“… the award-winning sustainable tourism and eco-tourism projects, which are helping us to both protect and promote the things that are most precious to us …

… From Yarmouk in the north to the southern mountains of Aqaba, these parks will create wildlife corridors and sanctuaries for endangered plants. They’ll be looked after by local communities, who know the landscape better than anyone, and will offer visitors unique cultural experiences, …”

… said Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah while addressing hundreds of CEOs and travel industry leaders this past Tuesday her keynote address at Conde Nast Traveler’s 2nd Annual World Savers Congress in New York.

For a description of one of these “sustainable ecotourism projects” one need only visit my recent post about the Jordan’s initiative to re-invent the Shaumari Reserve.

Of course, there’s more to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan than eco-tourism, as Her Majesty enumerated while promoting the Middle East an attractive travel option for prospective tourists of all ilks:

• “If you’re looking for a place to relax, the Dead Sea will make you feel more alive than ever,” she said. “It’s the lowest point on earth, with the highest oxygen content in the world… and is home to the region’s biggest spa.”
• “If you want adventure, you can abseil down waterfalls, paraglide off sandstone crags, navigate Red Sea reefs, then cook supper deep in the desert sands of Wadi Rum,”
• “If you’re a history buff, we’ve got Roman ruins and desert castles from the Umayyad times to explore, and our famous Nabataean city of Petra, carved out of red stone cliffs – where Indiana Jones’ escapades ended when he found the Holy Grail.”

Yes, this is sort of a fluff piece … but having been to Jordan twice … all I can do is verify that what Queen Rania states is true … in fact this very blog is a testament to that.

That and I was just speaking to a neighbor who was going to the Middle East on business … so hopefully he reads this after bending his ear all afternoon about how he should take an extra week to experience the journey that is Jordan.

Here are some related articles on the above topic:

• Keeping Up With Conde Nast Traveler’s 2nd Annual World Savers Congress – Traveling the Green Way
• HuffingtonPost – Can Travel Change the World?
• Queen promotes Middle East as attractive tourist destination – Jordan Embassy to the US
• Jordan Times – Queen promotes Middle East as attractive tourist destination
• CNT’s World Savers Congress: Shout-Out to Fellow Travel Bloggers
• Update Blog – Conde Nast Savers Congress – Day’s Agenda
• Diplomats, Environmentalists, and the Power of Travel – Nerd’s Eye View

Update – 30Sep08 – So How WAS that World Savers Congress Anyway? You can ask Matt Damon whose YouTube video is posted over at Conde Nast Traveler’s on Concierge.com.

Welcome to the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan

We had no idea that Jordan has so much to offer.There are some world famous historical and cultural sites, but also breathtaking nature and pilgrimage routes. So you can say Jordan is an eye opener.

The wonderful Petra

Petra is a Unesco World heritage site. We had no idea but it is a vast, unique city, carved into the sheer rock face by the Nabataens, Arab people who settled here more than 2000 years ago. Apparently it was a junction for all the trade routes and linked China and Egypt …

… The next day we returned before the crowds arrived and were all alone in the Siq. On the way back the boys had a lift on the horses and after that in the hotel a nice shower, breakfast and into to car up north driving along the King’s Highway.

The king’s Highway

The King’s Highway is the historic route to Amman. The views are stunning and you can see Crusader castles in Karak and Shobak. Shobak was very small but had a very interesting secret tunnel. Our torches were not good enough to try to leave the castle this way, but still it was nice to venture around this castle. History in practise because there were arrow slid windows according to Bart and lots of armoury like the very heavy bullets for the catapults.

Karak castle was much bigger, with nice views, we even could see the Dead Sea. It also had a nice museum which told everything about the crusaders.

The Dead Sea

Dead Sea

The dead sea is very salty so you can float without help. If you get the water in your eyes they will start burning. It happened to Evert and Helma, they rushed out of the water to rinse their eyes under the shower. It also tastes foul and makes you very thirsty. The sea is clear but no fish are in this sea, too salty.

