Jordan and Petra

JORDAN - DAY SEVEN - The Dead Sea
Blogs: Day 1-2 JFK to Jordan Via Paris \| Day 3 Road to Petra \| Day 4-5 Petra \| Day 5-6 Desert \| Day 7 Dead Sea Click on pictures for larger version
In the morning it was time to run back across the desert in the 4x4s and load back into our van.	This might look like a couple of Bedouin's on the back of a truck but it was actually the two young doctors from our group bundled up against the cold.
	Our last stop in the desert before heading up to the Dead Sea. The old narrow gauge railway. This is our entire travel tour group. I must say that it was a pleasure to do a tour with just nine people!
This is where we passed the height of sea level and head another 1390 feet lower to the Dead Sea. Other than a few micro-organisms, the Dead Sea is too salty to support life, it is 35% salt!
The Dead Sea as seen from our hotel room.	The hotel beach where we intended to swim in the Dead Sea
This is a very strange hotel. Only 2 years old but it seems as if it was built to discourage disabled people from staying. Steps everywhere! There is NO WAY to get from your room to either the lobby or the bars, beach and pool without walking a full staircase. Getting to the beach takes 4 elevators and 3 flights of steps! In the rooms the toilet is separate from the bathroom and the door opens in instead of out making it difficult to get to maneuver around the toilet. Then when exiting you are always slamming yourself in the face with the door because it just doesn't open all the way. Very weird!! The bathroom with shower is totally open to the room unless you slide the entire wall! See picture on right - bathroom is open to the room until you slide that big 'ole barn door across. And if you slide it half way you block off all entrance to the room! Useful if someone pissed you off!
	Time to swim! But first, some Liquid Courage at the beach bar before entering the somewhat chilly water - I estimate lower to middle 70s.

Getting in was tricky as there are rocks and mud in between them that you can sink quite deep. And once you are in and floating (look how high!!) It's actually quite difficult to go upright again as your legs want to keep floating!

Wendy was NOT happy with the water temperature when first getting in!
But finally got used to it! And getting her mud on!
You cannot put your head under water because it will sting your eyes and any other sensitive part. You also want to rinse off sooner than later as the salt will dry your skin out. But the mud is very good for your skin.
And finally... Wendy did not bring a swim suit or even shorts - underestimating how unseasonably warm Jordan has been during our stay. So in order to swim we had to improvise! Other than a sports bra and nasty grannie panties, Wendy didn't have a lot of choices for swimming in the Dead Sea. We couldn't get anyone in the hotel to bring us a scissors, so we played Macgyver! We used a nail clipper to cut the legs off her jeans!! And for those of you that REALLY know Wendy, she got these jeans on a super mega sale and probably only paid $3 for them.

	The other option of course was to buy Wendy a Muslim swim suit similar to the one pictured. All the Muslim ladies were wearing them! This is a stock picture from the internet. I didn't feel it appropriate for me to be taking random pictures of Islamic ladies in their swimwear on the beach in a Muslim country!! Not if I wanted to come home in one piece! But this is pretty much what they were wearing.
That's all folks! As I write this we are in an Air France 777 on our way back to JFK enjoying a relatively cheap upgrade to business class. We have no specific trip booked in the immediate future (time to get back to work for the season), but we will see you later this year for sure!