Gorgeous gorges ...

As many of you know, I'm pretty used to impressive gorges, what with living so close to the Verdon in France, but last weekend Jordan once again literally took my breath away with a corker - Wadi Dana in Dana Biosphere Reserve. I'm trying to visit all of the nature reserves while I'm here and have been impressed by the efforts of the RSCN to make each visit a pleasant one, but this one really was something special ...

So we drove down on Friday, and after a long fairly dull drive down the Desert Highway (I've done it many times now) we reached the turnoff. According to the instructions I'd printed off, we were only a few kilometers from Dana and still all we could see was endless fairly flat desert and the odd concrete monstrosity ... and then we turned a corner and the world literally dropped off in front of our eyes. This was where we had reached the end of the desert plateau and hit the valleys of Dana Reserve - I nearly swerved the car off the road, it was so unexpected and breath-taking.



After a slightly hairy drive down to Dana village, the next joyous surprise was the guest house where we were staying - not only a lovely little place (and well heated, needed in this weather!), but with a location to die for ... perched on a cliff edge with views down into Wadi Dana valley (in photo above). Definately a great place to pause and watch the sun set, which we did with a bottle of St Emilion - and after dinner with the other people staying in the guest house we were even able to admire the landscape illuminated under a full moon. Lovely ...

But we really got to appreciate the view the next morning when the whole valley was lit up by the morning sun - check this out for a panorama (but turn down the volume, it was a tad windy!) ...



Dana is a trekker's paradise, and this is exactly what we did, following the winding path down from the guest house into the valley. The walk the length of the valley takes about 5 hours each way, which we didn't have time to do, but we did a good third of it and then the long slog back uphill - hard work, but so worth it!

There was also plenty of nature to enjoy - birds of many different kinds, including several types of raptor and these amazing electric blue birds with long thin slightly hooked beaks - I don't have a bird guide here, but possibly some kind of honeyeater? And down in the valley there were all sorts of plants and flowers too, including a kind of white and purple gorse which smelt gorgeous and these fabulous little pink flowers. It may be a bit colder at the moment (although it was T-shirt weather in the day), but the advantage of going into the countryside in winter is seeing nature here at it's greenest - we even saw grass! In Jordan!

So, for anyone planning on coming out, if nature's your thing let's have a break in Dana - I will be going back for sure ...

Food Pt 8

Thought you might like this - sugar cane, apart from being incredibly scrumptious (but also quite likely to give you an upset tummy) apparently has a whole host of other benefits ...

Cool is so 90s! Exotica is now!

I came across the following artice by Khaled Sedki, which I read on the local culture website www.7iber.com - I found it kind of strange and am not sure what I think about the idea of 'selling' culture to spread the word, so thought I would share it with you in case you have your own thoughts on the subject ...

Cool is so 90s! Exotica is now!

It is now official! Arabs are exotic, again! But while Edward Said tried to explain the first Orientalist hype as a distribution of geopolitical awareness on the grounds of Western domination over the Orient; this new ‘exotic’ craze is really all about falafel!

Falafel and Shirwal are exotic!

As the world is stripped out of politics in favor of a cooler, easily digested, commercial political celebrities, and as faiths and ideologies are narrowed down to slogans and differing lifestyles, other things seem to have an increasing value! That’s when Falafel and Shirwal became exotic!

Just a year ago I was struck by the sight of ‘blond bombshells’ walking down Taksim, Istanbul in shirwals! Months later, shirwal was re-adopted by the cool upper-bourgeoisie class in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan as a fashionable summer outfit! Over the past few years ‘exotic’ has ‘out beaten’ ‘cool’ in many occasions, seducing lower to upper bourgeoisie in western societies as means of cultural consumption;

American pop music played oriental rhythms, celebrities started showing up in belly dancers outfit, falafel took over Marks & Spencers ‘traditional food’ section and Melissa featured on an Akon song!

