Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 4

We were up at 5am so that we could get to the canopy walk to watch the sunrise. This really meant watching the day start and burn off the mist, and see the rainforest slowly appear.

It had rained heavily overnight so it was particularly muggy.

Once again it was just the two of us overlooking the rainforest from the canopy walk. It was really cool to see the mist burn off.

We walked back slowly along tr road back to the lodge, on the lookout for a final view of wildlife. Unfortunately, aside from a small squirrel, we didn't see anything.

We had breakfast, served a la carte rather than buffet because there were only 8 guests this morning. The pancakes were excellent.

Relaxed back in our room and packed up to leave. I had to check for leeches in our shoes - as our guide had explained, you stick your hand in the shoe. If there's a leech it will go for your hand; and then you flick it off before it attaches. Lucky for me there weren't any leeches in our shoes.

Had a big lunch, and then we were off, headed for the junction where we'd connect with a prearranged taxi to take us to Semporna.

It takes about 90 minutes to actually exit the conservation area. Just as we had resigned ourselves to the limited wildlife we had seen on our treks, suddenly our driver stopped the vehicle and pointed out a mother orang utan carrying a baby, high up in a tree.

We got out our binoculars and cameras, and watched the orang utans for a few minutes.

I joked that the next stop was the elephants. However we just saw recent elephant droppings, but no elephant. Oh well. We did see an eagle at the side of the road, about 15 feet away.

We changed to the taxi at the junction, as then it was a two hour drive to the Seafest Hotel in Semporna.

We arrived at 6pm, and quickly checked in and then walked over to the dive centre to sort out logistics for our dive excursion the next morning.

Walked ten minutes into the town centre for dinner. It was a bit of a shock seeing so many tourists after being in Danum Valley for four days.

We avoided the tourist-filled restaurants and instead found a local kopi. At first they gave us an english menu but we didn't recognize any of their translations so asked for the malay menu instead. It was mmm good. Finished off with a
teh tarik, which is a pulled tea with condensed milk.

ps I've posted pics from today's dive excursion. I'll write about it tomorrow

Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 3

We were up at 5:45am for an early morning trek before breakfast.

It was another cool trek through the rainforest, but without seeing many animals. It's very different from African safaris, where you see huge herds of ungulates. A major difference is in Africa you're on the plains of the Serengeti, not the thick jungle. It is much more difficult to spot the big animals in Borneo - a lot of it is luck.

We had another trek after breakfast. We had a couple leeches on our shoes after the trek, but the leech socks did their job and kept the leeches on the outside. (The fabric is dense enough to prevent leeches from passing through).

Our last trek of the day didn't start until 5:45pm so Heather and I walked out to the canopy walk again. Once again we were the only people on it; although there were only 8 guests in total this night at the lodge so we had almost the entire conservation area to ourselves.

The evening walk was cool. We started at dusk, and heard the "6 o'clock cicadas" - they are the rainforest's evening alarm clock. The sounds slowly changed from the day creatures to the nocturnal ones. It was really cool.

The trek then turned into another freaky walk at night. This time we also had little bats flying around. It was very Blair Witch-like. We saw a strange spider that even the guide had never seen before.

Back at the lodge we had another big dinner, and then showered and crashed.

Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 2

I had set my alarm for 6:30, but the white noise of the rainforest (crickets, cicadas, river, frogs etc) is so loud that I didn't hear it. Fortunately Heather was already awake and woke me up.

We had a big buffet breakfast with lots of fresh fruit, and then got ready for our trek at 8:30am - sun screen, bug repellant, leech socks.

Today's trek was to the viewpoint 100m high overlooking the lodge. We walked the 3km at a casual pace, stopping to look for wildlife. We saw some birds but no orangutans. The viewpoint was nice, even better with the breeze. There's very little sun at the base of the rainforest because the canopy is so thick but the humidity makes it very warm.

On the way back down we stopped at a small waterfall called Jacuzzi Pool. The water contains those fish that are in some spas that nibble at your dead skin, which costs a lot of money in expensive spas. Here it's free, but having the fish nibble at my feet was a little freaky. (My feet did feel nice after though). I jumped in fully for a few seconds at then got out before the fish came over.

Back at the hotel we had a big lunch, and then had a couple hours to relax. I managed to connect to the wifi but it was flaky and the only time I was able to connect.

We had another trek late afternoon. Saw lots of evidence of the large animals but no actual sightings. Heather and I headed to the Canopy Walk after the trek as we had some time before dinner. The canopy is one of the few walks that they allow guests to do without a guide. It was really cool - we were the only people on the canopy walk, all alone with the rainforest. Heather spotted a group of about 7 red-leafed monkeys about 20 feet from the path, the closest we had seen to that point.

