Those that know me know that I love a bit of pedantry. I especially love pedantry with deep historical roots to quietly have in place while one side yells and screams and is proven wrong if they simply looked with their eyes at what is plain in front of their face.
A new layer to the pedantry I admire so much: add Pope John Paul II. That's right - one side called in dad.
I bring you the Site of Jesus' baptism.
"But Jesus wouldn't approve of the pedantry!" you say, probably clutching your pearls.
You're wrong, I say. Jesus loved pedantry. Do I need to remind you about the ten commandments and what happens to those who disobey? Also Leviticus. Also Exodus. Also Revelations. Also most of the bible.
The pedantry in question dates back to the Madaba mosaic map from the 6th Century AD. This map places the site where John the Baptist lived on locusts and honey until Jesus came to be baptised by him in an area described as "Bethany beyond the Jordan". This has stood as being accepted and canon for eons until a re-drawing of borders in 1994 and Israel decided it was on their side of the River Jordan. Millions of pilgrims of several religions over millions of years disagree, but you do you Israel.
We arrived at the site and it isn't anything spectacular. There are churches along the way and so, so many flies. The path to the actual site is nice and shaded, which is a welcome change. There has been a modest amount of money put into this effort, something Jesus would approve of. The actual side is cordoned off and - most importantly for pedants - is set back from the river, or is "beyond the Jordan", as the bible words it.
The argument between where it is officially has raged on and on between Jordan and Israel. The area was in a heavily militarized zone until 1994. After it was demilitarized more evidence was found that pointed to this being the actual site where Jesus was baptised. In 2000, Pope John Paul II came to visit and this made it official as far as churches and godly people are concerned.
The Pope did pope things along side King Abdullah II of Jordan and his wife, Queen Noor.
Appropriately enough, this is a mosaic. It was all done by local artisans and is absolutely amazing.
The border with Israel in this area is two meters. The actual border floats in the River Jordan.
This is a mostly peaceful border but don't think crossing it will be easy; on the Jordan side are armed military and we're told the same is on the Israel side. Our guide also tells us how there are families - primarily Palestinians - who will stand on this dock area while their other family members stand on the other side and talk to each other over WhatsApp. They can't come closer or be reunited for various political reasons and it is kind of heartbreaking.
Not to be outdone by some humble structures, Israel has built an entire visitor's centre on the other side. On the day we visited, there were Christians playing music and being baptised.
Millions of dollars have been spent on this site in the hopes that money will make it official but UNESCO also says Jordan is the clear winner here.
Me? I'm going with UNESCO.
To give a visual example of how close these two countries are.
Next: cows and bees and not all who wander are lost.
Jordan is a religiously significant area. There's no getting around this. It is significant to all three major religions in the world for various reasons. It is also fairly significant for geopolitical reasons too, but today is about religion.
Sodom and Gomorrah in the bible are generally regarded as probably not the best places. Millions of years later, here we are in 2022 with sodomy laws on the books world wide pertaining to a particular sex act. The story generally goes that these two towns were lawless and sinful, absolutely wicked. Bad in so many biblical ways. So bad, in fact, that God struck them down. The righteous were given a chance to leave and never turn back. Lot's wife turned back and became a pillar of salt, thus creating the salinity when God smashed his fist down to destroy the cities and flood them.
Or it is a result of prehistoric continuous flooding from the Mediterranean Sea along the Rift Valley and sustained by ever changing tectonics. The salinity is more or less due to the geological make up of the area.
Y'know, dealer's choice.
Either way this was a lesson in Jaee Follows Directions. The trip notes state that at Jordan is a primarily Muslim country, one should dress conservatively. It is recommended that women bring a pair of capris and a t-shirt to the Dead Sea. This is exactly what I did. I was the only one.
You can also cover yourself in mud from the Dead Sea that is supposed to be good for your skin. If nothing else it makes for an interesting picture.
Our first Instagrammer! This woman's long suffering companion spent 10 minutes photographing this pose and ever so slight variations.
She stopped every five or so frames to check and then went back to the same pose.
The Dead Sea is 10 times saltier than the ocean. This means two things: you are very, very buoyant, and if you've ever scratched any part of your body in your life, you will have regrets. Ask me how I know.