Well there’s nothing upsetting about that, specially that one can now take a girl out to dinner at a terribly filthy place at Al-Balad and still remain ‘exotic’! But the irony lies in this counter-stream consumption approach; as political and military tension rises in the region, with restrictions multiplying and entire populations being placed under political and economic sanctions, curiosity towards these cultures increases, and as some realized: curiosity sells! It always has! It sold all sorts of things, from shirwals, to falafels, to Buddhist books, to ‘I love NY’ shirts, to an Exotic African-American son of Hussein as president of the United States to Guevara’s most consumed poster in history, to Edward Said’s “Orientalism” book itself!

All this seems to be quite different from the counter-culture model of globalization everyone made such a fuss about – as if culture never experienced evolution and remained locked and boxed since our ancestors first invented Humos!!

Culture sells, and Globalization is pro-market and not counter-culture!

And soon Falafel would be franchised and we would claim intellectual rights of our Falafel and whine like the Italians do over their stolen pizzas! (this already happened as the Lebanese made the biggest plate of Humos to claim it back from the Israelis!)

But either ways, since Fukyama announced ‘the end of history’, there’s no place left to ‘deliver’, but rather much to sell/consume! So it’s almost ‘wise’ if we could start branding and packaging all sorts of consumer goods starting with falafel and all the way to packaging values, history, culture and all sorts of exotic things, preferably in colorful textiles with Arabic calligraphy and sell at competing prices!

Made in the Orient!

12 Angry Lebanese

Went to see a fantastic documentary film showing in town a couple of nights ago, which you should really try and see if you have the chance - it's called 12 Angry Lebanese, and is about a theatre project in a Lebanese prison where they took 45 inmates and worked with them for a year to put on a production of an adapted version of the play '12 Angry Men'.



This film wasn't just interesting, it was inspirational - the filmn crew filmed the entire process as well as conducting interviews with the inmates during and after the project, and the insight into the personal journeys of these guys as well as the wider effects of the project was incredibly moving.

All of the inmates recognised that they were guilty of their crimes, but the process of gelling into a team and analysing the play (about 12 jurors deciding the fate of a young boy accused of murder) gave them the chance to think about themselves and how they have ended up where they are - aspects of their personality, the effects of hard upbringings, neglect and the like. They even included some of their own stories in the production, giving the audience a chance to think about how people turn to crime and maybe how this can be prevented through love and support. And this must have been particularly emotional in their last performance, when all of their families were in the audience - this was almost the last scene in the film, and there were a few emotional tears in the hosue by then!

The whole idea of having an audience of normal people from outside the prison was also amazing, giving the inmates a chance to feel like members of society again, and the members of the audience the opportunity to see the inmates not just as criminals to be forgotten, but people with talents and potential and humanity. The Interior Minister of Lebanon attended one performance, and there is an interview with him in the movie where you can see that he has been touched by the whole experience. He talks about realising the difference between the punishing inmates for their crimes by sending them to prison and continuing to punish and degrade them once they are there, rather than considering the possibility that they can learn and reform and grow into positive human beings. In fact, the inmates do a sketch in their production about a law that had been proposed in Lebanon in 2002 to allow inmates to to apply for early release, but which had not been implemented - the law was passed two months after the inmates' production.

And the person who pushes it all along and brings it all together is the director, the amazing Zeina Daccache. Not only does she get the project going and struggle with all of the obstacles and permissions needed, but also works day in day out with each and every individual and has the ability to inspire, chastise and get people's commitment to the project and themselves. It can't have been easy being the only woman in an all male prison, but she becomes accepted and respected to the point where they start calling her 'Abu Ali', a nickname that shows her being regarded as one of them and a strong person to boot.

Zeina was present at the showing of the film that I saw, and she is as impressive in real life as she was in the film; tall and full of energy that you can almost see sparking off her. We gave her a long ovation after watching the film, which she more than deserved, and although I couldn't really follow the Q&A afetr the film as it was in colloquial Arabic, I did get a quick chance to chat to her after and find out that she is still working every day with these guys and helping them continue their journeys, as well as trying to get new pprojects going.

