Jordan Trip (December 2014)

Trip Detail : Jordan (Amman, Petra, Aqaba)Itinerary : 5 daysDate : December 2014

So our first published trip is to Jordan. We have been loooonging to go to Jordan, primarily to visit Petra and finally, finally we managed to squeeze a short trip at the very end of 2014! wooHoo!

So here’s our trip details, itineraries, routes, some useful tips and most importantly pictures! Enjoy!

Jordan Trip's Summary :

          Day 1 : Arrival at Jordan :-)

          Day 2  : Dead Sea
          Day 3  : Petra
          Day 4 : Petra & Wadi Rum
          Day 5 : Al-Kahf Cave & Departure from Jordan :-(

Day 1 – Arrival at Amman’s Airport (Code : AMM)

We arrived at Amman’s Queen Alia International Airport (Code : AMM) in late afternoon and walla, such a nicely new modern airport. As Malaysians (and I believe for quite a number of other nationalities), we are entitled for Visa on Arrival of single entry which cost 40 JOD. For more visa information, click here : Jordan Visa

So basically day 1, we didn’t do much stuffs but mostly only on settling down and figuring where and how to go on the following days. An oh, I forgot to mention, we went to a bookstore in TAJ Mall and a local Jordanian recommended us this travel guide, compare to other established travel guide on Jordan (i.e. Lonely Planet etc) and yes, indeed this book is amazingg! Totally recommended! 

The Rough Guide to Jordan - Recommended!

Day 2 – The Dead Sea

Dead Sea is roughly 1 to 1.5 hours journey by car from Amman’s center. Dead sea is famous for super salty water which makes swimming equals to floating! There are several options to access The Dead Sea, we tried OH-Beach Resort but we would recommend to use the public beach called Amman Beach instead.

Dead Sea options :

• Amman Beach (JOD 22) - Inexpensive, Sandy Shore, Bit crowded, Run-down facilities
• OH-Beach resort (JOD 25) (JOD 40 with Buffet Lunch) – Quite OK facilities, decent lunch buffet, non sandy shore, extra cost for towels and lockers

View of Dead Sea from OH-Beach Resort, a bit cloudy/windy day tho :-(

Infinity pool overlooking Dead Sea @ OH-Beach Resort

Day 3 - Petra!

So Day 3 is finally reserved to Petra woohoo! So of course, the super important question : How to get to Petra from Amman? Couple of transportation options : Bus, Car or Taxi. Simply, click here for more information : How to get to Petra from Amman!

So we choose to drive by renting a car from Amman to Petra. We drove through super-beautiful Dead Sea route, but took us forever to reach Petra! There are 3 driving routes to get to Petra from Amman namely (with the pro and cons) :

• Desert Highway Route : Direct and Fast (3 hrs), Not scenic AT ALL, annoying bumps!
• Dead Sea Route : Scenic & Beautiful (Along Dead Sea & Wadi Mujib), (4-5) hrs route
•       King's Highway Route : Claimed to be the most scenic route, 5 hrs route!!

For more information on the driving routes details, click here : 3 driving routes from Amman to Petra!

Dead Sea Route (Amman to Petra) : Of course along the beautiful shore of Dead Sea! \(^o^)/

Dead Sea Route (Amman to Petra) : The mountains!! So beautiful we wanna cry!!

Finally we arrived Petra woOhoo! We took 2 day passes (cost us JOD 60) so that we can come again for the next day.  But as for today, we went inside Petra just take a sneak peak, especially of the famous Petra Treasury.

Of course, here are some awesome pictures :-)

Entrance from Petra Visitor Center (SCAM ALERT!!) Beware of the Horse Riding Scam, if you want to save at least JOD 10, do not (i mean DO NOT!) ride the horse with any of the scammers, it is a beautiful 700 m walk anyway, plus, its good to burn some calories :-)

The beautiful narrow passage called 'Siq' that leads to Petra. Dont forget to take lots, and lots of selfies :-p

Entrance to Petra finally!!

And tadaa! Petra finally, finally! This is the entrance of Petra called  'Khazneh' (Treasury). Magnificient!!!

We did a 'spontaneous' hiking all the way to top of 'Monastery' 

The 'Monastery' - simplified version of 'Khazneh'. Remember Transformers 2? Some shots were taken here!

The Monastery again, so, so beautiful!

Day 4 – Wadi Rum

Day 4 was dedicated to explore a bit more of Petra and Wadi Rum. So after spending half of the day hiking all the way up to Monastery (seriously recommended!), we drove down south from to Wadi Rum (also known as "Valley of the Moon"), very, very beautiful earth features of sandstones and granites.

The trip cost us JOD 40 (+/- USD 56) per person for a total of 4-5 hours trip with a 4-wheel drive, which can easily be arranged from any hotel reception in Petra.

So, let the pictures speak for themselves :-)

Wadi Rum on 4WD - Let's!

It's breathtakingly beautiful everywhere, EVERYWHERE!

This picture qualified for a profile picture! Oh YES! :-p

I think we stopped every 15 minutes to take pictures, i mean LOTS of pictures!

Our final goal for Wadi Rum trip was to watch sunset! Seriously amazing feeling!

Trying this cool iPhone panorama mode trick (they call it 'Panodash', really?)
How to do this trick? --> Click here!

Day 5 – Al-Kahf Cave & Departure from Jordan =(

Final day in Jordan, sighhhhhhh! Anyway, since our flight was late evening, we went to visit Al-Kahf Cave, as mentioned in the Noble Qur'an. Also known (or claimed) as the Cave of the Seven Sleepers. Here are some pics!

Entrance of Al-Kahf Cave

Inside the Al-Kahf Cave

Anyway folks, that's about it for our first post, we totally recommend you guys to visit Jordan particularly Petra and Wadi Rum! There are couple of other interesting places as well around Amman (i.e. Roman Amphitheater), Dead Sea Region (i.e. Mujib Nature Reserve) and couple more that we could not visit due to time constraint.

Here are couple of our references for our research while on the trip :

Trip Advisor - Jordan, Booking.com - Jordan, Petra Official Website.

Anyway, we hope that you enjoy our post, drop us some comments if you have any questions or anything to add.

Until then, happy travelling peeps! :-)