Description

Shepherd Entertainment takes you on a tour of Dana National Park in Jordan, a vacation spot for many bird species.

Transcript

Discover Dana National Park in Jordan The road from the Dead Sea to Petra lies the Dana National Park. It's a favorite among ornithologists and bird lovers who come here to watch the over 200 species that have their habitat here. Protected mammals live among the poorly vegetative hills. We can only meet a porcupine who enthusiastically scratches the sides of our tents although many small rodents, desert foxes, squirrels and rabbit species live here along with a number of lizards, but according to our host no scorpions or snakes live here. It's amazing how easily we can adapt to semi-savage conditions of a Bedouin tent camp. Despite being civilized western city dwellers, although its tourists we do get some allowances such as the water facilities under the stone domes and clean water closets and cold showers. In the morning, a 20-cm long stick insect stood at the door. Maybe it's waiting for its turn to take a shower. Of course, our last program for the evening was drinking some steaming herbal tea at the campfire together. [Foreign Language] Not far from Dana National Park lies the village of Dana famous not only on its first breath taking view, but also for being a kind of craft village. The adobe and stone block houses of the village almost vanished in the clay colored mountains. Even when you get closer only the thickest tower of Minaret indicates that you’ve reached settlement. At the visitor center, you're greeted by a welcome drink which is of course alcohol free in accordance with the customs of Islam. You can buy local spices and tea in the shops and also small pieces of jewelry decorated by the silhouette of local animals. The view that opens up before your eyes is colored by the shadow play of the clouds. Our drivers would like to spend the time while they're waiting by reading the paper, but realized they can't speak Hungarian so they end up looking at the pictures. Before you get the idea that the stone heat you see everywhere are tombs or other monuments that they tell you they mark private ownership of the land. The peculiar rock formations stretch out all the way to the horizon. You can't see exactly where the border is, but those far away mountains already belong to Israel. Jordan is a 90,000 square kilometer little country wedge among Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Syria although it's not independent geographically, politically it is. And it can't be emphasized enough that it is a safe little island of peace, in volatile, and conflict laden world of the Middle East. This is mainly owing to the late King Hussein who died in 1999 and the prevailing king who guided by smart diplomatic sense stayed out of the conflicts of the surrounding countries and let's not forget about the peace-loving people of Jordan since their mentalities, the current tea that their country will continue along this road in the future as well. Jordan was able to develop into a modern place while keeping its traditions and respect for the past. And also prosper partly due to tourism. It's important to know the people of Jordan do their best to ensure that a visit to their country is a pleasant experience for anybody, their hospitality and open smile is inherit to their nature which is only complimented by an obvious long-term business interest targeted at the further development of tourism. Let's face it, Jordan, being part of the holy land with a plethora of religious sites and having a coast on both the Dead Sea and the Red Sea could take the place of Israel in international tourism all the more so because tourists are always after the exotic and new destinations waiting to be discovered. Male: Chow. You take car. I'm taking the donkey. Siq Al-Barid, sometimes called Little Petra was the suburb and possibly business center of the Nabatean capital. While Petra was serving as the center of the cult of the ancestral dead, little Petra was ruled by life. The stars may not be as fancy, but they were not intended for eternity either. Today, it's hard to tell about some of these caves whether they were made by human hands or not. Bedouin families lived here as little as 20 years ago and life comes back even now during the day. Our host told us stories about local life and promise to show us the cave in Petra where he was born. Siq Al-Barid and Petra were closely connected ones and only got separated when the new quarter was built because Petra naturally has new city quarter. This is where the locals working in the tourism industry live and where the hotels are. Petra offers five 5-star, three 4-star, and four 3-star hotels for visitors. The excellent micro climb up at the gorge, the shady rock walls and the little stream that once flowed here provide ample explanation why the nomadic Nabateans chose this place to settle down. Bedouins drink tea instead of coffee and alcohol. They can make a fire and tea anywhere. We had to admit that even the sunset is incomplete without it. The terrace of the hotel gives an enticing view of Petra so in order to get on our way as soon as possible, we ask the master chef of the hotel to make breakfast for us and he prepared a royal treat for everyone according to their individual request.