My buoyant self kept flipping over, so the Dead Sea nearly became very literal. My legs were stinging from where they itched last week so it was probably best I got out of the water anyway.
Our first day in Amman I spent mostly napping. It had been a long couple of days and apparently I needed the rest. This is fine because Day 1 on G Adventures tours is always an arrival day with nothing scheduled until later in the afternoon for our first briefing.
Because of my travel schedule, I booked an extra night. I arrive at the hotel at probably 2330, wild-eyed and exhausted. The lobby is bright and busy. The front desk staff is very friendly and informs me I've got an upgrade and my share will be joining me. Awesome. I take this to mean that I have a better view or a quieter location. Oh no.
We meet for our first briefing and we go out to our first dinner where we learn a few things:
1) Lemon mint is the most amazing drink ever. It is exactly how it sounds, blended together. It is perfect and tonight we have the first of many.
2) "Vegetable platter" most likely means rice, vegetables, and a lamb chop. This is not a vegetarian dish. We don't want to insult the Jordanians by asking for it without the lamb chop so we just don't order it.
3) Menus are very literal. "Platter of tomatoes" means a dish of warmed, seasoned tomatoes. That's it. Ask me how I know.
4) Pita bread is life.
The following day we head to Jerash. This is an ancient city that reflects how a lot of Jordan is.
Over the centuries, many empires ruled this area. Neolithic, Greeks, Romans, Byzantine, and Ottoman to name a few. This place is old. It is very old. It is also not well preserved because it has no protection; despite all logic, it should be a UNESCO site. Because it is not and because history, the site remains mostly uncovered and built upon by the modern city of Jerash. Our guide lets us know that what we will see today is about 30% of what it once was. Over time the locals have pillaged the site and used the building materials (sandstone) for their own homes. It hasn't been excavated as much as it should because archaeologists are expensive, yo.
This area has a real sense of place. You get the feeling that you're somewhere important, somewhere actually ancient; not in a place that's been sanitized to look ancient. You actually feel that you're walking in the footsteps of people from 5 BCE.
The first thing we're greeted with is Hadrian's Arch. Obviously built by the Romans to honour Hadrian, the emperor of the time.
Inside the arch we see the Temple of Zeus and the hippodrome. Apparently an episode of Top Gear was filmed at the hippodrome with some fast cars and some dude. Clearly not a UNESCO site.
Temple of Zeus.
This is not the largest temple on the site. That would be the Temple of Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt. This temple is in a much higher and more prominent spot. The people of Jerash cared more about the hunt and prosperity than they did the king of gods.
As with most Greco Roman cities, there is a plaza at Jerash. What's unique about this plaza is that it is ovular - it is designed for efficiency. You don't need to go around the entire plaza to get to where you're going. There is a north-southand an east-west thoroughfare that you can use to cut through. Do you think I was smart enough to get pictures of this? Because I wasn't.
Further in is a theatre that can seat 5000 people. The steps up to the top are very steep - steep enough that this fat and top heavy girl needs to slide on her butt to get down.
The theatre has really excellent acoustics that many concert halls and arenas could learn a thing or 12 from.
Inside the theatre is a man with the Jordanian military who walked around playing Scotland the Brave on his bagpipes. Apparently the Jordanians (and possibly by extension, all Arabs? I vaguely recall this but it was hot and I am still in awe of where I am so my listening skills aren't the best) adopted the bagpipes because colonialism. At any rate, this is the brownest person I've ever seen touch a set of bagpipes, let alone operate them.
Tomorrow: learning lessons about following directions.
This is another boring post about the actual ins and outs of travel.
I'm someone who loves airports. Genuinely. I love how they move, the energy, the life. I love all the different amenities offered in different places (and what some consider an amenity). I love the art. I love how an airport is a tiny capsule of the city you're in as if they're aware that this may be your only interaction with this city so why not make a good impression? I have cities I would like to visit simply because their airports are top notch.
SeaTac is not one of those airports. It is a brutalist hellscape. The website promises light and art and a Pearl Jam exhibit. It boasts about being the Best Airport in North America according to Skytrax. These things are all lies. I firmly believe they paid off whoever was surveyed for Skytrax.
