Author: Adrian's Got the Moose

Ramallah – 23/11/2019

Ramallah is a sprawling city just north of Jerusalem, but firmly belonging to Palestine. It is the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, it was also where Yasser Arafat was held under house arrest for two years by Israel.

Ramallah is where the Palestinian and Israeli conflict fell into some context for me. I visited the Arafat Museum, which also contained his mausoleum , which was both a focus of attentiuon but seemingly deliberately understated .

While I am familiar and agree with the adage that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, it was still a surreal experience. Groups of thirty plus school children on field trips to a museum dedicated to the memory of a man widely viewed by the western world as a terrorist mastermind. I found the museum to be stark and moving, In the gift shop, I bought two pins of the Palestinian flag, and with a painful awareness that I paid for them with Israeli Shekels.

Later, I visited the Al-Amari Refugee Camp. Originally housed in tents, now residents live in poorly constructed tenements, and the main street contains a clinic, as well as minimarts, bakeries and mobile phone shops. While residents can freely move in and out of the camp, being surrounded by the urban sprawl of Ramallah, high unemployment and rising property prices leave many with nowhere else to go. Our guide pointed out writing on walls, which indicated children killed by Israeli vigilantes, men who returned from prison, and in a handful of cases pilgrimages to Mecca.

We met a resident in his family’s third storey home, along with his beautiful children. Over coffee and cigarettes, and being translated by our guide, he told us stories about being arrested, and being tortured. One instance of torture involved him being stripped naked, bound to a stainless steel table, meat placed over his genitals and dogs let loose into the room. We finished the tour, and I was left feeling numb and helpless .

Jericho- 21/11/2019

Jericho was my first stop after passing into Palestine. Jericho was very similar to many places I have visited with developing economies. Many near-empty shops, taxi drivers hungry for fares, bins present but rubbish on the streets, friendly but idle locals. For a place my goverment thinks I shouldn’t visit, everything seemed quite calm.

After I settled into my hostel, I took short walk to Ein Al Sultan, apparently the oldest known settlement in the world.

However after Jeresh and Petra, it was a tad underwhelming . The nearby spring, which supplied water to much of ancient Jericho, was more picturesque.

My next step was Mount Temptation . I could of taken a cable car to the top, but of course I walked, which granted some incredible views.

The Mount Temptation Monastery was impressive, and conceals the cave where it is said that Jesus spent forty days and nights, while fasting and being tempted by Satan.

Due to claustrophobia and the legions of the devout, I didn’t get any closer. Also, the monastery featured a church, but there was a long queue to enter, and I felt uncomfortable around so much beating of breast style piety, so I departed.

There were also some excellent views from balconies.

The next morning I took a walk to Herrod’s Palace, a good two kilometres from my hostel, but wonderfully flat after yesterday. Following roadsigns, I left the barely sealed road for a dirt track and was soon stopped by Israeli soldiers. I had previously waved at a pair of soldiers on a side road they seemed to be blocking, who barely acknowledged me. This time was different. Where are you going? What are you doing? Where are you from? Do you know you are in the Palestinian Territories? it physically pained me not to answer with no, I thought I was in Disneyland, however armed soldiers, even ones with painted fingernails and lipstick, are not the best recipients of my retail and travel tuned sarcasm. Once it was clear they had no further need to hinder me, I continued on my way.

I walked through alongside a small farm, and jumped a half-broken down fence, and arrived. I spotted half a dozen more soldiers, chatting to themselves and taking selfies. After taking a few photos, I realised that the only other people there were a large tour group, and I got closer on the pretense of reading some signs, I realised they were speaking Hebrew, marking them as Israelis. The plot thickens.

Later, when discussing  my escapade with some other travellers at the hostel, I learned that many Israelis are told that the whole of the West Bank is a war zone, and the chances of being a victim of a terrorist attack is incredibly high, hence the perceived need of ludicrous levels of security. meanwhil, I found Palestine to be much safer than other places I have traveled to, and apart from some children who viewed me as an ATM, every Palestinian I met was friendly and welcoming.

