Photos : Jordan
Click on the picture below to see some shots of our trip in Jordan :
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| Jordan |
The Holy Land : to the Est of the Jordan river.
Back in Jordan, we started our visit with Amman. Taking each individual building separately one would hardly call it a beautiful town, but the fact that they spread across several hills and they have a homogeneous coloring adds a certain charm to the whole. A few Roman remains, dating from a time when the place was known as Philadelphia, also embellish it.
It is the kind of town that I love visiting. Walking around downtown we passed in front of a mosque where day labourers waited, tools in hand, for an employer to show up. We walked next to fresh and dry fruit stalls, herbalist's, bakeries, coffee mills, butcher's shops, barber's. In a side street we found a shop selling sexy underwear, while a bit further another one sold traditional clothes and kefis. Between the tiny perfume and lottery stalls, we stopped for a freshly squeezed juice in a refreshment shop and then went to eat some falafel and humus at 'Hachem’s',a no-frills restaurant that is so famous that it has become a landmark within the capital.
We moved then south to Aqaba, by the Red Sea, for a last dive before returning home. I must say that both the fauna and the temperature did not measure up to the Komodo National Park in Indonesia. The worst was that there were enough plastic cups and plates on the sea bottom to serve diner to a full army. We enjoyed better the night life. As soon as the sun set and the heat became tolerable, everybody headed for the beach : to bathe, to smoke on water pipes, to ride a camel or, in the case of a group of guys from Oman, to dance to the rhythm of popular music, dressed in traditional clothes up to their sabers.
We moved then south to Aqaba, by the Red Sea, for a last dive before returning home. I must say that both the fauna and the temperature did not measure up to the Komodo National Park in Indonesia. The worst was that there were enough plastic cups and plates on the sea bottom to serve diner to a full army. We enjoyed better the night life. As soon as the sun set and the heat became tolerable, everybody headed for the beach : to bathe, to smoke on water pipes, to ride a camel or, in the case of a group of guys from Oman, to dance to the rhythm of popular music, dressed in traditional clothes up to their sabers.
We also did a little incursion into the Wadi Rum desert, an amazing landscape that hosted Lawrence of Arabia and where one of the Indiana Jones films was shot. The place is really beautiful and the experience is worth it, even when the calm night under the stars we were expecting turned into a big noisy event. As it happened, it was the week-end and the camp had organized a big party that draw plenty of people from the capital. They wished certainly to experience the beauty of the desert, but overall they seemed interested in the dance and the food.
The party followed us to Petra, where we spent a couple of days walking around the remains of the Nabatean capital. It is easy to imagine, while walking around the historical site, how magnificent it must have been before being devastated by a couple of earthquakes and abandoned by all except a few Bedouins. The nights were differently filled, among the music of nearby weddings and the muezzins' calls to prayer, surely not wanting to be less that their Indonesian colleagues, showed enviable energy at such an early hour.
We spent the last two days in Madaba, conveniently situated between Amman airport and the Dead Sea. Madaba is Jordan's Christian town and has a few old mosaics and Byzantine churches, plus weddings as noisy as in Petra.
It is a really funny experience to swim in the Dead Sea. You feel as if you were made of wood : you can not sink even when you try to. Better this way, since the water is so salty that a single drop in your eyes stings really bad. And if by any chance it touches your lips you think you are drinking battery liquid. To make the most of it, I wrapped-up myself in Red Sea clay, which is supposed to have a few beneficial properties and make your skin baby-smooth.
So, at the end, even if we chose to include Jordan in our itinerary only because it was convenient stop-over between Southeast Asia and London, it has revealed to be a great decision. It has been one of the highlights of our trip, and a very good way to finish it : already tasting a bit of home and Mediterranean summer but still quite different.
It has been a long return journey. First a stop in London where we had the chance to see Neil and Natasa, friends that date back to the time we were living in Strasbourg. A second stop in Marrakesh, enough time to wave hello to the Koutoubia and we are now and finally on board of the train that will drop us in Casablanca.
The party followed us to Petra, where we spent a couple of days walking around the remains of the Nabatean capital. It is easy to imagine, while walking around the historical site, how magnificent it must have been before being devastated by a couple of earthquakes and abandoned by all except a few Bedouins. The nights were differently filled, among the music of nearby weddings and the muezzins' calls to prayer, surely not wanting to be less that their Indonesian colleagues, showed enviable energy at such an early hour.
