For you to experience the beauty of the Dead Sea you have to go to the Jordanian side. Jordan has built some beautiful 5 star resorts with amazing pools, great restaurants ,cafes and SPAs. So if you don’t want to swim in the dead sea you can swim in the pools or just escape to grab a coffee or some lunch or dinner with friends and family.

a picute I took of one of the marriot hotel infinity pools (click to enlarge)

What’s also wonderful about it, since Jordan is east of the Dead Sea, is you are always guaranteed to view a beautiful sunset. The sea is tranquil leaving the water looking like a mirror reflecting the sunset’s beauty. Sunset at the Dead Sea is my favorite time, very romantic.

a picture I took of the amazing sunset (click to enlarge)

It’s only a 45 minute car ride from Amman. One of the amazing places Jordan has to offer.

It was one of the most amazing experiences I had. It was so serene going down from a airplane flying 4000 feet high ; so quite and very peaceful.

Usually in most countries (even currently in Jordan) when you decide to go skydiving they strap you on to a skydiver and they free fall with you strapped in front of them, while in my experience in Jordan (Royal Airsports club of Jordan ) I did a trial jump where they gave me a day course and then I jump the next day all by myself (don’t freak out I will explain), if you like it you can then join the club and jump many many times.

In the day course they taught us:
- How to position your body while free falling
- They teach you how to land
- They teach you , of course , how to open the parachute and they show you in cases of emergency how to open the extra parachute (yikes!)
- You get some theory to show you how to steer left or right, how to slow down and how to completely stop.
- They teach you how to read the height watch that tells what height you are on so you can track how high or low so you can start steering your parachute and slowing down when you are close to your destination.

So once you master these skills (well not really) you go really early the next day and they refresh the course quickly then take you up in a little airplane that went ,in our case, 4000 feet high.

The airplane we went on does not have a door to make it easier to jump (but it’s safe) . What happens next is they link your parachute opener on a special line on the airplane , the ask you to jump facing inside, at this second do not pause or think just JUMP because you will chicken out since you are 4000 or more feet high.
Because your parachute opener is linked to the airplane as soon as you jump and are 6 meters away from the airplane happily tumbling along ( it’s very tough from the first try to float like you see in the pictures) your parachute opens and then you slow down peacefully and serenely. I felt like a bird and I was singing up there..HA HA HA

I LOVED IT.

Of course I had to lie to my mom and tell her I was going for a flying lesson because not in a million years she would have let me go. SO I took my brother with because just incase God forbid the parachute decided not to open I would have family there.

A funny story:

During the training day we were a group of 8 – 10 people including four pilots. I remember one of the pilots did so well in the training session, his landing was great, his floating was great but then the next day when it came to the jump he was supposed to go first but he freaked out and said no no I’ll go second so one of the girls jumped and then he said NO WAY I AM NOT JUMPING and that’s it he would not jumpt out of the airplane his friends were taunting him and told him yee a girl jumped and you didn’t, I felt sorry for the guy but at the time it was hilarious.

A scary story:

One of the guys who was with us fully yanked his breaks when he was still 2 meters above ground ( you are supposed to only fully pull them once your feet almost hit the ground and not 1 second before and the instructor told us 100 times to makes sure we do it at that time) if you fully pull the brakes above the ground you become parallel to the ground so he smacked flat on his back, THAT HURT and I think he injured his leg. Well because the guy was wearing red overalls just like me my Bro freaked out and was running towards him to find out it was not me

Now when we had to go back to the centre we were supposed to walk but I felt sorry for my Bro because he was sitting there for 2 hours waiting for me to jump, so I asked the pilot if my Brother and I could go on the airplane instead and I told him, “my poor brother was waiting all this time and it would be nice to take him up” so he agreed and it was only my brother the pilot and I and he let me fly the airplane (well just steer it) and I was super excited. My brother was sitting there kinda scared shitless because the airplane had no door and he would not come to the front and fly it …lol

Here are some links if you are interested:
The Royal Aero Sports Club of Jordan (newer)

Royal airsports club of Jordan (not sure they still operate)

The best way to describe it would be that it’s like floating on air and the fish are the birds flying around you. I fed the fish some bread and it attacked the bread like a bunch of pigeons attacking bird seeds in a park.

The red sea is one of the most (if not the most) beautiful seas to scuba-dive in because it’s rich in corals, very calm and has a lot of pretty fish.

All the training we did was in the sea and not in the pool ,which is what is usually done in other places, which I thought was fantastic because it makes it a lot of fun and gives you motivation since it’s so much more beautiful with the fish and the corals.

It takes 4 – 5 days to get the novice certificate that will enable you to dive in a lot of countries. The course involves some theory hours and 2 – 2.5 hours a day of in-water practice and a written test at the end.

The course is relatively inexpensive and completely worth it. It’s your first step to a lifetime of scuba fun.

So next time you plan a trip to Aqaba, do yourself a favor and make it worth it and scuba dive, you will not regret it!

Update : Click to visit the Aqaba Diving Center website for more detailes.
Also some picutres captured by Brian McMorrow at pbase.com

Note the helicopter; it gives you an idea how high the mountain peak is, it is 1754 meters (5 754 feet) high.

