Madaba and the Map

It's been over a month of flat hunting and if you've ever been on the hunt for accommodation, you'll know how frustrating, heartbreaking and at times soul destroying it can be. Which is why, in between all of the phone calls to random people, Louis and I decided we should leave Amman for a few hours and enjoy some of the historical culture Jordan has to offer. 

Last Friday we drove out to Madaba, a little town about a 40 minute drive west of Amman. Madaba is most famous for the mosaic map of the Holyland, uncovered in the Greek Orthodox Church and for a quaint Jordanian restaurant which came highly recommended by some of our friends. The church itself is quite small, but colorfully decorated with mosaics all over the walls. We were lucky because the church was empty save for an intimate baptism celebration taking place.

 

A copy of the map outside the church.

After wondering around the church and taking photos, we headed over to Haret Jdoudna, where we enjoyed some delicious starters and a couple of amazing mains. Again, we were lucky because the restaurant was fairly empty and it was just lovely sitting and relaxing for a little bit. 

We then decided to take a (very) short walk around Madaba.

I think Madaba is worth a visit if you have a car and are unsure of what to do on a Friday afternoon. We didn't have time to visit the Archaeological park, but apparently that has even more mosaics currently being uncovered and you can walk among them! Maybe if we get another chance to head that way, we'll go visit that. 

We also had a chance to visit Umm Qais in the same weekend, but that deserves a post of it's own! 

Wherever you are in the world, hope you have a great weekend! =]

Sx

I ate raw chicken...

...and survived.

On our trip to Penang in February, we stopped by a little Indian restaurant for a feast of curry and naan. The place was quaint and all of the diners except for Louis, his brother, his girlfriend and me were Indian. I was a happy bunny indeed, reeling our order to the waiter who raised his eyebrows like "this is too much for the four of you".

Of course he was wrong. We polished off everything and even ordered more rice and bread.

Later that evening however, Louis' stomach started feeling a bit funny. Then we found out that his brother was also having problems. Nothing major for either of them. When the morning came round it became apparent that all three of them had some weird sequential stomach bug. And it was worse than they first thought but they were brave and insisted that we carry on with our plans to see the spice garden. We did make it around the spice garden and even dipped our toes in the Strait of Malacca. But by late afternoon we decided to head back to Georgetown and our hotel. 

We had wanted to go to a traditional nyonya restaurant to sample the local food that night, but we decided it would be best to stay in the hotel and order service, especially as we were heading back to Singapore the next day.

Louis and I ordered some fries, congee (like a Chinese porridge) and a chicken satay pizza. For some strange reason, as I was munching on my third slice of pizza I was curious to look at the chicken. And then my stomach dropped as I realised the chicken was COMPLETELY raw in the middle. Ugh. First thing that went through my mind (selfishly was @*&^ I thought I missed out on the food poisoning). Frantic googling ensued to try and figure out what to do. 

Of course we complained to the hotel and they refunded us the money. Unfortunately that wasn't so much consolation in light of the fact that we would be boarding a plane in about 12 hours...potentially violently ill with salmonella.

*_*

Most of what we read online was comforting though because apparently raw chicken is just as risky as raw beef, which we eat without giving it a second thought. And we managed to find some information that stated if we were to get ill, we would feel it between 4 - 72 hours after eating the food. I was too tired to wait for the 4 hour mark, so went to sleep figuring that if my body required to reject whatever was inside it, it would wake me up. 

And guess what? Well, you already know. We both survived and didn't feel ill one bit. And not just that, we found out that chicken sashimi is some form of delicacy in Japan. Who knew!

Any horrible food related stories everyone? 

Sx

What it's come to...

Guys. It's not been an easy 3 weeks. Not gonna lie. For starters, I've been waging a full fledged war against Orange (our internet providers) since Easter. Just thinking about it makes my blood boil. So let's move on.

Secondly, we ran out of diesel, which we use to heat our water so that we can have lovely warm showers. Before we ran out of diesel, we used a power heater to heat the water whilst showering. Unfortunately, after several showers wondering "what is that horrible burning smell?" we realised it had caused an electric short. I guess we should've guessed there was something dodgy when every time you switched on the power heater the lights in the bathroom dimmed. Hindsight and all that jazz.

After calling several diesel providers and being told that they wouldn't come to our house for anything less than 1000 litres of diesel (which translates to about 700 JD) I was thinking, well showering using a bucket and cup isn't so bad after all. However, one of the diesel providers told me that, given the fact that I wanted [only] about 100 litres of diesel, my best bet would be to take a gallon tank and head over to the petrol station to fill up on diesel.

So, one of my colleagues kindly accepted was bribed into helping me out with going to the petrol station to fill up diesel, bring it back to our building and emptying it into our diesel tank.

We only managed to find a few stray water bottles in our house but the guys at the Total petrol station were kind enough to give us a couple of 5 litre bottles to help us out. Diesel, meet transportation containers:

I was worried that it wouldn't be efficient using a lot of smaller bottles instead of a large gallon tank but it's lucky that we didn't find a gallon tank because there would have been no space to empty it out due to the short ceilings in the diesel tank room. Silver lining.

Formidable Salim.

We made three trips and managed to fill up about 75 litres of diesel, which isn't much, I know, but we're hoping it'll last us until we have to move out.

I tell you, you learn the funniest things if you are just willing get your hands a little dirty [diesel-y].

Sx