomb and Palace Tomb. The Corinthian Tomb has been named so because of the Greek Corinthian style pillars, while the Palace Tomb is named so because it is the largest, and looks like a Roman or Greek period palace.

Corinthian (right), and (left) Palace Tombs.

These monuments look a bit like the Al-Khazneh, but they are not so well preserved. It may be because these monuments were more exposed to the elements than the Al-Khazneh, which is sheltered by the Siq canyon.

By this time, the wind picked up a bit, and it was blowing the sand around everywhere. I purchased a keffiyeh scarf from an old Bedouin woman's stall for 5 dinars. It turned out to be quite useful, for protecting against the sand and the sun, and also was useful later in Wadi Rum. With my head wrapped up Bedouin-style, we headed to the Nabataen Theater.

Nabataen Theater

With almost everything covered in Petra, we headed back to the visitor center. This time, we decided to ride horses on the way back. IMHO, it was quite a waste of money, and the horses did not look well kept. Still, it turned out as a good photo shoot for us, as the horseman ran ahead and clicked pictures on the way back!

At the visitor center, we had a good traditional lunch of Jordanian "mansaf". This is a dish made of rice with lamb simmered in yogurt, and garnished with parsley and pine nuts. The waiter told us that it's a traditional wedding dish.

Mansaf

Valley of the Moon

Once back at our hotel, we contacted Omran, and sure enough, our ride to Wadi Rum was ready! Wadi Rum is a desert region in Southern Jordan, and is well known for it's other-worldly landscape. Several Hollywood movies, including Transformers, Prometheus, and The Martian, have been shot here, as the desolate landscape looks like the surface of Mars. We drove from Wadi Musa in a sedan, and our driver told us the recent history of Jordan, and the royal family. It was interesting, as he showed us each Jordanian currency had the portrait of some royal family member. We soon reached a gas station at the fringe of the desert, and, we were joined by Hussain, another driver, in a battered old Mitsubishi 4x4 pickup truck. The truck had converted it's bed into benches on each side, and we rode out into the desert on the open truck bed.

One solitary donkey in the desert.

The truck drove into the desert, and the landscape really looked other-worldy, and it was quite apparent why Hollywood choose this as the location for alien planets!

Looks like an uninhabited planet in outer space!

Further on, we saw a few camels grazing on desert scrub, so it was not really as desolate and devoid of life as it looked.

Camels.

Hussain drove the truck near a rock cliff, and stopped. He told us that the cliff had ancient petroglyphs carved on it. This was surprising, as it meant that man had inhabited this desert long ago.

Wadi Rum landscape with our ride - the pickup truck.

 We were not sure how old these were, and Hussain also did not know, except the generic "a long time ago".

There were petroglyphs on this cliff face - at the bottom of the alcove-like formation to the right.

We climbed up the cliff face for a closer look at this. The petroglyphs depicted a family - two adults and a child to the left. There was an inscription of two human feet between the adults and the child, and what could be a dog between the two adults.  

Up close with the petroglyphs, with us for scale.

Next up was a natural bridge formed out of erosion of the rocks.

Rock bridge.

We then moved on from here to an open scrub area, where Hussain stopped the truck again, asked us if we would like a cup of tea. "What, out here?" was the first reaction, as there was not a single tea shop or restaurant for miles and miles.

We stopped here for tea!

Hussain then proceeded to dig a small hole in the sand, behind a medium-sized desert bush, and gathered some dry twigs to light a fire. Sure enough, soon a kettle of tea was brewing in the middle of the desert! 

Tea in the desert!

We had an incredible experience, sipping tea as the sun set over Wadi Rum.

Sunset over Wadi Rum.

This ended our trip into the Wadi Rum desert, and we headed back to our hotel in Petra. Our driver offered to take us to a traditional restaurant for a "Maqluba" dinner, but we were too tired to head out. Politely refusing the offer, we ate a quick in-room dinner, and called it a day. 

The Dead Sea

The next morning, our old driver, Yousef, showed up at breakfast time. We checked out of the hotel in Petra, and headed off towards Amman. Our destination was the Dead Sea area of Sweimeh. The route took us through the Dana biosphere. 

Dana Biosphere.