Dinner was great, and then we headed out for a night walk. The night walk is all about the small creatures - insects, frogs, snakes. In addition to all the dayside gear I was also wearing an mosquito net over my head (I forget what they're called), and so the all the flying bugs didn't bother me. We saw a snake slowly slithering up on a couple frogs. We watched for 10 minutes but unlike tv it doesn't fast-forward to the end, so we gave up watching and continued on.

It was a long day, and we fell asleep pretty quickly.

Borneo Rainforest Lodge, Danum Valley, Malaysia - Day 1

We're relaxing in between the morning and evening treks at the Borneo Rainforest Lodge.

We arrived yesterday, after a very early 6:20am flight from Kota Kinabalu to Lahad Datu. The BRL folks met us at the airport for the two hour drive the lodge, in the middle of the primary rainforest of Danum Valley conservation area. The last 90 minutes is over gravel and was a little bumpy. We spotted a bearded pig on the drive in.

The lodge itself is amazing, a great place to relax and base our trekking and wildlife spotting. And yes, in the middle of the rainforest, they have wifi.

Our room is a cabin reached by boardwalk from the main building. It's amazing how nice it is considering the location.

A stay at BRL is filled with treks. Our guide introduced himself, and then we had the afternoon to relax. The animals are smart enough to not go out during midday sun, and so the treks are morning and evenings.

Lunch was amazing, served overlooking at river that runs past the lodge with a 100m high ridge in the background. The open-air lodge is well designed so it feels cool even though there's no air conditioning.

We met up at 3:30 to start our first little trek. There was a Finnish couple with us. This time of year is low season so it's only four tourists to a guide.

We were suited up in out trekking gear, including leech socks. Leech socks look like Christmas stockings that are worn over your socks and pants, and tie up under your knee.

We had only walked about 50m when we ran into a researcher (there's a research facility in the conservation area) who was tracking a dominant male orangutan. We waited a few minutes but he didn't appear so we carried on.

The short trek on the first day is the canopy walk, a suspended bridge over the valley. It's great for spotting wildlife at tree top level. We saw an adolescent orangutan, and several hornbills.

Back at the lodge we had an hour to relax before heading out on a night drive. There were 10 of us in the back of a truck, with a guide up top with a big search light. It seemed a bit odd and not very sporting. We did see a small cat, a deer and an owl.

We were both exhausted with the day (having started at 4am to catch the flight). Had dinner, showered and fell asleep to the natural white noise of the rainforest.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The flight from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu was uneventful. We could feel the heat as we disembarked -- the forecast for the next few days is 34C, which is normal.

We're staying at Hotel Sixty3 in KK. Our room wasn't ready (it was only 11am) so we dropped our bags and went for for a little walk. Had a coconut juice each at the market. These are very refreshing and pretty cheap - only 3 ringgit, about $1. We were in between the market times - the fish markets were already done for the day, and the evening markets weren't set up, so there wasn't much to see.

KK is a transit town for most tourists, on their way to the highlights of Borneo. We had planned to stay here for three days, in case we needed the time after the long flights from home. KK has a vibe, but is a little short on attractions. The big thing to do is a day trip to see the proboscis monkeys, which was one of the reasons we wanted to come to Borneo in the first place. So we signed up for an excursion for the next day.

We headed to the night market for dinner. I was a little unsure of what we'd find, as all we had seen on our earlier walk was a big empty lot where the market was marked on the map. However at night, it's transformed into one of the largest open air markets I've seen. Unfortunately it was also pouring rain so I didn't take any pictures. There's row upon row of food stalls, barbecue grills, fresh fish markets. There's tarps strung up over the tables and stalls, but it's impossible to walk around with an umbrella with all the rope holding down the tarps. So while we could eat without getting rained on, we were soaked before we got there. The food was okay, although I prefer the coffee shops (little family run restaurants).

The next morning we were happy to see that our clothes were almost all dry - including our shoes. We had chosen quick-drying clothes for this trip, being in the rainforest in rainy season we expected a bit of, umm, rain.

We had the morning free, so walked a bit more about town, although with the heat we didn't get far. One of the local specialities is roti, so we searched that out for lunch. Heather had the roti canai which has an egg beat into the batter, served with lentils and a curry sauce. I had roti with chicken. Both were mmm good.

The excursion started in the afternoon as the monkeys are more easily spotted at dusk when they feed. The tour bus picked us up at 1pm and then it was a two hour drive to the Garama river, near Beaufort. It poured rain for parts of the drive, which didn't bode well for sighting animals. Next we boarded little river boats - about 10 tourists per boat. There were covers on the boats, that were probably better at providing shade than rain protection. The river (really a mangrove) was very narrow, at points we could touch the overhanging branches on both sides of the boat.

