I had my small breakfast and then was off on my hotel arranged trip to the Dead Sea. There were 3 others with me on the trip - Margo, the Australian that I had previously met in Hamah in Syria, Kospi, from Argentina but working for Emirates Air and living in Dubai, and Rahul from India, working in Singapore. As all of the regular hotel drivers were on other day trips, the hotel arranged a taxi to take us around for the day.
Our first stop was Madaba, a very Christian city, to see the Madaba Mosaic Map that was found under the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St George. The mosaic dates to around 560 AD. The mosaics were discovered in the late 1800s when a group of Christians settled in the area and as they were building, the maps were uncovered.
The map shows all of the major biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt and was made of more than 2 million pieces. Only about a third of the original map remains. When we arrived at the church we had to wait outside with all of the other tourists hoping to see the map. A church service was going on and the map was covered to protect it. Once the service was over and the map uncovered, they would let the groups of people in in the order they got there. Most of the people were in larger tour groups. We weren't the first to arrive but we were close to the door and the guy in charge seemed to be slightly interested in talking to me. He let us go in with the first group. All of the groups were limited to about 10 minutes in the church before they had to go to leave space for the next group. Because we were just a small group of four, we were allowed to take our time. 
The church is beautiful. The walls are covered in mosaic pictures of saints and biblical events and such.
As I was wandering around the church looking at the mosaics, the guy in charge of keeping the visitors in order always seemed to be watching me. At one point he came up and started talking to me. He asked what I thought of the church. I said it was beautiful. His response: "Like you!" Ha ha ha ha ha. Nice.
[Next to the church, a giant billboard of King Abdullah II]
Once we had our fill of the church, we headed to our next destination - Mount Nebo.
[On the sign left to right: Hebron(65 km), Dead Sea, Herodium (47 km), Bethlehem (50 km), Qumran (25 km), Jerusalem Mt-of-Olives (46 km), Ramallah (52 km), Jericho (27 km), Nablus (66km), Lake Tiberias (106km)]
Mount Nebo gives an amazing view. 
On Mount Nebo there are the ruins of a monastery and church, complete with mosaic floors and tombs below. The structures are currently being rebuilt, so unfortunately we couldn't go to that part of the mountain top. 
"The Abu Badd - Rolling stone used as a fortified door of a Byzantine Monastery in the old village of Faisaliyah, once known as Kufeir Abu Badd." [from the little sign beside it]
Just a couple of turkeys wandering around the mountaintop. ^.~
[Aerial view from Sacred Destinations] Our next stop was Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, or Bethabara to see the baptism site - the place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. It took quite a while to actually get to the site. Our ride dropped us off and we bought tickets which included a ride to the site. The ticket I was given was in pieces. I looked at it and the guy said no problem. I said no, I wanted one that was in once piece. The driver then looked at me and said, "No problem." I said no, I wanted one that wasn't ripped because I wanted to put it in my album. He just kept repeating, "No problem." I was starting to get frustrated though trying not to show it. Finally he took the ticket and handed it back to the guy in the office who then proceeded to tape the pieces together. Argh! I said no, I wanted a new one. They looked at me as if I was nuts. I got a new one! Maybe it's just me, but I think everyone wants a complete ticket. It's not like it was a cheap one, either! 14 JD!
We had to wait about 15 minutes for our ride to come. It was a fairly windy and cool day and our ride was a partially covered truck with seats in the back. Sooooo cold and dusty. It took us quite a ways down a dirt road before dropping us off at the entrance to the area. We had to enter on a walking tour. It was a fairly good walk. Eventually we came across the old baptism site and the remnants of old churches.
The spot where Jesus was baptized is front right with a little protective roof, and the roof in the background is protecting the mosaic floors and what is left of the churches (they were built on top of one another, which seems to have happened fairly often all over).
[The Jordan River at the roof of a church in the distance - gold color, center just over the trees.]
We then went to the newer Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist and the nearby new baptism site.
Inside the church.
At the newer baptism site, there is a fairly large basin at which babies and young children are baptized. Adults are baptized in the river itself.
Touching the waters of the Jordan River. The Jordan river forms the border between Jordan and Israel.
Directly across the river - Israel.
From there we made our way back to the visitors center (on the same little shuttle 'bus') and then we were off to the Dead Sea.
A Bedouin camp on seen from the road.