 The drive took about 3 hours, and soon we were driving alongside the Dead Sea. 

Dead Sea from the cliffs along the highway.

  The Dead Sea is a bit of a misnomer, as it is really a large lake. While the lake it quite long, lengthwise, it is just about 10 kms wide, and you can see the shores of Palestine/Israel on the other side. It is also the lowest region on the Earth, at 400 meters below sea level. 

Elevation level

The "sea" is also extremely saline, and has no apparent marine life (hence the "Dead" in Dead Sea). We checked into our hotel - the Marriott Jordan Valley - and grabbed some lunch at one of their many restaurants. The hotel is very large and luxurious, and has a private beach area. 

Hotel grounds - Jordan Valley Resort & Spa

So far, we had been staying at a mid-range hotel in Jordan, and this was quite an upgrade! The hotel was spread out over a large area, had multiple outdoor swimming pools, and a spa. They even provided the famed "Dead Sea mud" which has several healing and medicinal properties. You are supposed to apply the mud, wait for it to dry, and then jump into the Dead Sea to wash it off!

Private beach area on the Dead Sea

 The experience of "swimming" in the Dead Sea was quite unique. The water feels almost like oil on the skin. One cannot really swim here, but just float on your back. The water is incredibly salty, as I found out when a little splashed into my mouth (you need to get out of the sea and rinse your mouth with fresh water if this happens). The buoyancy of the water is such that one cannot really sink, even if  one does not know how to swim. However, people do drown in the Dead Sea if not careful. It is difficult to roll over in the water, and hence, if swimming a front stroke, one needs to be very careful not to get the head into the water.

A rose-gold sunset on the Dead Sea.

We spent two days at this resort, swimming in the sea and their outdoor pools, and trying out the excellent Jordanian cuisine. It so turned out that they did make Maqluba - the same traditional dish that out Wadi Musa driver wanted us to try. We also had what could be the best falafel & hummus (as expected) for breakfast in this resort. The Dead Sea experience was a great way to end to our stay in Jordan. We flew back from Amman airport the third morning. 

Jordan: Petra Day-1 and 2

Pre-Trip Planning

To be honest, Jordan was not the first choice when we were planning our next trip. We were toying with the Philippines or Israel. When my wife was leaning towards Israel because she wanted to see the Dead Sea, the next thought was "Why not Jordan?" What clinched the deal for Jordan was this one video by Mark Wiens.




We soon booked our tickets and hotel in Petra. The hotel had a strange sounding name - "P Quattro Relax Hotel" - but was well rated in tripadvisor. One of my wife's colleagues had been to Jordan before, and recommended Omran Brkavi and his taxi company. Omran is a well known tourist taxi operator in Jordan, and we booked him for our trip from Amman (the capital) to Petra, and then onwards to the Dead Sea in Sweimeh. 

Arrival at Amman

    We flew Etihad from Bangalore to Abu-Dhabi, and then onwards to Amman. Both flights were comfortable, even in economy class. I was dressed in touristy shorts, and for a change, it was my wife was concerned about the amount of skin I was exposing. Sure enough, I was the only one in Amman airport with my knees exposed!
The next step was getting the visa-on-arrival. Jordan is one of the few countries where Indian tourists are allowed to get a visa-on-arrival. Having said that, we were in for some tense moments. We stood in line, and when we reached the counter, the immigration officer just frowned and could not figure out our passports. It didn't help that he had a limited vocabulary of English, and neither of us spoke Arabic. He finally gave up, and asked us to go contact his supervisor, who was in the "office". The said "office" was a small and dingy police room. A rotund uniformed officer sat behind the desk, and a slimmer junior officer sat in front. Both were casually smoking, and from the looks of the ashtray between them, one would have thought that the two were actively engaged in a smoking competition! Both were oblivious to the fact that the room had turned into a mini gas chamber. 
    The officer looked up, and I explained the situation to him. With a weary look, he held his palm up indicating that I should give him the passports. After thumbing through our passports, he shouts at another guy in Arabic. After a few minutes of conversation, he hands us back the passports, and tells us to go back to the same line we were in. Once we reach the counter, the immigration officer again does not know what to do with us. He asks me if I went to his supervisor, and I told him that his supervisor asked us to get back in line here! Then a few more minutes of confusion, but finally the immigration officer beside him manages to figure things out, and he starts the visa process. We are asked at least 4 times how long we intend to stay. Each time, we reply "1 week". Immigration officer says, "OK, I give you 2 weeks visa". Relived, I say "Shukran!". Visa officer is happy to hear Arabic for "Thank you", and stamps the visa and we are on our way, finally.
    Omran, our taxi company guy had sent one of his drivers to take us from Amman to Petra. It was about a two-and-half hour drive, and we used the "desert highway". Our driver Yousef was very cheerful, and gracious host. This highway is, as suggested by the name, quite barren, and not picturesque at all. We stopped mid-way for some coffee at a place called "New Jerusalem Rest House".