We were lucky as the rain started to peter out as we started the boat tour. We spotted silvered leaf monkeys and macaques, about 15m high in the tree tops. About 30 minutes in, we saw the proboscis monkey! Although, it was the females (the males have the large noses). It's not the best photo taking - shooting a dimly lit subject (being dusk) into a hazy sky background with both the monkey in motion and from a boat, with a long zoom. I posted the best one; unfortunately the monkey is also looking away.

The excursion also includes seeing the fireflies. Dozens of fireflies light up trees here and there like LED Christmas lights. It was really cool to see.

We had a buffet dinner overlooking the mangrove. Sitting in the mangrove just after sunset isn't the best idea for mosquitos, but our clothing and repellant held up and we weren't bitten.

The two hour bus ride back was a bit uncomfortable after the two hours sitting in a small boat. Showered back at the hotel and then crashed at 11pm, the latest I've stayed up so far.

Singapore, Singapore

We booked our flight for the Sunday so that we weren't rushed to pack and leave. I haven't flown through Terminal 1 at Pearson for a year, and wow have they improved the experience. Where there used to be rows of uninviting seats, there's now lounge seating that rivals Porter, and every seat has an iPad with free web access (you have to watch a 10 second ad), and USB and electrical outlets. It's very impressive.

Another benefit of flying out on Sunday is that the flight to Tokyo was only 75% full. We had a row to ourselves to stretch out. Thirteen hours to Tokyo, two hours layover and then seven hours to Singapore. 28 hours door to door.

Heather had picked up homeopathic tablets called NoJetLag, and maybe it works or maybe it's a placebo effect, but we feel pretty good this morning. We're staying at the Naomi Liora hotel in Chinatown. We walked over to the hawker stalls in the Chinatown Complex for breakfast, mmm good.

The rest of today is just relaxing and eating and trying to stay awake. Tomorrow morning we fly out to Borneo. It's a short three-hour flight :)

Toronto, Canada

This trip is to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. We decided on this region by googling for places to travel in December (that's when I had time off). I for one was greatly surprised to find out that Brunei is actually in Borneo and not in the Middle East. As we read up on the region we realized there's a lot of cool things to do in Borneo and so we're spending 3 of our 5 weeks in Borneo. On the itinerary is trekking in the rainforest to see the orang-utans, proboscis monkeys and possibly a pygmy elephant or a bearded pig; diving in Sipadan to see a hammerhead shark; and then exploring the bat caves in Mulu Park.

Unusual for us is that we've prebooked the whole trip, in part due to the popularity of the Borneo excursions (for example Sipadan issues permits for only 18 divers a day); and then traveling over Christmas. Internal flights are pretty inexpensive (typically $40 one way) so we've booked a few of these to save time, and wear on our bodies.

For those counting (Gerry, Tanya) I'll get three new countries, which will make it 64.

Finally, let's not forget about the food! We are really looking forward to all the yummy street food.

Toronto, Canada

We arrived back in Toronto safely.  We ended up carrying most of our souvenirs as carry-on, which turned out to be much better for fragile souvenirs.  We had bought a cheap duffle bag intending to pack it carefully and check it; but then found out it was $70 to check a 2nd bag.  So the airplane people suggested we take it carry-on.  I think we'll try to do this for future trips!

Overall Jordan was a very enjoyable trip.  There weren't any safety issues, even near the borders.  The biggest impression was the lack of hard-sell from would-be guides, vendors, etc -- all it took was a single "no thanks" and they would wish us a good time in Jordan.  It was very refreshing.

Petra was amazing, it's in my top five places to see in the world.

There were a lot of ruins in Jordan, and we did get out-ruined after a while.  Three weeks in Jordan was probably too much time -- normally, Jordan would be part of a trip including Israel, Syria and/or Egypt, which would provide more variety.

Also, there's not much tourist infrastructure. Outside of Petra, Aqaba, Madaba and Amman there is very little mid-range accommodation.  Out of 22 days in Jordan, we spent 18 nights in those four cities.  I would have preferred a little more variety, but there just weren't places to stay.

Here's our pics from the trip:

2012 Jordan - favourites

Amman, Jordan

We've spent the last couple days of our trip in Amman. There's not that much tourist stuff to see here.

Did the walking tour from the Lonely Planet, which took about two hours. Took a taxi to the top of the Citadel (the Roman ruins at the top of a hill overlooking Amman). It was okay, not as impressive because we were at Jerash the day before. There's good views of the Roman Theatre along the walking tour, so we didn't bother to go inside.

Wandered through the fruit and vegetable souq and some other markets.

Had lunch at Hashem Restaurant, a local legendary falafel place. It was okay, and I suppose you have to eat there once if you visit Amman. There were more locals than tourists.

