the dead sea is about an hour's drive from amman. coco (one of my room mates), tim (a classmate of her’s), me, and khaleel left the city around 9am. soon, we see the dead sea to one side of the vehicle. the lowest point of elevation on land. we stop at a pullout briefly to gaze at the water. looks pristine, clear. though, this view would chance once i dipped myself into the over saturated body of water. a little more driving and we are passing the resorts/hotels that offer packaged overnight & food deals for sea access…. passing the public amman beach with an entrance fee of 16 JD. khaleel takes us to a place a little ways down that offers free access of the water. what's nice about this place is that there were few visitors.
and now, allow me to walk you through the mother nature spa experience
step one: salt therapy
the water was incredibly warm and incredibly saturated. if you have any open wounds, the water is going to sting. also, we were warned to not splash in the water and to lay on our backs. It decreases the risk of getting water in the eyes. but alas, i got some water in the eyes. it is a pretty painful experience. thankfully, there was salt-free water pretty close by and after i rinsed my eyes out with it, i was fine. it was absolutely peaceful lying in the water and letting the currents guide me at their will. all your movements are effortless in the dead sea. i could walk, jog, run in the water… easy. swimming and treading water was no biggie. i imagine that this is what it’s like to be on the moon.
step two: mud therapy
DIY style. there was mud near the part of the sea we were hanging out at. i just thought it was incredible to be lathering this stuff on my skin. instead of getting it straight out of a bottle at some high end spa, i was getting my mud therapy straight from the source!
step three: jacuzzi
behind the dead sea, are numerous mountains and wadis (valleys). we climbed a ways up and khaleel lead us to a spring, where we washed the mud off our bodies. the force of the spring was powerful enough to create a jacuzzi experience.
step four: sauna
there was a cave near the spring and the water inside the cave was extremely hot. it was a process to simply get inside the cave because it took some time for our bodies to get used to the temperature and allow us to wade through the water and find a spot inside the cave to sit on. it is unbelievably hot inside the cave, but the heat is so good for you, i returned to the cave a couple of times during our time on the mountain. and once you leave the cave, after you sweat your fill, the air outside is refreshing and so cool in comparison, you can’t help but feel renewed. while I love sitting inside the cave and enduring the heat and sweat caused by the elements, the best part is when your heated body is exposed to the atmosphere outside the cave.
step five: water soak
after spending a bit of time at this spring, khaleel lead us up further to a spring that was more tucked away. the water was a comfortable temperature and we spent a good amount of time just relaxing, napping, and playing around in the water. at one point, we explored what lay beyond the spring, walked upstream and found yet another spring. just one spring after the next, each more more hidden and private than the next.
the one mistake we made was failing to pack a lunch. we thought there would be food there, but that was a huge mistake. khaleel had told us beforehand to “take anything we need because there is nothing at the dead sea.” by “take anything we need,” he had meant “bring a lunch because there is no way to get any substance there. it’s ramadan, folks.” he even stopped at a mini mart before we left the city, which was supposed to be our chance to stock up on food. the message wasn’t communicated effectively enough. i bought some chips and water. not entirely sufficient, but I felt like i would’ve been okay. during out soak in one of the springs in the mountains behind the dead sea, tim really needed food. khaleel was frustrated because he kept saying that he had told us to bring food. we climb down the mountain and get in the taxi, driving around for open restaurants. all closed until after fast is broken. we even tried some hotels in the area, but the prices were steep and all involved access to the dead sea. finally, we found a mini mart and bought some provisions. after this, we went back up to the second spring (the one beyond the spring near the cave) to relax some more, see how long we can hold our breathes under the water… i did some reading, coco and khaleel did some napping. mainly, i did my best to soak in the moment and be present. it was painful to watch khaleel as he kept checking the time until he was able to break fast. around 6 pm, we emerged from the water and found a good place to watch the sunset. it was stunning. after the sunset, khaleel still couldn’t eat because he was waiting for his brother to call him to tell him that the last call to prayer had gone off in the city. he was getting so impatient. in talking about ramadan, khaleel said something that really stood out: “you cannot experience iftar unless you are fasting.” as we waited with him for the call, we watched the lights in palestine twinkle on. the cluster of lights indicating human residency.
eventually, we climbed down the mountain and tumbled back into khaleel’s taxi. back in amman, we had a proper iftar with khaleel, complete with shwarma, hummus, bread, tomato, cucumbers, and pepsi, always pepsi. we ate our meal atop a hill in king hussein park. the park is huge and is frequented by middle to lower class ammanis. people playing soccer, drinking tea, smoking hookah, kids setting off fireworks, running around. if i remember the conversations we had from that night correctly, richer ammanis hang out at malls after their iftar. if anything, i prefer the vibe of king hussein park. though i would definitely not hang around here after iftar alone. we walked around the park after stuffing our bellies and swung by the king hussein mosque, the largest mosque in the city. architecture is amazing and it’s so pretty lit up at night. unfortunately, we weren’t able to go in. though even if we had been allowed, i don’t know that i would have felt comfortable, since i didn’t have a scarf or anything to cover my head and bare arms. overall, it day was good. i only wished that we hadn’t left the springs in search of food. that portion of our trip was frustrating.
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