17. From Moonscape back to Dead Sea; Petra by Night / Petra by Day. 1/3/23

Greetings from the Dead Sea (again)-

First, we have been following the rains in California and hope you are all dry and safe. A little anxious about our house and especially our basement.

This morning, following breakfast we headed out again to Petra to see it in daylight. We drove ourselves down the winding road, which was –at times—fogged in and at others opening to bright sun. We retraced our steps through the sig which –after walking between narrow, high-walled canyons, the path suddenly open up at the 360-foot high Treasury (which is called that name because it is believed that a pharaoh’s treasures are concealed in this space). Still, it appears that no one is certain what purpose the building (constructed in the 1^st Century BCE) served. But the urn at the top definitely represented a memorial for royalty. Some archaeologists think the building was a temple; others say it was a place to store documents; recent excavations have unearthed a graveyard beneath the Treasury. It looks as if there was some Greco-Roman influence when seeing the soaring columns and the “raked” pediment atop the columns. The trade routes caused all sorts of cross-pollination and you can see this at the Treasury. In any case, it’s spectacular. Definitely memorable. 

Had we arrived earlier yesterday, we would have walked to the Treasury (as we did today), and then probably would have taken one of the little carts directly to the Treasury today… and then walked deeper into the site. But given that we had now hiked to the Treasury twice (once in darkness, save for the little candles placed about every thirty feet and once in daylight) – with a change in elevation of 500 feet (all downhill going and all uphill coming back) it would have been too much to walk beyond that part. Petra is a photographer’s delight; every step and every turn is photo-worthy. 

Then we headed out to get back to the Dead Sea. Everyone we asked said the fog we experienced yesterday was an anomaly, and we considered staying another night at the Bubble (although many stories to tell about sleeping in the Bubble)—despite pretty bad dinner and mediocre breakfast so that we’d have more time at Petra…. But we feared that if we did hit fog, we’d miss our flight to Tel Aviv. When we asked how long the drive would be from the Bubble to Amman Airport, the responses varied between two hours and four hours. People living near Petra don’t get to Amman too often, so their information was a bit skewed. Anyway, we opted for the “safe” solution and decided to head back to the Dead Sea for the night so that we’d have an easier (one-hour) drive to the Amman Airport the next day.

Good thing we made that decision!

The drive from Petra was just as fogged in and drizzly as it was when we took the road yesterday. Visibility for at least two of the four hours was nil. But Mike has become an amazing driver when there isn’t any way to see more than 10 feet ahead and without any road markings. We got lost briefly but the GPS rerouted; only problem was that there was a detour where a road was washed out that the GPS didn’t seem to catch (amazing it was able to do as good a job as it did), but after we made a few strategic and not so strategic turns, the trusty GPS found us and got us onto small roads (really small, some dirt) and eventually back to the “highway.”

We got back to the Kempinski Ishtar at about 5:30 just as the sun was setting—tired, chilled, and ready for massages. But alas, we were too late to get a reservation for any treatment at the spa. And it was cold and damp so no real interest in swimming in one of the five or six pools here… and too cold to dip into the Dead Sea. So, we are probably the only people who have now been to this spa resort twice without getting to the spa. The irony of it all is that this night we are actually staying in the spa building… in a wonderful panoramic view room (so we can see the Dead Sea clearly and without any obstructions). Because we are in the spa building our room comes complete with yoga mats and little weights and extra space for two people to be able to lay out their yoga mats! Those of you who know us will know that these amenities are unlikely to be used.

We had a nice dinner at the hotel’s Lebanese restaurant – a wonderful eggplant appetizer that they called musakka but which is like a cold dip, and shared a really good lamb shank (removed from the bone) with great spices and served with a cucumber yogurt.

We will drive to the Amman Airport tomorrow at about noon and head to Israel (my first trip there, despite having visited about 75 countries around the world—long story as to why I had decided not to visit and the real reason I’m going this time). By the way, I think that Jordan has never seen handrails for stairs. So going down steps is sometime scary—lots of marble and smooth surfaces that are really slippery when wet, and lighting is never really that bright, so navigating stairs is interesting…even at the hotel where our room is up about 20 steps there are no railings. Given that I have a history of twisting my ankle on stairs (did it in Paris, in Uzbekistan, and in California) I’m always a bit cautious. Don’t want to be in that black boot ever again!

All the best.. more from Israel. We return home from Israel, where the right-wing is in power and where the far right national security minister has already drawn international condemnation by his visit to the Noble Sanctuary (as its called by Muslims; Temple Mount, as it’s called by Jews)—a move considered to be an Israeli provocation by Muslims. From what we are hearing on television and online, the security minister stated that Israel “will not surrender to a vile murdering organization…” and that “times have changed; there is now a government in Jerusalem.”

Oh well… we shall see what our days in Israel bring.

Fern

PS – Small world. The guy who manages the Bubble hotel was very excited to see on my passport that I was born in NY. He lived in Queens and Staten Island for most of his life. He’s only been in Wadi Musa (Petra) for a few months and only in Jordan for two years. Apparently, he came to the US at age 10 with his parents. But he never applied for citizenship (details unclear). A few years ago he started the citizenship process.. Then his mother, who had returned to Yemen (the family is from Yemen) got very ill and he decided to return before she died. Now he is stuck and is quite desperate to find a way back to the states. He came to Jordan because his sister is here. He sounds like he is from NY.