Jordan, October 2015

One of the many highly pleasant trips I've taken with David.

This one started in Kuwait and I'd like to include the few days in Kuwait to this blog.

I picked up David from the airport and we had two or three days in Kuwait. Nothing new for him as he had been here before once or twice. We went to Mubarakiyah, ate fatayers.. all that standard stuff you do around here. One day we decided to go to the desert. You know.. camels 'n stuff. So at that time I had a Range Rover. Going off-road was easy and you reach nicer places. Off-road is good!

...

Unless your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere. In that case off-road is turd. And as you can imagine this is what happened. The hose carrying the coolant loosened and got chopped into pieces by that big fan in the front (seriously, I don't know sh*t about cars so don't ask for any details). So.. no coolant equals no driving. I know that. Luckily David knows a lot about this stuff and tried fixing it - I had some duct tape in the car and lots of spare water. We improvised some gloved for him (duct tape and tissues) as the engine was still really hot and he tried his best to fix the damage - unsuccessfully.

So I called a tow truck to pick us up - easier said than done as we were in the middle of nowhere. The first tow truck ended up somewhere at the Iraqi border. The second one arrived just about in time as the sun started to set - six hours after we broke down. I can't even remember how we spent the time.. But we did get back home, the repair wasn't very expensive (40 KD for the repair and 60 KD for the tow truck(s)) and we had one more story to tell.

Needless to say - I sold that stupid car soon after. Best decision ever made.

So our journey started and we flew off to Amman, Jordan! After landing we picked up our rental car at the airport and drove south as we planned on visiting Petra the next day. The drive was quite easy going and we reached our hotel after just about 3 hours or so. As we were pretty exhausted we just had a short walk around the little town and had some dinner before going to bed.

The next day started early - we bought our tickets and entered Petra at the break of dawn.. kinda. The path takes you down a dusty road and through a narrow canyon before you reach the 'real' Petra - the Treasury. For all of you visiting Jordan - do not miss out on visiting this amazing place.

We spent the whole day walking around the area, mostly on sand or up and down about a quadrillion flights of stairs. One could have taken a donkey or a camel to ride.. but the way the animals are treated didn't quite make us want to support that. We reached the 'end' of Petra (the monastery) in the afternoon and then headed straight back to the entrance. The merchants were pretty nasty as there weren't a lot of tourists around.. so they tried everything to sell us random stuff. No thanks. HERE's a map of Petra, if you're interested (the main road.. not mentioning all the side routes).

Once we got out we headed back to the hotel to have a rest and gather some strength for the evening. Once the sun had set we headed back to Petra and entered a second time on this day. We were about to witness an event called 'Petra by night'. All the way down that dusty road and through the narrow canyon there were candles set up which made the walk really enjoyable and magical although we still were really exhausted from the long hike just few hours before. Once we reached the Treasury the view took our breaths.

The place was lit up by hundreds of candles and people were quietly sitting around the Treasury in a big half circle. A voice informed about the history, then a live musician played some songs. I hardly remember these parts of the event.. But what was next I will remember as it sent one of those pleasant shivers down my spine. It was all dark except for those hundreds of candles.. and from the speakers a song started: O fortuna - Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. The song itself is amazing already.. but in this scenery it was truly amazing. At that one point where the song climaxes the spotlights were suddenly switched on, illuminating the Treasury in blue light. Magnificent.

After having some tea we headed back to our hotel and went to bed. Our step counters reached 34.000 that day (on uneven terrain..) so no wonder we were tired.

The next day came and we returned to Petra as we had a two-day-pass. We decided to take things easy so we just took a different route about to the center and then left. We wanted to reach the dead sea before dusk so we left Petra behind, packed our stuff and headed back north where we had booked a room in the Mövenpick hotel. I don't remember much of the hotel, except for the staff being not very nice (in contrary to my general impression of Jordan. On my first visit to Jordan I was invited to my exgirlfriends friends home and was treated like family (shoutout to Farah and her family: Thank you!). I will always remember that evening as the birth of my love for Mansaf - Jordans national dish).

Anyhow, we wanted to go for a swim in the dead sea right after checking in - but as some stuff went wrong at the hotel we weren't allowed to swim in the dead sea any more. Bummer. Instead we went to one of the infinity pools and then had some dinner before heading back to our room and going to bed.

The next morning started early: We wanted to go and swim in the dead sea! Which we did this time. It wasn't my first time so I knew what to expect.. swimming with incredible buoyancy! No matter what you do, drowning is simply impossible. You can even lie on your stomach and your face wouldn't touch the water. Don't miss out on this when ever you get the chance, whether it's in Jordan or in Israel. Fun fact: According to my knowledge the dead sea is the lowest point on earth at about 430m below sea level.

After bathing we had breakfast and then packed our stuff and left the hotel to head towards a nearby canyon (you know me.. canyoning is my passion). I had to convince David to join as he was really exhausted and his legs were in pain from all that walking - but I managed. This canyon was pretty easy going though. Just a little swimming and climbing, mainly just walking through ankle- to knee-deep water. After about an hour or so we reached the end where we had a short rest (poor old man) before heading back. On the way back we floated downstream most of the way which was a bit painful at times (due to the shallow waters and sharp rocks underneath the surface.. I still have a few scars from that). Back at the car we dried our clothes and then drove to Amman, Jordans capital.

We managed to meet up with Farah for some Mansaf in Amman the evening (YAAAY!) and she even took some time to show us some beautiful locations in the capital. We had a really nice evening together and then headed back to our hotel - one last night in Jordan.

We slept long and checked out of the hotel last minute, just in time to get back to the airport and fly back to Kuwait together.

This was one really exhausting journey - worth every step we took!

I will always remember Jordan as a place of hospitality and friendliness.