Amman

I spent two nights in Amman before crossing the border into West Bank. After dropping off my backpack at my shitty hostel, I spent a happy afternoon walking around downtown Amman. Apart from the cookie-cutter souvenir shops, there seemed to be many jewellers, perfumers and sweets shops around. One of those perfumers offered me a coffee, and made a sample vial of my favourite scent i sniffed, along with a business card in case I changed my mind.

What fascinated me the most were all the alleyways, often dominated by a single business, and decorated with balloons and the like.

Many of the stairs, forming major pedestrian thoroughfares, were well decorated.

The next morning, my sleep having been interrupted by drunken Spanish, I walked up to the Amman Citadel, which has a long history of being  occcupied and worked on by different groups throughout history. I discovered the whole place overrun by a film studio, Coldplay were playing in concert there in a few nights. I managed to get some good shots while dodging trucks transporting portaloos, forklifts moving crates, and the oppressive gaze of the tourist police.

The Citadel also offered some incredible views of Amman.

A short distance down the hill, my way assisted and shortened by excellent advice from a smoking Jordanian man to use a hidden staircase, I found a stunning Roman Theatre.

After getting incredibly lost, I found my way to the partially restored Nymphium.

That night, after organizing my bus ticket to cross the border, I took an Uber to a local Turkish Bath, which was a good two hours of…

• showering
• Steaming
• Showering
• Steaming
• Showering
• Spaing
• Scrubbing
• Washing
• massaging
• Saunaing

Which was all heavenly, and not nearly as brutal as the Turkish Bath I visted in Istanbul in 2008, even if the building didn’t date back to the Ottoman Empire.

I decided to walk back to the hostel, but soon got waylaid when I discovered a very hipster area close by the bathouse. I found an amazing shop selling pop culture goods, and more than a few pro-Palestine items that I would have loved to buy. but could not afford to have on me when I crossed the border. So I limited myself to a cute button and a sticker for my notebook.

Making my way down some stairs, I spotted a few local lads rollerblading, which is the first time in over ten years I have spotted anyone on rollerblades.

Google Maps being more useful than usual, told me to walk down a slim pedestrian alleyway, and I spotted a Liquor Store sign, and walked in planning to buy a beer  to take back to my dreary room, to see if it improves the ambience. Butt it turned out to be a tiny, dark bar, possibly skirting the local laws by not calling itself a bar.

So I dwelled long enough to click glasses with the resident barflies, enjoy my first beer for a week, and listen to some surprisingly good pop music, before saying my goodbyes and departing. I would have loved to spend more time there, but I needed to pack before bed and leave early in the morning, and experience has taught me never to pack drunk or hungover.

Modern Jeresh.

Something I enjoyed about my three night stay in Jeresh was the complete absence of tourists outside of the archological park. Because Jordan is such a small country, many tourists stay in the capital and take day trips, which makes logistical sense, but in my opinion no good for actually experiencing the country.

Tour buses would park just outside of the archeological site, and vomit out tourists. The tourists would be herded around for a few hours, perhaps get lunch at one of the on site restaurants, then be consumed by the tour buses and sent back to safety in Amman.

My hostel was a good kilometre and a half from the site, and because I refuse to pay for a taxi when I can walk it without feeling too exhausted by the time I get there, I spent a lot of time over the two days around the windy, hilly streets. This is how I ended up eating at restaurants where I was the only non-resident, getting a haircut conducted with no English ( and at a price that I suspect indicates the sheer audacity of me walking in there), and getting on first name basis with the owners and patrons of a coffee shop, where I was not allowed to pay for my first coffee. It was in this coffee house I learned that many Arabs as much as practicable pretend that Israel doesn’t exist, and all that land west of the Dead Sea is simply Palestine.

Every where I went I was asked where I was from, and welcomed.

The hostel I stayed at had only been open for a month, and each night I had a six bed dorm room to myself. The afternoon staff member noticed me writing and typing up my blog entries, and commented that as a writer, I must love the authenticity of the city. I loved my stay in the hostel, lonely as it was, but I doubt it will still be there in a year, unless there is some dramatic shift in the way people travel through this amazing country.

Ancient Jeresh- 17/11/2019

Jeresh is a modern city built around, and on top of an ancient city, which is, of course, the reason I stayed for three nights.

It was a settlement as far back as 7500 BCE, flourished during the Greco-Roman era until various earthquakes destroyed much of the city. The Crusaders made use of it briefly, then it lay abandoned until the Ottomans made use of it in the 16th century.

