Keraking! Petriffic!

Amman was utterly amazing; unfortunately I couldn't stay there forever. However, now that I've been to other places, it is likely the cheapest place in Jordan for foreigners, or at least the place where you are least likely to get ripped off, especially for food - A meal at Hashem restaurant is 4 JD for a mix of food sufficient for two, while meals for two in restaurants outside of Amman are usually around 10JD.

One of the best preserved castles in Jordan from biblical times is Kerak, an ancient Crusader castle. When you first walk across the bridge over the moat, all you see above you is a great wall of huge sandstone bricks. Inside the massive castle walls, the level of preservation is not as good. The multi-level castle has had multiple levels fall in, although at least three are still present and accessible. The scale of the structure is amazing, and it is hard for me to imagine how any offending army would manage to overcome the great defences of this structure - it's on top of a steep hill, surrounded by a moat, with 15 metre-high walls. Somehow, Saladin still managed to take the castle from the Crusaders - an amazing feat.

Exploring an ancient castle is extremely fun, especially with no idea where doorways through dark rooms lead to. After a fun afternoon adventuring around the ancient castle, we bedded down for the night. The next morning, it was off to Wadi Musa (the Valley of Moses). This is the town nearest to Petra, the ancient Rose City, carven from rock. This was a highlight of Jordan.

A two-day ticket and a bag full of sunscreen and water accompanied me into the ruins. My thirst to explore was matched only by my thirst for water, of which I ran out of early in the afternoon. While Bec rested on rocks, I climbed every set of stairs I found in the place, sometimes rewarded with an interesting carving, but mostly just leading to more tombs. Strangely, while the work on the outer facade is amazing, the insides of the tombs are very simple - a single chamber carved into the rock, sans adornment. I suppose it makes sense for a tomb, as no-one inside has to look at the structure! I still haven't worked out why the Nebateans, the inhabitants of this great city, insisted on continuing to live in tents as the Bedouins do today, instead of moving into the great structures they carved from the rock. A great respect for the dead must have driven this. After ten hours straight of walking up hills and climbing stairs (the climb to the Monastery, the second most grand structure in Petra aside from the Treasury, was the hardest), we arrived back at the hotel. I had a massive headache, and after drinking a tonne of water, fell asleep immediately. The next day, we were able to peruse the Royal Tombs more closely, which were some of the more grand tombs in Petra. Such a great experience, I am so glad to have had the chance to see the great Petra!

oh and by the way guys, for a novel way of checking out my blog, paste this onto the end of the web address: /view/snapshot

Jordan - Amman and Jerash

  The sweet tobacco smell of apple sheesha lured me into the cafe below my third-story hotel (cliff hotel, 4.5 JOD/night pp) in Amman. Inside the all-men interior, the inhabitants played backgammon and cards or murmured to each other over small cups of strong, bitter Turkish coffee, all the while taking an occasional puff from their gigantic sheesha pipes adorning the floor around many of the tables. Unable to resist, I obliged my olfactory craving by taking a seat and ordering a coffee for Bec and I, as well as a sheesha pipe. While the waiter didn't have the best English, a nearby old man who was very prone to fits of coughing between puffs on his sheesha pipe directed the waiter on exactly what we desired, overseeing the whole operation with more than usual care – ordering tables from here and sugar for the coffee from there, he thought of absolutely everything we could possibly desire.

That old gentleman, I was soon to learn, is representative of the rest of the older Jordanian male population, who all taken the role of bossy but very kind and helpful grandfathers. There is no fear that you will be well taken care of; and well fed; in Jordan.

Every cell in my brain and every bud on my tongue was made to love the cultural banquet that is Jordan. I'm very glad that I listened to my Uncle Russell when he recommended a trip to this land, for I have been well rewarded. From the very moment that a plate of hommus and pita bread was placed on my table at Hashem restaurant, I have been very excited about this country, and the excitement hasn't ended.

Today we visited the extensive Roman ruins of Jerash, which saw me caught up in the artistic architectural wonders of gigantic pillars and magnificent arches. My imagination flew with the temple of Zeus and the Temple of Artemis, and the theatres were awesome. It saddens me that the same kind of effort isn't put into making beautiful structures today. Tomorrow, I intend to visit the Dead Sea and perhaps Mt Nebo, where Abraham purveyed the promised land.

The South Coast - Tangalla and Galle

  I am sick of buses!! After catching them to many destinations around Sri Lanka, the most common element between them is that they are all packed fuller than tinned sardines in a Tokyo train. Our last bus trip was to Tangalla, which required a full day on three different buses to reach from Nuwara Eliya. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet Vicki. We were unable to get in contact with her because all the internet cafes were closed due to the Wesak holiday. The first day of Wesak, a week long festival, is Poya, during which free food stalls open up on the streets. Motorists are flagged down by pedestrians to indicate a location where food is given out, which can range from tea and biscuits or punch to rice and curry or desserts. Apart from these food stalls, which are spaced far apart, all food shops are closed for the holiday. Luckily, our hotelier took us for a ride with his family to visit several of these food stalls. The ride was hours long through the Sri Lankan countryside, and we ended up in a nature reserve, where we saw wild elephants hiding in the shade of road-side trees and bison bathing in the lake. Showing ever more generosity, our hotelier took us to see the lantern displays that are a key elemant of the Wesak festival in the evening, and then provided us with copious amounts of the most delicious rice and curry that we have had yet. Thankyou, Ravindu Guesthouse!

