Jordan

So today I took a cab from Dubai Marina to Sharjah international airport for 120dirhams or 24USD to board a flight from Sharjah, UAE to Amman, Jordan for 40dirhams or 8USD. AirArabia is a budget airline that flies out of Sharjah and they’ve just hit their 4year anniversary, big woop? Well the cool thing is that all flights are free today and all I had to pay was taxes.

I landed in Jordan at 2am, got in some dude’s illegal taxi, made it to my hotel around 4am. I slept until 9am got up got the free breakfast, which was consisted of toast, jam, cucumber, instant coffee and a hardboiled egg. Huge difference to what I had become accustomed to in Dubai. The following day it rained so my only activity was confined to finding a backpacker’s hostel and get out of the shithole I had been staying at.

The following day I did a daytrip to Madaba which is known as the city of mosaic. Then we went to Mount Nebo. This is where Moses died after seeing the Promised Land. After checking out the view from the hilltops we travelled along the Jordan River to the Bethany. This is where Jesus was baptized. On the other side of the Jordan River there is also an Israeli tourist site where they claim is the actual site of where Jesus was baptized. Finally the trip ended on a highlight of swimming in the Dead Sea.

I had always read about and seen pictures of how easy floating in the Dead Sea. I even understand the concept and after taking a scuba diving course I’ve experienced how much more buoyant I was in the ocean versus Tablerock Lake where I got certified. None of this prepared me for the feeling of effortlessly floating in the Dead Sea. As soon as I got to about knee deep I could feel the upward force from the water. By the time you walk to about waist deep, you naturally start to float on your back. You are literally on top of the water.

The entire place has sign warning swimmers about floating on their backs, not on their stomach, and the importance of protecting your mouth and eyes from the super high concentration of salt water. Well, I got to experience firsthand the power of the dead sea as some kids swimming next to me splashed some water in my eye. My eye immediately closed shut and started to burn. I was tearing up as I quickly ran towards the freshwater showers. Luckily a quick freshwater rinse was all I needed.