Trip of a Life Time - Chapter 18 - Border crossing into Jordan; the Dead Sea

Day 16

We were up bright and early and back on the bus with all our luggage underneath and traveled to the border of Israel and Jordan.  The same border restrictions were in place.  No pictures.  We had been warned again from the Fun 4 Less staff that we could be anywhere from a couple of hours to more.  The record for the company was 7.5 hours.  We were hoping we got lucky.

We got to the border and pulled off to the side.  After several minutes a border patrol officer began opening the luggage bins underneath the bus, while another one came on board.  We were instructed to open our passports to the picture page and hold them ready to be picked up.  It made me kind of nervous because I had always been taught, never let your passport go out of your possession, but since the whole group was doing it, I figured it must be okay.  That agent was really good, he looked at every picture and then face of the person holding it before he took it.

He then went into a building and we were left to wait.  Some played games on their phones, some read, a lot of chit chat, some sleeping.  The time went by pretty fast.  We were told that what they were doing is taking our passports and comparing each name to a manifest list that our travel company had given them prior to our arriving.  It was to ensure that everyone on the list was accounted for before entering the county.   After that was complete and randomly searched a few bags, we were back on our way.  A little over two hours.  Not bad.

We made it safely!!  Or so we thought.  We had another security check point after this but eventually we made it.

We visited the baptismal site on the Jordan side of the river.  This was a C site.  More likely that it happened here but not sure of the exact location.

There was definitely a different feel to this site than the one on the Israel side.  I preferred this one.  At least it felt more holy to me.

At the site, there were some churches as well

Back on the bus and to a resort on the Dead Sea where we were able to spend some time bobbing around.  Some of us even put on some healing mud, and then washed it off in the water.  It was great fun! 

the very edge of the sea is a shoreline of this.  All salt. 

mom at least got her feet in

Then it was back on the bus and to the Le Merdien Hotel for the night.  Since we were out of Israel and into Jordan, the water and fresh fruits & vegetables rules applied.  Cooked or peeled.  Dinners weren't as fun as they had been.

Tomorrow is our last day of touring.