Sat, 18th Dec 2010.
We woke up late today and rushed to get to Bfast by 6.30pm. As we are leaving Jerusalem back to Amman, Jordan today, we also had to pack our luggage!
Thankfully, we only brought 1 bag. But the HORROR is that Tufeil's 3 day diaper supply (12pcs) is finished! Cause he pooped like 3 times a day and then there were two times when he didn't poop but i still changed his diaper. So he was only down to the last piece to wear that morning.
So after breakfast, we went to the pharmacy across the street to buy one. They only have Pampers Dry Active brand and no small packet but we totally had no choice! It was also a rip off and we paid in USD.
Our 3 star hotel was actually quite decent.
The street towards the pharmacy
OF course Tufeil couldn't help but run towards some shop's fountain!
He wore two pants, two shirts and that jacket.What can I say, it's really WISE we didn't wait any longer and bought the diaper straight away. As we were just about to move off, i sensed something was wrong and he made a deposit!!! We had to hold the bus and everybody in it to go back to the hotel and wash! Jeez
It was 9am when we finally started back towards Amman border. On the way, we stopped by 3 places:
- The point of sea level,
- A masjid in the middle of the desert with tomb of Nabi Musa, and
- Jericho - the lowest city in the world.
The sea level sign cut off to the left.
Now that was my first time seeing a real life camel!! I was totalyl amazed by its sheer size! I really really really wanted to ride it but that camel guy, he said it's bad for the baby. Though I didn't quite catch what exactly he was referring to, the camel or the sun, I got put off by him. Besides, it was just a short stop anyways.
And all this mountain ranges start from BELOW the sea level
A short drive later, we arrived at the mosque
Maqam Nabi Musa.It was narrated that Propher Muhd s.a.w on his isra' journey towards Al-Aqsa mosque, off a small dirt road, saw someone praying over his own tomb and was told that is Nabi Musa. And here it is.
By now, I was thinking that all mosques and tombs look the same. And more disappointingly, not all tombs are actually real grave where the bodies rest. PLUS, I don't really know what to do, what to say or what to feel there. Remorse? Appreciative? Love? what? When Uncle Sharif read out all those prayers, I repeated after him inwardly without raised hands because I wasn't sure if this could be considered obsession and in any way lead us astray of our one god. I understood the initial doa in Arabic as to give peace and prayer to so and so... but the rest... I dont know. What added to my confusion was my mum's reluctance /nonchalance to come near the maqams.
So mainly, I only absorbed the surrounding atmosphere.
The masjid is situated in the middle of the desert. Now I can truly say I've been to the desert. and we saw a herd of camels and goats.
Tufeil finally woke up and experienced his first face to face encounter with one of his favourite animal - The Jamal.
His face was full of flies
This is just like... Whoaw.I wished we had time to go down and talk to the shepherds.
Now Jericho.
Jericho is a popular winter getaway destination among the locals. Due to the low lying position, it is not as cold as the rest of the country.
A video of us in the bus arriving at a particular Sycamore tree
This tree was where a short guy climbed up some 2000 years ago just to watch Nabi Isa passed by.
It irritates me that I couldn't .. i dont know... savour? appreciate? the history that took place there. Maybe im just not passionate about it. Sorry. Don't get me wrong... i LOVE the place, the people and everything. the now is what matters lor.
Afterwards, we reach the immigration checkpoint. Although leaving custom is not as stringent as entry, we were quite nervous. Esply when they called me in to the office. Oh my god what did i do?! The guide told me its ok just follow what the officer said. They talked something in donno what language, then asked for Tufeil's passport. I prayed hard T won't get cranky being held down to one place and upset the officers. Then the guide left the room and told me to just wait.
About 4 min later, letting T play with my passport in order to keep him entertained, she just returned the passport and off we go.
Outside, the guide distributed tickets and everyone was to get one except me. But I said thats impossible bcos even T has one. Guide insisted I don't need until Boss left with one more ticket after handing out to everybody else.
Aiyooo this guide I tell ya... We were quite relieved to say goodbye to him. He knows how to work the crowd, but after awhile, it kinda got old and overbearing. And he brought us to a lot of souvenir shops that totally bored me senseless. Ok im not being fair, he's just trying to boost his economy and some of the group did like shopping.
