Day 8 Saturday 5th June 2010, Madaba, Jerash and the Dead Sea. 'Chariots of Jerash'

Breakfast was much better than the last time we stayed in this hotel, with freshly made scrambled eggs, nice!

We left in the car for Jerash and as is by now customary we got lost. This was mainly due to the signpost for Jerash being just after the turning for Jerash! When we got to Jerash we got last again and ended up in the main village instead of the old Roman city. But when we finally got there, wow, what a city! It's the first time any of us see a whole Roman city and so well preserved. The streets are paved and still show signs of the wheel ruts from the horse drawn carriages, wow! The sheer scale of the place is amazing and there was a palpable sense of Roman atmosphere. You could really imagine life in this town, incredible.

After this we moved on to the Dead Sea but not before getting stopped again by the police! This time nothing happened though. Wow the first sight of the Dead Sea from the road was awe inspiring. Just as in Aqaba we had to pay 15 dinars each to access the beach, but it was well worth it this time. There is nothing like floating on the Dead Sea, it is out of this world. The downside is the water tastes absolutely repulsive and if you get it in your eyes it stings like hell. It cured my aching back though! After getting really salt we had a shower and a dip in one of the swimming pools, a quick drink and then back to Madaba for dinner.

We ended up in the same place as yesterday as the food was so good, it didn't disappoint either. The waiters did though, they are so useless, God knows why they need so many of them. There was live music which was pretty awesome, considering it was just two guys, one on the lute who sang and the other with a tablaesque drum, wonderful. By strange coincidence we saw the Welsh family we had spent the night with in Wadi Rum having dinner in our restaurant, how dare they!

Oh well it's all but over now and back to work L I forgot to mention something, which I have now gone and forgot again. Was it the lemon and mint drink we tried (delicious!) or the mint tea we are having everyday? No, I know it was the chariot, legionnaire and gladiator show we saw in Jerash, it was so cool. They explained some really interesting stuff about the legions and how they fought, we watched gladiators do battle and the grand finale the chariot race, marvellous! Then there is the other thing I forgot about. When we were at the Dead Sea and I went for my beach shower there was an older French man there before me, I took the shower next to him and he started talking to me in French, of course, voulez vous duche avec moi? Or some s*** like that!