At the dead sea there are a couple of options for swimming or sitting on the beach. Tourists are generally taken to one of the resort beaches, at which you have to pay 12JD just to enter the gates (there are swimming pools inside, but why go to the Dead Sea to swim in a swimming pool right in front of the beaches???). We opted for the cheaper public beach (7JD). Our driver tried insisting several times that we go to the resort one. I have a feeling he would have gotten some sort of commission or something like that out of it had we gone there. As it was a bit chilly and none of us actually wanted to go for a swim, the public beach was the much better option. After a quick look at the beach and sea, we decided we were quite hungry. The only place that was open for us to eat was a large buffet at the entrance. It was ridiculously expensive for what it was. 10JD for a small lunch buffet at a public beach! I'd hate to find out what we would have payed at the resort restaurants then! Margo wasn't extremely hungry and didn't want anything more than just salad. The restaurant said she would still have to pay the full buffet price. She didn't want to be taken advantage of so she didn't eat. We ate and the driver ate (I think he convinced them to give him his for free or at a huge discount since I'm pretty sure he told them that he suggested the place to us). As we were still eating, Margo had the driver take her back to the car so she could rest a bit. We finished out food and then headed down to the water.
We wandered around talking and watching the people. Some people were out having picnics, some were out to test the healing properties of the Dead Sea water and its mud. A couple of guys had covered themselves completely from head to toe in mud. If it were a bit warmer...
It was interesting seeing women in their Hijabs wading in the water next to a foreign woman in a bikini. Quite the contrast. Not many people were swimming and to see a foreign woman in a bikini among all those who were completely covered up seemed a little wrong (you can see her if you look between the two guys standing on the beach just to the right of center). I figured it would be a shame to go there and not even touch the water so I went wading a bit. 
The entire edge of the sea is solid salt rock. You can even see the layers where it has been worn away. It is quite sharp in places where the top is salt crystals. Other places have been smoothed out by the water. 
Away from the waters edge the salt rock is broken into pieces in the sand. When I was finished giving my toes a salt water treatment, we made our way back to our taxi to find that both the driver and Margo had dozed off, with the air conditioner on. The battery had died! What to do? Give it a little push.
A couple of guys came to help and since Rahul and Kospi were already at the back ready to push I was able to back up and capture proof of the incident. 
A bridge in Amman.
Back in Amman Kospi and I made plans to go out with a couple of other guys she had met previously (Philippe and Greg). We went to Hashem for dinner (where I had gone the night before for dinner), and then to the Blue Fig for some drinks. The Blue Fig was nice but certainly not cheap. It think most places in Jordan are not cheap when it comes to drinks. The Tiramisu cheesecake was fantastic!!
Our first stop was Madaba, a very Christian city, to see the Madaba Mosaic Map that was found under the floor of the Greek Orthodox Basilica of St George. The mosaic dates to around 560 AD. The mosaics were discovered in the late 1800s when a group of Christians settled in the area and as they were building, the maps were uncovered.
The map shows all of the major biblical sites from Lebanon to Egypt and was made of more than 2 million pieces. Only about a third of the original map remains. When we arrived at the church we had to wait outside with all of the other tourists hoping to see the map. A church service was going on and the map was covered to protect it. Once the service was over and the map uncovered, they would let the groups of people in in the order they got there. Most of the people were in larger tour groups. We weren't the first to arrive but we were close to the door and the guy in charge seemed to be slightly interested in talking to me. He let us go in with the first group. All of the groups were limited to about 10 minutes in the church before they had to go to leave space for the next group. Because we were just a small group of four, we were allowed to take our time. 
The church is beautiful. The walls are covered in mosaic pictures of saints and biblical events and such.
As I was wandering around the church looking at the mosaics, the guy in charge of keeping the visitors in order always seemed to be watching me. At one point he came up and started talking to me. He asked what I thought of the church. I said it was beautiful. His response: "Like you!" Ha ha ha ha ha. Nice.
[Next to the church, a giant billboard of King Abdullah II]Once we had our fill of the church, we headed to our next destination - Mount Nebo.
Then Moses climbed Mount Nebo from the plains of Moab to the top of Pisgah, across from Jericho. There the Lord showed him the whole land.... Then the Lord said to him, "This is the land I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it."This is where Moses is said to have looked upon the Promised Land.
And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day on one knows where his grave is. --Deuteronomy 34:1-6
(That's from the bible for those that don't know. Borrowed from Sacred Destinations Mount Nebo.)
[On the sign left to right: Hebron(65 km), Dead Sea, Herodium (47 km), Bethlehem (50 km), Qumran (25 km), Jerusalem Mt-of-Olives (46 km), Ramallah (52 km), Jericho (27 km), Nablus (66km), Lake Tiberias (106km)]
Mount Nebo gives an amazing view. 
On Mount Nebo there are the ruins of a monastery and church, complete with mosaic floors and tombs below. The structures are currently being rebuilt, so unfortunately we couldn't go to that part of the mountain top. 