Anyway, Alhamdulillah everything was in order and we met with the bus we first took in Amman. having spent 3 days travelling in luxurious bus, we suddenly found this one a bit cramped, esply for T.
Our Jordanian guide couldn't be more opp than the previous one. He was cool, calm and collected w monotonous voice and not outwardly caring / eager. when he spoke he didnt even look at us. But to tell you the truth, I gave my thanks to Allah for this guide. LOL.
He told us that because we were a bit set back on time, they were getting a short cut to our first destination. and in about 30min, we reached THE DEAD SEA!!!!!
Amman beach Tourism Resort
A sign of cautionIt was funny how we alighted the bus with our jackets only to find people walking around in SHORTS! It was not very cold and the sun was blazing and people were swimming...
BUT FIRST! LUNCH! YAYYYY I love this guide now that he fed us promptly at 12nn! T was still asleep so I was happily looking at the buffet spread. I told the boss, "Now THIS is lunch!"
YUMMYYYYYY!!!!
Pasta and sauce, so many different veges
and salads
4 types of desserts that I didn't dare to sample. I heard they are very extremely sweet.
Only afterwards did I see there was Hummus! My favourite!! T woke up and took to the hummus immediately! From then on, both of us ate hummus every meal of every day! Shiok or what! T even fed himself lor... easier for me. haha
Time to get to the beach! It was a longggg walk down...
eh? where's the salt? Can't see them on this beach.
T was rearing to go and I kept telling him wait for Atok only to find out later that he's not going in cause he was wearing boots. Im not getting myself wet either. I didn't bring any extra set of clothes for T too. I felt quite sad but it would be one hell of a job to rinse off this water. So we walked away from the beach. Ayah entertained T while me and Mum checked out the stores. I bought some Dead sea products: Body scrube and mud shampoo for USD 44. Nice.
T was asleep when we arrived at this masjid that housed three sahabat's maqams. Ayah volunteered to take T while I explored inside.
First is sahabat Ja'far bin Abi Talib. there was a Ta'rif (introduction?/Background?) of this sahabat in Arabic. I spent like 10 minutes reading it but could only make out that he is Rasulullah's cousin and that he went to a war in Muktah. But after everybody gathered, the resident guide there managed to explain in halting english that he was the one who held the Islam flag in that war and hung on tight to it even with both arms slashed!
2nd sahabat is Zaid bin Harith. If I understood correctly, he became rasul's Son in Law. that's all I could figure,
We gave the third one a miss as we were pressing for time. We hurried to that souvenir shop to collect the rest of our luggaged that we stored there. and then..
Onwards to our hotel. We reached at 6pm. was totally blown away when we saw our rooms!!
Thats the door. The full lengthed mirror is the sliding door of the wardrobe.
It was almost too high for us to hang our jackets!
Opp the wardrobe are the beds...
Ahem
We joined the single beds as usual.
TV, Fridge and dresser.
Bathroom!!!!
Larsa hotel is a 3 star hotel but it looks soooooooooooo nice. So glad our room was slightly roomier than some of the other's so t could run around for a bit. There was a note to say that we could call reception for complimentary toothbrush or shaving cream should we need any. I called to ask for toothbrush but they were closed!
we went down for dinner at 7.30pm and again the look is just... beautiful... Of course the battery on my iphone had to die on me!!! But its ok pictures of the hotel were taken the next morning. Stay tuned for that.
It was a real big shame that we were just staying for one night. A lot of us said they wouldn't mind staying another night there. the only downer was, they didn't have internet available =(
Also, they had aircon here and both T and I had to resort to nasal drop to ease our blocked nose and get some sleep.
Also, they had aircon here and both T and I had to resort to nasal drop to ease our blocked nose and get some sleep.
2 glasses of Juice:
Thanks for sharing photos of your vacation. I love seeing the food, rooms, and the sights. Hope you have safe travels until you are home again.
I had to look up who Nab Isa was, as the story was familiar! Yep, good old Jesus. Funny how those stories from childhood Sunday school stick in my head.
Happy New year and keep sharing your blog!
Peace...
Hey Sandra! Happy New Year to you too!
Glad you appreciate the photos and actually read the words I wrote.
WOW! You have a good memory. I can't remember half of what I learnt in school!
Yes I will keep writing with God's will and you keep on reading yah! ;)
Post a Comment