Staying at an Old Bedouin Village After the Lowest Point on Earth

Today we would head to the Dana Nature Reserve with a few stops along the along the way. First up was a road side coffee stand where I would try my first Turkish coffee. Turkish coffee is unfiltered and served in a small cup. This means you can really only drink the first half of it as the second half is nothing more then the sludge from the coffee grounds and that would require chewing. The coffee is heavily disguised as large amounts of both sugar and cardamom are added so it is a bit of an acquired taste. But the caffeine still works and helped get everyone going.

Opposite side of the street was the local mosque, in fact it is pretty hard to be anyplace without a mosque in sight.

We climbed back in the van and headed off to the lowest point in the world, first stopping at sea level.

We continued and finally reached the Dead Sea at 1,412 feet below sea level. However this stop was just for viewing, it would be a few more days before we got to take a dip. That's Israel on the other side.

If you are from anyplace with snow this can really play with your mind. I found myself walking very cautiously towards the water, thinking I might slip as this looked very much like wind blown ice.







We then saw what we were told was Lot's wife off in the distance. Lot was this fella who traveled with his uncle Abraham and eventually ended up in the city of Sodom, a neighboring city to Gomorrah. Lot would get drunk as well as get his two daughters drunk and then proceed to have sex with them or offer them to others for sex. It also seems that Lot experimented a bit with homosexuality and bestiality, which I guess was not that uncommon for the city of Sodom at the time. In fact the origins of the word sodomy come from the name of this ancient city. As the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were judged by God they were consumed and wiped out by fire. Two angels took Lot and his family out of the city and told them to run and not look back. Lot's wife, worried about her two children, looked back and when she did was turned in to a pillar of salt.

It's an interesting bedtime story. By repeating it here I'm giving the story more energy and moving it forward in the way that it resonated with me. I'm not right or wrong in my interruption of the energy. And this is what is so often missed, this is why there are so many fractures in not just this story but in all stories. Instead of trying to look through someone else's eyes and understand what brought them to that conclusion, we judge them and their interruption as right or wrong. We are so insecure in our own beliefs that we need to convince them one way or the other to support the direction we want the energy to take. The Jewish view from the Torah focuses on Lot's life in Egypt when he sought after and obtained much wealth and livestock. The Christian view from the Bible is a sympathetic one focusing on Lot's regret to live in the city of Sodom. And the Islamic view from the Quran focuses on Lot's life to discourage homosexuality and bestiality. It's all the same story, the same energy, it's just a different structure and definition to frame it in a way that resonates with the storyteller and the direction they want it to take. Malcolm then created a new chapter in Lot's life by creating Lot's mother-in-law. And why not, it's just a story, just energy.



We then hiked up this long road to Lot's cave where he lived out the remaining days of his life. As we were below sea level the air was dense and the hike quite easy.

He had a pretty good view.

We continued on to the Tower Hotel in the local Bedouin Village and I checked the place out before we started our afternoon hike.



My bed.

My dining area.

My lounge area that was void of any kind of beer.

My outdoor patio area that was also void of any kind of beer.

My Bedouin neighbor who told me there was no beer in the entire village.

In Arabic a Bedouin is a tribal person who lives outside of the city that may or may not be nomadic.

We began our afternoon hike and the views were amazing.





The rock was beautiful and could even be used as makeup.



We took a break for some tea, which was heavily disguised as large amounts of sugar had been added, so it was more like sugar water.

There is something special about fire. Here we are surrounded by amazing views in all directions and we all found ourselves hypnotized and staring at the fire instead. Or maybe it was just because we were cold, there were patches of snow here and there.

On the way back we came across a few free range camels.



Back at the beer-less hotel we ate dinner and no one had to sign any kind of waiver. We then turned on the ghetto blaster and danced in to the night to the Arabian's greatest hits.

Here is the hotel owner.







We closed the evening off with some drumming and Ululation, that long high pitched Arabic howl. Before crawling into bed under many many covers as it would be a very cold night.