It all reminded me that we cannot all be Ghandi or the Dalai Lama, but we can each in our own way recognise and encourage the humanity in other people, even in the toughest of conditions.

WAW4 - The Gift of God

"The Gift of God" or "Atah Al Allah" is what the Bedouin have traditionally called the camel (although they may use other names when a camel has decided it doesn't want to play ball!). I love them too for very different reasons - not my source of income or form of transportation, but they are actually quitelarge and do a highly amusing range of facial expressions. It turns out that they are pretty wierd and unique animals too, so here are some random facts and various photos of the camels of Jordan ...


Camels have the reputation of being bad-tempered and obstinate creatures who spit and kick. In reality, they tend to be good-tempered, patient and intelligent - as I found out after meeting 'the camel whisperer' in Shark Bay, Australia (worth the detour, I promise!). The moaning and bawling sound they make when they're loaded up and have to rise to their feet is like the grunting and heavy breathing of a weight-lifter in action, not a sign of displeasure at having to do some work. And the Bedouin do seem to take care of their animals and treat them quite well - this camel has some rope tied round his feet so that he doesn't wander off too far, but he was still roaming quite happily (relatively speaking!) and looked pretty healthy

Camels are amazingly well adapted to living in the desert - for example:

- During a sandstorm the camel's nostrils can close down to keep out the sand.

- A camel's ears are lined with fur to filter out sand and dust blowing into the ear canal.

- Camels have a translucent second lid that allows light to go through, but protects the eye in mild sand storms, while thick bushy eyebrows shield the eyes from the desert sun.

- Camels store fat in their humps. They can go for 5 - 7 days without eating or drinking. When they haven't eaten for a while, the hump shrinks in size and flops over to one side.

- The feet of camels are large, flat, and round. When the camel places its foot on the ground the pads spread, preventing the foot from sinking into the sand. When walking, the camel moves both feet on one side of its body, then both feet on the other. This gait suggests the rolling motion of a boat, explaining the camel's 'ship of the desert' nickname. Doesn't make them any better at crossing the road though ...

And how about this for wierd and wonderful - the camel has a unique body thermostat. It can raise its body temperature tolerance level as much as 6 degrees centrigrade before perspiring, thereby conserving body fluids and avoiding unnecessary water loss. No other mammal can do this.

To finish, I can't help but put in these cute mother and baby photos - this is a 15 day old camel calf that we came across in southern Jordan, who was still a bit unsteady on his legs and obviously found the whole business of standing a bit of a chore ... and look at the very protective camel-dog in the background - not sure how much herding or protecting he can do, but I guess he is perfectly capable of making a lot of noise ...

Let's rock some more!

OK, enough of the cheesy rock gags, but I did want you to see some more of the fabulous rocks that are scattered around Jordan. I don't have much to say about the following apart from that fact that they are made up of layers of sandstone, and they are amazingly pretty!

These examples are all from the Petra area, which is the most famous place for them, and I think the technical term for the patterns is Liesegang Banding. I also know that usually the red is from iron oxide, the black from manganese and the yellow from sulphur. Nature's palette ....






Pretty amazing, eh? And best of all is how the Nabateans in Petra were able to use this natural decoration to make even the simplest cave dwelling into an abstract arthouse ...


ANd we've given the world high rise flats and the office block, something to be proud of eh ...

Gratuitous fish shots

Sorry, I know that this is once again a reminder that it is warm enough to swim in the sea here, but, well, that's the way it is! I have been so enjoying using my camera mask because it means I can show you some of the really cool stuff lurking under the waves ...

I love these big plate corals, which the fish peck food from ...

I think this is a two-banded Red Sea clownfish, adorably cute ...

Not sure what these are, but the colours are amazing ...

possibly a little orange anthia on the right?

