FIGJAM'S Epic Adventure: Jordan

24/10/09

2000 (local time)

Today was a bit of a big day for most of us, but in the early morning Simo and myself had to take the car back. We all knew that this was going to a task that neither of us wanted to do, but of course it had to be done. So we had breakfast, got our stuff together and headed off. We half expected there to be another bird market, or if not a bird market something else that would be completely ridiculous. Lucky for us there was no one around, so we casually drove the car out and down to the end of the street. Just as we were about to jump onto the highway, we start hearing a rumbling sound at the rear of the car. This sound was too familiar to me, something that I had experience in the not too distant future in Lebanon... a flat tyre! We couldn’t believe it. We tried getting off the high way, but there were no turn offs, we finally found one, that took us onto another major road that then took us to another major road, it wasn’t until 3 or 4 turns that we actually found a place to pull over.

So it was about 8.50am by the time we were able to pull over, and the car was meant to be back by 9am. So we did the ultra quick tyre change over that even the formula one guys would have been proud of.

We were back on the road trying to find out where we were so that I could guide Simo and the car back to Budget Car rentals. We finally found it, and were back at the hostel by around 9.30am.

We threw our day packs together and took off on the mini bus to Jerash.

We paid our entrance fees and wandered around Jerash for a couple of hours, Rob and I bought our ticket to watch the Roman show that included how the Romans fought, Gladiator battles and Horse and Cart races.

What is Jerash Steve? Well, be prepared for the answer! (Skip this bit if you don't really care) Jerash is one of the best examples in the middle east of a Roman city. In its heyday Jerash has a population of around about 15,000 to 20,000 people. Although it wasn’t the most interesting set of ruins that I have visited in my travels having good company and some good jokes made this quite a fun and good walk. What made it quite eerie is that there is a dust storm that is predicted to hit the city of Jerash that day. We could all see it coming from the local city, and it made the back ground of our photos look amazing. Some of the highlights of the day was Hadrian’s Arch that you had to walk through as you entered the city. Hadrian’s Arch was made to honour the emperor Hadrian that visited the town 129AD, when it was built it was double the size that it is today. The scaffolding surrounding the area ruins the city. (see what I did there... Ruins the Ruins).

It was time for lunch so we went to the local buffet for lunch where we got a very cheap all you can eat buffet for only 4JD ($6AUD). Rob and I smashed the food down very quickly because we had a show that we had paid to go watch!

There were only 2 shows a day, and this was the last one, so if we missed it, its all over red rover.

The show starts off with 40 Roman Legionnaires who parade around the arena showing the crowd a range of battle formations and military drills such as the Tortoise etc. Once they walk off, 3 sets of Gladiators run into the arena dressed in full Gladiator outfit, with Swords, Tritons and spears... yep the full get up!

The fight each other, and then the crowd is given the option whether we want the gladiator to let live his victim or kill him, although it was corny it was quite entertaining and fun to watch! The pictures and videos will tell the story.

Once this had finished, it was getting late so we made an attempt to get home, which ended up being quite difficult as all the busses were full, so a few of us jumped into a car and got a lift back to the city while the other half were able to get the bus!

It was a fantastic day, but we were all stuffed! For dinner Rob and I ate leftovers of our amazing meal from the night before!

My job for the next few days was to organise me trip back to Egypt and then to the UK! Cant wait!

I have booked my flight from Sharm El Sheik to London Luton for the 3^rd of November, hopefully ill be catching up with some people over in the UK! Until then!

Peace guys!

The Jam!

Hadrian's Arch...

Just chatting to some local Jordanian girls! The jam still has it!

We met some Thailand tourists who were legends!!! We posed!

So i took on their pose! as i stood on some ruins!

The group!

The dust storm came over the ruins!

And overtook the city! Looks eerie ey?!

Rob and i then watched the Roman Act!

The gladiators came out to fight to the death!

The crowd decided his fate... we took his life! HOW AWESOME IS THE BLOOD!

After the Gladiators, we had the chariot race!

ACTION SHOT!

20/10/09

2000 (local time)

Wow, the Dead Cities are pretty awesome. I organised a tour through the hostel, which I know is kinda cheating but I was tired of getting told the wrong information to get to places. So the hostel struck up a relatively cheap deal to take me and 2 other girls from Ireland and Germany (I think) to visit Serjilla, Al-Bara and Apamea.