Today Jeresh is one of the best preserved Greco-Roman cities outside of Italy. Excavations began in 1925, and still continue today.

The main entrance of the ancient city of Jeresh is the incredible Hadrian’s Arch, built by the Roman Emperor of the same name.

The Oval Plaza was the main square and focus point of everyday life in the city, and was a crossroads between the two major roads. It was built with impressive Ionic columns, paved with stone slabs, and featured its own drainage system.

The Cordo leads on from the Plaza, linking many state buildings, and would have been lined with hundreds of stalls.

My favourite building was the Nymphaeum. a two-storey fountain, to supply water to the masses in excessive style. The pink granite basin was likely added by the Byzantines.

A number of temples line the Cordo, the most spectacular in my opinion being the Temple of Artemis.

Which included a number of gates and entrances.

The city featured at least two theatres, both amazingly restored. The Southern Theatre featured some beautifully anachronistic live music when I visited.

I think the thing I liked the most about Jeresh is that It was not just a collection of distant buildings, you could see how everything was interconnected. Various gods rose to dominance and faded as the people changed. all the while business and wars were conducted, and empires rose and fell, but for thousands of years the city endured.

The Dead Sea- 15/11/2019

I took an Uber to the Dead Sea Spa Resort. After paying for a day pass I made my way through the resort to the beach, which turned out to be a bit disappointing .

I knew the sea has been receding at a rapid rate, and it’s hard to impress an Australian with any beach, But I still felt it was hardly worth the effort and expense.

Nonetheless , I was there. I dodged Europeans, having suddenly been rendered invisible , stripped off my shirt, left my flip flops on the beach and slowly made my way into the water.

The first thing I noticed was sharp stings from various cuts, abrasions and rashes I had picked up in my travels. Luckily these subsided swiftly. Once the water was up to my nipples I lifted my legs from the mud. It felt very odd, I had to force my legs to stay submerged as they fought their way back up, being excessively buoyant compared to the rest of me in the supersaturated salt water. This became a problem as a man almost ran into me, and I instinctively tried to breaststroke out of the way, and I struggled to right myself- apparently trying to float on your front is how many people manage to drown in the Dead Sea.

Eventually, I managed to find a spot I could float unmolested, which was pleasant enough for half an hour, but then I got bored and headed back to the shore to shower in the open air. the Dead Sea water tends to leave your skin feeling very oily.

I had lunch and a cocktail overlooking one of the resort’s swimming pools, before doing a few laps in the pool before laying down on a deck chair to read for a few hours.

But it was clear I was a pilgrim in an unholy land. I had more in common with the Philippine staff than any of the guests, and apart from mild flirty looks from one older Spanish woman, I was entirely ignored. So I departed and left the obscene excess for those who are more comfortable with it.

Madaba- 14\1\2019

Madaba contains a historic old city quarter, complete with Roman ruins, churches and an alarming number of souvenir shops.

It was supposed to be my gateway to the Dead Sea, Bethany on the Jordan, and Karak. Due to the fact that almost no one stays in the town, and public transport being almost non-existant, I ended up skipping most of it.

I spent a morning visiting Mount Nebo, which is believed to be where Moses first viewed the Holy Land. According to Christian tradition, Moses was also buried there. It made for an interesting if not exciting diversion, trying to take photos while dodging large groups of the devout.

The church itself had some excellent mozaics, which this area is famous for.

I returned to the city in an empty bus, and a completed a self-guided walking tour.

The first step was Saint George’s Greek Orthodox Church, featuring a 5th century mosaic floor of the Middle East, which is famous, and the bread and butter of many of the souvenir shops.

Next was the Burnt Palace, an expansive private residence. The site also includes a church, which also has a mosaic floor.

A nearby site is the Madaba Archaeological Park, featuring a church, the remains of a Roman road, and the crypt of Saint Elianus.

A decent hike way is the Church of the Apostles, which features, shockingly, floor mosaics.

The last stop, and up a tough hill, was thhe Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. For me it’s true drawcard was underground- the Acropolis Museum .

I also climbed to the top of the bell tower, which had some incredible views.

