Jordan Reflections and KL October 19

Our Jordan trip was really quite awesome and unbelievable. Neab and I made a really great team and he was very organised the whole way, just like me. Our travelling style is almost the same, and he's really great at taking pics, except towards the end of the trip, he was taking really bad pictures. Probably he was sick of taking pictures.

Great trip, we always skipped lunch but ate heavy breakfast and dinner. Foodwise not really good coz I'm to used to raw vegetables or hummus or pita bread. Weather was amazing. It didn't rain at all and it was dry and cooling. We seldom sweat. I guess the only thing to complain about is the number of houseflies at dead sea, the crazy traffic in Petra and Amman and the lack of diversity in food. Otherwise, it's really awesome. We agreed that it is one of the most memorable trips ever, and I took 680 pictures altogether. That's a record. And friends were texting me a lot on IG.

I have uploaded all my adventures in IG stories anyways.

Anyway back to KL. I was super unlucky in the 7 hour flight because I sat beside another big sized guy and the guy beside was snoring all the way, the whole cabin could hear him. Once landed in KL, registered in hotel, I went to hunt for food. HOW I MISSED ASIAN FOOD OMG. I had hor fun and soupy prawn noodles the first thing I landed. SIGH SO GOOD.

Later met my KL guide, Justin, took a nap in the hotel and went to Jalan Alor for dinner. Then walked to Pahit, a hipster gin bar for drinks, then to Suzie Wong for drinks and entertainment. There's nothing much to do in KL anyway, just eating and chatting. I didn't even spend much.

Breakfast was some noodles in Chinatown. He wanted to bring me to a hipster café but it was closed. We had cakes then went back to check out the hotel, went to airport, back to SG. Nice meeting Justin, he's super nice!
My luggage was delayed and woohoo $150 insurance claim!

 

Wadi Mujib, Dead Sea and back to Amman

Finally we see some sea! The ride was amazing as well. The road was winding down the mountains, the view was amazing, from ending rocks and sands to the Israeli mountains opposite, dead sea in between. We stopped halfway for pictures.

We stayed in a cheap hotel because dead sea wasn't our focus this time but we went down to the beach anyways. It was sunset, the sea was beautiful and dead sea is super weird. The water looks... slimey and felt really dense, almost jelly-like and we could always float. I tried to sink but it was like a force pushing u up. And the high salt density water kinda corroded my iPhone leather cover -_-

It was kinda itchy after a while so we went to wash up without putting the mud, then dinner time at one small mall there.

The highlight was the next morning, hiking trail at Wadi Mujib early in the morning after breakfast. I was kinda excited because I've seen youtube videos and it was so fun. I got my waterproof bag, my diving shoes and lululemon tank. The river was shallow at first, just leisurely walking and then it got rather difficult with currents rushing against you and you have to pull on the robes or climb up the ladders, and take pictures along the way, and got nibbled by the dead skin eating fishes lol.

The end was a waterfall and a rock stuck in the canyon. It was really a fun and beautiful trail in the canyon.

Back to the hotel, showered, checked out, and then we wanted to end the dead sea tour with relaxing at Hilton hotel. It was super awesome. Newly built, the best customer service we had so far, the best hotel room so far, the best view, the best dead sea beach, the best mud spa, the best sleep we had. Sigh I wana go back there. Even before we got our room, we were already suntanning by the beach, taking pics in the sea and doing mud spa. It was really itchy by the way, but my skin feels so smooth after that.

The only thing I would complain about is the number of houseflies. OMG. They are so annoying.

After we got our room, we went down to relax again, I did a mud spa again, then dinner time with some belly dancing and wine buffet. The wine was not good at all. The shower was also the best.

After breakfast, I went to the beach again for some sun and reading, then check out time.
I regret not doing another mud spa. I drove back to Amman, stopped by a big local supermarket to buy all the dead sea stuff. (like $200 worth: 20 dead sea mud soap for my mum and aunt, some mud and some facial masks for friends)

Back in Amman - checked in hotel, ubered to eat so sweets, walked to rainbow street for dinner. I wanted to smoke shisha but I chickened out in the end. Well it looks super weird. But we had a nice meal. I had lamb chops and margaritas. The next morning it was bye bye Jordan. I changed the remaining Jordan Dinar to Euros - I think Euros is more useful than USD and it cost me $20 -_- nvm.

Next morning, breakfast, we went to top up fuel and retuned the car. The car suffered a lot of damage lol. There's nothing much at the small airport, I changed my remaining JOD to EURO, boarded the plans and Hello back to South East Asia!

Petra

The route to Petra was also out of this world too. We drove up the mountains and looked down, it was all desert and rocks. I got scared because usually we will see the sea or ocean on the mountain but all we see is sand and more sand and more rocks, it's never ending. It's rather scary.

The traffic is crazy in Petra. There are no traffic lights, roads are narrow and winding and sloped. Luckily they could see that we were tourists and gave way to us. We checked in the hotel around 3pm and it was rest, photo deleting and IG posting day. We were so glad for this rest day before the high intensity workout the next day. We went to check the Petra entrance hours, and headed for dinner 1km away, because we checked trip advisor and that was the nearest higher ranked restaurant.

Indeed, it was really good, I had lamb and rice and Coca Cola. Woos. The next morning 6am we were already in the queue to get inside Petra. I can't believe we woke up so early just to get picture without all the tourist groups. 15mins in, we saw the Treasury, which was the highlight and must-take pic of this trip.

We climbed up for a better view and better pictures. I was feeling adventurous so I hung by the cliff and wasn't scared at all.

7.30am, we started walking in deeper to the Monastery. It smelt badly of donkey/horse/camel poop all the way it was so disgusting. And I hate those people who got there using animals it was so cruel. I could literally see the donkey's hind legs shaking all the way supporting the adult's weight. We reached the Monastery after 1 hour intense hiking upwards and ate our breakfast there. We explored upwards more, then waited for the right timing for the sun because 8.30am sun was casting a shadow on the Monastery.

Anyway afterwards we headed down, 1hour hike back and back to the hotel at 2pm. We were so relieved because it was scorching hot and so many tourist groups, and we were cooling down and showering in our room. Then 5pm, we went back again to take some last minute pictures again because the crowd were gone. This time I sat on the ledge and I was literally shaking because it was so high up and for the first time I felt vertigo. We had good pictures nonetheless.

Anyway dinner time. We "hiked" 1km again to the restaurant, and the owner actually recognised us and gave us 2nd dinner discount hahaha. We sat at the same table and same seats. This time I had chicken and rice hmmmmmm.

Breakfast next morning was really good as well, then it's dead sea time.