We spent the last two days in Madaba, conveniently situated between Amman airport and the Dead Sea. Madaba is Jordan's Christian town and has a few old mosaics and Byzantine churches, plus weddings as noisy as in Petra.
It is a really funny experience to swim in the Dead Sea. You feel as if you were made of wood : you can not sink even when you try to. Better this way, since the water is so salty that a single drop in your eyes stings really bad. And if by any chance it touches your lips you think you are drinking battery liquid. To make the most of it, I wrapped-up myself in Red Sea clay, which is supposed to have a few beneficial properties and make your skin baby-smooth.
So, at the end, even if we chose to include Jordan in our itinerary only because it was convenient stop-over between Southeast Asia and London, it has revealed to be a great decision. It has been one of the highlights of our trip, and a very good way to finish it : already tasting a bit of home and Mediterranean summer but still quite different.
It has been a long return journey. First a stop in London where we had the chance to see Neil and Natasa, friends that date back to the time we were living in Strasbourg. A second stop in Marrakesh, enough time to wave hello to the Koutoubia and we are now and finally on board of the train that will drop us in Casablanca.
Bea.
Photos : Israël and Palestine
Click on the picture below to see some pictures of our trip in Isrraël and Palestine :
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| Israel - Palestine |
The Holy Land : to the west of the Jordan river
Step by step, we reached the last stop of our trip. We can hardly believe that almost a year has passed since we left Paris, happy to have the chance to roam freely around the world ! We have certainly missed our friends and family and we long to see them, but the truth is that we would not mind leaving again to follow a different itinerary, after taking a little break for a month. Far from helping us get over the travel fever, this journey has increased our thirst for it.
Since Jerusalem is quite close to Amman and one of Karim's cousins lives in the outskirts of Tel-Aviv, we decided to split the 15 days left among Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Getting to our destination in Israel across the Jordan river and the West-Bank took us a full day. The trip involved several steps, as well as a rather long and tedious border crossing to Israeli. The process which is usually rather tiresome, was extra-long for Karim due to his Arab name, his Moroccan nationality and maybe his beard.
Israel is a multicultural nation, thanks to all the Jews that have come from all around the world. It is a developed country with good health and public transport systems and everything is quite expensive, with prices close to those of West European countries. As for the cities, while walking the back streets of Tel-Aviv, we had the felt to be somewhere in Spain or Morocco.
But in spite of the variety of the immigration, Israel still looks like many other countries in the area. Most basic restaurants serve the same kind of food as in the surrounding countries : hummus, eggplant paste, salads, olives, veggies marinated in vinegar, falafel, kebab and skewers (of course, in kosher version). Market stalls are packed with fresh produce such as tomatoes, eggplants, prickly pears, figs, peaches, raisins, dates and enormous watermelons.
In the street, we crossed many people able to speak Spanish, French, English, Russian and many other languages. On the other hand, most of the written stuff, including menus in most restaurants, is written only in Hebrew characters (looked like Chinese for me). In the streets, we came across a lot of Orthodox Jews in traditional clothes (that I find original, but not the prettiest in the world). There are also a lot of youngsters doing their military service. At the beginning, it was almost fun to see so many boys and girls, younger than my nephews, walking with rifles while shopping around. But after a couple of days it started to be irritating to see weapons everywhere and to have to go through a metal detector each time you are entering a public building, either a mall or a bus station.
Tel-Aviv offered the sight of a white sand beach and the charming little town of Jaffa. Karim's cousin, her family and neighbors were so welcoming and fed us with so much couscous, tajines and other delights that in just a few days, we put on back part of the weight we have lost during our journey. Through their anecdotes, we learnt many things about the life in this part of the world.
In Jerusalem, I felt that every single stone has some historical meaning and is venerated and coveted by the three big monotheist religions as well as by their many subdivisions : the Wailing Wall, the Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorosa, etc. It is a pretty town, well preserved, full of little streets, full of shops that reflect all the business around religion : you can buy crucifixes, crosses, Fatima eyes or hands, David stars and many other religious trinkets or anything with the smallest oriental flair. West Jerusalem is jewish, including a full Orthodox neighborhood where everybody dresses in black and white. East Jerusalem is Palestinian.
To get to the Mount of Olives and enjoy the panoramic views over the old city, we changed from the 'Jewish' bus to the 'Arab' one. We did not understand why some people riding the first one made a fuss about the dangers of going up there. In our case, we felt exactly like anywhere else in town. Maybe the place where we seemed less welcomed was the Orthodox neighborhood, since the inhabitants are fed up with tourists cruising around and taking pictures of them. It is true that their dress code is so photogenic that you would love to flash your camera around continuously.
