Arrabi wrote this interesting post, with a statistic saying that 36% of Jordanians would rather spend their holidays at home. Thankfully, my Dad is not one of those. He loves the outdoors, and even though in the past few years school and university schedules have been so incompatible that it became much more difficult to plan a proper family holiday, he's still always up for a drive and a simple picnic, and he can't stand the thought of spending his few days off sitting and doing nothing!! Can I just point out that I never understood why in a society which is supposedly family-centric, semester breaks don't coincide for schools and universities, and exam schedules are completely messed up, making it very difficult for us to take a few days off together and go someplace like Aqaba or Wadi Rum!!
For this holiday, I was very excited about the idea of sleeping over at the farm and collecting the olives. Early November is olive season in Jordan and I love the stories of the old olive-collecting tradition… I was thinking it's a shame that we're all too busy or indifferent and that dad ends up getting some workers to do it!! There are 6 of us, and it would be a great family activity!
But No!! Nobody took Lina seriously enough… each one of my sisters said she had exams or assignments or more important things to do than spend two days at the farm and pick olives. And when dad was suggesting alternative plans of where we could go for a drive, it was only Sally, Laith, and me who were up for anything!
So after breakfast, we left the party-poopers at home, and decided to drive to Wadi Al-Mujib and the Mujib Dam… and then go back to the farm, where my sisters said they'd catch up with us.
We were driving through villages and small towns beyond Madaba – parts of Jordan I hadn't seen before, Mount Bani Hameedah, Lib, Mlaih, Wadi Al-Waleh and the Waleh Dam (which was so dry since rain hadn’t yet arrived!!), then into Thiban, all the way to a mountain top where you see the entire Mujib area…
I love activities that are unplanned and that come in the spur of the moment; while in the car I said that if it were up to me I'd drive all the way to Karak, and my mom was like: Yes let's go to Karak! So Dad looked at the tank meter and said: Yalla, I'll take you to Karak :)
The drive was very enjoyable; we took the road that goes through all the villages instead of the desert highway. The weather was amazing, my parents didn't seem to mind the loud music… and I surprised myself by putting up with the silly games Sally and Laith were playing and even joining in at one point.
I found Karak to be quite a nice interesting place… the villages are spread out in open fields, but then the main town is built on a hilltop around the Castle, and there's this ancient winding wall that leads you all the way up. I enjoyed watching all the kids wearing their new clothes, running around in the streets and going into the small shops to buy candy. We drove up to the Castle, and I have to say it was nice to see so many tourists there, I was thinking though that there's a lot more that can be done with this historic heritage, to bring more attention to it and to make it even more interesting to its visitors; why not have a Panoramic show in the hallways explaining the history of Saladdin's battles and victories in this area? Why not organize concerts in the Castle or outside it in the open-air? It offers such a beautiful view and would be quite an attraction. I think local city councils should start following the example of the Greater Amman Municipality, and should become more creative and take some initiative. I also think that young people there should think of ways to draw activities into their towns! So much money and attention is being pumped into Amman… what would it take for some of it to be directed into other Jordanian cities??? I'm wondering…
I just remembered that Natasha wrote a very nice post about Karak Castle when she visited it after watching the Kingdom of Heaven last May. Check it out…
We took the desert highway back, and I wished I was driving, it was so beautifully relaxing.
I'll leave you with some more pictures… click to enlarge, and enjoy :)
For this holiday, I was very excited about the idea of sleeping over at the farm and collecting the olives. Early November is olive season in Jordan and I love the stories of the old olive-collecting tradition… I was thinking it's a shame that we're all too busy or indifferent and that dad ends up getting some workers to do it!! There are 6 of us, and it would be a great family activity!
But No!! Nobody took Lina seriously enough… each one of my sisters said she had exams or assignments or more important things to do than spend two days at the farm and pick olives. And when dad was suggesting alternative plans of where we could go for a drive, it was only Sally, Laith, and me who were up for anything!
So after breakfast, we left the party-poopers at home, and decided to drive to Wadi Al-Mujib and the Mujib Dam… and then go back to the farm, where my sisters said they'd catch up with us.
We were driving through villages and small towns beyond Madaba – parts of Jordan I hadn't seen before, Mount Bani Hameedah, Lib, Mlaih, Wadi Al-Waleh and the Waleh Dam (which was so dry since rain hadn’t yet arrived!!), then into Thiban, all the way to a mountain top where you see the entire Mujib area…
I love activities that are unplanned and that come in the spur of the moment; while in the car I said that if it were up to me I'd drive all the way to Karak, and my mom was like: Yes let's go to Karak! So Dad looked at the tank meter and said: Yalla, I'll take you to Karak :)
The drive was very enjoyable; we took the road that goes through all the villages instead of the desert highway. The weather was amazing, my parents didn't seem to mind the loud music… and I surprised myself by putting up with the silly games Sally and Laith were playing and even joining in at one point.
I found Karak to be quite a nice interesting place… the villages are spread out in open fields, but then the main town is built on a hilltop around the Castle, and there's this ancient winding wall that leads you all the way up. I enjoyed watching all the kids wearing their new clothes, running around in the streets and going into the small shops to buy candy. We drove up to the Castle, and I have to say it was nice to see so many tourists there, I was thinking though that there's a lot more that can be done with this historic heritage, to bring more attention to it and to make it even more interesting to its visitors; why not have a Panoramic show in the hallways explaining the history of Saladdin's battles and victories in this area? Why not organize concerts in the Castle or outside it in the open-air? It offers such a beautiful view and would be quite an attraction. I think local city councils should start following the example of the Greater Amman Municipality, and should become more creative and take some initiative. I also think that young people there should think of ways to draw activities into their towns! So much money and attention is being pumped into Amman… what would it take for some of it to be directed into other Jordanian cities??? I'm wondering…
I just remembered that Natasha wrote a very nice post about Karak Castle when she visited it after watching the Kingdom of Heaven last May. Check it out…
We took the desert highway back, and I wished I was driving, it was so beautifully relaxing.
I'll leave you with some more pictures… click to enlarge, and enjoy :)
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