Spiritual Jordan

You tend to forget that Jordan is a place for many pilgrims. You can visit many places which were named in the Bible. So very close to Israel, but if we want to come home by car we are not allowed to have a stamp of Israel in our passport. So we visited Mount Nebu [Nebo], the place where Moses just before his death saw the promised land. We also saw the river Jordan where Jesus was baptized.

Jerash

As we are planning to see Damascus, we skipped Amman and drove direct to Jerash, a well preserved Roman city. It was very impressive. Imagine, we walked on the road that Emperor Hadrian and Alexander the great walked on. A lot of walking though, but it was well worth it. Most beautiful was the temple of Artemis.

We also saw a show with roman soldiers and chariots in the hippodrome, fun. now we are stranded in Irbid, the university town in Jordan and tomorrow we will cross the border with Syria where Internet seems to be a little more problematic.

Wow, I just keep thinking about what the boys saw during this trip – and how much more memorable their trip through the historic and Biblical Hashemite Kindom is going to be than any touristy trip they may take in the future to someplace like the contrived Magic Kindgom.

My compliments to the parents for affording their sons such wonderful life-long impressions!

Crump on his trusty steed

A two-wheeled epic adventure from Amman to Aqaba through the Great Rift Valley that included:

• dealing with 95 degree desert heat;
• army checkpoints manned by “pimply teenagers” with big guns;
• stunning sandless desert landscapes with shining pebbles and sunset silhouettes;
• peddling through the lowest place on earth;
• friendly farmers waving from their tidy tomato fields and olive groves;
• camping out with the Bediouns in a tent; and
• peddling to points like Petra and the Dead Sea.

There’s much more to read about in the original article, including links to the tour company and six other similar cycling adventures.

Big in Jordan: How to reenact Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, is a post by Matthew Firestone linking up the ancient World of the Nebateans at Petra with Hollywood pop culture in this snappy little snippet:
With the world premiere of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull scheduled for May 22, 2008, it’s no surprise that the internet is buzzing these days with Indy-related travel themes …

… one of the newly minted New Seven Wonders of the World, namely the ancient city of Petra, happens to be the location of the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade …

… In the climax of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Joneses, Sallah, and Brody race across the world to reach the temple housing the Holy Grail, which is located in the Canyon of the Crescent Moon in Hatay near İskenderun.

Interested in reenacting one of the greatest moments in cinema history? Go grab your trusty bull whip and keep on reading Mr.Firestone’s excellent article. Just remember, I’m the guy who this past November spared no expense nor YouTube bandwidth to show you “The Petra Treasury Indiana Jones didn’t show you!”

Speaking of adventures, over at Jubilada Fashionista, said blogger armed only guide books and the internet made all their reservations and other travel arrangements own with relative ease; despite competing for rooms with visitors attending a world class auto race event and/or a nursing conference near the Dead Sea. Along with this factoid, Jubilada writes towards the end of an extensive and well-written review of his Jordanian journey:

In conclusion, Jordan is a very good trip and easy to go independently . I understand why most high end tour companies tagged it on to their trips to Egypt. The Jordanians are very well schooled about being nice to tourists. I do think they have to work on the transportation systems in this small country especially for tourists. I did read that they were working on a railway but it keeps getting stalled.

Jordan is also very safe and they love America (not George). It was a pleasure to see how different it is from what we constantly hear about Middle East chaos. You do not need guides as your book will explain all the sites for you.

Facts :

1. Blackberries do work here
2. All current is 220 but some plugs are European and some English
3. Lots of Atms and they still take our dollars
4. Hot book for foreigners “Married to a Bedouin”
5. Watch Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones DVDs before you go
6. Read the Jordan Times the local English newspaper on line www.jordantimes.com to see what’s doing.
7. Check Jett buses to see their schedule and then work around it.
8. The tour books say that the luxury hotels have buses to take you to your next destination….not true

Prepare to be stunned – or so writes a TravelPod blogger from Wadi Musa, Jordan who also had a great experience arranging their own travel explaining:

Our Taxi driver turned out to be a gem. He spent 7 hours driving us from Amman to Petra along the Kings highway. He stopped at all the points of interest and let us take photos. This land is full of history (as we anticipate Israel will be). Characters from the old testament walked this land. We were in awe.

