Ahh….Luxury on the Dead Sea---(posted late)

Sunset at pool over the Dead Sea

Monday, Dec 30th--From Tom: ( Note--somehow this didn't get connected to the internet on time and precedes the post on Petra and Wadi Rum. sorry)

The Dead Sea Resorts are to Jordan what Park City is to Utah: an island of luxurious pleasure in a sea of scarcity. What a contrast! We took two nights at the Movenpick Resort, a 5-star, international, Swiss- owned resort located in a cluster of other 5-star hotels at the northend of the Dead Sea. Marriott and Hilton are there and others are being built. The attraction is the Dead Sea mud and salt for health spas and a very peaceful setting at about 1400 ft below sea level, so it's a lot warmer than its surroundings.

In the midst of this barren desert, filled with tent clusters of Bedouins, lies an extravagant village of western-style resorts on a mammoth scale, all sprawling down the hillside to the beach on the Dead Sea. What struck us immediately was the attention to detail and high quality in every aspect. We have been living in Madaba, where no one really cares about how something looks or if it functions, where no one notices if trash and debris is lying around, and then we come into a Swiss resort where everything is done perfectly. The design takes its clue from the traditional fortress architecture of the Crusaders: stone villages in lush oases of lush vegetation…meandering paths between bubbling streams and tall palm trees... many picturesque vistas of the Dead Sea and Israel's West Bank beyond. At night, we believed we could see the lights of Jerusalem and it's surrounding communities. 

We  booked a Salt Rub and Mud Pack Spa treatment which gave us access to the nine or ten pools of various descriptions. There were salt pools of various temperature and salinity, huge jacuzzi-like pools with many nooks and crannies for the bubble machine to sooth away the aches and pains. There were many "infinity pools" that seemed to have no edge and fall off the cliff into the Dead Sea. Most of them offered the unlimited vista of the sea and the shoreline of Israel beyond. Always there were attendants helping to put on a robe or give a fresh towel. What a contrast! What a relief! 

One of the Infinity Pools from the Dead Sea Spa

Movenpick architecture taking clues from Crusader fortresses

Tommy the Mud Turtle

Surfing in the Dead Sea

Tom doing the backstroke to Israel (Cori-Japan coastline in the distance;)

Ronna's impressions: After swimming and soaking and being salted, I walked down with Tom to the shore of the Dead Sea, but was not inclined to join him in his float. The salt/water is absolutely disgusting (I tasted a salt crystal from my massage)!!! Heaven forbid you should get any in your eyes or mouth. In addition, it is difficult to get into the water because there is no beach,  just sharp rocks with minerals clinging to their surfaces. I passed. I took pictures. I listened to the quiet and felt the solitude and the words of description from the Jordan tour book played in my mind: the peace and tranquility you feel here was hard-won.  Always reminders of where we are.

I cannot imagine coming here in the summer months. It is absolutely perfect weather right now. The Dead Sea does not produce the "salty smell" you recognize when near the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. There is a slight metallic smell if anything, but not like anything I know. The sand and earth is coppery and mango-orange.  While I watched and waited at the edge of the Sea, a hundred black-hued birds soared and swooped in a circular formation above the hotel. Today is sunny and the sky is the color of Paul Newman's eyes. I think I am going to change my color scheme to orange and blue. Meanwhile, soft meows mingled from the many cats wandering the premises. They nestle in any of a thousand nooks and seem to say, "Don't you wish you were as content and pampered as I am?" Ah, yes.