The Dead Cities are a series of ‘ghost towns’ scattered around the area of Aleppo and Hama. These cities date back to the Byzantine era as you can see by some of the distinct markings that are on the doorways of buildings. The great mystery about these cities is why the towns were abandon. Sites such as Serjilla that I went to have a bit of a eerie quality about them. The latest theory states that these villages were emptied by demographic shifts; trade roots changed and the people moved with them.

‘Dead’ Cities probably isn’t the best way to describe the cities at the moment, because people are currently living some of the houses as you can see from the rubbish and the abandon fire sites.

Serjilla is the most complete ‘dead city’ in the area, and we were fortunate to visit this first. Although it has been deserted here for about 15 centuries the buildings are still sharp and you are always half expecting a villager from the Byzantine times to come walking out of one of the buildings.

It was really good fun to go exploring and walking around the ruins!

Anyway, our time was up, so we jumped back into the car and took a quick visit to Al-Bara, although we didn’t stay long at Al-Bara it was still nice to see some of the ruins and houses to be surrounded by olive trees. It is known that Al-Bara was used for its Wine and Olive Oil trading. We stayed here for about 15 minutes, had a quick walk around took some photos and were again on our way to Apamea.

I would have been happy to head home from here and save some money on the tour, but as it were, it was included with the tour. So we drove for about 45-60 minutes where I dosed off for a bit. I was woken to the sounds of doors opening, we were here.

We bought our tickets and started out walking down the straight road that was once owned by a former General of Alexander the Great. Apemea became a important trading post for one of the four key settlements which was Lattakia (the port). Many years went on, then Apamea was seized by the General Pompey for the Romans in 64BC. In 115AD the city was mostly rebuilt after a severe earthquake tore down most of the city. Years went by and the city that once boasted a population of 500,000 was taken over by numerous different empires , until around 1150AD the city was flattened by another severe earthquake.

Now days the city looks very similar to Palmera except without the tourists, its nice to walk down the street and look at all the Roman pillars to either side of us.

After strolling through the 3 kilometre street, we turned left at the road and admired another nice Roman Villa, that would have looked beautiful back in its heyday.

We walked back to the car, and was then driven 2 kilometres down the road to the west, to an ancient Roman theatre. It was nice to sit here and relax for a bit. I did my standard bit of exploring, then it was time to leave so we got back into the car and headed off back to Hama. It was a good day. Everyone fell asleep in the car lucky for us the driver Abdul stayed awake and got us home safely.

We were back at home for no longer than 20-30 minutes before I convinced a young couple from England and a girl who was also from England to come with me down to Hama water wheels also known as the Norias. The Norias are Hama’s most distinctive attractions, they are water wheels that are up to 20metres in diameter, which is equivalent to an four or five story building. These wheels have graced the city form the 5th century. The Norias were constructed to scoop the water for the river and then deposit it into a nearby aqueduct which then distributes the water to the near by farms.

Unfortunately at the time that I visited them, the Norias were inactive due to insufficient water, but during the spring and summer times the water wheels still turn and the sound of them echo’s throughout the city.

The group of us visited the Four Norias of Bechriyyat, took some photos. I jumped the fence to chat to some of the locals that were fixing them and tried my Arabic on them. We ended up getting quite chatty, and they let me climb up one, get a ton of photos and then let the wheel take me down to the ground again. We have a movie of the whole thing, so ill be putting it up on You Tube asap.

After all of this, it was getting late and I was tired so we walked back to the hostel stopping by at the local supermarket so I could cook up a rice and vegies dish!

After dinner I found out that I can get a direct bus from Hama to Amman (Jordan) for 600SP ($13AUD) that leaves at 12 midnight and gets me to Amman at around about 9 in the morning on the 21^st. Looking forward to it. I know have everything organised, it was a hassle because I didn’t want to withdraw anymore Syrian so I exchanged some Lebanese Lira instead for a decent rate.

Update: 21^st, well I am now in Amman, and I made it all the way through. I didn’t take into account that I may have needed some extra Syrian Pounds so I could pay for the Departure Tax. So I did an asleep border crossing with the help of a angry Syrian man I was luckily able to pay for my departure tax in Jordanian Diner (9JD), I think it was supposed to be 10JD? But never mind! I MADE IT!

The next few days will involve a lot of RELAXING!

Dead Cities