Had dessert (kunafa) at a little place in an alley with a huge lineup. It was excellent, a honey cake on top of cream cheese smothered in a sweet sauce, sprinkled with crushed pistacios.

We had plans for 6pm to meet a friend of Brendan's (Mohammad) who now lives in Amman, so we got home and cleaned up.

Mohammad met us at our hotel, and we drove out to Rainbow St, a trendy street with lots of cafés and restaurants and galleries.

Mohammed grew up in the area, and actually wrote a book Old Houses of Amman, based on the history of the houses on and around Rainbow St. He gave us a walking tour (much better than the Lonely Planet), and then we had some tea at one of the cafés and chatted away. It was cool to get a local's view, it's otherwise a bit risky to talk about some subjects like politics with strangers while traveling.

The next day was Friday, so we planned the day around things that were open on Fridays (lots is closed). Unfortunately even though the hours said it should be open, the National Gallery of Fine Arts was closed. So we walked up to Rainbow St, had an excellent lunch at La Calle (an Italian place), and Turkish coffees at another place.

We returned to the area for dinner at Cantaloupe, a new restaurant on the 4th floor of some building. The appetizers were pretty interesting, we shared cantaloupe and feta cheese with pesto, and bresaola with roca leaves (tastes a bit like arugula). Bresaola is cured beef, there's no pork served anywhere in Jordan.

Today we had plans to visit the Art Gallery again, except it rained for the first time on our trip. Before the rain, we did get to Darat al-Funun, a privately funded art gallery. It took a bit of searching for the place. We ran into some other tourists walking around lost with guide book in hand who were also looking for the place, the Lonely Planet maps are terrible.

(The Lonely Planets have been getting progressively worse since they were bought by the BBC. The best thing I could say about the Jordan edition is that it had some blank pages for notes. We only bought it because the Rough Guide's updated edition for Jordan was published two days after we left Canada).

We're now back at the hotel, catching up on reading. Our flight is at 5am (all Europe departures are around this time) so we have a taxi arranged for 2am. It's sort of a waste of a hotel room, but really the only option.

Jerash, Jordan

Another day, another set of Roman ruins. Our hotel (Hadrian's Gate) is right outside the entrance to the old walled roman city. It was easy enough to walk down to the ticket booth (through a maze of souvenir stalls), buy our tickets and start our visit of Jerash.

We walked through Hadrian's Arch, a 13m tall entrance to the city. It was enormous. Over the next three hours we wandered through the site. The highlights included the Temple of Zeus, the Forum, the South Theatre, Temple of Artemis, and Cardo Maximus. There has been a lot of restoration work here -- there are some before and after pics that show a pile of rubble, and then the current state. It's by far the best set of Roman ruins I've seen.

Fortunately it's December, because it was about 15C and sunny. I couldn't imagine doing all this in 35C in the summer.

Had lunch at a roadside grill place, and then caught a taxi to our hotel in Amman, the final leg of our trip. We're staying at the Crystal Hotel in the business district.

Jordan Valley, Jordan

We were up at 6:30am for a big road trip. Had breakfast, packed, checked out. Our driver met us at our hotel. Or so we thought. After getting our bags in the trunk and starting off, we realized with the driver that we weren't his passengers -- it was another couple who we going to Petra! So we apologized, found our real driver, and switched our stuff over to his car.

Today were the sights in Jordan Valley. We started at almost Dead Sea level. Heather was just getting into my cold, so now both of us had trouble equalizing with the altitude changes.

First stop was Pella, about two hours north from Madaba, through winding roads. Pella is supposedly the most historically significant site in Jordan, because it's been continuously settled for 7000 years. The ruins lie a scattered amongst farmers fields. At one point we saw a shepherd take a flock of sheep through the ruins site.

In a single view, we saw ruins from the Ummayads (760 AD), Romans (60 BC), Mamluks (1300 AD), Byzantine era (400 AD), and Canaanites (1270 BC).

Next was Umm Qais, in the northwest corner of Jordan. Umm Qais was one of the Decapolis cities of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. The Lonely Planet says Umm Qais is striking because of the juxtaposition of roman and Ottoman-era ruins, but after Petra with Roman and Nabataean ruins, the Ottoman stuff seems pretty plain.

What is cool about Umm Qais is its location on a hilltop in the corner of Jordan. From a viewpoint (and if it's not hazy like today) you can see Syria, Lebanon, the Golan Heights, and the Sea of Galilee.

The roman ruins are also cool, not yet restored, but pale in comparison to Jerash.

Last for the day was Ajloun Castle. This has been mostly restored, and is fun to wander around and explore all its rooms and levels.

