Jordan 2011 Pt VIII: Desert Castles

Posted on July 23, 2011 by tokyofox

Having basically done bugger all since returning from The Dead Sea a day and a half before I thought I should do something on my final day. I’d wanted to do a Desert Castle trip with the hostel but I’d have had to pay for all four seats in the taxi as it was low season and there wasn’t enough demand for such a tour.

My heart wasn’t really in it but I set off by taxi, bus, bus and bus to see Qasr Al Azray on the much under-used east side of Jordan. It was only 3.60JD for all that and all went smoothly but was it worth the effort? Undoubtedly not but thats not the point as, for me, travelling is not just about seeing the sights and attractions but also about getting to and from places (as opposed to the tour bus style of travel).

The driver of the final bus actually spoke a bit of English and dropped me off right outside the castle where Lawrence was based in 1917-18 during the Arab Revolt against the Turks. Very little remained of a once great fort with the highlight (?) being a huge concrete door made of a single slab of basalt which he described as shutting with a clang and crash that made the west wall of the castle tremble.

         

I think I was done after about 15-20 minutes and then had the nervous wait for a bus by the side of the road in the middle of the desert. The first two drove by me for some reason but the third one stopped and I was on my way back to Zaqer for my transit. At that time I was just contemplating going back to the hostel to chill before my night time flight. For some reason though I decided I may as well go and explore another castle as the words “Its now or never” echoed in my mind. Every time the driver slowed to stop I got a bit nervous as I thought he might just tell me that its over there in that direction or something………and that is basically what happened!

I had to walk up a hill to a building site in the middle of nowhere. I was very under-whelmed but it was ultimately a quite rewarding experience as there was a friendly guy there who let me inside to see the remains and showed me around whilst chatting. No shelter from the scorching sun as I waited roadside for a bus which to my relief came within 10 minutes or so.

      

The castles were ultimately disappointing but I did get to bring my time in Jordan to a positive end thanks to the time, generosity and kindness of the locals who always did their best to point me in the direction of the right bus or rallied around to find an English speaker. A lot of cr*p is no doubt written about people in the middle-east and while I’m sure theres no smoke without fire the Jordanian people left a last impression on me.

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Jordan 2011 Pt VII: Amman

Posted on July 21, 2011 by tokyofox

The huge, busy capital city of Amman was pretty much my base for the majority of my trip. I spent five nights there at Mansour Hotel; a dirt-cheap and erm dirty hostel which seemingly caters mostly for Japanese travellers

On my return from Jerash on day one I was dropped off nearby the theatre (not that I really knew it at the time!). Due to the sandy colour of the whole city I actually nearly missed this impressive Roman structure.

     

I then climbed up to the Citadel using just my sense of direction which is never a good idea. It took me longer than expected to reach my destination but it was worth it in the end and not just because the climb saved me on the entrance fee!

    

After four days away in Petra, Wadi Rum and Aqaba I returned to Amman and with funds running low I decided to return to the same hostel and I was glad I did as there were a few people still there that I knew (or that had also gone away and came back) as well as the guy running the place who was a bit of a character. I wasted many an hour chatting to him about football, Jordan, football, Amman, football, Japan, football, travellers, football, the Japanese, football, teaching, football and so on.

Amazing but true! I actually chilled out and did practically nothing in Amman for a day and a half after I returned from the Dead Sea. I wasn’t the only one doing nothing though as the Japanese and Chinese in the hostel seemed to just be hanging around the hostel all day on their laptops and iPads taking advantage of the hostels wi-fi. I almost always cram my trips full to the max but having decided to not go over the border into Jerusalem I ended up doing very little.

The fact that I realised my camera lens had stopped working and needed fixing overnight didn’t exactly mean I was free to do much anyway as I didn’t want to risk seeing something that I couldn’t photograph! All in all it was quite nice to just hang out with Kimi (and sometimes Tatsuo) and make an event out of 10 minute trips to eat kebabs, drink sugar cane juice, eat kanafa (the sugar rush that is shredded wheat and syrup dessert), visit the remains of the Nymphaeum or go souvenir shopping in the ‘secret’ back store of the young curly-haired guy pictured below who was so enthusiastic about coming to Japan.