Coffee break at New Jerusalem Rest House, Tafilah.

We soon reached Wadi-Musa, the gateway to Petra. A bit about the history of Petra; the area was home to a tribe called "The Nabateans". The Nabateans were nomadic initially, but later settled down and formed their capital of "Raqmu" in 100 BC. Raqmu was called "Petra" by the Greco-Roman world, due to the rock sculpted city-scape (petra means rock in Greek). The entire city had temples, buildings and amphitheaters, carved out of the sides of a rocky mountain. Petra was later annexed by the Romain empire, and continued to thrive until 300 AD. Wadi-Musa, the gateway to Petra, is Arabic for "Valley of Moses", and is a small hilly town. There are numerous small hotels in the town, and some big names like Radisson and Movenpick just outside the main town.

 

The Valley of Moses - Wadi Musa.

We entered our hotel - the "P Quattaro Relax" - at around 3:30 PM. The place was small, but clean, and had good service. The room we had booked was upgraded to a larger suite, free of cost. The room was nice and comfortable, but the bathroom was not the best that we have experienced. 

Suite room in P Quattaro

While checking in, the staff informed us that there was a "Petra by Night" event, where the path to the monuments in Petra were lit up with small lamps, and there is a Bedouin folk-music performance. The hotel also provided a drop and pick up from the venue, so we decided to purchase the tickets to this event. Having traveled by airplane and car for a good part of the day, both of us were tired, and needed to catch some shut eye, so we set an alarm for 6PM, and hit the sack. When the alarm rang, neither of us wanted to go out, but we did force ourselves out of the bed. We ordered room service for a hurried dinner of farmer's omelettes with grilled veggies. The food took some time to reach, but eventually we had a good meal, and set out in the taxi for the Petra tourist complex.
    As we started down the path to "Al-Khazneh" - The Treasury - which is the most famous monument in Petra, we were in for a visual treat. The entire path to Al-Khazneh was lit up, and it was a really unique experience to walk on the quiet path, lit only dimly by the lamps.

Path to Al-Khazneh

    The path goes through a narrow gorge (which we later found was called the "Siq"), as we continued down the lamp-lit path. As we exited the gorge, the sight of a thousand lamps lighting the monument greeted us.

Al-Khazneh all lit up.

There was a Bedouin musician playing a flute, and walking around the seated tourists. As you can imagine, it was a haunting melody to hear on a dark night with lights of a hundred lamps, valiantly trying to battle the darkness. I could not help but name the Bedouin flutist the "Pied Piper of Petra".





Once the musical performance was over, the Al-Khazneh was lit up with floodlights, to help us tourists take breath-taking shots of the monument!

Al-Khazneh by night.

This was one of the defining experiences of our travel in Jordan, and we were glad that we opted for this tour. We walked back to the Petra visitor entrance, where our taxi was waiting for us to take us back to the hotel. 

Exploring Petra by Day

The next day, after a good breakfast, we headed out to explore Petra again. The hotel provides a free shuttle to the Petra visitor center, so it is quite useful. We headed to the ticket counter, and it turned out to be quite a steep fare. We paid 55 Jordanian Dinars per head, for a 2 day pass, and an additional 50 JD for a guided tour. That amounted to a little north of 200 USD overall, so definitely not cheap.
The guided tour starts off along the same path to Al-Khazneh that we had followed the night before. 