We drove to Jerash to end our day. Checked in at the Hadrian Gate Hotel, and had dinner at the Lebanese House. Supposedly the Lebanese House is pretty famous (the menu has a page full of dignitaries that have eaten there). It was pretty good, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there.

Salt, Jordan

We needed a change from ruins, ruins and more ruins, so arranged a driver for a day trip to Salt.

It was harder than we thought to arrange the trip, because no one could believe we wanted to spend three hours in Salt. Salt? Why go to Salt? was the typical reply when we tried to ask for a taxi.

Even our driver tried to turn the trip into a different outing. What about Wadi Mujib? No, we want to go to Salt. Okay, but if you get bored, we go to [insert other more interesting place].

So we got to Salt, about an hour from Madaba. Our driver gave us one last warning about how we couldn't possibly enjoy three hours in Salt, and then we started exploring.

Salt is an old Ottoman city. As the Lonely Planet describes it, it's an undiscovered gem. The Japanese have contributed grants to save the architecture, and so Salt has excellent tourist facilities, but no tourists. It has the best-signed walking tour I've seen. The narrow streets and alleys and staircase shortcuts reminded us of Portugal.

Had lunch in a busy grill place. They get so few tourists here that they don't even have an english menu to pull out. We ordered by pointing, a half rotisserie chicken, and beef kebabs. It was one of the best meals on this trip so far.

Salt was a great day trip. I'd only recommend it if you are in Jordan for more than two weeks - there's too many big ruins to see otherwise. But if you need a break from ruins, Salt is great.

We had an early start the next day, so wrapped up dinner at 9:30pm, just as everyone was starting to go out for New Year's Eve. Fell asleep well before midnight on NYE, I can't remember the last time that happened.

Hammanat Ma'in, Jordan

Woke up feeling none the worse for all the rich food and drink yesterday. It was the opposite effect of going to a high altitude.

We had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the Marriott, and do an excursion on the way back to Madaba, so we didn't lose a day to travel.

First off was the hot springs at Hammamat Ma'in. Because after a day at the spa, it's best to go to some hot springs to relax.

We could feel the pressure lift as we drove up to sea level. It was more noticeable than going down. It really felt like I could breathe normally again.

Hammamat Ma'in is the best hot springs I've been to. Water at 45C (65C in the summer) falls into a shallow pool. We stood under the waterfall, which was like a giant rainhead shower. Behind the falls are some caves, where water flows through. Sitting in the caves is like a steam bath. It was more enjoyable than I thought (I'm not one for spas).

Back on the road to Mukawir, the castle of Herod the Great. It's a 15 minute walk uphill from the ticket entrance to the top. It's kinda neat because it's so alone and empty up there (the ruins aren't much to see though).

Last for today was Umm ar-Rasas, UNESCO World Heritage ruins. The ruins themselves are still in ruins, spread as far as we could see. The main attraction were the mosaics at the Church of St Stephen. We thought we were out-mosaic'ed, and then we saw these. They are amazing. One of the top highlights of Jordan. They're not on the typical tourist trail, but they should be. It looks like a giant carpet covering the church floor, but in fact it's a mosaic.

We spent about 45 minutes wandering around the rest of the ruins. We saw three other church ruins with mosaic floors, covered with plastic and sand until they can be restored. Some day this will be a great site.

We got back to Madaba, pretty tired considering we had been at the Dead Sea and hot springs.

Dead Sea, Jordan

Today the trip went downhill, to 423m below sea level. Along the way from Madaba to our hotel on the Dead Sea (we booked at the Marriott), we stopped Mt Nebo. Mt Nebo is where Moses is said to have seen the promised land. It must not have been a hazy day when Moses was here, because we couldn't see much. The church was under complete renovations, and off-limits. So I took a couple pictures of the haze and then we carried on. It was a long winding drive down to the Dead Sea. I was still recovering from my cold and so couldn't equalize very well. It was a trip of plugged ears.

We arrived at the Marriott around 11am, and got an early checkin. Wandered around the hotel (we needed a map, it's pretty big), and had lunch at the Italian restaurant. It was very good. Next was the reason we came to the Dead Sea, to sit in the salty water. Got our beach towels and beach slippers (plastic slippers so you don't cut your feet on the rocks). They actually advise you not to shave before going into the Dead Sea, cause it hurts if you have a small cut!

There was a sign explaining how to enter the water -- walk in backwards, slowly, until you can sit backwards. So we did.

It was pretty cool to float without moving.

After a few minutes that got boring, so we got back on shore and covered ourselves with mud, like all the other tourists. You can buy small amounts for facials for large amounts of money. But here at the Dead Sea, the hotel has a big bucket of free mud.