Petra Part 3- 11/11/2019

The next day I took on the Ad-Deir Monastery Trail, listed as “hard” by the handy booklet I picked up at my hostel. But I am nothing if not a little foolish, so why not? The trail marks a departure from the tour group infested main trail.

It took me a solid hour and a half to reach the monastery, through canyons and over rough-hewn steps, exhausting but rewarding.

The Monastery is very similar to the Treasury but is less in contrast with to the surrounds, which lessens the visual impact. But I think it makes for some interesting photos.

There are number of high peaks a short walk from the Monastery , complete with Bedouins ready to sell you tea to enjoy while you absorb the incredible views.

The wind from there on the day was a thing to behold, and kept me from getting too close to the edges.

To sum up, I loved Petra. The awe-inspiring structures are an amazing testimony to the abilities of the long-dead society that built them. My only complaint was the constant dramas of the drivers of the donkeys, horses and camels who plied their trade. If I never see or smell another donkey, I won’t mind at all.

Petra Part 2

As soon as I realised that the incredible facade from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade  actually existed, I have wanted to see it for myself. The next twenty years have done nothing to change that.

Petra is believed to have been settled as early as 9000 BCE and was established as the capital of the Nabatean Kingdom in the 4th century BCE. The Nabateans were nomadic Arabs, who grew steadily wealthy on the spice and incense trade. The city was absorbed into the Roman Empire, suffered from numerous earthquakes and then declined as sea routes overtook the overland trade. It disappeared into obscurity, known only to the Bedouin who camped there. Petra was rediscovered by a Swiss traveller in 1812.

You access the site by a 1.2 KM gorge, complete with water channels , carvings and water fountains for ritual ablutions. At some points the gorge is only three metres wide, making it a tight squeeze for caravans, but perfect for defense.

Before you exit the Siq, you get a tease of Al-Khazna, AKA The Treasury

Its as incredible as it looks in the movie. it’s in fact a temple, the treasury monikor results from a legend that a bandit gang hid their loot in a stone urn on the facade, an urn that is now known to be solid sandstone, now complete with bullet holes from treasure seekers.

Continuing the main trail takes you through another canyon, which widens,  then includes many royal tombs, a recontructed theatre, and the stairs to the High Place of Sacrifice .

To get to the High Place of Sacrifice takes a solid fifteen minutes of climbing, assuming you don’t stop for breaks, or to pat cats. It’s unknown if human sacrifices were ever conducted here, livestook and grain certainly was. However it was not a place I felt like lingering- bad mojo seemed to be evident, no matter how amazing the views.

N earby were two obelisks, believed to represent the chief male and female  Nabatean deities. They were created by leveling the hill top, leaving only the material that makes up the obelisks.

The main trail continues, with the remains of the Nymphaeum, the Trajen Market, then the Great Temple, which was excavated in the nineties and partially reconstructed.

After passing through the Temenos Gate, you can’t help but stare at Qesr Al-Bint, another temple, one of the best preserved structures in Petra.

a group of churches up a modest hill round off the remainder of the main trail, the best preserved is the so-called Byzantine Church, whih boasts some incredible mozaics.

Petra Part 1- 08/11/2019

Due to the vulgar nature of public transport and the unsocial hour I left Wadi Rum, I had to taxi my way to Petra- complete with a prayer break for my driver, which gave me a chance to buy some drinks and snacks.  After check in at my hostel, I had a beer at the terrace bar with some beautiful European twenty-somethings, which led to a late dinner down the hill.

In theory, the walk  from the gate to Petra and the street leading up to it and my hostel is an easy two hundred metre walk. In practice its all uphill, at a gradient that many cars had trouble with. I soon named this hill The Hill Of Doom. My first time climbing it with those beautiful twenty somethings almost killed me. By the time I left I could manage it only feeling slightly knackered by the time I got to the hostel doors.

The next day I took it very easy. I went for a walk to the less touristy part of town for dinner, helped a local clutch-start his aging Mercedes , before getting a haircut, and accepting the offer of a shave.

It was less scary than I thought, I  managed to be appropriately passive as the moustached barber ran the shavette over my face, and tried not to think about Sweeny Todd. After a ten Diner note and a handshake was exchanged I walked into the night air feeling about ten feet tall. I headed back to the hostel for an early night.