Trail to Al-Khazneh

  The trail from the visitor entrance to Al-Khazneh is a easy, but rocky path. We followed along, with our guide for the day - Mohammed. On the way, the first minor monuments one sees is the "Djinn blocks". These are large rectangular blocks, which the Nabatheans used for their tombs and temples. The local Bedouins, who later discovered them, were convinced that only a Djinn could have moved such large blocks... hence the name.  

Djinn blocks

A few steps from these blocks are more Nabathean tombs, of different sizes. The larger ones were probably for aristocrats while the smaller were for the common folk. The largest of these is the "Obelisk Tomb", which is a three-tiered structure. The rock inscriptions state that the entire family of a Nabathean nobleman is probably buried there.

The Obelisk Tomb

 Further down, the trail first widens, into a large flat clearing, and then branches towards the left through a narrow canyon. This canyon is called the "Siq" in Arabic, and the entrance is called "Bab Al Siq". We had already walked down this path last night, but had missed the dramatic gate, as it was dark. 

Bab Al-Siq - the entrace to the Siq

Dubrovnik to Split & Back: Day-4 and 5 in Croatia

The next day, after a nice breakfast at the Hotel Komodor in Dubrovnik, we got into the Peugeot 308, and off we went to Split. I had Google Maps showing the way, and the route took us over the Dubrovnik bridge, and followed the beautiful Adriatic coastline.

Driving along the coast.

With hills on one side, and the turquoise sea on the other, this turned out to be one of the most spectacularly scenic ride that I have driven on. We soon came up to the border checkpost, at Neum. Vehicles slowed down here for passport check. We made it through without any hassles, and were now driving in Bosnia. After about 10 km, we stopped at another checkpost, where again, our passports were checked and stamped. Now we were back in Croatia!

The roads widened into a expressway soon, and we were doing good speeds. We reached the hotel in Split - The Radisson - just in time for  lunch. At lunch, there was an old waiter who kept apologizing for the delay. We finally got our food - great food with hearty portions, as usual - and called for the check. It was 180 Kuna, and we intended to leave 200 Kuna as "keep the change". What we actually did was leave 200 Euros as "keep the change"! The old waiter burst out laughing, and joked with us, "Whats this! I'm rich!" Of course, he gave us the Euro back, and we paid the right amount in Kunas.
After this, we headed out to the "Diocletian Palace" - the main tourist attraction in Split.

Diocletian Palace - Split.

The "palace" is actually a small city-fortress, right at Split harbour. It was built during the Roman times - around 4th century AD - as the retirement home for the Roman emperor Diocles. Diocles was from Dalmatia - the Adriatic cost of Croatia - and that's why he built his retirement home here.

Diocletian Palace is a square fortress, with four gates in the four cardinal directions - named the Golden, Silver, Bronze and Iron Gates. We entered by the East Gate (which was named Silver, I think). All along the entrance are several small shops, selling mainly summer clothes, lavender, and other souvenirs. We entered and joined the "Red Umbrella" walking tour of the place, and our guide (a lady whose name I forget now), told us about the history of the place.

Inside Diocletian's palace

Inside is a small square, with a cathedral and bell tower to the left (these were later additions to the Roman palace), a narrow lane leading to museums and the Temple of Jupiter on the right, and the crypts straight ahead.

The whole place has a very touristy feel to it, with bars, cafes and restaurants all around the narrow lanes. However, one can still get in touch with the history of the place. There is an Egyptian Sphinx at one end of the square. Our guide explained that this was one of the surviving Sphinxes of many that Diocles had got from Egypt.

The Sphinx - one of a few that remains relatively undamaged.

The cathedral is also Diocles' mausoleum. It was converted to a cathedral in the 5th century AD. The legend goes that this was the ultimate revenge, as Diocles severely persecuted Christians during his rule. Our guide claimed that it was Diocles' son-in-law who persecuted Christians, as Diocles himself was too sick to rule during this time.

The Bell Tower - added in the 13th century.

Directly above the crypts, is the area called the "Vestibule", which is a room with a large hemispherical dome. This was part of Diocles' royal apartment. The acoustics of the place was demonstrated by a group of choir singers.

Inside the Palace.

Several places had Roman-era tiles and motifs. Our tour guide also showed us one gate which was decorated with what looked like Indian swastikas, and Shiv's dumru.

