April 12th

Amman, Jordan is one of the oldest inhabited cities in the world. Formally known as Philadelphia, the city was destroyed by several earthquakes and natural disasters and remained a small village until 1878. Since then, the population has largely grown due to the refugees escaping wartime events in countries like West Bank, Iraq, and lately Syria.

We visited Jerash, which is the largest colonial Roman ruins in the world.  It has been continuously inhabited for 6500 years.  We saw some famous Roman- influenced structures from 129 A.D. like Hadrian's Arch, Temple of Zeus, an Amphitheatre and smaller structures like their water tank system and the grooves on the cobblestone roads from the carriages that used to pass over them.

On our way south to Petra, a UNESCO world heritage site, we stopped at a resort that owned property on the Dead Sea and we went for a swim in the extremely salty water. The Dead Sea is the lowest point in the world (about 1312 feet below sea level). It was so salty that we floated almost at the surface and no fish or marine life can live or grow in the waters. We also covered ourselves in Dead Sea mud which is apparently beneficial to the skin but makes it feel old and wrinkly as it dries, until you wash it off.

Petra is one of the seven wonders of the world and is more than 2000 years old and the people (Nabataeans) who lived there prospered in trading off myrrh and spices.  Petra later became part of the Roman Empire and was heavily influenced by their architecture and design. 

The Nabateans buried their dead in tombs cut out of sandstone and used the rock to build churches, huge temples of worship, an amphitheater and columned streets. The only entrance was a 1 kilometer long gorge between two vertical cliffs called the Siq.  This leads to the famous Treasury at the end of the path and many other huge buildings carved out of the rock. Sadly in 363 A.D., a couple earthquakes and a change in the trade routes by the Romans led to the slow downfall of the city by 749 A.D.

At the end of a long, very hot day in Petra, my brilliant parents decided to hike 885 steps to visit a monastery on top of the mountain. Most people take donkeys... we didn't. At least we got good views and I got fresh orange juice at the top.

The next day we went out into the Wadi Rum desert and stayed overnight with a bunch of Bedouin people in tents.  We drove around in 4 wheel drive trucks to see canyons, desert, arches, sand dunes and a whole lot of nothing .... The next morning we rode camels back.  They were stinky, very uncomfortable to ride, and slow, but overall, a fun thing to do. 

Of course, due to the fact that we spent about an hour on a camel, dad once again believes he got yet another brilliant camel shot.  See below.




 

April 11, 2014

Varanasi, India. This is the end of our triangle road tour and the last place we will go to in India before we head back to Delhi and catch a plane to Amman, Jordan (and the ancient city of Petra). Varanasi is considered a holy city for Hindus. On the first day we went to the Ganges River at sunrise (5:30am) where the people bath themselves in the "holy water of the Ganges".  It is very disgusting because, although everyone was covered up and no one was naked, they would clean themselves and then drink the water. That would be fine if it was clean but the water is a gross brown color.  They dump the ashes of cremated people in the river, the boats pump pollution into the river, and sweaty people wash mud out of their chest hair in that water. Then girls dip their little cups in and drink it.


Anyway, everyone who dies in the Hindu religion is cremated.  Before the body is put on the fire, they dip it in the river three times for its last bathing. Then Cream of Milk is poured over the body and it is placed on the flames. We watched the ceremony from a distance in our boat.  It is right beside where they bath. 

The next day we saw some more holy sites like the place where the actual Buddha taught for the first time around 400 B.C (Sarnath Temple). 

Cows are sacred all over India (no hamburgers on the menus), but are very sacred in Varanasi where they can even apparently go shopping (see photo). 

If you click on the pictures, they will enlarge. 

 
Below is a video of a yoga class at 5:30 in the morning in
Varanasi on the Ganges River. 

  holy man on Ganges

 cow having breakfast

  cremation in progress
 
        
          holy waters of the Ganges

April 10, 2014:

Now we are finally at Jaipur, India after a very long 7 hour drive from Delhi.  Jaipur is much smaller in size than Calgary but there are still 4.5 million people living there.  We went for supper with a family and there was a family of 8 living in a tiny two bedroom apartment with a kitchen and a squatter toilet (hole in the ground). 