Navigating this airport is very difficult. There are few to no wayfaring markers or signs. There are two train loops (to be fair, the train is speedy) to get to the other side of the airport but they really lead nowhere. Finding somewhere to eat is nigh on impossible. If you want a charging port, good luck - I walked every available inch of that airport and found five. Most of the retail and dining options are in a terminal that is a 10 minute walk from the last train stop on either loop. You really earn your US $19 Impossible burger! Finding your gate is even worse - the terminals are labelled very differently from the actual gates. Thankfully the staff is helpful and seems quite accustomed to these kinds of questions. And the Pearl Jam exhibit? I think I may have found it before security but I have no idea. There was a wall with album art by a local artist that I've never seen, that all had to do with Pearl Jam.
The flight I'm taking to Doha has an hour and a half to connect. That's not a lot of time and when we somehow lose half an hour in the air it becomes even less. I'm not allowing myself to stress out because that won't help anyone. I've been assured that there is enough time (their minimum connection time is in the neighbourhood of 50 minutes for an international flight). Breathe and trust the process.
It doesn't take long to figure out why there is such a narrow MCT - you don't get a passport stamp in Doha. If you are only transiting and not leaving the airport, you do not get a visa. Fair enough, I guess but I do love my passport stamps. A quick jaunt through security and I'm in an airport fully decked out for FIFA World Cup. It is a big and airy airport with excellent wayfaring and people movement. Efficient to a fault. Clean and somehow bright but eternally dusk at the same time. It's not long before I'm off to Amman!
I don't have a lot to say about the Amman airport. The inbound corridors are designed to keep you on a path to customs and immigration and they do a great job of that. There is a curious sign directing those coming in for medical tourism in one direction but we'll get to that eventually. The one thing I will say as a positive is that when you get into the arrivals hall there are several kiosks you can buy a sim card from. They're not fly by night places either, they're from the same mobile providers that Jordanians use every day. The pricing is unbelievably cheap and the staff is excellent.
After China I learned that if there is an airport transfer available from the tour company (and you don't speak the language well enough/feel comfortable enough to navigate a cab), take it. I met my driver and set out for a night time drive through Amman to get to my hotel on the opposite side of the city.
The lead up to this trip has a lot of twists and turns. Initially I was to fly Calgary - Toronto - Doha - Amman on Qatar Airways. This was cancelled by the airline and I was offered a refund and compensation (are you paying attention, Canada?). I chose to rebook Seattle - Doha - Amman because I still wanted to fly Qatar and hey - I work for an airline and I love adventure! I can get to Seattle!
The plan to fly direct to Seattle was kiboshed by my own cheapness. I didn't want to pay full fair or 50% off to get there so I flew standby to Vancouver. The hope was to get to Vancouver on one of the earlier flights and catch a bus to Seattle. There was a small buffer built in to this plan to catch any one of three flights to Vancouver. I ended up on the first one which was great - but my bag was on the second one. It was only about an hour later but man that sucked; it reduced my bus options by half. By the time my bag got to Vancouver an hour or so later, I was confused with all my contingency plans and got on the wrong Skytrain. Instead of taking the bus to Seattle, Google Maps got me well and lost through a seedy park in a construction zone under an overpass to get to a train station. At the train station, there are two bus options and the train itself. The train station was very poorly signed and instead of taking the bus, I ended up on a train.
The upside of being on a train is that they are HUGE. They also generally take scenic routes through the back sides of towns you don't normally see. When they get to a station, there is no room for nonsense - you're either there and on the train or you're not. The downside is they take over an hour to go about 4 km inside city limits. They also have shitty wifi.
My birthday always lands on or around an election in the US. This is odd to me but then again so is their entire election system. That said, I do like the placement of ballot drop boxes at transit stations.
I didn't want to get a closer/better picture of it because it is dark and Americans are kind of crazy when it comes to politics. I was honestly surprised there weren't people out there blocking access/protesting/"protecting" it with guns. I don't support the insanity but I do support the access.
At this point, it's about 2230 and it starts to Seattle - it is now drizzling and all I would like to do is get to a bed. Google maps once again gets me lost on what should be a fairly straight path to a hotel. To be fair, it does get me on a straight path that would work either two weeks before my trip or in another year or so: it leads me to a road blocked by construction. It's a dang conspiracy to get me to take a cab. I manage to find my way to the hotel and get a good night's sleep and breakfast.