I think you're supposed to wait 15 minutes, but it was getting icky so we went back in the Dead Sea and washed off the mud.

Watched the sunset from the outdoor lounge. Not as colourful as I imagined, because the sun disappears behind hills before it sets. Still hazy so couldn't really see much of Israel.

Later we had dinner at the steak restaurant. It was excellent.

For those interested, some details about the Dead Sea when we visited:

Elevation -423m
Salt concentration 31.5%
pH 6.0
340 g/L total dissolved salts
Density 1.24 kg/L

Madaba, Jordan

There's not much going on on Fridays in Jordan (it's like a Sunday back home), so we decided to take a down day in Madaba today (the relaxing part that we didn't get to yesterday). So we've been spending time in cafés, catching up on reading and blogging. Right now we're in Dardasheh Café having a Philadelphia lager, listening to classics from the 70's. (Amman was called Philadelphia around 250 BC). We have a couple big days of going to a spa at the Dead Sea tomorrow, and then the hot springs at Hammanat Ma'in, so we want to be well rested :)

Madaba, Jordan

The plan for today was to do some sightseeing, shop for souvenirs and relax in a café. There's so much to see in Madaba that we never actually got to the relaxing part. It was still a great day though.

Started at St George's Church. It has a mosaic, created in AD 560, the oldest map of Palestine in existence. Most tourists stop in at Madaba on an excursion, see St George's, and get back on the tour bus. However there is much more in Madaba, better preserved mosaics that look nicer.

We did a little souvenir shopping, dropped them off at the hotel, and grabbed some lunch from a busy little take-out place.

Next was back to sightseeing. We followed the suggested walking tour in the Lonely Planet. You really get a sense of the history in Madaba. It's the longest continuously inhabited place in the world -- people have been living here since 4500 BC. There are a couple archaeological sites where you see layer upon layer of buildings from different eras.

The Shrine of the Beheading of John the Baptist was really interesting. The church itself was okay. But you can climb to the top of the belfry for great views of Madaba (in Jordan there's not many high buildings where you can do this). And then under the church are tunnels and the Acropolis Museum, which has a working Moabite well from 3000 years ago.

After our touristing, we called in at the Black Iris to plan out excursions for the remainder of our trip. It's getting a little busier tourist-wise, so we also made hotel reservations for the rest of the trip.

Went back to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. They had another live band. The singer for this band had really great stage presence - we were both impressed with him.

Madaba, Jordan

Today was a day trip to the Desert Castles. We met at the Black Iris. We met the other person, she was an Italian working in England.

The desert castles were built by the Umayyads around 700 AD. I hadn't heard of the Umayyads before this trip, but they had the 5th largest contiguous empire in history, from Portugal and Morocco to Arabia and Persia.

It was a two hour drive to the first castle, Qasr Kharana. Heather and I both slept on and off through most of it. Qasr Kharana reminds me of the gates to Qoth in Game of Thrones. Wandered about and took a lot of pictures. There were a handful of other tourists, that we saw at each of the castles (the desert castle route is a common day trip).

Next up was Qusayr Amra. It's famous for the frescoes on the walls and ceiling, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Last up was Qasr al-Azraq. This is on a busy road in Azraq, unlike the other two sites which were in the middle of the desert. It's made from basalt, which doesn't look as black as I thought it would. The doors are single pieces of stone, but still movable.

Had lunch at another roadside tourist complex. It was so-so, I'd rather have had a falafel sandwich somewhere.

It took over two hours to drive back through rush hour traffic. I slept through most of it.

We cleaned up at our hotel and headed to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It was pretty good. They had live music, a couple guys singing Arabic tunes, which was pretty cool.

Madaba, Jordan

Our bus to Amman was at 11am so we had time to get up, have breakfast and pack without being rushed.
We debated taking a taxi (it's a seven minute walk to the JETT bus station), because we had our big packs, day packs, a bag of food for the bus trip, plus a big duffle bag of souvenirs. Also I was starting to come down with a cold. It was a nice day so decided just to walk to the bus.

The bus was a double decker, and like in Morocco the seat assignments were treated a bit loosely. The bus was only half full so it didn't really matter.

The evening before, we had stocked up on food for the bus ride: pitas (from the bakery I took a pic inside), triangle cheese, mixed nuts, and bananas.

There was a bit extra customs to load the bus because Aqaba is in a tax-free zone, but they didn't pay much attention to tourists.

We slept through most of the ride to Amman. I was starting my cold and so didn't mind sleeping. The bus left promptly at 11am, and arrived in Amman without stops at 3pm right on schedule.

We quickly grabbed a taxi (20JD) to the Mosaic City hotel in Madaba. The traffic wasn't too bad because it was Christmas, a national holiday here.