         

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Jordan 2011 Pt VI: The Dead Sea

Posted on July 18, 2011 by tokyofox

I hadn’t actually thought too much about the Dead Sea and even considered maybe not even going there at one point but when a couple of Japanese guys (Kimi and Tatsuo) from the hostel in Amman said that they were going I jumped at the chance of joining them. We shared a taxi and had three hours at the Amman Beach Resort which we all thought would be way too long even with the inclusion of the resorts pool facilities and so on.

None of us showed too much enthusiasm or urgency to enter the sea but when we did go in and lie down it was an incredible feeling and no I don’t mean the overly bearing salty taste of the water! Lying on your back floating at the worlds lowest point (423m below sea level) was probably the highlight of the trip for me. Not for Tatsuo though who found it all too itchy and irritating for his skin.

     

We then covered ourselves in black mud (3JD each) and let it bake in the sun for about 10 minutes before washing it off in the sea. Its supposed to have special healing and cosmetic uses which are good for the skin. Pretty amazing that you can just wash something so dirty off in the sea and it doesn’t affect it in any way which is probably why its known as the Dead Sea.

 

Whilst washing it off I got a splash of salt in my eye which is really painful and brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘grin and bare it’ as you can’t exactly wipe your eyes! Similarly one usually licks their lips when they’re wet but thats something you should refrain from I’ll tell you!

 

There was a swimming pool at the resort so once we’d showered to get all the black mud out of our hair and off our faces we relaxed there for a short while which was nice and brought about the end to a fine morning at such a miraculous place.

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Jordan 2011 Pt V: The Red Sea

Posted on July 16, 2011 by tokyofox

One often has to put his or her life in the hands of others when travelling in certain countries and thats exactly what I had to do on my return from Wadi Rum. En-route back to Petra I was basically dumped on the Desert Highway with a couple of random passengers we’d picked up after leaving the village behind.

After about 10 minutes waiting for a bus a car pulled up and the driver seemed to know one of the Jordanian guys and before I knew it I was (kind of) hitching a lift to Aqaba in the very southern part of the country. It wasn’t quite plain sailing though as some authorities stopped the driver for speeding and (possibly) a dodgy license (I couldn’t quite work out that bit!). In fact there was quite an authoritative presence along the highway with a constant stream of military vehicles (with guns) going up and down the road.

Anyway, by 10.15am I was in Aqaba and the driver very kindly dropped me off at the bus station to book my ticket for later that day to Amman which I thought best as I’d need to start early the following morning and didn’t want to waste a day travelling back in the daytime. I offered to pay the driver the fare I’d have spent on the bus but he wouldn’t hear anything of it.

 

Having brought my snorkel and mask with me I thought I had better make use of it so I just flagged down a taxi which I took to a beach near the Royal Diving Club (right on the Saudi border) where I achieved my goal of swimming and snorkelling in the Red Sea. There weren’t too many fish (only bottles and cans among the coral which is a shame but Jordan is one of those places where the locals don’t really look after their own country in terms of trying to keep it clean) but the water was very clear and after an hour there, where I also saw a camel in the sea, I took the taxi back to the station and treated myself to a Burger King lunch before taking the 4.5 hour bus ride back to Amman.

 

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Jordan 2011 Pt IV: Wadi Rum

Posted on July 13, 2011 by tokyofox

Before the trip one of the things I was most excited about was not Petra; nor the Dead Sea but the desert at Wadi Rum where I wanted to live like the nomadic Bedouin tribes have for thousands of years. On arrival in Petra I saw a one day tour (including overnight stay) which would give me a good taste of the place and satisfy my desire to the most part. It was an early start (06:20) as the bus made its way to the centre where our tour group of six dumped our big backpacks and sat around drinking tea whilst waiting and waiting for something to happen.

