Jordan: The road-side spice market

Karak Castle

Another castle in Jordan. Karak Castle was built by the crusaders on the top of the highest hill in the area, overlooking valleys on all sides. This is a view is of one of the outbuildings. You can see the modern city beyond.

Many, many arches -- the one to the right in this photo leads to the dining halls and kitchens.









And look!  real, live arrow slits! These were on all sides of the castle, for protection of course.

The Desert Castles: Amra

Amra is a 7th Century hunting lodge on the road from Amman to Iraq. It sits close to the crossroads that also lead out to Saudi Arabia. This little gem had steam baths (!), and the walls and ceilings are frescoed with pictures of local plants and animals.

Throughout the trip, I was amused by signage. Here are some English language signs that caught my eye.

"Keep Left" is obvious, but I was initially perplexed by the "No Trumpets" sign. Ah! It's really "No honking horn"!!

Litter is a problem in India, and there were a variety of signs discouraging litter.

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This sign is on the door of the Kerala Police cars

Actually, I think this was for House Boats, not House Bots. But even so, a no parking zone for boats? 

Refer back to "driving in India" post.

Flower Bowls

These bowls of flowers are found in courtyards, in restaurant and hotel entrances.

Houseboating in Kerala

Houseboating the backwaters of Kerala is absolute bliss.  We floated between banks of palm trees looking out over rice fields that reached to the horizons. Rice growers build their houses on the banks of the river, and seem to paint their houses the brightest of colors.

We bought freshwater shrimp across the way and our houseboat chef prepared them for us for dinner... mmm.mmm...

Full disclosure is required though: It was 97 degrees and about 65% humidity. Very hot and sticky, but just fine for a lazy day "rolling down the river".

Flower market of Madurai

Madurai is known for its flowers, and our visit to the flower market early in the morning was amazing. A full city block was lined on both sides with vendors selling blossoms from bags on the floor. There were millions of marigolds, gardenias, jasmine flowers, roses and tons of other stuff. These are not cut flowers as we know them, but just the flowers themselves, which are purchased to make necklaces (which I call leis), and also flower bowls (see a future posting about flower bowls).  The scene was hectic, with motorcycles zooming off with huge bales of flowers tied on their backs. The flowers are brought in from surrounding flower farms each day. 

Most interesting is that the men string the flowers (see photo above) When we asked what the strung flower necklaces are used for - and some of them are six feel long! - we were told they are used at weddings, funerals, and for politicians and statues. Then we recalled seeing the statues with flower necklaces. 

Bananas!

Have I mentioned that the bananas are WONDERFUL??  There are many varieties, they are all perfect ripeness, and have incredible flavor. 

Driving in India

None of us in the US of A would be able to drive in India without special instruction. It requires the usual combination of brake, accelerator and steering wheel. However, in India, the horn is very, very important. Also the headlights, I think, but I will explain about that later.

To begin, if there are lines on the roadway (and "if" is a very important word here), they are merely suggestions, and appear to be completely ignored for the most part.

They drive on the left, so that is a bit harrowing to begin with for the right-side-of-the-road drivers that we are.

There are pedestrians, bicycles, motorscooters, and motorcycles everywhere. Also motor-rickshaws. This is the case in the city as well as out on country roads. Everyone drives the speed that pleases them, and merely passes other vehicles when necessary.  to maintain that speed. Now here is the part where the horn is so important. As the vehicle pulls out to pass, the driver honks their horn - beep-beep! and then continues to beep as they pass. beep! beep! beep! beep!  It is not a blaring horn like we have, but more of a roadrunner beep.  If here is oncoming traffic, it is a good idea to keep an eye on the oncoming vehicle,and to beep the horn even more. If the vehicles get too close to each other, then everyone swerves around, sometimes onto the side of the road, and then continue o their way.

So a two-lane road really has three lanes. thhe left lane, the right lane, and then the one that runs down the middle that is continuously being used for passing.

It is harrowing for we American passengers. We are frequently faced with busses and trucks barrelling down the road at us. But somehow, for the most part, everyone ggets around without crashing into each other.

Lunch in Puducherry

I forgot to mention that we had a banana leaf lunch in Puducherry (see photo). This was a wonderful selection of various small dishes with rice and naan.

So is it Pondicherry or Puducherrry? It seems to depend on whether you are British or Indian. The Indians call it Puducherry.

Pondicherry

Today we travelled from Chennai to Pondicherry, stopping to visit Shore Temple and the surrounding monuments, the most amazing being Arjuna's Penance. This is another UNESCO World Heritage site, and was interesting and amazing. The local people carved all this stuff from existing granite outcroppings -- massive stuff -- in the 7th century AD. Then, there was a war, all sculpture wor stopped, and they never got back to it again.

Shore Temple is especially interesting. They also call it Sea Shore Temple, because (aha!) It is at the sea shore.  This is a tall temple, surrounded by a wall with 108 full-sized sculpture bulls, and it looks out over the ocean However, there are six other temples, all underwater in the sea. The shoreline has changed since the 7th century. However, as the tsunami approached in 2006, the ocean waters receded out half mile or so, and all of the other temples were exposed to the light. To quote the guide, "the people were able to view them for 30 or 40 minutes," then of course, the tsunami wave arrived, and not only washed over the temples in the sea, but inundated the one that is usually on land. No damage, though.

We viewed temples and carvings for several hours.

> The area from Chennai to Pondicherry is flat, near the coast, and very wet. There are mango orchards and rice paddies. The local people build thatch huts. There are also waterways where folk fish from small rafts made from sticks lashed together. They stand and pole themselves around the rivers/lakes.

Dubai Desert

Today was our desert tour -- much more interesting than touring Dubai City. So, what I have learned:  Only 18% of the Dubai residents are citizens. All the  rest are foreign permanent residents, mostly on work permits. If you are born here, you are only a citizen if your father (or maybe your mother) was a citizen. If you lose your job, you have to go home, even if you have never been to your home country. So far I have met Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, Indians and an Omani, but not a single citizen. Note that the country is UAE: United Arab Emirates, which was formed in 1971 when Dubai, Abu Dhabi and four other emirates joined together to make the UAE.

Also, I was in Oman today! Another country to check off the list!  If you look at a map of the UAE penninsula, you will see that Oman and UAE have non-contiguous pieces.  As one of the guides said, "The Bedouins did not have a concept of property lines. The British had to teach them about it, and even then it didn't work out exactly as they had planned."

I have seen the sand dunes of the desert. I have stood at the top of a dune and seen nothing but sand dunes to the horizon in all directions. It is truly amazing. We drove straight across the desert, and the wind erased our tracks behind us.

Jordan

My apologies to all of my blog followers. I have found that internet access is less available than Ihad predicted, AND I have experienced so much that my brain is a muddled mess.  So, I will attempt to start with some update posts, and then see if I can do a better job of little posts.

Here is the summary update. Six days in Jordan. We drove across country to Petra, and I want to go back and spend three days to a week hiking every trail in the area. We visited at least four castles, and saw a bunch of stuff. See future postings for details. Final summary of Jordan: I liked this country. Jordanians are American-friendly as well as helpful and respectful.

The last three days I have been experiencing culture shock in Dubai. It was like going from the Appalachian Trail to Manhattan in less than three hours. Dubai is a fabulously rich and modern city surrounded by desert.