Our hotel was an excellent mid-range hotel. It's fairly new, it was very clean, good shower and the heat worked.

The plan was to use Madaba as a base for day trips around northern Jordan. The excursion prices seemed a bit high at our hotel so we went to the nearby Black Iris Hotel to book out day trips.

The Black Iris owner was excellent at helping us plan out day trips. He's really knowledgeable about the area. He had another guest who wanted to do the Desert Castle tour the next day, so we signed up for that (JD 45 for the car, split between the three of us)

Walked down to Haret Jdoudna for dinner. It's the top rated restaurant in the area. It looked good, except all the diners were having a Christmas sing-a-long. I suppose some people like that, but it wasn't for us.

Ended up at Adonis Restaurant. It had a good atmosphere. We had a nice Christmas dinner with a bottle of Jordanian red (from St George, right here in Madaba)

Aqaba, Jordan

I was up with my alarm yet again (what kind of vacation is this?) for a 2nd day of diving. Heather decided to spend the day relaxing around the hotel rather than snorkeling.  However she joined me on the short walk to the dive centre so we could book the overnight excursion to Wadi Rum from a travel agency next door.

There were only three of us diving today. The Norwegian guy wanted to see the tank (an army tank scuttled in about 5m of water, perfect for a safety stop), so we went to that site for our first dive. The sun was out today, and visibility is pretty amazing. Maybe that's why the Red Sea is so highly rated for diving.

Froze in the wind in between the dives. Just as I stopped shivering, we were back the water for the 2nd dive, this one at Japanese Garden. It was okay.

Got back home and warmed up with a hot shower. According to the Norwegian guy (he had all kinds of dive paraphernalia), the water was 23C, the coldest I've dived.

Heather and I walked around the souq, souvenir hunting. We found a shop selling the antique coffee grinders!  The price was much lower than we expected, and so didn't even bargain. It was the one-sided bartering like in the Monty Python movie, with the vendor arguing both sides.  Heather also bought some jewelry.

Bought our bus ticket to Amman for Christmas Day, from where we'll take a taxi to Madaba.

Had a drink at the infinity pool at our hotel watching the sunset over Egypt or Israel (I'm not sure exactly where the border lies) (Saudi Arabia is 14km south from us as well).

We had dinner at Ali Baba's again. We had two mains and a couple appetizers, everything was amazing again. Split a bottle of Jordanian red.

...

Slept in (!) for the first time this trip. We just had to be ready for 1pm for our Wadi Rum excursion. Caught the tail end of breakfast, packed up and checked out. With the souvenirs and our boots in plastic bags (so we could put them on quickly in Wadi Rum) we looked distinctly like non-Hilton guests.

Had lunch in the souq, and would have timed it perfectly to be ready at 1pm except we forgot about the free tea at the end of the meal (it would be insulting to turn down) and so we were a few minutes late.

The weather was perfect for visiting Wadi Rum -- about 18C, sunny, and no wind to kick up dust storms.

We switched from a taxi to a 4WD in Wadi Rum (a Toyota, the favoured vehicle everywhere I've been on excursions because of its maintainability).  Drove around the desert landscape (wadi means valley in Arabic, and rum is moon, so literally translates to Valley of the Moon). Took pics at all the appropriate places. It was cool, but I wouldn't rate it in the top 5 things to see in Jordan. I thought the landscape around Petra was more interesting.

Our camp was great, a tent with actual beds and comfortable mattresses!  We were the only two tourists (the camp can hold up to 100 people in tents) so had the owner's attention all night. Had an excellent dinner, and chatted about travel. Heather and I crashed around 9pm. The owner pulled out his laptop and surfed using a USB stick. As he said, welcome to 2013.  (Although, we did read on our iPad / iPhone before falling asleep).

We woke up a couple times in the night from the call to prayers. The Imams had excellent voices and the sound carried well in the desert. What didn't add to it was the howling of dogs off-key.

We got up at 6am to watch the sunrise. We were both comfy warm in our sleeping bags and a couple blankets (much warmer than our night in Karak!) but froze once we got up. It might have been 3C.

The sun was just starting to hide the stars. It was a great view to the horizon. Watched the sky change, at one point we could see rays from the sun like how a kid draws the sun. Finally we felt some warmth after an hour or so.

We had an excellent traditional breakfast. Learnt we were supposed to dip the pita in olive oil and then in the spice mixture. (We had had the spice mixture before, but didn't know what to do with it).

To emphasize that times have changed, the camp owner asked if we could give him a good rating on tripadvisor.

Our driver picked us up at 9am as arranged, and we returned to the Hilton.  It was odd, with our backpacks and dusty clothes and looking like we just spent a night in the desert, to be greeted with a Welcome back, sir at the Hilton.

