Despite waking up at 5am this morning, I got a bit of a late start to the day cause I fell back asleep and didn’t get out of bed until 9:15.

No worries though as having a rental car and doing things on my own vs a tour has given me the luxury of doing things on my own time and schedule.

Anyway, I packed everything up and was out the door at 10am.

It was finally time to leave Amman and head south through Jordan eventually ending up in Petra and then Wadi Rum.

Breakfast

One of the nice things about starting later than I anticipated was that I was able to visit Ketolicious again, this time for some breakfast.

The restaurant only opens up at 10am so the timing actually worked out perfect.

I did have to do a loop around the block a couple of times doing looking for a parking spot but eventually just asked if they could move one of the pylons from in front of their store to let me park.

For breakfast today, I had another Manakeesh which is an Arabic type pizza.

This one, of course, was on gluten free pita bread.   Today’s toppings were egg and cheese, cause, ya know, I had to make it breakfasty, right?

On my way out, I set my online navigation for my next stop and, sure enough, it tried to direct me through a street I wasn’t supposed to enter.

This is the street I went done a couple of days ago, unknowingly passing by the “do not enter” signs, and got a ticket from a convenient cop.

I should say, at the time I blamed Google Maps but, in actuality, after using that app for the first couple of hours of driving, I’ve since been using the maps.me app to navigate around and they’re to blame.

When I plugged in the same directions on Google Maps, it avoided that street.

Still gonna use maps.me though cause, hot damn, Google Maps is just too busy with so many things on the layout while maps.me is so simplistic.

At 11am, I was on my way south.

Rather than going straight down to Petra which is 235km away, I decided to stop at a couple of places and end the day in the small town of Kerak which is just over the halfway point to Petra.

Mount Nebo

The first stop for the day was the biblical place of Mount Nebo located about 30km southwest of Amman.

Now, I’m not really a religious person, but that has never stopped me from visiting all sorts of religious sites.

I’ve visited countless churches, mosques, and even monasteries.

Heck, I’ve even joined Easter Mass with thousands of devout Christians at Vatican Square.

Mount Nebo is where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land before his death.

From the mountain top, you can see a panorama of the West Bank across the Jordan River valley and on clear days you can even see the cities of Jericho and Jerusalem.

Unlike the previous sites I’ve visited the last few days, this site wasn’t covered by the Jordan Pass and entry was 3JOD ($6).

Well worth it though.

It only took about a half hour to walk around the site, carefully avoiding the one and only tour group of about two dozen seniors.

The views and the history of it all were amazing…

The crown jewel, so to speak, was the Moses Memorial Church but there was also The Book of Love statue, a big round stone door called the Abu Badd, the Brazen Serpent Monument as well as the olive tree that Pope John Paul II planted.

Hanging out at the Ramada

By 12:15 I was back on the road for the half hour drive to the Dead Sea.

People far and wide come visit this landmark and, aside from a couple obscure public areas, the only way to actually step foot on the Dead Sea is through one of the many private beaches attached to different hotels.

Alot of those hotels will offer a day pass at varying prices so you don’t actually have to be booked in to stay at the hotel.

I chose the Ramada Inn because, well frankly, they were the cheapest option.

For 15JOD ($30), you have full access to their private beach along with with a towel to dry yourself off at the end.

For an extra 5JOD ($10), they’d include a buffet lunch.

I ended up choosing the option with the lunch as how can I turn down a Jordanian buffet lunch, right?

I arrived at the gate and, after the guard took a mirror to look under my car and had me pop my trunk to look inside, I was inside the hotel.

I wasn’t heading straight out onto the beach though as I purposely gave myself time to just hang out in the empty lobby typing up yesterday’s blog.

By the time I was done the blog it was already 2:30 and lunch would be ending soon so I popped down a couple levels to their dining area.

All those dreams of a Jordanian buffet were quicky quashed as all I saw were 5 steam tables containing rice, potatoes, veggies, roast chicken, and beef stew.

To be somewhat fair, there were also a collection of different middle eastern dips and desserts but, as far as substance, that’s all there was.

So, I just kind of laughed, scooped some potatoes and roast chicken onto my plate and ate my lunch.

With my gluten allergy, I was pretty sure I couldn’t have the beef stew and, well, those dips might have been nice but without bread, what could I do and, of course, the desserts were definately a no-go.

Oh well, like I said, I just kind of laughed.   You realize in these absurd moments that, yeah, it’s laughable now but in the future, it’ll make for a nice humorous story.

Floating in the Dead Sea

At 3:00 I finally changed into my swim trunks and made my way outside.

Time to visit the Dead Sea!

The Dead Sea is a landlocked salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel to the west.

At 430m (1400ft) below sea level, it is the lowest land-based elevation on Earth.

It is also one of the world’s saltiest bodies of water at almost 10 times the saltiness of the ocean.

The name Dead Sea comes from the fact that the salt levels in it don’t allow plants and animals to live.