You should do it if you get the chance. Keep in mind though that it’s not an easy task to get up there, it could be scary at certain spots, so it’s not for the faint of heart. I had no problems going up because I could not see bellow me, but going down was a bit harder because you can see how high you are and see where you end up if you fall.

I am not scaring you though, it was great. Make sure you have a local guide that knows what he is doing that will take you up. Trust me, it would be stupid to attempt it on your own, pack lots of water and energy snacks, boots that have good gripping soles and you are set.

Oh, do not forget your camera.

For more information click here

I want to tell you about the best summer of my life, the summer of 1996. Some people say the best moment in their life was when they graduated or got married or when they met the love of their lives or when they had kids. For to me it was/is the most unforgettable 45 minutes of my life one summer night….and to the perverts out there, it was not sex…I had a summer job that required me to stay in Petra for 3 weeks. We were at the ancient city everyday from sunrise to sunset, that alone was an outstanding experience, It made me love the people of Wadi Moosa. An example of their generosity is the story of this local teenager that hung around us all the time, one day he insisted on inviting us to dinner, so he asked us to meet him at this public park and he brought us this HUGE mansaf platter with tons of meat, it was soooo good by the way, I think his mom spent a lot of time and money preparing it. I really miss wadi moosa people, they are so sophisticated and kind and simply classy, class is not money, it’s how you treat people and the way you conduct yourself. Them and Karaki’s are my favorite Jordanians…and no I am not from Karak.

Now back to the story, the first day we arrived we were scoping the ancient city out ,it was getting dark so everybody left. I don’t know if a lot of people know this , but back then , after the sun sets and the tourists leave, the city used to come to life and the tombs turned into homes for the Bedouins that lived there, there is a special name for these Bedouins but it escapes me now, they even drove their cars in the city. The last time I came to visit Petra in 2003 I asked this little boy Ali ( who wanted to escort us around in exchange for some cookies and 1/2 dinar , I think he was like 4 – 5 years old) I asked him, do you still live in the caves? He said ,” no King Abdulah moved us and now we have homes with electricity and water” , I asked him if he liked it before or now, he said I love it now, before we had to move our stuff during the day and bring them back at night.

Back to the story again, my God I keep getting side tracked, anyway, all of our people left the city from the top were there is car access to go back to the hotel so they don’t have to go through the seeq , but a guy and I stayed behind and asked this little Bedouin boy to rent us a couple of donkeys, by the way, this little boy said hello in every imaginable language. With time I became friends with 10 of those kids…very cute. The guy who was with me was a little big so the boy said “ I will not take less than 10 dinars from him , the donkey will die under his weight “,the guy was American so I found it too hilarious when I had to translate what the boy said to him, by that time the sun had set and it was getting pretty dark.

We went into the Seeq and it was so dark you honestly could not see your hand in front of you, the donkeys apparently knew the path by heart. The most breathtaking moment of my life was when I lifted my head up and looked at the sky through the top of the Seeq opening and I saw a RIVER of stars, it looked like the most beautiful sparkly river EVER, it was so unexpected.I remember my neck was sore for the rest of the night from tilting my head up for the whole ride.

(You have to have to click this picture to enlarge)

It was like taking a black cloth and sprinkling tons of salt on it…breathtaking.

So people, I really think if you can make that little adventure happen, you can truly say Petra IS one of the worlds 7 wonders…

Take care people, have a good one.

It’s like calling every tissue out there “Kleenex”, every glass cleaner “Easy” and every disinfectant ” Dettol”. Which reminds me of a story when I was 11 or 12 years old, we were visiting my dad in LA for the first time and we needed disinfectant ,so my Mom takes us to a supermarket and after looking in all the isles we couldn’t find any, so my mom asks this stocker for help and she goes : “I need Dettol, do you have Dettol?” , and he was like” Mam , what is Dettol? ” So my mom start’s this elaborate description,” it is to clean with, it smells like a hospital, it’s brown”…..and on and on with the descriptions , it took her maybe 5 minutes and the guy would not get it, so finally Mom said “We clean bathrooms with it” and he said “Mam, I don’t know what you want but this Isle has all the cleaning products” and low and behold there was the equivalent of Detol but here in North America they call it Pine sol….

Anyway, back to the Bolobeef, I think it’s a middle eastern thing that we eat Bolobeef , really, although I see it stocked on the shelves here, I’ve never seen anyone buy it but me !? I love this stuff, I remember them giving it to the cast of survivor once and they were like “ewwwwwwwww, but better than nothing”, I was like, you stupid, stupid fools, you don’t know what you are missing. Fry it in a pan with some “bhar” (All spice) and you got yourself something really yummy.

Now, the fascinating thing, when I was reading a book called O’ Jerusalem , it talked about how we lost the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and described what happened and stuff like that , by the way it’s a great book you should read it, but that’s not the point here, in the book it talked about how when the British army left Palestine in May of 1948 , it left behind loads of the army provisions and what was one of those provisions called? It was called “Bully Beef”, I almost fell down laughing and I was like, Oh my God, it’s Bolobeef , I always wondered how the name came about.

I think I called everybody I know that day and told them about it.

I tell yah man that was too funny…anyway , have a good one people, oh that means somebody is reading my blog…ha ha , I like to keep myself delusional….