"The Abu Badd - Rolling stone used as a fortified door of a Byzantine Monastery in the old village of Faisaliyah, once known as Kufeir Abu Badd." [from the little sign beside it]
Just a couple of turkeys wandering around the mountaintop. ^.~[Aerial view from Sacred Destinations] Our next stop was Bethany-Beyond-the-Jordan, or Bethabara to see the baptism site - the place where Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. It took quite a while to actually get to the site. Our ride dropped us off and we bought tickets which included a ride to the site. The ticket I was given was in pieces. I looked at it and the guy said no problem. I said no, I wanted one that was in once piece. The driver then looked at me and said, "No problem." I said no, I wanted one that wasn't ripped because I wanted to put it in my album. He just kept repeating, "No problem." I was starting to get frustrated though trying not to show it. Finally he took the ticket and handed it back to the guy in the office who then proceeded to tape the pieces together. Argh! I said no, I wanted a new one. They looked at me as if I was nuts. I got a new one! Maybe it's just me, but I think everyone wants a complete ticket. It's not like it was a cheap one, either! 14 JD!We had to wait about 15 minutes for our ride to come. It was a fairly windy and cool day and our ride was a partially covered truck with seats in the back. Sooooo cold and dusty. It took us quite a ways down a dirt road before dropping us off at the entrance to the area. We had to enter on a walking tour. It was a fairly good walk. Eventually we came across the old baptism site and the remnants of old churches.
The spot where Jesus was baptized is front right with a little protective roof, and the roof in the background is protecting the mosaic floors and what is left of the churches (they were built on top of one another, which seems to have happened fairly often all over).
[The Jordan River at the roof of a church in the distance - gold color, center just over the trees.]
We then went to the newer Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist and the nearby new baptism site.
Inside the church.At the newer baptism site, there is a fairly large basin at which babies and young children are baptized. Adults are baptized in the river itself.
Touching the waters of the Jordan River. The Jordan river forms the border between Jordan and Israel.
Directly across the river - Israel.From there we made our way back to the visitors center (on the same little shuttle 'bus') and then we were off to the Dead Sea.
A Bedouin camp on seen from the road.
At the dead sea there are a couple of options for swimming or sitting on the beach. Tourists are generally taken to one of the resort beaches, at which you have to pay 12JD just to enter the gates (there are swimming pools inside, but why go to the Dead Sea to swim in a swimming pool right in front of the beaches???). We opted for the cheaper public beach (7JD). Our driver tried insisting several times that we go to the resort one. I have a feeling he would have gotten some sort of commission or something like that out of it had we gone there. As it was a bit chilly and none of us actually wanted to go for a swim, the public beach was the much better option. After a quick look at the beach and sea, we decided we were quite hungry. The only place that was open for us to eat was a large buffet at the entrance. It was ridiculously expensive for what it was. 10JD for a small lunch buffet at a public beach! I'd hate to find out what we would have payed at the resort restaurants then! Margo wasn't extremely hungry and didn't want anything more than just salad. The restaurant said she would still have to pay the full buffet price. She didn't want to be taken advantage of so she didn't eat. We ate and the driver ate (I think he convinced them to give him his for free or at a huge discount since I'm pretty sure he told them that he suggested the place to us). As we were still eating, Margo had the driver take her back to the car so she could rest a bit. We finished out food and then headed down to the water.
We wandered around talking and watching the people. Some people were out having picnics, some were out to test the healing properties of the Dead Sea water and its mud. A couple of guys had covered themselves completely from head to toe in mud. If it were a bit warmer...
It was interesting seeing women in their Hijabs wading in the water next to a foreign woman in a bikini. Quite the contrast. Not many people were swimming and to see a foreign woman in a bikini among all those who were completely covered up seemed a little wrong (you can see her if you look between the two guys standing on the beach just to the right of center). I figured it would be a shame to go there and not even touch the water so I went wading a bit. 
The entire edge of the sea is solid salt rock. You can even see the layers where it has been worn away. It is quite sharp in places where the top is salt crystals. Other places have been smoothed out by the water. 
Away from the waters edge the salt rock is broken into pieces in the sand. When I was finished giving my toes a salt water treatment, we made our way back to our taxi to find that both the driver and Margo had dozed off, with the air conditioner on. The battery had died! What to do? Give it a little push.
A couple of guys came to help and since Rahul and Kospi were already at the back ready to push I was able to back up and capture proof of the incident. 
A bridge in Amman.Back in Amman Kospi and I made plans to go out with a couple of other guys she had met previously (Philippe and Greg). We went to Hashem for dinner (where I had gone the night before for dinner), and then to the Blue Fig for some drinks. The Blue Fig was nice but certainly not cheap. It think most places in Jordan are not cheap when it comes to drinks. The Tiramisu cheesecake was fantastic!!