Another little bonus to the high salt level is that when you go out in the water, you actually float in it which is why tourists far and wide come to visit here.

Yup, I was going to float in the Dead Sea!

Once I arrived at the outside, a man named Abdullah greeted me.

He would be driving me the short 5 minute drive down to the beach.

Now, I should say at this point that I had virtually seen nobody else at the hotel.   I’m pretty sure it’s because it’s the low season for tourism but there’s also a good chance everybody does the Dead Sea in the morning and I was the only one here in the afternoon.

Either way, I had the beach to myself.

We arrived on the beach and I just assumed Abdullah would drive back to the hotel and come back for me when I was done.

But nope, he was sticking around.

Not only that, he directed me on where to go and how to do what I was supposed to do while in the Dead Sea.

Oh, and he took photos and videos of me the entire time.

This was actually a nice surprise cause, honestly, I’d have been totally lost if he wasn’t there to guide me.

I knew that you weren’t supposed to be in the Dead Sea longer than 10 minutes cause the salt will mess up your skin after awhile but other than that I didn’t know much about anything.

After floating in the sea for a bit, I got back on shore and Abdullah came in clutch again.

Mud bath time!

Abdullah picked up a nearby bucket of supposedly therapeutic mud and started spreading it all on my body.

Yup, I was truly transformed into a creature from the Black Lagoon.

Afterwards I stood next to nearby hose where he sprayed all the mud off.

I had mentally prepared myself for an ice cold hosing off so you can imagine my surprise when I was doused off with nice warm water.

Turns out the hose was actually directly pumping water from the Dead Sea.

By 4pm we were heading back up to the hotel.

I was so happy with the experience and with all the help that Abdullah provided me that I tipped him 5JOD ($10) which, I’m pretty sure, people don’t normally do as he was shocked I was tipping him.

Like I said, if it wasn’t for him, I just don’t think I’d have had the experience I ended up having.

Driving the Dead Sea Highway

Alright, all activities are done for the day.

Time to get to my new hostel for the night.   Time to drive to the small town of Kerak.

I had a 90km drive ahead of me which would take me about an hour and a half to accomplish.

Luckily this drive was mostly along the scenic highway 65, also known as the Dead Sea Highway.

To my left were magnificent rock cliffs and to my right was the stunning Dead Sea.

And, yes, I was a bad boy and took some videos while I was driving but, damn, it was just so beautiful.

Ironically, the one and only time I actually pulled over on the side of the road to take a photo of a rock cliff from my window, I just happened to be about 20m away from a police checkpoint.

No sooner had I put my car into drive that he stepped out onto the road to pull me over.

Oh c’mon!

I literally was stopped on the side of the road to take the photo.

Was he pulling me over cause I was using my phone while driving?

After supplying my driver’s license, I used Google Translate to ask him why he pulled me over.

“Security Measures” was the response he said in Arabic.

Ohhhh.

Well, okay then.   That’s fine.   No ticket for me.

It did make me curious about the police checkpoints though.   Were they just randomly pulling over people or was I just down right suspicious looking cause I was taking photos of a rock cliff?

Guess we’ll never know.

Anyway, soon I turned left off the Dead Sea Highway and was now navigating through winding mountain roads cutting through those rock cliffs I had just been admiring.

By 5:30 I had finally arrived in Kerak.

Friendly Kerak

I reached where my destination was marked on my map but couldn’t see any signage for the hostel.

I pulled into the parking lot next door, thought for a minute, and then pulled back out onto the street.

Just as I pulled out, two men standing next to a restaurant where my hostel was supposed to be, waved me over.

“Looking for Kerak Dream?”

Yes, yes I was!   That was the name of my hostel.

Turns out one of the guys was the owner of the hostel who was waiting for me to arrive.

He waved me back into the parking lot, I parked my car, grabbed my bag, and stepped into the restaurant they had been waiting outside of.

The hostel owner brought me a welcome tea to sip while I checked in and, after I was done, we walked a block down to where the hostel actually was.

The restaurant is kind of partnered with the hostel so that’s why it was marked the way it was.

After setting things up and just relaxing for awhile, I headed back out at 7:30 to grab some dinner back at that restaurant.

For guests they have a 20% discount and their menu looked pretty decent with Jordanian dishes on it.

I ordered the traditional Arabic Salad which is a mix of diced tomatoes and cucumbers in a lemon and olive oil dressing.

I also had my first try at kebabs here in Jordan which are a little different from what we all think kebabs are back home.

Jordanian kebabs are basically ground lamb meat wrapped around a skewer and then fried.

Delicious!

As I was eating my dinner, the call to prayer came over the town’s loudspeakers and the restaurant owner actually left me alone in the place to go out to pray.

After dinner I just kind of hung out in my private room watching YouTube videos and setting up my blog.

Tomorrow I continue my journey down the Kings Highway ending up in Petra which I’ll be visiting the following day.

Come join me, won’t you?