Meanwhile a “Request for Dates and Info on Jerash Festival in 2008” on the Lonely Planet forums is returned with this response:

For the third time in over 27 years, the world-renowned Jerash Festival will be largely absent from the Kingdom’s cultural activities season, which will kick off in July, to come back in 2009 in a new shape, Culture Minister Nancy Bakir said on Thursday.

Bummer! That said, don’t forget, alternate events are easy to find at our BlogJordan Calendar of Jordanian Events page and/or our “This Week in Jordan” category.

Speaking of staying on schedule, as Scott on Safari ‘traveling through Africa 2008′ he takes a stop at one of my favorite cities on the entire planet, Aqaba, opining:

The rooms were very nice, it was very luxurious after coming from Egypt. We went for a walk to find at ATM to get some JD since all I had was 6 JD. Then we walked to a nearby café, Tche Tche Café, for dinner. The food was great and came out nice and warm; a very nice change. Jordan seems to be a lot cleaner and more organised than Egypt.

Of course Scott goes on to describe an encounter with Saladin’s revenge while ‘Journeying Jordan.’

Still, better that than an uncommonly rare but none-the-less unfortunate and fatal crash of a Jordan tour bus traveling from Jerash to Irbid.

Finally, Zawya is reporting that “Visitors on package tours [of Jordan] rise by 48.4% in first quarter” citing:

Tourist traffic to the [Hashemite] Kingdom continued to grow during the first quarter of this year, with visitors on package tours rising by 48.4 per cent compared to the same period of last year.

Official figures released by the [Jordanian] Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities yesterday revealed that some 101,311 tourists on package tours visited the country between January and March compared to 68,279 in the same period of 2007.

According to the figures, their average length of stay also increased by around 7.3 per cent to 4.4 nights during the first quarter of this year compared to 4.1 last year.

Here is a link to the English rendering of the 1st Quarter OTA report entitled “Tourism Statistical Bulletin JAN – MARCH 2008 Volume 4 – Edition 1.

This last report proving once again what I’ve been saying since November:

“Why spend $2000 for a week of manufactured fun Magic Kingdom when you can experience the journey of a lifetime in the Hashemite Kingdom?”

Diana Scimone, a member of the group I toured Jordan with this past November  writes to link us up to her article about the “Other Holy Land” that is the Hashemite Kingdom in Charisma magazine and her photo album; while expressing a sentiment many of us hold:

My journey to Jordan was great and I look forward to a return visit; it’s time for more yummy mezzas and another death-defying, donkey-dodging climb in spectacular Petra. Hope you enjoy the article and the photos!

Thanks for sharing Diana – and yeah, I agree – I my dream is to go back and do even more video blogging of all the fantastic places and foods to see, hear, and yes … taste … but I digress, as Diana’s post reminds a certain Jordan blogger he has about 5,000 photos and 5 hours of video he needs to annotate and get up online (lazy slug!-).

Speaking of work, engaged in some scientific research the Jordan Soils Gang visits Madaba, writing about the effect the current drought in Jordan is having on the agrarian culture and economy that surrounds this city of ceramics.

For Kathy over at Beginnings: Mountains and Sea found that Ma’in Hot Springs were her favorite tourist spot — even if as she put it, “… the bathrooms sent Tamara and I running out screaming …”

Speaking of screaming, Kelly learns the hard way a few more Small Change[s]: via More Travels… this time to the briny Dead Sea:

We failed to heed our friends’ warning and brought Will into the water, and he quickly erupted in tears as the salt stung what we think must have been a very, very minor case of diaper rash. A fresh water shower failed to relieve his pain and/or emotional distress, and he managed to calmed down only after consuming a few of his all-time favorite fruit snacks, of which I wisely packed about 20 little pouches for our week-long trip.