After two nights spent enjoying the festivities, we moved on to Galle. Although I usually have low expectations of cities, this turned out to be one of the nicest places in Sri Lanka. Staying in the fort at a place called the lighthouse view hotel, we had fun exploring the whole fort on the first evening there. Galle contains many lovely boutique shops, which we spent the day perusing before we took the train to Colombo, and the flight to Jordan, and the beginning of my exploration of Europe – the next big stage of the trip!

The HIll Towns - Bandarawela, Haputale, and Nuwara Eliya

  Sick of doing nothing all day, we headed inland to the hill country. This is the part of the trip in Sri Lanka that I had been most excited about, and I wasn't dissapointed. After a day in Kandy again, we took the train to Bandarawella. The train ride from Kandy was breath-taking; once we gained higher elevation, the clouds circled the hills in large swathes, waiting for a wind to propel them onto and over the mountainside. I had read in Lonely Planet that there was a tourist company that did cooking courses here, so we tried to get a tuk-tuk straight there. Unfortunately, no-one had ever heard of Woodlands tourism, and upon asking the next morning, I found out that Woodlands had closed down 3 years ago. Without any further reason for remaining in Bandarawella, we caught the bus to Haputale, which is higher up in the mountains. Haputale is a big tea plantation area, and we got to see tea pickers at work with their sacks full of freshly picked tea on their backs. Haputale wasn't as cold as expected, although it was still pleasantly cool compared to the lower altitudes. After two days in Haputale living in the clouds, we took a bus to Nuwara Eliya, in the hopes of meeting my cousin Vicki there.

Nuwara Eliya is a very European-style town, with swiss style cottages and even some European food. Accomodation here is very expensive (1500 rupees was the cheapest we could find), as it is a well-known tourist town. After a day checking out the beautiful Victoria Gardens, we were succesful in meeting up with Vicki, and we sojourned to the pub for a drink. I was convinced to try some Lion Stout, the local stout beer, which tasted like liquid Marmite, while the girls wisely stuck to the Lion Lager, which is a good beer. After a couple of beers, we showed Vicki and her mates a typical Sri Lankan restaurant meal – rice and 3 vegetable curries, usually including dahl, onion curry and coconut sambal, with a meat curry. The fare is usually similar all over Sri Lanka, and although some vary on the type of vegetable curry, none vary on the quantity – massive amounts of all of it. We had little choice but to keep eating a couple of large meals a day rather than more regular, smaller meals, as whenever we were asked if we wanted more food, and we replied more, we were promptly provided with a fresh dish full of curries. This is the very hospitable nature of the Sri Lankans, and I loved it, although waistline-minded people would likely be less amused! Making plans to catch up the day after in Tangalla, Vicki and her mates headed to Ella, while we stayed at Nuwara Eliya for another night.

Beached at Trincomalee

We saw little of Trincomalee: we stayed at the French Gardens for the whole time, venturing out only once to buy a 5L water. The French Gardens were 6km from town, and situated right on the beach, so there was little to do each day but wake up and go for a swim, chill out on the beach in a hammock and read, and light beach-fires at night. The water was lovely and warm, and we passed two nights there in relative calm.

Ancient Cities

Our first stop was Dambulla, which are ancient rock caves. Upon arrival after a cramped bus ride, the first thing we saw was a giant mouth, alike to the one at Luna Park in Melbourne. Resultantly, the first thing I thought was: "This looks like a trashy amusement park rather than ancient buddhist caves". I didn't even bother getting a ticket to see it, preferring instead to wait with the bags while Bec went to the top to see it. Frustrated after a long bus ride, she came back despondent when they wouldn't let her in because she was wearing shorts. As I had long pants on, she gave me her ticket, and I took many photos for her. I wasn't a huge fan of Dambulla; aboriginal rock paintings in Australia were much more impressive than the caves with as many Buddhas squished into one cave as is possible.

Our next stop was Anuradhapura. After another bus trip, we stayed overnight in Anuradhapura town before making plans to be driven around visiting ruins in a tuk-tuk in the morning. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes and visiting three different dagebums, which are big white domed structures with a point at the top, we realised that the many different ancient sites to see around Anuradhapura were relatively homogenous. In any case, all the sites were large white domed structures with a point at the top. Hence, we cut the trip very short, payed the tuk-tuk driver half the agreed-upon amount for the whole day, and took the one bus per day to Trincomalee, a beach town on the North East of Sri Lanka

Kandy

 After a nice day spent in Colombo, we awoke early with designs on catching the 7am train to Kandy. All went as planned, and we purchased a third class ticket for 150 Rupees. It's nice now that transport is a viable cost again. The train journey to Kandy is the most beautiful train journey I have every taken in my life, with spectacular views over misted mountains covered in rainforest, and spooky tunnels where wraiths scream at you through in high pitched wails through the open windows as the solitary lightbulb swings from side to side. Despite the gasp-worthy scenery, it is difficult to take a good photo because of the tree cover on each side of the train. At one point on the journey, the tracks were flooded with a few inches of water, but the driver forged ahead. It was very exciting watching a train pass straight through currents of water, without a train track in sight.

