Friday, November 10, 2006
4/11 Long Day, Long Roads...
Left Petra early (7.30am) and drove right through to Krak Castle. This left me cold. I've seen much better castles, with better guides and info. Maybe it was just me. The guide was a camera freak wanting to know the brands of everyone's cameras and wanting us to take pictures contsantly of things we didn't think worthy. He even took the camera off some of the group. Weird guy - lucky we knew how to laugh...
Stopped at a (Jordanian version of a) truck stop for lunch. The others had what looked like very interesting spinach stuffed toasted pita. I've been very careful with food if there is no toilet in sight so stuck to boiled egg and pita snaffled from breakfast. There was a bakehouse at the truck stop and they were baking pita. Very interesting. The pita dough balls were run through a roller and came out looking like pizza bases - one guy fed them through, another caught them and threw them onto a wooden tray - 6 to a tray. Another guy would then throw them into a wood fired oven. As they cooked the air caught inside expanded and puffed them up - which is why they have pockets when you buy them. The 4th guy stacked the cooked fresh pita bread in piles for selling. One of our group was taking photos and was offered a turn at catching the dough out of the roller and throwing it onto the wiiden trays. It looks easy til you try - he made a complete hash of it - dropping two and crushing the others with clumsy catches. Very, very hard in real life!
Next stop today was The Dead Sea - Highlight of my day. We had a swim. You had to walk out through the mud into the deeper water - sometimes calf deep. This mud is reportedly thereputic. It cvertainly stuck, smelt and stung...Once you were out in the deeper water the bouyancy was incredible. You can stand upright and float - no treading water - or lie on your back with your whole body out of the water. 30% salt and getting saltier by the day. The wadis that feed the sea are being dammed and only 10% of what traditionally fed it now enters. They are rtying to find a way to replenish the sea from either the Mediterannean or Rea Sea but current political unrest is stopping this. They think The Dead Sea will be be dry in as little as 40years wth current evaporation rates. Nothing lives in it and it tastes disgusting. The salt is so strong it stings any cuts or scratches like they were fresh and will corrode the alloy in jewellery.
We went from 1200m above sea level this morning to 300m below sea level (dead sea) to 900m above - finishing the day's sightseeing at Mt Nebo where Moses was shown the promised land by God. Great view across the Dead Sea to Isreal and the West Bank. Finished the day at a little town called Medaba - outside Amman. Not going to Amman as the traffic is so bad you never get to see the attractions in available time.
Had an amazing dinner at the 'Best Restaurant in Jordon' Haret Jdoudna - which loosely translated means "Street of the Ancestors". "Stole" a menu - just have tot ry the mezzes out at home - mushrooms braised in garlic and stuffed with haloumi...
Left Petra early (7.30am) and drove right through to Krak Castle. This left me cold. I've seen much better castles, with better guides and info. Maybe it was just me. The guide was a camera freak wanting to know the brands of everyone's cameras and wanting us to take pictures contsantly of things we didn't think worthy. He even took the camera off some of the group. Weird guy - lucky we knew how to laugh...
Stopped at a (Jordanian version of a) truck stop for lunch. The others had what looked like very interesting spinach stuffed toasted pita. I've been very careful with food if there is no toilet in sight so stuck to boiled egg and pita snaffled from breakfast. There was a bakehouse at the truck stop and they were baking pita. Very interesting. The pita dough balls were run through a roller and came out looking like pizza bases - one guy fed them through, another caught them and threw them onto a wooden tray - 6 to a tray. Another guy would then throw them into a wood fired oven. As they cooked the air caught inside expanded and puffed them up - which is why they have pockets when you buy them. The 4th guy stacked the cooked fresh pita bread in piles for selling. One of our group was taking photos and was offered a turn at catching the dough out of the roller and throwing it onto the wiiden trays. It looks easy til you try - he made a complete hash of it - dropping two and crushing the others with clumsy catches. Very, very hard in real life!
Next stop today was The Dead Sea - Highlight of my day. We had a swim. You had to walk out through the mud into the deeper water - sometimes calf deep. This mud is reportedly thereputic. It cvertainly stuck, smelt and stung...Once you were out in the deeper water the bouyancy was incredible. You can stand upright and float - no treading water - or lie on your back with your whole body out of the water. 30% salt and getting saltier by the day. The wadis that feed the sea are being dammed and only 10% of what traditionally fed it now enters. They are rtying to find a way to replenish the sea from either the Mediterannean or Rea Sea but current political unrest is stopping this. They think The Dead Sea will be be dry in as little as 40years wth current evaporation rates. Nothing lives in it and it tastes disgusting. The salt is so strong it stings any cuts or scratches like they were fresh and will corrode the alloy in jewellery.
We went from 1200m above sea level this morning to 300m below sea level (dead sea) to 900m above - finishing the day's sightseeing at Mt Nebo where Moses was shown the promised land by God. Great view across the Dead Sea to Isreal and the West Bank. Finished the day at a little town called Medaba - outside Amman. Not going to Amman as the traffic is so bad you never get to see the attractions in available time.
Had an amazing dinner at the 'Best Restaurant in Jordon' Haret Jdoudna - which loosely translated means "Street of the Ancestors". "Stole" a menu - just have tot ry the mezzes out at home - mushrooms braised in garlic and stuffed with haloumi...
# posted by The Essence of Good Taste @ 12:51 PM 