We did not visit a lot of Palestine, since the time was short. We spent just some time in East-Jerusalem and we crossed the West-Bank on our way out to Jordan. From the little experience we got, Palestinians have more patience than the Saint Job, waiting for hours at check points, enduring the military presence in their territories and a foreign government imposing on them whatever he feels like.
Of course, we can not pretend to understand the complexities of the area, as we stayed there just for 6 days. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to visit it and see by myself these places that are mentioned so often in the news since I was a baby. I hope to go back there one day to visit more Israel, spend some time in Palestine and also in the neighboring countries.
Bea.
Since Jerusalem is quite close to Amman and one of Karim's cousins lives in the outskirts of Tel-Aviv, we decided to split the 15 days left among Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Getting to our destination in Israel across the Jordan river and the West-Bank took us a full day. The trip involved several steps, as well as a rather long and tedious border crossing to Israeli. The process which is usually rather tiresome, was extra-long for Karim due to his Arab name, his Moroccan nationality and maybe his beard.
Israel is a multicultural nation, thanks to all the Jews that have come from all around the world. It is a developed country with good health and public transport systems and everything is quite expensive, with prices close to those of West European countries. As for the cities, while walking the back streets of Tel-Aviv, we had the felt to be somewhere in Spain or Morocco.
But in spite of the variety of the immigration, Israel still looks like many other countries in the area. Most basic restaurants serve the same kind of food as in the surrounding countries : hummus, eggplant paste, salads, olives, veggies marinated in vinegar, falafel, kebab and skewers (of course, in kosher version). Market stalls are packed with fresh produce such as tomatoes, eggplants, prickly pears, figs, peaches, raisins, dates and enormous watermelons.
In the street, we crossed many people able to speak Spanish, French, English, Russian and many other languages. On the other hand, most of the written stuff, including menus in most restaurants, is written only in Hebrew characters (looked like Chinese for me). In the streets, we came across a lot of Orthodox Jews in traditional clothes (that I find original, but not the prettiest in the world). There are also a lot of youngsters doing their military service. At the beginning, it was almost fun to see so many boys and girls, younger than my nephews, walking with rifles while shopping around. But after a couple of days it started to be irritating to see weapons everywhere and to have to go through a metal detector each time you are entering a public building, either a mall or a bus station.
Tel-Aviv offered the sight of a white sand beach and the charming little town of Jaffa. Karim's cousin, her family and neighbors were so welcoming and fed us with so much couscous, tajines and other delights that in just a few days, we put on back part of the weight we have lost during our journey. Through their anecdotes, we learnt many things about the life in this part of the world.
In Jerusalem, I felt that every single stone has some historical meaning and is venerated and coveted by the three big monotheist religions as well as by their many subdivisions : the Wailing Wall, the Holy Sepulcher, the Via Dolorosa, etc. It is a pretty town, well preserved, full of little streets, full of shops that reflect all the business around religion : you can buy crucifixes, crosses, Fatima eyes or hands, David stars and many other religious trinkets or anything with the smallest oriental flair. West Jerusalem is jewish, including a full Orthodox neighborhood where everybody dresses in black and white. East Jerusalem is Palestinian.
To get to the Mount of Olives and enjoy the panoramic views over the old city, we changed from the 'Jewish' bus to the 'Arab' one. We did not understand why some people riding the first one made a fuss about the dangers of going up there. In our case, we felt exactly like anywhere else in town. Maybe the place where we seemed less welcomed was the Orthodox neighborhood, since the inhabitants are fed up with tourists cruising around and taking pictures of them. It is true that their dress code is so photogenic that you would love to flash your camera around continuously.
We did not visit a lot of Palestine, since the time was short. We spent just some time in East-Jerusalem and we crossed the West-Bank on our way out to Jordan. From the little experience we got, Palestinians have more patience than the Saint Job, waiting for hours at check points, enduring the military presence in their territories and a foreign government imposing on them whatever he feels like.
Of course, we can not pretend to understand the complexities of the area, as we stayed there just for 6 days. Nevertheless, it was very interesting to visit it and see by myself these places that are mentioned so often in the news since I was a baby. I hope to go back there one day to visit more Israel, spend some time in Palestine and also in the neighboring countries.
Bea.