Roman-era mosaic tiles.

Swastikas and Dumru design on a gateway

These designs did look very much like the Hindu Swastika. It may have been Indian influence in Greek art after Alexander's failed invasion of India. Our walking tour took us from the Silver Gate to the Golden Gate, or the northern entrance of the city. Here there is a later statue of Bishop Gregory.

Statue of Bishop Gregory - no connection to Diocles or his palace.

After the tour ended, we visited the museum, and then climbed up the Bell Tower for a splendid view of Split harbor.

View of the harbor from the Bell Tower.

We still had not seen the cathedral/mausoleum or Jupiter's temple, as both were closing down for the day. So we walked around looking for a place to eat. There were a whole lot of restaurants and cafes to choose from.

Cafes all over the place.

 While we were walking around, the waitress from one of these restaurants guessed what we were looking for. "We have WiFi", she said, and that was what clinched the deal! However, the food was pretty good there too.

Leg of Ham at the restaurant.

After the dinner, we headed back to the hotel, and spent a while on the beach. It was a moonlit night, and the moon reflecting in the water made it a perfect night. Pity that my iPhone camera was not great at capturing this moment.

Moonlit Adriatic.

Dubrovnik: Day-3 & 4 in Croatia

The next day mid-morning, after checking out of the Double Tree Hotel in Zagreb, we headed straight to the restaurant recommended by the Bosnian taxi driver. Gladne-Oci was a short walk from the hotel, and we settled down for an early lunch.

At Gladne-Oci, Fried Croatian bread - an appetizer we got hooked to.

The food here was really good, and in large (really large) portions. We realized a single main course dish could have fed us both. After the heavy lunch, we set off for the airport to catch our short flight to Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is Croatia's top tourist destination, on the Adriatic coastline. It has been made famous recently due to the Game of Thrones connection (episodes featuring King's Landing were shot there).
We landed in Dubrovnik in the early evening, and took a taxi to the hotel - Hotel Komodor. We realized our first mistake then - the taxi was quite expensive, around 40 Euros. The hotel itself was not very impressive. Rooms were small, not very comfortable, but still live-able for a few days. In anycase, we did not plan to spend much time in the hotel room!
 As soon as we were settled, I headed out to a nearby car rental shop, and got a Peugeot on rent. We needed the car, as we were planning to drive down to Split later. I am not a big fan of Peugeots, but this was no Hertz rental - this was the only car available, and the rental agreement was a small slip of paper with the owner scribbling the rates on it! We drove towards the old town, and I missed a turn, and almost headed half-way back to the airport before realizing this. However, this wrong turn got us to the cliffs above the old town for some great views.

View of the old town.

 We finally drove into the old town, parked in a lot, and a short walk later, were at the main "Pile Gate" entrance. There are a number of paid tours, including Kayak tours. Since it was evening, the tours were all closing down for the day. We entered the gates and started discovering places on our own.

Pile Cove - aka "Blackwater Bay"

We ended the evening by heading for the well-known "bar-on-the-cliffs" or Buza bar. A small doorway and a narrow flight of stairs leads to this place. We almost missed it, as you wouldn't realize a bar could be behind such a narrow doorway.

Buza bar - on the cliffs.

Cambodia Travelouges Part Two: Angkor Thom & Ta Phrom

While I wrote about the more famous Angkor Wat visit earlier in part one of this series, this post is about a series of temples & monuments that we visited after seeing the majestic sunrise at Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom, which in Khmer means "Royal City" is a group of temples and monuments, close to Angkor Wat.

Bayon - The Temple of a Thousand Faces

Bayon  is instantly recognizable by the multitude of serene and benevolent faces carved on it's towers.

Bayon

Another view of Bayon

These faces are numerous around the temple, and some authors and historians refer to this as the "Temple of a Thousand Faces". The real number of faces could be closer to a few hundred though, by my reckoning, but that does not make it less impressive. Each of these depict a set of four faces, oriented facing the four cardinal directions. Each face has a benevolent and compassionate smile. It could be that these faces represent Brahma, but it was mentioned by our guide that these represented the king who sanctioned the building of this temple (Jayavarman VII).

Another view of the face of Jayavarman II.