Heck, I’d cry too if I only had 20 pouches of my favorite snacks for a week long trip! Though it looks like all were happy once they got back to the incredible array of fresh water swimming pools and fountains at the the Jordan Valley Marriott Resort & Spa.

While recovering from surgery Dori’s recalls dictations she made during her 1995 journey to Jordan. Yes folks, Wadi Rum is that memorable a place.

Speaking of memorable recollections, Luk blesses us with 6 hand-drawn samples worth at least 6,000 words from his sketchblog: back from jordan …

Taking a break from studying Arabic in Syria Isoblue visits the gem of حياتي في دمشق: Jordan taking a page out of my own book when touring Petra:

Only one objective for this first 2 days (29th and 30th of April 08) trip to Jordan: PETRA. This is a wonderful place but you have to get to the site at the opening time (6 a.m.) if you want to enjoy the real Petra, I mean without all the stupid tourists (the worst type I saw in my life: they did not have any respect for the beauty of the place, they don’t care about the country – I don’t understand when people walk half naked in the middle of a desert? Are we in a Mediterranean club? – and there are extremely noisy for a natural place like Petra).

The only downside to said approach is if the individual running the ticket booth is late. Fortunately when I visited Petra last November, the attendant arrived early – and let us in at about 5:45 AM.

Meanwhile, Maggie over at Kenya Dig It? describes some of the free entertainment and amusements that await a traveler when translations mishaps happen:

Translation mishaps are fabulous when traveling. For instance, Jessica and I rented a car for our trip through Jordan and when we thanked the car rental guy for his assistance he replied “You are mostly welcome”. Later on at one of our hostels a sign read “Not responsible for any lost”. This was right after swim at your own risk and no children under 15 allowed without parents.

Maggie also provides four fun video montages of such madness … well work the blog-hop.

Finally, over at Pathan Tiktiki’s blog … it looks like Jibonjatri is getting a little less dinner with his U.S. dollar bought Jordanian dinar writing:

I just discovered that Jordanian dinar is actually stronger than US dollar. 1 Jordanian dinar is approximately equal to $1.41 USD. I guess it is slightly arrogant of me to have expected the other way around. It really came to me as a shocker. Planning the trip to Jordan *might* be slightly more expensive than anticipated. But I guess it’s all worth it!

You got that right Pathan, after all, what is that aphorism I’m after? Oh yeah, ‘even a bad day vacationing in Jordan is still better than a good day at work!‘

How about you? Got an Jordanian journey experience you’ve blogged about? Let me know as I’m about to equip this blog with a cool tool that’ll letcha post your own content here with only the bare minimum of adult supervision.

Quit ‘Bugging’ me about Wadi Rum!

Blogging Brit Tim Nunn reports that while traveling through the Jordanian desert that is Wadi Rum, Mel was worried about this part of the trip and expected to see creepy crawly bugs, but instead they made it through the night without any bites!

I never thought about the bugs when I was in Wadi Rum, but Tim’s Flickr photo set of his Jordanian experience proves that they do indeed exist. And a fast moving one it looks like at that!

Perusing Petra faster than you can say Indiana Jones!

As part of a Ken McFarland tour, the Wandering Bruces (gad I love that title) blog about their Jordan, with of course much writing and photos about ancient lost city of Petra. I think this quote from their blog best sums up the experience many of us have:

“What a fantastic place! The sandstone has been carved into beautiful shapes and colors by the various elements over time, and the Nabateans who lived here carved temples, graves, and homes into that sandstone. “

You can visually experience the rest of their Journey that is Jordan over on their Petra, etcera Picasa photo gallery (say that 5 times fast!-).

Toto, I don’t think we’re in Amsterdam anymore

Last but not certainly least of today’s international trio of Jordan tourist blogs, an entry from Hielke en Marlieke writing to us in annotated and fun photos about their 1st week in Jordan.

