The Dead Sea and the Dead Heath(and more on Syria)

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  Amman, Jordan
Monday, September 1, 2008

So it finally happened.  One of us is under the weather!  We're not sure how it happened, or when exactly it happened, but suddenly, and without a doubt, it happened.

And for once it isn't Jess. 

Today we flew into Amman after our guide Bashar drove us to the airport in Damascus.  Along the way he was so kind to bring us to a lookout point that allows you to view much of Damascus.  The sun was just coming up and the city was entirely dark due to a power outage.  It was surreal and beautiful and the perfect enchanted ending to a magical trip.  The power started to come on just as we were standing on the top of a large cliff and we were able to watch the whole city come to life from the darkness as Arab pop blared from people's stereos. 

Floating....

Syria really comes to life at night and there was still tons of people out at 4:30 am.  It made us realize just how much we are going to miss this place for so many reasons.  We were slightly concerned about coming to a country that is portrayed so negatively in Western media, but I can honestly say that most of what we hear about Syria is complete propaganda and a lot of it is outright lies.  This country is BEAUTIFUL.  It definately has its issues, such as litter and the landscape takes a while to grow on you, but just like the clothing on a person, its underneath where the true beauty lies.  I really dont know if I have raved enough about the people here, but now that we are in Amman which is a more Westernized city, I find myself already longing for a Syrian gentleman to invite us into his ancient shop for tea and a look at his carpets, "no pressure to buy", and the usual friendly banter that goes on..."Where are you from? Where in Canada? Ah....I have a sister/cousin/auntie/cat there.....what is your job?  How long in Syria?  You speak very good Arabic (after simply telling them your name, hello, recognizing a number or saying goodbye)".  The hospitality of the people there is genuine which is so humbling considering how poorly their country is portrayed by our side of the world.  They didn't hold this against us though and were as curious about us as we were about them.  It was a mutual learning experience a lot of the time, and the rest of the time we sat in awe of the ancient ruins, the guides who loved their jobs and their country and showed so much enthusiasm for the history, and of course of the food

Almost there!

.  I am now convinced that mint is the new salt and pepper and lentils are the new potatoes....although there are plenty of those around there too :)  

So...now here we are in Amman, a city very different than Damascus or Aleppo and familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.  To be honest, after where we've been we're not all that impressed with it.  We stopped at a huge McDonalds on our way to the Dead Sea and instead walked down the block for Falafel cause we just couldn't do it.  For a variety of reasons....
To be fair though we really haven't seen that much of the city though as we took a bus from the airport, got charged too much for a cab (we think...I tried to haggle but at that point it was noon, we had been up since 4:30 and hadn't had breakfast...and had few options), and there is not too much immediately around our hotel except for one of the main mosques in the city.  There is also a MASSIVE construction project going up in the middle of downtown which makes it hard to know what exactly this city wants.  On one hand you still see traditional life, but on the other hand it is almost like they are trying to compete with Dubai for a luxury destination...and to be honest its already expensive enough here!!

So...as we were not that taken with the place, we headed to the Dead Sea for the afternoon

Lowest point on earth

!  We hired a cab for a few hours and he drove us an hour to the Dead Sea.  We payed a bit more to get into a private beach as we weren't too keen on going in almost fully dressed at the public beach and we really wanted a pool afterwards.  We book floated for a while and struggled to put our feet on the sea floor (you are THAT boyant there) and both tasted just a bit of the water on our finger tips just to see if it really does burn....and it does.  Afterwards we headed back to the hotel, met our new group and called it a night.

As I mentioned earlier, Heath is not 100% but we both think he'll pull through tomorrow or the next day.  He's getting my full nursing attention right now as well as sympathy from 11 people he has met for 5 minutes...so much so in fact that one group member passed on some wicked "blackage" tablets that seem to have done the trick, and knocked him out completely so I could come blog :) 

We are off to Petra tomorrow for two days....will try to blog there but everything is apparently 3 times the price, so if that includes internet it may have to wait!!

Also, we have unfortunately misplaced our camera cord so we can't upload any more pictures!!!  We are hoping it will turn up, and if not we'll try to get another one in Cairo.

We are thinking about everyone lots and thank everyone who's left us comments and messages!  We LOVE reading them!!

Hope you are all well :) 

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See? Really low

Still floating

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