The last trip that I took alone was a work trip when Maddy was ten months old to Vegas. So when a friend mentioned we should plan a girls trip I was on board 100%. In our planning we decided on Jordan since we can easily fly there from Saudi. It also has great spas at the Dead Sea and a full day of adventuring in Petra to round out a nice long weekend. We got a group of 5 ladies together and decided to head out!
After some airport ticketing confusion that resulted in us running in abayas through the Dammam airport with twenty minutes before our flight was scheduled to leave and some line cutting through security we were finally sitting in style in business class for our two hour flight to Jordan! I have to say that I am so lucky to have met the friends I have here, from Beth who used her super lawyer-like abilities to make sure we got on the flight to super zen Tanya who has a way of putting everything in perspective to Jolie and Kim with their lemon drops and ability to make me laugh!
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| What a fun weekend with a great group of ladies! |
Once we landed in Jordan we were met by a guide and taken through the airport in VIP style, skipping all the lines and were out in no time. A true "housewives of Al Jude 2" experience ;-)
On our journey to the Movenpick Dead Sea Resort our driver told us stories about the history of Jordan and answered our questions about modern culture and events. We visited Jordan the week after a young man was killed by ISIS and the Jordanian president precipitated in bombing known ISIS strongholds. He was knowledgeable and put our worries in perspective with assurances of how safe Jordan is. We also got to see Israel and Jericho, I didn't realize we would be so close on our tour, at one point had we just turned right in 15min we would have been in Israel. Because it was night you could see the city lights glowing.
After our smooth checkin at the Movenpick we enjoyed some local Jordanian wine and each others company. It was a great end to a rather stressful day and even though I lost a fight with my bathroom door and had a bruise we woke up no worse for wear the next morning.
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| View from our room at the Movenpick |
We spent the entire next day at the spa getting multiple treatments utilizing the nutrient rich dead sea mud. It was a real treat to enjoy the spa, have lunch, and enjoy the multiple spa facilities. Sadly the weather was too bad to actually get in the Dead Sea ourselves, the red flags were flying and we couldn't access the beach. Luckily for us the spa has dead sea water brought into one of the pools and heated so we got to experience the weightless feeling from the high salt content. It was so fun, you pop up in the water! I had read an article before we left about the threat of drowning in the dead sea and was really confused until i was in the water, I could see how a person could tire out and not be able to roll onto their back. And you'd think the water would taste like salt but it tastes awful! I can attest to this because i got some on my tongue. After a full day of pampering we headed to dinner and then enjoyed a belly dancing show in the lounge before headed to bed.
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| Sunset over the Dead Sea |
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| View from the Spa, what a beautiful resort! |
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| Our group floating in the Dead Sea water |
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| View of the Dead Sea from the spa's pool |
Bright and early the next morning we started our journey to Petra, it was a 3 hour car ride. As per Jordan tourist law being a group of 5 we had a tourism police officer ride with us. Although he didn't speak much english we did get to chat with him a bit on the drive. After some local lunch we finally arrived at Petra and met our site guide for the day. I didn't really know what to expect for the site since I hadn't done much research before hand. It was truly a natural beauty to see, the caves craved out and the colors of the rock were breathtaking. It was a lot of walking on frequently uneven ground and I was thankful it was a trip I took alone for now, especially at our faster pace I don't think Maddy could have done it. Another aspect that took me by surprise was the vendors were all boudin people that used to live in the caves until the late 80's when they were forced to relocate. They had horses and donkeys and treated them very cruelly right in front of us, it was a shame and detracted from the overall experience. Beth and I decided to venture up the hill a bit longer while the rest of our group headed back, we were going to venture more but since we were losing daylight we decided to head back to the gate. It for sure wasn't a place two women feel safe to be alone after dark. In total from the start of the day we had an elevation change of over 1200 m (Petra +810m and Dead Sea -420m) and had walked over 10km. By the time we got back to the hotel I was exhausted! Thanks to some relaxing in the hotel sauna and relaxing I was able to make a full recovery quickly.
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| Entrance to Petra, a city that was founded pre religion and is mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Bible, ancient Egyptian text, and the Karan. |
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| More tombs and buildings we didn't get a chance to climb to |
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| Beautiful day for exploring although the wind made it a bit chilly |
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| Well preserved Byzantine mosaic in the Byzantine church of Petra, also in the same spot we found a well. It was believed that if necessary the people in Petra could live months with the stored water they had. |
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| bonus points if you can see why this photo had us all laughing in the hotel when we reviewed it |
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| Amazing colors in the sandstone rock, a photo really doesn't do it justice |
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| Street of facades, people lived on site as late as mid 1980's according to our guide until they were forced to move out because the site became a world heritage site |
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| In case you needed perspective here's some camels! |
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| Al Khazneh, or treasury, the most recognized building of Petra built around the 1st century AD |
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| It's amazing to see what remains and imagine this place in it's glory days |
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| Peaking through the siq, narrow stone passage, you can see the first carved buildings of Petra |
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| Our hilltop view of Petra on the drive to the hotel |
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| Sunset over Petra from our hotel |
Our final evening after a lackluster meal in the hotel we enjoyed some room service weird chicken wings and wine. We laughed the night away and enjoyed our escape from Saudi Arabia, it was wonderful friend time!
The following day we headed back to the airport and bid farewell to Jordan. Now to plan the next girls trip!!