And another little video for you - am still learning, so sorry if the picture is a little shaky, but hopefully good enough to imagine how overwhelmingly beautiful it all is ...

Flowers and fortifications

I did something very refreshing this weekend - a bunch of us went up to Ajloun, which is only an hour's drive from Amman but feels a world away ... Well, it actually felt like the south of France to me, complete with olive groves, terracing, red earth and limestone outcrops scattered around the hills, which made me feel very relaxed and at home.

Best of all, the Ajloun area is humid and green (boy, do we miss that in Amman!), and we were lucky to see it carpetted with flowers - I think the countryside has become confused by the warmer-than-usual weather and thinks it is spring, which is not good news but looks fantastic.


The Ajloun Forest Reserve, one of several reserves run by the RSCN, was set up fairly recent and has great facilities, including a visitors' centre, chalets and 'posh' camping (below), paths so that walkers can appreciate the landscape while not tramping it all down, and occasional information posts including some with environmental education stuff. There's even a nature shop!


There is also an amazing variety of fauna and flora - we saw a multitude of different flowers and trees, wild boar tracks, lizards and a few birds. A lot of the things we saw I recognised from France, such as the tiny evergreen oak trees, but some things like this were a complete unknown (no handy little sign next to this I'm afraid, if anyone knows what it is do tell!)


And is if all that wasn't lovely enough, we got to visit one of Jordan's many many fantastic castles - this is one of the smaller ones, but it's location is great and the government has obviously being putting some effort into restoring it, with good lighting, a little museum inside.



There wasn't a lot in the way of signage around the castle, and there were a lot of empty rooms where we had to try and guess what they could have been used for. There was the odd attempt to bring things to life though, like the piles of catapults stones in windows (slightly odd since they obviously didn't go out of these windows, but it looks romantic and warlike!)

And I'll tell you what, standing on the parapets of a Mamluk castle, staring out at pretty much the same landscape that they would have been observing for signs of advancing enemies, and watching the sun starting to sink in the sky ... magic.

WAW3 - bagpipes, the world constant?

Strangely pleasant, or just a bit odd?!

The Dead Sea

I have not yet been floating in the Dead Sea, one of those things that everyone is supposed to do when they're in Jordan, although I might have a go when my next visitor comes out in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much I want to after my visit to the excellent Dead Sea Panoramic Complex museum, where I learnt that;

- the Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth at over 400m below sea level, which makes it pretty toasty even in winter

- it was made by the separating of two tectonic plates, the same split which has created the whole of the Great Rift Valley

- both it's depth below sea level and it's position above a fault line contribute to it's wierd composition; evaporation making it saltier and the fault line throwing up all sorts of strange chemicals that you won't find in normal sea water

- for example, the Dead Sea apparently has 7,800 times the amount of cadium that you would find in normal sea water (yes, the stuff they use to make batteries ...)

- the Dead Sea is disappearing very rapidly because of diversion of water from the Jordan River - the southern section has disappeared almost completely in the last few years, as you can see comparing the map on the right (from 2005) with the satellite image below (2009) ...


Interesting 5 minute BBC report on Dead Sea

Having said that, I have driven along the coastline many times, and there are some pretty unique sights - check these out ...

Natural salt sculptures along the coastline

The water looks so blue and inviting ...

Lovely mountains tumbling into the blue sea action ...

The other thing about the Dead Sea is that there are lots of lovely five star spa complexes along the coast, so even if the sea itself is a bit odd, there are pampering opportunities aplenty. I will make it my duty to test them out and keep you informed ...

Money money money ...

