Sri Lanka - Kandy

With the train through the Jungle of Sri Lanka - we said welcome to Kandy. The second big city in Sri Lanka.  Situated in the middle of the country, in the deep green jungle. We stayed there 3 nights and looked at temples,  elephants and the green nature. Beautiful place, the city it self wasn't that charming. It was raining quite a lot, but wasn't that bad as we had a nice hotel and good breakfast. 

From the spiritual point of view Kandy is famous for the Temple of Tooth as there is stored a tooth of Buddha. This relic was an important source of the Sinhalese monarchy and therefore was always kept in the respective residence . It makes the city one of the most important pilgrimage sites of Buddhism.

Amman to Dubai

Flight to Sri Lanka through Dubai. 16 hours waiting time.

Goodbye Jordan ready to Take off for Sri Lanka

Jordan - I must say I never thought that Jordan is that amazing.

I loved Wadi Rum and Petra and these two areas are defnetly something to recommend and worth to see. Would love to go back to the desert.

You hear "Welcome Welcome" from every corner - friendly, hosting and caring people in whole Jordan. But you see on the streets mostly men,  women I suppose are at home and caring for the family.  I just met two local woman, also very nice but little more reserved. Most of the women are covered up, some totally.  As a European woman walking in the street even if you wear long chloths you feel not that comfortable. Hair open, white skin (even we are already braun =)) you get attention.  They want photos with you or want to talk to you. Funny situations.

So, today we are flying in the evening to Dubai and will stay there over night because our flight will only go further to Sri Lanka on Sunday evening. Looking forward to new adventures 😊😊😊.

Amman to Jerash

Jerash is the site of the ruins of the Greco-Roman city of Gerasa. It is sometimes misleadingly referred to as the "Pompeii of the Middle East or Asia", referring to its size, extent of excavation and level of preservation (though Jerash was never buried by a volcano). Jerash is considered one of the most important and best preserved Roman cities in the Near East.

Amman to the Dead Sea

Since Monday evening we are staying in Amman and did some nice daytrips. We went to the Dead Sea for some hours, quite funny to swim in this water. After you feel like a crunchy salt fish. 
The Dead Sea is 427 metres below sea level, Earth's lowest elevation on land and is also one of the world's saltiest bodies of water, though Lake. It is 9.6 times as salty as the ocean. This salinity makes for a harsh environment in which animals cannot live.

The Dead Sea seawater makes swimming similar to floating, and we really enjoyed this feeling. As we did not want to spend money at a resort, we went to the public beach. There your are not allowed to swim in a bikini,  even shorts and T-shirts are not allowed.  So we went there and swam with our clothes,  not that comfortable but it was an experience.

Unfortunately the beach of the locals is really dirty and it seem that nobody care about it. Shame for this nature heritage.

Petra

After these 2 enjoyable days in Wadi Rum, we travelled to Petra. Petra is half-built, half-carved into the rock, and is surrounded by mountains riddled with passages and gorges. It is one of the world's most famous archaeological sites. Situated between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and inhabited since prehistoric times, the rock-cut capital city of the Nabateans, became during Hellenistic and Roman times a major caravan centre for the incense of Arabia, the silks of China and the spices of India, a crossroads between Arabia, Egypt and Syria-Phoenicia. An ingenious water management system allowed extensive settlement of an essentially arid area. It's just amazing to see how they lived and still live in the caves and which beautiful buildings they built 2000 years ago. Really impressive. During our visit in Petra we met some nice Bedouins, who are working with the tourists and rent donkeys.  Seating on the stairs of a old building of Petra I met Jashar and his donkey "Nicetomeetyou". We didn't want to rent any donkey or camel, so he just invited us for tea up on the hill. After tea we all get friends and had good discussions about living in the cave,  what his family does, and about life in Jordan. They took us around and made again tea for everyone.  In the end we all ride a donkey and enjoyed our time with the climbing up hills, sunset over Petra and riding back to the village of the Bedouins. We had tea with their family and friends. Next day we met our new friends again and spend the day together discovering Petra with donkeys. As Stefanie did not feel well on this day, and Jonathan was exhausted because of the hiking, I went alone (note: I didn't hike at all, I was just riding the donkey the whole day =) )with them to their families and had traditional beduin dinner. Really just an incredible experience in Petra as we could see that historical place in such an amazing way.

Sharing is caring - the Bedouins are really living this sentence. Tea is their life drug - with sugar, a lot of sugar. Never met so unbelivebel friendly and hosting people towards strangers.

Wadi Rum

From Aqaba we travelled to Wadi Rum,  national park in the desert of Jordan. Beautiful place in the middle of nowhere.  Just rocks, Beduins, and a lot of sand.
We stayed there in a desert camp and had the first day a look around by feet.  Rocks in different oranges,  camels walking around and Beduins with sheeps.
We had a great evening in the tent and did beduin tea on a fire somewhere in the desert and watched stars.  Amazing skyline with a lot of stars =) Bigger and more because of the darkness.

Next day we got up early and enjoyed a big Jeep and Hiking/Climbing Tour through the desert. What shall I say - it's just amazing 💗.