Y’know, the normal fare:

• getting up early enough and getting into Petra before everyone else (the only way to get tourist-free photos of the Treasury);
• remembering to bring a book along to read while floating about the Dead Sea; and
• capturing an incriminating photo of one’s significant other enjoying a bit of “hubbly bubbly” before or after some beer (I’d think preferably before?-).

So what about you, got a Journey of Jordan you’ve recorded online? Send me a link-o-love and I’ll see what I can do about getting it reviewed.

I have done many crazy things – but I would have to rate swimming in the dead sea as one of my highlights … I have seen on TV when I was a kid, people reading books as they float in the Dead Sea … but its crazy, you float so high in the water that one can easily sit there and read a book. – Scott Ragsdale, naseba CEO blog

What a great quote as reminded me of my own YouTube enhanced post entitled “Dean takes a dive in the dead sea that ‘rocks’” – where like the TV shows Scott Ragsdale describes – I take a ‘Nestea-like Plunge’ into the saline-saturated body of baby-oil-like brine known as the Dead Sea.

Only in my case with a 25 pound rock on my belly.

Even better, Mr. Ragsdale’s blog provides us with an easy-to-read and enjoy 1 post summary of all there is to see and do in Jordan as a tangent tour during a business trip to Dubai …

… as well as some interesting personal insights and experiences as an American traveling in the Middle East, including this one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime snippet:

When I came back to the hotel, I was standing in the elevator alone and just when the elevator doors are about to close … a rush of people came running up and opened the door just as they were closing -pushing a man along with them, and get in the elevator with me … suddenly I look up and see someone that I have recently, seen on TV very often, Al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq and 5 of his secret service people all who were obviously Americans … are now standing directly in front of me in the elevator.

That and along with some descriptions of wondrous sites like Petra and delicious dinners in Amman, Scott offers some intriguing political insights worth reading:

Before my plane left the next afternoon – I walked all around Amman again. I went into the empty back streets — as well as visited two crowded markets. Absolutely brilliant experience– but for me, what is most remarkable, after all the problems that America’s war on Iraq has caused this country and its people — not one single person was rude nor aggressive to me.

So if you got a moment or three, check out Ragsdale’s post entitled ‘Swimming in the Dead Sea’ as it is quite a bit more than just your typical touristy “lookie at me on a camel” post.

Secretary-General of the Ministry of Tourism Mr. Farouq Al Hadidi, JSTTA Chairman Haider Ziyadat and top travel agents such as former Tourism Minister Munir Nassar attended the ceremony and paid tribute to Kawar who helped create a vibrant tourism sector, characterized by well-built infrastructure that today contributes around 14 percent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product and employees 33,000 people. MrKawar told the gathering:

“I am very touched by you all for this honoring, … We have come along way in establishing a good, prosperous and dependable tourism industry in the Kingdom, and credit must go to you all for working hard to bring tourists from all over the world to Jordan, a place of great culture, religions and where history’s civilization had passed through, …”

Mr Kawar also praised the role of His Majesty King Abdullah for his encouragement and belief in creating a strong tourism industry that would image Jordan to the world as a country with a great history and were cultures and businesses can meet to create a fusion for the benefit of mankind.

Petra Tours was established in 1965, at a time when there was no more than a handful of tour operators in Amman, but the then energeticKawar believed he would contribute in building a tourism industry that would build bridges among people with different cultures who would visit the Kingdom, and vice-versa enable Jordanian to travel abroad.

Little did he know that decades latter the Jordanian tourism industry would boomerang into a multi-million affair and possibly billions, with huge tourism infrastructure being built all over the country. Indeed, investments jumped to JD 1.552 billion in tourism projects between 1996 and 2006.

Petra Tours portion of these developments are not inconsiderable since as well as tourism providers they had become hotel investors in prime touristic locations such as the Dead Sea, Petra, and Aqaba.

It is these traits that were recognized when the JSTTA honored Nasser Kawar for his services to tourism.