One of the questions that I've been asking myself since arriving here is ' where does all the money come from'? As I've said before, Jordan is pretty expensive for everything except the basics (a woman cannot live on coffee and felafel alone), and yet people don't seem to earn a lot. Then on the other hand, there do seem to be a LOT of really rich people here ... at least those have been my anecdotal impressions so far. To try and understand the situation a bit better, I've been trying a combination of some internet research and asking as many people as possible what they think, and have come up with the following;

'Jordan is not a rich country'

Jordan is classified in economic terms as a 'lower middle income country' or an 'emerging market', and according to World Bank statistics the GNP per capita was $3,306 in 2008 - so $275 or only £245 a month. Another 2009 study claims that "29% of Jordan’s employees earn less than $500 per month, while 30% earn between $500 and $1000 per month". As for its resources, Jordan doesn't seem to have much except potash, and is totally reliant on imports for oil and almost all other energy needs 996% to be precise), while water and therefore agriculture is a huge issue (as previously discussed).

'Jordan is not cheap'

This may not seem too bad, but when you compare salaries to the cost of living it's really not great. Have a look at this site if you don't believe me - even simple things like milk and bread are about the same price as the UK, and rents aren't great either;

Cost of Living information from Numbeo
(skip past the first bit about indexes ... real information underneath!)

Every Jordanian I know complains about the massive gap between salaries and the rising cost of things, and after initially thinking that I must be getting ripped off because I'm a foreigner, I've come to realise that I'm not really paying more than locals, it's that locals can't generally afford the same things that I would buy ... and yet these expensive things are in the shops, in fact in many many shops and malls around the city. So who is buying this stuff?

'Jordan has some very rich people'

I don't have any groovy facts to support this, but a drive around Amman will show you this - the side of town where I live is a vast expanse of huge houses, numerous malls and all the trappings of wealth. I have seen porches racing down the road from me, and places like Starbucks and TGI Fridays (really!) are always busy - all pointing to a pretty significant middle and upper class with plenty of cash to wave around. And this is what niggles me - who are these people, and where does their money come from?

'Jordan doesn't really make anything'

I've trawled a few websites on the subject of Jordan's economy and what exactly they produce, and the answer generally seems to be 'not much'. To break it down in very basic terms, Jordan's GDP seems to come from the following sources;

Agriculture - 2.5%
Industry - 23% of which;
Mining (potash and phosphate) - 3%
Construction - 4%
Manufacturing - 16%
Services - 74.5% of which;
Telecoms - 13%
IT - 10%
Transport sector - 10%
Tourism - 10%

Other services (banking, insurance, etc) seem to account for the remaining portion of the services sector.

So from these figures it would seem that a number of people are getting rich on selling dirt (potash / land) while the rest of the wealth seems a bit ephemeral ... and certainly doesn't seem to be enough to account for the extravagant wealth on display.

So to contrast with 'facts', these are the various opinions I've had about where all this money is coming from.

1. Foreign aid

The US in particular provides Jordan with very very large amounts of aid - somewhere in the $1 billion mark I believe - as it really needs to keep Jordan stable and onside in what is otherwise a pretty volatile region. Don't know how long term this is as a source of income though ...

2. Corruption

Possibly linked to point 1, everyone seems to think that corruption is pretty widespread, although I must admit that I haven't come across it myself yet and it certainly doesn't seem to be as widespread as in places like Indonesia or Nigeria. I've also heard that many of the businesses and construction projects may be linked to money laundering (Iraq in particular has been mentioned ...)

3. The Gulf

There are around 700,000 Jordanians working in the Gulf, and more in Europe and the US, all sending money back to families and to invest - this out of a population of only around 6 million, of which over half are Iraqi and Palestinian refugees (although some of the Iraqi refugees are apparently pretty minted). So money earnt overseas would seem to account for at least a good chunk of the money around ...

4. Foreign investment

Jordan is apparently a popular investment area as well, although not entirely sure why (any of my clever economust type friends know?) - possibly something to do with the free trade agreements? But anyway, money flowing in and being diverted into Audi 6's sounds plausible to me ...

So, still not sure where the rich get their moolah from ... but it's certainly there, and needs spreading around a bit. Perhaps Jordan should finally introduce some income tax?! Rather than taxing food and clothes at 26% ...

