Sunday 28 April 2013

Beirut baby!

Beirut is soo much more chilled out and relaxed than Jordan, so we really enjoyed our night out clubbing til dawn at B018, with a few bars beforehand of course!















Red or dead?

Well Red Sea if you want to dive!!

I managed to do 4 dives - 2 from the shore and 2 from the very luxurious boat - we even got to try out their new jet ski











Thursday 25 April 2013

Wadi Rum and the deserted desert camp

After Petra we followed the well worn travellers path to Wadi Rum on our way to Aqaba and stayed overnight at the Oasis desert camp.

Jordan seems to be very quiet at the moment re: tourists and so we found we were the only people at the camp - we had 2 members of staff looking after each of us!

We did a 3 hour jeep tour around the wadi - we saw some amazing stone bridges, enormous sand dunes and ancient inscriptions which used to help guide the camel caravans to the best places to stay.

The desert is wonderful and quiet until the camp next door started up with some dubious music! We appreciated the sunset over the jebels and some star gazing before tucking ourselves up in the tent - luckily it was toasty and warm!

The following day we managed to negotiate a ride to Aqaba from the highway - public transport in Jordan isn't easy if you don't speak Arabic!























Jordanian food (or what Katie ate!)

We managed to try the national dishes of Jordan - and a few more!

Hummus and falafel of course! on the first night at the Amman institution that is Hasheems

Mansaf, chicken on rice with almonds and a goat yoghurt sauce (not so sure about this one!) in Amman

Kofta with tomato sauce and stuffed eggplants and courgettes in Petra with the Valley Star owner Ibrahim

Maglob or upside down dish - similar to a biriyani with fried chicken and vegetables with the rice piled on top for cooking and then turned over to serve - just what we needed in the desert camp in Wadi Rum

Sayadeh which is fish served with very tasty rice and a tomato sauce - we enjoyed this one in Aqaba.











Sunday 21 April 2013

Petra day 2

Today we hiked up above the Royal Tombs to get the best view over the Treasury - spectacular!!












Saturday 20 April 2013

Petra day 1

Welcome to Petra!




The siq

First glimpse of the Treasury






The amazing monastery

Friday 19 April 2013

Crusader Castles and secret passages!

We visited the castles at Karak and Shobak with loads of exciting passageways to explore and even a secret escape route!