Finally, at around 10am the 4WD hit the sand tracks and the building-site-town that is Wadi Rum was replaced by sandy desert and an awesome landscape. It wasn’t long till our first stop; a rock climb up to a fig tree next to some water known as Lawrence’s Spring which had a great view of the desert. As the only one climbing in sandals it wasn’t as easy as it could have been and I even had a slight slip on my descend whereby I grazed the back of my leg a bit.

     

Every time the the jeep stopped the six of us looked around wondering what we were stopping to see as it wasn’t always obvious. That wasn’t the case at the sand dunes where we walked up the soft red sand which took about 20 minutes to ascend and one minute to get down. Sandals wasn’t a good idea here either and it really did feel like my feet were on fire when coming down.

        

Anfaishiyya mountain (below) and its 2000 year old petroglyphs was next featuring some interesting inscriptions depicting camels, hunting warriors and various animals.

         

That was followed by Lawrence’s House (above) or rather what was left of it. Lawrence of Arabia supposedly stayed here during the Desert Revolt and stored weapons there. Wadi Rum was used in the 1962 film adaptation as well as ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen‘ (where it represents Egypt) and the 2000 movie ‘Red Planet‘ where the surface was used to depict the planet Mars.

The natural arch bridge (below) called Um Fruth rock was a highlight and the photos below say far more than any words can.

  Jordan 2011 398    

When I saw the tour pamphlet said we would have a few hours to tour the surrounding area of the Bedouin camp where we were staying I wasn’t filled with too much enthusiasm. However, it was fascinating to just wander around, climb the rocks, mess about with the wild camels (I never knew that they ate their poo. A fine example of instant recycling!) which I did with Swan (from Korea) and take a load of photos.

        

Our accommodation was a camp-bed in a tent but I never used it as I decided to sleep outside after our traditional barbecue dinner. Its not everyday you get the chance to sleep ‘under the stars’ in a desert is it?! To be honest, it sounds way better than the reality as the desert is a very cold, windy place at night and after seeing a few shooting stars I soon lost interest and pulled the blanket over my face for protection. After a long day I must have drifted off to sleep fairly quickly but all-in-all I didn’t sleep too well that night. Having said that I must have slept a bit as I did miss sunrise! The picture below right is of my sleeping headquarters.

 

That wasn’t quite the end of the adventure. I have done a camel ride (in Broome in Western Australia in 2001) before so didn’t feel the need to do it too much as its slow and not-so-comfortable. However, when we stopped at a shop back in Wadi Rum we saw a local boy with a camel and thought we might as well just offer a small price (1JD or $1.4 if you prefer) for a chance to take our photo’s of each other on his camel. Of course he agreed and even took us on a one-minute tour!

 

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Jordan 2011 Pt III: Petra

Posted on July 10, 2011 by tokyofox

The thing with Petra is that you only ever see the one picture of it (Al-Khazneh a.k.a. the Treasury) so I just thought that that was the culmination of a short-ish walk through a siq. However it actually takes one about 30 minutes (not that it was a problem) to walk from the visitors centre and after that there is a vast area of tombs, stairways, theatres, sandstone mountains and high cliffs waiting to be explored which could take you days to explore.

 

Thanks to a huge online poll in 2007 Petra is now recognised as one of the new seven wonders of the world and the authorities have certainly taken advantage of this as the entry fee is now more than double that quoted in most guidebooks. I went to Petra from Amman with a Japanese girl called Midori who was in the same hostel. She was of low pre-intermediate level English but was travelling alone which is very brave and almost completely unknown for Japanese girls.

After checking in to Valentines Hostel (only 3JD per night for a dorm bed) we set off to see the wonder early afternoon where we purchased a 2-day pass for 55JD (its 50JD for a day pass). On entry we were met by touts saying a horse ride to the siq was included in our ticket. Complete b*llocks of course as you have to pay the rider (or whatever he’s called) a tip or something. To be honest its probably not such a bad thing to do but we were in no rush. There’s no shade at all but the views are still great but not to the extent of what was to come.

 

The winding siq (above) is amazing in itself and when I finally caught a glimpse of the Treasury it was very exciting and not just because it featured in ‘Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade‘ (1989) as you can see from the screen grabs below.