Once arrived in Kandy, we were very impressed with the city. Once again, a profusion of bakeries decorated the town, which is built around a lake containing a highly manicured square island. We visited gem stores (Sri Lanka is known for its coloured gemstones, particularly rich blue sapphires), and bought a ticket to the local dance show in the evening. The performance was wonderful, with different costumes including local masks and whirling dancing, as well as acrobatics. The display culminated with a fire performance, including fire-breathing zealots in trances walking across hot coals that radiated heat even where we stood. After I had a dinner of chicken curry and paratha and a dessert of date slice and tea (food is more expensive in Kandy as it is a touristy area, the meal cost 400 Rupees in total), we retired to our hotel, which is a lovely house called Lake Top Inn. On the walk up the mountainside, I had my first ever sighting of fireflies, which are magical creatures akin to fairies – we saw three more on the way up the hill, and they put on a spectacular flashing display for us.

The next day, we relocated closer to town. The Old Empire was our choice, which is a lovely old colonial hotel near the Buddha's Tooth Temple. Sitting out on the verandah, we met a nice English-Australian couple, who we played a game of scrabble with. After the game, I bought some pepper gouda and a bottle of Chilean sem. Sauv blanc and together Bec and I enjoyed an excellent repast. After a visit to the Botanical Gardens, we were ready to move on from Kandy, to explore the Ancient cities of Dambulla and Anuradhapura.

Sri Lanka - Colombo

   2 or 3 days in Kuala Lumpur before the flight to Sri Lanka were spent in heavenly bliss as the Birds Nest Guesthouse (more affectionately known as 'The Nest') had cooking facilities, including a teeny tiny oven the size of a size 8 shoebox. Naturally, my first stop was to purchase self raising flour, milk, eggs, and sugar, which were used to create an assortment of delights over the few days, ranging from maple syrup or blueberry pancakes for breakfast to vegetable quiche for lunch and sultana scones for afternoon tea, with the piece de resistance being my blueberry-yoghurt cake for dessert on the first night of cooking. As the cake was too much even for my endless pit of an appetite, I recruited other guests at the Nest to help me finish the cake off. I felt like Santa Claus does at Christmas with the amount of appreciation I received for providing these weary vagrants with a delicious home-cooked cake. Our stay in Kuala Lumpur ended with an uncomfortable night at the LCCT terminal, which has cold tiled floors and rows of seats with arm-rests between them to prevent any hobo-style activities taking place. I thwarted their attempts to keep out hobos by pulling two seat rows together to make a space large enough to sleep on between the armrests. A short flight later, we arrived in Colombo at 7.15am.

The bus to Colombo was an ordeal, involving catching a bus to the actual bus, who quoted us 100 for our seat, and then tried to also charge 100 per piece of luggage, which took up much less space than we did. I disagreed with their valuation of the cost of transporting my luggage, so we had a hearty argument which ended up with the lovely gentleman charging us only 50 per piece of luggage. Content with the knowledge that either way we had been royally ripped off, we exited the bus in a bustling cityscape which contrasted strongly with the 2-hour drive in which a building was scarcely in evidence behind an unending screen of rainforest plants.

I've decided that I judge a country by three main aspects – how friendly the people are, how much greenery there is, and how good the food is. I decided within four hours of landing in this beautiful country that Sri Lanka scores the trifector, and is the nicest country I have yet visited. In Colombo, bakeries abound, intermingling with curry restaurants and occasionally breeding with them to create a hybridised curry restaurant selling baked goods. Although most accomodation does not seem particularly cheap, I managed to bargain a room down to 850 Rupees (1AUD = 115 Rupees). Most in Colombo seem to charge around the 2000 mark to begin with. To be fair, our room was not very nice, with no windows and a shabby bed squeezed into a room the same size as harry potter's staircase-cupboard abode. Perhaps shelling out the extra cash in Colombo would be worth it for a nicer room. In contrast to the highish price of rooms, everything else in Sri Lanka is only slight more expensive than Indian prices, which makes it far cheaper than South-East Asia. For lunch in Colombo, I ate 4 Aloo Parathas, two different bowls of curry (a potato curry and an onion curry) and a milk tea for 160 Rupees. A lovely Sunday afternoon was spent at the foreshore of Galle-face-Green, where Rebecca and I enjoyed watching the waves surge onto the beach below and the kites surge into the air above. We snacked on french fries and fresh pineapple, after which I had dinner, which was a lovely Sri lankan dish called Devel chicken masala. I can't wait to find a cooking course somewhere in Sri Lanka.