Our driver took us a famous theatre and we watched a Bollywood movie for the first time yesterday!!!!  It was well done but it was a horror film and we had to leave after about 12 minutes of it because I don't like horror movies.  This one started with Bollywood singing and dancing and then suddenly it was like Paranormal Activity mixed up with Woman in Black and the Grudge. She gets all possessed and then she takes out eyeballs and stabs and kills people .  It was quite...interesting.

 

The next day we saw the Amber Palace which was built in 1592.  The Muslim king of Jaipur lived there and built a 9 km wall surrounding the palace to protect himself and his Hindu queen from invaders and her relatives.  The wall was supposedly designed to imitate the great Wall of China.  It was pretty cool.

 

The next day we drove over to Agra, India.  Agra is a very dirty city but home to one of the most beautiful sites in the world, the Taj Mahal.  The Taj was built by a king for his wife after she died giving birth to their 14th child. She was only 39 years old.  When she was dying, she asked the king to build her a magnificent tomb and for her to be buried there.  So the king was an obedient husband and he built the Taj Mahal for his wife using the public's money (~$40 million).  It took 20,000 workers and 1000 elephants 17 years to build.  Everything is symmetrical in the Taj Mahal except for the king's tomb beside his wife's, because he forgot he had to die too, so his tomb is to the side and smaller.

The inlay of semi-precious stones throughout the tomb is unbelievable.  The builders used tricks to fool the eye (angled inlay to make it look like corners that do not exist).  The four corner towers are not vertical, but built 2 degrees outwards, so in an earthquake they will not fall onto the tomb.  And there was an agreement between the king and builders that they would not work for anyone but him after they finished the temple (it is not true that he cut their hands off).

There are not only cows all over, but a number of camels as well.  We were driving past a caravan of camels in Jaipur and Dad thinks he got the best camel shot ever taken from a moving vehicle.  You decide.  See below.

 

April 10, 2014

So for the last while we have been hanging out in India, but because the Wi-Fi has been surprisingly slow and unavailable, we haven't blogged recently.  Right now we are using the receptionist's computer at the hotel and she gave us only 20 minutes to do this post.

Delhi is the second largest city in India with 22 million people, but it is about the same size as Calgary (area wise). It is noisy, busy and very crowded but known to be one of the "greenest" cities since it's conversion from lead/diesel to natural gas in 2005.  Our tour guide said that his white shirt would be laced with black from the pollution by the end of the day. That still doesn't mean that they have solved their problem of garbage though, which seems to be a problem throughout Southeast Asia. In the deserted alleys and in between buildings there was tons of garbage piled up and rotting. There are cows everywhere too, eating the garbage that the family has throw out.


Old Delhi is a congested and wild part of the city with narrow streets full of colorful shops, Tuk- Tuks, huge masses of people, sellable goods, and cows.  It is extremely chaotic and has to be seen to be believed.  We bought some spices at the oldest spice market in the world. 

Old Delhi is much different from new Delhi, which is where all the new buildings, traffic circles, wide streets, trees and parks are. In new Delhi, there is a sense of order.  Delhi has been inhabited since 500 BC and Muslim Moguls invaded India around 1170AD.  We visited temples, tombs, and holy places from as far back as the 11th century. 

Today, India consists largely of Hindus and Muslims.  One day we saw Mahatma Gandhi's memorial site, where his ashes are placed.  We also learned how carpets and saris are made (a year and a half for one family to make one carpet).  We saw 5 religious facilities within 100 meters of each other - (Muslims, Hindus, Sikks, Buddhists, and Catholics) a testament that though they have different beliefs they coexist peacefully.

March 30, 2014

For the last few days we have been relaxing at a very nice resort on Phi Phi Island in southern Thailand. We have been doing things like beach volleyball, swimming and snorkeling in the warm water, relaxing in the infinity pool, boating over to the only town in the island, and one day we went deep sea scuba diving in the ocean!!!!!!!!

First we went in the pool to practice cleaning the mask underwater, how to find your regulator if you lose it, and how to buddy breathe if you run out of oxygen. The next day we boated out to a bay beside a cliff and went for 2 dives each, up to 45 feet deep. We saw lots of colorful fish, a few big turtles, and near the end of the second dive we saw some black tipped reef sharks but they were scared of the bubbles we made when we exhaled, so they stayed away.  That was good.  Oh, and Dad really loved the sea snake.

It was a very good break because it was super busy, hot and crowded in Burma.  We are going to India next so that will probably be pretty hectic too.