Screen Shot 2013-06-09 at 20.33.16  Screen Shot 2013-06-09 at 20.32.55

It was really beautiful and in some ways I was less impressed when I actually emerged from the siq to see the Treasury in its full glory as I’ve seen it so many times in the media. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it and naturally I spent ages snapping away on my new camera.  We walked on to the theatre and a host of tombs before deciding to call it a day and head back leaving something in reserve for a much longer and more challenging trek the following day.

                             

Day two began at the visitors centre around 8.30am and we briskly walked to where we finished the previous day. From there our goal was to reach Ad-Deir (Monastery) fairly quickly and then work our way back slowly taking many breaks. It took us about 90 minutes to get from the Treasury to the Monastery which was well ahead of the three hours that many people had said it would take. They both look quite similar but I was more impressed by the latter; perhaps because of the effort taken in getting there (lots of steps compared to the relatively flat ground in the 1st half of Petra) and the lack of anyone else around not that the former was too busy either.

Of course there’s always the temptation to continue hiking on for a bit more but one final climb to the ‘last view of Petra’ was our final port of call. This part also included the cave featured at the end of ‘An Idiot Abroad‘ Petra episode where Karl Pilkington said that it was better to be living in the sh*thole looking at the beautiful building rather than the other way round.

         

After lunch (provided by the hostel and including some very melted chocolate!) we headed back slowly and had tea with some old Bedouin women. I climbed up on a rock to see what they were cooking and was very shocked to see that it was blo*dy spaghetti! Not what I was expecting! When we got back to the theatre we decided to head off course a bit and went round the back of the tombs and climbed up to the very top of some high rocks hoping to be able to find a view looking down on the Treasury which often features in films and TV programmes about Petra. We saw some breathtaking views but sadly failed to locate the view we were looking for. Still, it was a nice detour and we didn’t see a single person during that whole time.

     

Back at the Treasury (ground-level) we actually spent some time just taking it in rather than clicking away on the camera as we’d done for the majority of our previous visits.

 

Near the visitors centre we went to see ‘The Cave’ which is the oldest bar in the world set in a 2000 year old Nabateab rock as well the Indiana Jones Souvenir Shop which naturally sold nothing whatsoever to do with the movie franchise.

 

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Jordan 2011 Pt II: Jerash

Posted on July 7, 2011 by tokyofox

Youve gotta feel sorry for Jordan; a beautiful country (on the whole) with some truly remarkable places but as its surrounded by such news-prevalent countries like Syria, Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia it probably gets less visitors than it deserves. It may also be down to it being the low-season but on my first day I headed up to Jerash to see the country’s second most famous ruins. I didn’t really know what to expect beforehand but I did know that Jerash is supposed to be one of Jordan’s highlights. After an hour on the bus someone gave me a nudge and told me to get off as we were in Jerash.

     

Hadrian’s Arch (below) was visible in the distance just up the road but there wasn’t really anyone around other than the construction workers in a country which is almost like a big building site. Jordan will look even better when its finished!!

 

I found the entrance (in the middle of a little souvenir complex) and coughed up 8JD and spent a nice couple of hours walking and photographing the well preserved ruins with only a dozen or so people to be seen throughout. It was here that I got to witness the kindness of the local people who all said “Welcome to Jordan” (this ultimately became so over-used that it had no meaning other than just being a pleasantry which is still ok I guess).

         

Getting back to my base in capital city Amman (about 50km away) wasn’t a straight bus-ride this time but instead involved sharing a taxi with three other randoms. To be honest, I thought it was just going all the way to Amman and that my negotiating skills on price were great. As it was, we got dropped off somewhere between Jerash and Amman and one of the guys in the taxi very kindly sorted me out with the right bus from wherever we were.

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Jordan 2011 Pt I: Prelude

Posted on July 4, 2011 by tokyofox

People often ask me how I choose my destinations and the boring answer is that there really is no methodology to it. I have been interested in visiting the Middle-East for a while now which has been heightened by the ‘BackStory’ programme on CNN which I regularly watch. It often has reports from that part of the world which I have found fascinating. So having decided that I would visit this part of the world for the first time I had to decide which parts to visit. I’d love to do Iraq actually but that might be a step too far. Likewise regarding Israel & the Palestinian Territories although I may still yet visit there.

