I Looked Over Jordan And What Did I See?

We spent 2 days in Damascus, which I think would have to be my favourite Middle Eastern city so far in this trip. On our second day we did a day trip to Bosra, which turned out to be much more complicated to get to than we first thought. Part of this was due to the fact that we had been so late to bed the night before (after our night out with Wisam / Yamen) that I didn't get up when the alarm went off, so we missed the bus. Instead, we had to get then 2 minibuses to go there, one to Deraa first (and that bus was full, so we ended up on the dodgy flip out seats which absolutely killed our backs), and then the bus to Bosra.

Bosra is where the largest free standing Roman amphitheatre is, and in its heyday it could accommodate 15000 people. This amphitheatre is so well preserved, that it is absolutely breath-taking to see - because you enter it by climbing up some stairs (in the darkness) and then as daylight breaks through, you open out smack bang in the middle of this huge auditorium. They still use it today too, because they were staging a Summer Festival there when we visited, and were holding sound checks for the African choir and music groups who would perform that evening.

There was however not much else to see in Bosra - we did walk briefly around the ruins but to be fair, they are not in a very good state (and therefore not of much interest unfortunately to someone suffering from ABRR syndrome). The only really interesting thing for me about them was that they were made of black stone, unlike all the others we've seen, which were white or limestone like.

So we got the bus back to Damascus and then spent the afternoon wandering the souqs buying scarves and stuff. I got some nice ones too!

We went to the internet cafe in the souq to try and find out some information on Israel, to see if it was safe to go there - but this being Syria, and the Syrians being sworn enemies of Israel - every single website with the word 'Israel' mentioned in it was blocked, so we couldn't find anything out. So we went back to the hostel for hopefully an early evening because again we would have an early start - tomorrow we were getting the bus to Jordan.

In our dorm was a German guy who was going to Amman too, so we shared a taxi with him to the bus station which was on the other side of Damascus. He was a very interesting guy and we enjoyed chatting with him throughout the journey to Jordan (plus he was easy on the eye so hey, that's a bonus). Amman is actually not that far from Damascus, but the border control took a little while - especially as the at the Jordan border the customs guy looked at the wrong (last year's) visa and then told us we had to go queue up elsewhere to get a visa - but we sorted it out and then were on our way. At the Jordanian border control we had to display our luggage like we did in Turkey, but the guy didn't really check anyone's stuff - and then we were off.

I had for the past few weeks been in contact with Ihsan, who was our tour guide last year when we were in Jordan, in the hopes that we might be able to meet with him for a coffee or something. Whilst we were at border control he phoned us, and we were able to make arrangements to meet him at the bus station when we arrived. It was soooo lovely to see a familar, friendly face!

Ihsan was a real gem, he helped us find a hotel for the night, took us to a nice restaurant for lunch, and then drove us around to see the views of the city from King Hussein II park. It was truly lovely. They have this great display there which is basically the history of Jordan, with all the important sites represented in either miniature, or in a special display, it was really amazing. My favourite was the mini Jerash they had set up, representing it with a miniature of the ruins. It was very cool.

The next day Ihsan convinced us (we didn't really need much convincing though to be fair) to go back to the Dead Sea for a day of relaxation. After all this mad travel, we really needed it, and it was just fabulous to be able to chill out (in the heat hehehe) by the water. En route to the Dead Sea we stopped off at the place where Jesus was baptised by John. It was really very special to be able to go to this place, particularly as not far from there too is the place where Elijah was taken up to heaven in the chariot.

At the baptism site

In the Jordan river

Relaxing in the Dead Sea

We very much enjoyed our day at the Dead Sea, and then Ihsan had a surprise for us. His family wanted to meet us, and so he took us back to his place for coffee with his mother, sister, wife and kids. They are a lovely family and it was really very special to be able to meet with them, they were so generous in their hospitality, giving us gifts that they had made, making us a gorgeous dinner, and generally just making us feel so welcome. We came away feeling very touched.

What lovely people the Jordanians are!