Cleaned up and went for lunch at Al Shami. It was excellent grilled food, done perfectly.

Bought a duffle bag to carry our souvenirs (we don't normally buy so many things this early in a trip, but we don't think we'll get Bedouin stuff up north). At least we'll look more respectable leaving the Hilton tomorrow.

Now we're relaxing at the infinity pool again. We're yet again back to Ali Baba's for our Christmas Eve dinner.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Aqaba, Jordan

It's a short 90 minute drive from Wadi Musa to Aqaba.  Heather and I fell asleep in the car for most of it.  We had decided not to include a day trip stop to Wadi Rum (of Lawrence of Arabia fame), even though it's along the way.

We checked into the Double Tree Hilton, for 89JD a night.  We're finding there's not much mid-range accommodation in Jordan.  Our criteria for hotels includes heat in the room, hot showers, and a comfortable bed.  The mid-range hotels (for what exists) don't meet all of those, so we may end up in higher end hotels for the rest of the trip.

Our room is pretty nice, with the hottest shower we've had on the trip so far (out of four places we've stayed).  It's the first shower we didn't have on full heat.  We also got a complimentary cookie when we checked in :)

Because we had taken a private car, we still had most of the day to tour around Aqaba.  Walked through the souq, which here is just the busy commercial area, and not like the souqs in Morocco.  Saw some cool antiques that we liked, especially some antique Bedouin coffee grinders.  Unfortunately these weren't for sale in the store we saw them in, but just "museum" pieces.  We think they were for sale, because they had Visa signs all around.  Anyways we're on a hunt for another one that is for sale.

We dropped by Dive Aqaba (I'm doing a couple days of diving with them).  Got some restaurant recommendations (one down side of staying at a Hilton is that they don't really know what we're looking for in travel -- we'd much rather find a street stall serving falafel than a fancy restaurant).  We had dinner at a seafood place called Al Moubrak.  It was good, but not great.  We stepped into a dessert place for something small, and they gave us samples which was all we really wanted.  But the samples were amazing so we bought a small platter of desserts for JD2.  Now we have enough desserts to last us a week.

...

Had to set my alarm yet again to get up for diving.  The breakfast at the Hilton was excellent.

We walked over to Dive Aqaba, just around the corner (the Hilton is very conveniently located in Aqaba).  Signed some disclaimers, got fitted for wet suits.  Heather was planning to snorkel, and I was diving.  They gave me two wet suits (a first for me) and dive boots.

The dive site was about 30 minutes out from the dive shop.  There was a couple from South Africa on the boat (he was diving, she was pregnant so was just snorkeling, so it worked out well with Heather diving too), and a family of three, learning to dive.

The first dive was just over coral.  I was a bit disappointed by the coral, it was mostly dead and not very many fishies.  Also the water felt darned cold, far colder than the advertised 24C.  We think it was maybe 20C.  The sun had disappeared behind clouds when we came up, so we were shivering for a while before heating up.  We were hoping for lunch before the second dive, but it was just a 45 minute break and then back into the cold.

The second dive was cool, it was a wreck dive through a tanker that had been scuttled.  We dove under the wreck (25m) and then through the ship, through some rather small areas.  I think the divemaster was using the first dive to gauge the South African's and my abilities, because it was a bit technical and I don't think everyone goes through the ship.  Anyways it was way cool.

In busy season I can imagine that the wreck is covered with divers, but with tourism down so much, there was just one other dive shop at the wreck.

Lunch was onboard during the slow ride back, and was excellent.  Although, I find anything excellent after diving.

The dive excursion took up most of the day -- by the time we showered and changed, it was already 5pm.

The South Africans were cool to talk with, they are similar in travel style to us.  They highly recommended Wadi Rum, so we've decided to give it a go.  We looked around for tour agencies in the tourist area, but didn't see any -- I think they're all affiliated with hotels. We're going to check out a cheaper hotel for the tour, because we don't want to book through the Hilton :)

Had dinner at Ali Babas, it was the best meal we've had on the trip so far.  We split a number of appetizers and a main (sayadieh - a local specialty of fish layered onto rice with tomato, onion and pepper sauce), and we liked every dish.  We want to go back for the sayadieh, because by the time we got to it we were full from the other dishes.  Heather tried a local Cabernet Sauvignon that went well with dinner.

From the looks of it we might be spending Christmas on a bus back to Amman.  Oh well, everyday is like Christmas when we're on vacation :)  Also realized today was the day the world was supposed to end.

I'm reading a book called Redshirts by John Scalzi that Craig recommended.  It's written from the perspective of the ensigns that get killed off in Star Trek episodes.  It's rather funny.

Well we're off for a herbal tea and some Jordanian sweets.