It soon became apparent that Jordan was the easy and safest option. For starters it has one of the new Seven Wonders of the World in terms of the ancient city of Petra. On top of that it was also featured in a famous international film. That is of course ‘Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger’ from 1977! Only joking! Whilst that was filmed there, its the appearance of it at the end of ‘Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade’ which has added to its fame. On the subject of cinema, it is ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (yes, I know its based on a book) which first brought Jordan to the screen with its breathtaking Jordanian desertscapes amid the spectacular red cliffs of Wadi Rum in the very south of the country. I should add that I have rarely ever (besides Tunisia) gone to a country just for film locations.

Furthermore, the country also has the Dead Sea; the lowest point on earth. This featured recently in the ‘An Idiot Abroad’ Sky One TV series with  Ricky Gervais’ mate Karl Pilkington (as did Petra) and floating on a sea of salt is something I’d like to experience. With these things and more you can (maybe) see why I decided to make Jordan my next travel destination.

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Review: Films Set In Japan – Kagemusha (1980)

Posted on June 30, 2011 by tokyofox

This ‘films set in Japan’ series is principally about international movies but I have made an exception for this purely because it was executive produced by George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola. In reality they did nothing other than persuade 21st century Fox to stump up the cash to help legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa finish the ‘Kagemusha’ (shadow warrior is the translation) the way he wanted. In return they got the international distribution rights for the film.

When I watched this I had no particular strong interest in the contents of the film other than seeing Himeji-jo Castle in anticipation of my trip there back in May this year. I enjoyed the opening and powerful closing parts of the film a lot but have to say that my interest did wane during the middle of this epic three hour film which is as much to do with constantly having to concentrate on the screens subtitles as it is to do with the film itself which does feature some scenes where very little happens for a while.

Kagemusha tells the story of a thief who is saved from being hanged by a warlords brother because he closely resembles the king Shingen so he is trained to fill in as Shingen’s double. However, Shingen receives a mortal wound during a siege and his dying wish is for his death to not be known for at least three years. The shadow warrior eventually not only doubles up as the king but as the full time figurehead which ensures they can avoid invasion and defeat by the other two clans. Despite being a common thief he turns out to be a very competent leader and in some ways endears himself to the viewers by being more humorous, treating his mistresses better, and even getting along with the Lord’s own immediate family.

Personally, I still think this movie is a bit over-rated but it was certainly better than I expected. Ultimately it’s a samurai film but I will remember it for showing the pain of a man caught in the vice of his own life and death and that if you pretend to be something else for long enough you’ll start to believe it and eventually become it.

 

Tokyo Fox Rating 6/10

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Review: Films Set In Japan – Wasabi (2001)

Posted on June 26, 2011 by tokyofox

Jean Reno, of Mission Impossible fame, (the French guy with a beard) is a Cop who comes to Japan after he finds out his ex-Japanese girlfriend has died. The will is read out and what do you know but he has a daughter he never knew about. There’s some other weak plot about his ex having a secret past which lead to some unsavoury characters (naturally wearing black suits with dark glasses) being after his daughter.

Sure, this is your usual ‘fish out of water’ type film which foreign film-makers love and this French one is no different. Its a fairly fast-paced dumb action film which kept me entertained for its 90 minute duration with its cartoon-like comedy (when Reno punches people they fly back 20 metres!) and some pretty effective serious moments too.

The film gets its title from the sour green stuff used in sushi which Reno’s character thinks is a sauce or something and just eats it without any effect on him whatsoever which is amazing as this stuff is bloody strong as his partner Momo finds out to his cost! Apart from a short scene involving this there is no obvious reason why its called Wasabi. I guess its just a word that the producers think is Japanese-enough to let people know its a film with some Japanese reference.

As one review I saw on the internet said this may quite possibly be the greatest French-language, English-subtitled, Japanese action-comedy film of all time and I certainly can’t disagree with that statement!

Tokyo Fox Rating 7/10

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