Wierd and Wonderful - WAW pt 2

One that comes in the 'wonderful' category - this is my favourite piece of graffiti in Amman, and gives you a good idea of exactly how 'hardcore' things are here ... does it make anyone else suddenly feel like they're back at primary school?

The real Ben Hur!

It's been another gorgeously sunny weekend here I'm afraid, so I took a contingent of British expats to Jerash, Jordan's largest Roman ruins. The ruins are in the hills north of Amman, which are lovely and green at the moment, and it was a real pleasure to wander through the old buildings with grass and clover under our feet and olive groves all around - so different from arid Amman, and feeling much more like Tuscany or Provence.


The ruins are what is left of the old administrative town of Gerasa, with all the temples, markets and other large buildings, and are surrounded by a wall nearly 4km long. Apparently, the people would mainly have lived outside of this walled town, where the modern town of Jerash is, and the two areas would have been connected by several pathways and bridges like the one on the right. Although the modern town isn't very picturesque, it's actually quite nice to see the juxtaposition (!) of the grand and the everyday, the old and the new.





As if all these great ruins weren't impresseive enough on their own, Jerash also has a live show that they put on twice a day, complete with a garrison of Roman soldiers, gladiators and chariot racing ... soooo much fun, and educational too! For example, we learnt that Roman soldiers fought in lines of 9 men, with the front man fighting for 8 minutes before going to the back of the line to rest, eat etc. So basically anyone facing the Romans was always facing a fresh fighter - with tactics like that, no wonder they swept across the world!



And here they are in action - this is how they would have used a wedge tactic ...



After showing us a whole variety of such tactics (including a very impressive tortoise move), we were treated to some gladiator fighting (and might I add, some rather well-toned and frankly under-dressed gladiators) ...



And then to finish off, the chariot racing! And I even got to have a go ... move over Ben Hur!

Food Pt 8

Well, a drink actually - this is my favourite refreshing tipple, a mix of lemon juice, fresh mint and sugar (which for some reason the Syrians call a 'Polo') ... always fabulous!

Ruins, greenery and forbidden hills ...

As a break from endless desert and dryness, my folks and I went north towards where the borders of Jordan, Syria and Israel meet to visit a place called Um Qais, on a line between Irbid and the Sea of Galilee to the northwest on this map.


View Larger Map

Unfortunately it was a bit of a misty day so we didn't have the full views of Israel and the Golan Heights that we would have otherwise, but it was still stunning - and so refreshing to be up in the hills and surrounded by greenery. It really made me realise how dry so much of Jordan is, and how much I miss the lushness that we take for granted in the UK ...



So, along with the grass (GRASS!) and olive trees, Um Qais has some pretty good Roman ruins to boast of, not in the same league as Jerash or Palmyra but nicely preserved and in a fabulous location perched above valleys and the Sea of Galilee. As well as the standard temples, theatre, trade centre and bath complexes, there are also some great underground chambers which they are still digging out - I think the one below was a tomb, and they've also found chambers deep beneath churches and other buildings ...





Like so many of the historical locations here, you really get the sense that the process of unearthing all the historical treasures is only just starting, and it's exciting to think about all the fabulous things still left to uncover. Um Qais has ongoing archeological digs all over the place, and we watched a team unearthing a Byzantium church with mosaics before our very eyes ...








There is also the first part of a Roman road that apparently went all the way to the Mediterannean ... which is a long way! The road is a classic example of the Roman road building expertise ... nice camber ... good diagonal paving to encourage runoff ... fancy columns ... and oh so straight!

And then, as if all that wasn't groovy enough, there is also a really good restaurant slap bang in the middle of the ruins, with a lovely terrace overlooking the Golan heights - it is actually almost worth doing the trip just to have this very agreeable lunch. So come join me for fine food, culture and a sneeky peak at one of th flashpoints of the Middle East!