Couldn’t take the car anywhere near (apart from when we made a small navigation hiccup). We had to switch to a bus 10/15mins away to get through the military checkpoint.
I
Month: October 2017
So, this wasn’t really explained in the previous post, but, the site of the church where Jesus was baptised is within metres of Palestine separated by the Jordan river. (As seen below).
Now, that’s jolly nice, however, as we followed this river border up, we reached a different section:
The other side of the border here clearly flies the Israeli flag. Now according to the UK gov website, travelling between Israel and Jordan can be troublesome because of the poor relationship between the countries. It’s possible either side wouldn’t let you in if they see the wrong stamp in your passport.
Our guide was a chilled out, level headed sort of guy. I asked how he felt about Israel. He made it clear the country we were looking at was Palestine and was simply occupied by Israel. He was quick to point out that he looks at the people, not the country. Isralies had helped put out a forest fire just over the border, a hospital in Israel saved his uncle and that he had been a few times and enjoyed himself.
However, the fact we were banned from waving to the people on the other side, the military presence and his slight bitterness towards the economic punishment Jordan was receiving due to not helping with the Syrian crisis said it all. The countries wernt really best buddies.
Today, I saw the promised lands of which Moses wasn’t allowed to enter. Shame really. It was pretty nice.
Jesus’ baptism site only discovered in 1999!!
If I’m honest, I didn’t find this as interesting as I probably should have done. However, the border situation with occupied Palestine (which is actually the trees right at the back in the bottom pic) was utterly fascinating.
AKA Debi and Helen’s 5am alarm clock tune 😂
The more eagle eyed readers may have noticed we are short three plates here – oh, and that our table cloth is effectively a polythene bag. Nice. Food was tasty though!
In my mind, countries around this area of the Middle East are oppressive and unwelcoming. Let’s face it, I think plenty of people in the Western world would think that. Why would you not? Nobody ever really goes there and there’s only bad stuff in the media.
With that in mind, I was pretty much expecting to receive a healthy dose of culture shock.
Well no, not really. It feels a bit like Greece.
Top gear have been here!
(Apologies for lower res pics- bad internet)
Have a small nugget of culture shock in the form of an SMS message:
Hmm. There may be a language barrier issue at some point.