I walked, and walked, but didn't see it. I got to the end (Taksim Square) and asked a police man that was standing around. He pointed back in the direction I came from and said around 1 km. What??? I had just walked about 1 km. Grrr. It was there. On the 3rd floor with only a small Canadian flag hanging outside showing that it was there. I rang the bell and was led into a small office with a big round table. A woman came in, got my info and then went to get the letter. For 62.5 YTL I got a letter that pretty much just said I intended to go to Syria. What a waste of time and money. I had to wait to go back to the Syrian Embassy as by then, it was too late. This was seriously taking time from my travels.
I had lunch at the Cafe Sultan just down the street from the consulate. I had a chicken sandwich and a lemonade for 10 YTL. It was not bad, except that the sandwich didn't have much chicken in it. After eating I went for a walk along Istiklal Caddessi and then headed down a side street to find a taxi.
Along one side of it, the buildings are actually built right up to the wall, even following the shape of the walls. I paid my 20 TL entrance fee and headed in.
Once inside the walls, I wandered around the first courtyard a bit to take pictures.
I absolutely love the old trees there that have naturally been hollowed out but still grow. Amazing.
[one of the old trees, in front of the palace kitchens - those are the chimneys on the roof]
Not the easiest thing to do when traveling alone. He talked about the different buildings in the palace complex and the entire history of the place.
The palace is absolutely beautiful.
Everything is so ornate. Hearing explanations of the uses of the different room was interesting and very entertaining at times.
CIRCUMCISION ROOM - SUMMER PAVILION
We went through the main part of the palace and then came to the entrance of the Harem part. The main ticket didn't include this part, so I had to get another ticket, specific for the Harem part. I didn't have to wait in the relatively long line, though, as I gave my money to Harun and he went to the side entrance of the booth, since he was friends with the guys working inside. :) The Harem part was also fantastic. The Harem is not really a harem as we generally think. It is pretty much just the family part, or the Sultan's private quarters as opposed to the public and business part of the palace complex.
The Sultan would ride into the Harem part along the fancy stone pathway. ONLY the Sultan was allowed to ride a horse on that path. The concubines and Eunuchs were just the servants, the concubines being maids to the family.
The Eunuchs would place the meals out along a long table in the Passage of the Concubines. They would then leave the hallway, and the concubines would enter to pick up the food.
There are so many hallways and courtyards and rooms that are all so wonderful and different: for the concubines, for the Eunuchs, for the Queen Mother, for the Sultan, etc. I wish I could put pictures of all of them here.
[a fireplace]
[a toilet]
In the hall are the throne on which the Sultan sat, and a gallery that was occupied by the wives of the Sultan headed by the Queen Mother.
A pantry where musical instruments are exhibited and certain other apartments open to the Imperial Hall which gives access into hte Sultan's private apartments.
[a bedroom. Like in the other palace, there were 2 beds!!]
[a wall :) in the room for eating fruit]
[the swimming pool]
Harun and I had a great conversation going the whole time, in between the information about the palace. We were talking about relationships, traveling and other such things. He said that when I said he wouldn't get anything out of me, he didn't really believe me. Men in Turkey often try to meet the foreign women, and take them out for a 'fun night'. They take them to a fancy dinner, a show, or what ever it is they like. Then they hope that they'll get something in return. Harun was saying that from his experience, most women never say no. If they accept the invite, they always end up in bed by the end of the night. He said he's even had women say absolutely no, but by the end of a tour, change their minds. I explained to him that not all women are like that. He found that hard to believe. In the end he was still hoping I'd change my mind about going out for an evening of fun with him. I told him I wouldn't. He gave me his number just incase. Harun was fantastic company and a great guide for the tour of the palace. He said that even if he got nothing, he enjoyed talking to me.
SO many statues!!
Roman statues, funerary steles,
sarcofagi,
etc. There was even an Egyptian sarcofagus, complete with a mummy. 
The "Ta'liq" inscription decorating its side walls informs us that it was built in 1590. The peacock amid tulips, carnations and flowering plum branches displays the popular motifs of the time, that is the reign of Murad III (1574-1595).
I walked back to the hostel area and had dinner at a little restaurant across the road from my hostel. I had mushroom soup (fantastic!) and mushroom spaghetti (so so).
In case you don't know, I love mushrooms. :)
On the way back, we came across a guy selling a hot drink. At first we thought it was tea, but were told otherwise. We decided we should try it anyway. They guy said it is made with milk and corn and cinnamon. Not sure exactly what it is but it was delicious (but VERY hot!!). It reminded me of custard. A nice bedtime snack. :)