I know that many people when they think of Jordan they think of vast expanses of desert climate that they have seen in recent movies. It is usually associated with hot days, and not much trees, but if you travel less than an hour north of Amman, the landscape changes dramatically and you can find yourself in a forest that is more reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest than what you would expect from a country in the Middle East.
The Dibeen Forest Reserve is a hidden little gem in the mountainous region of the country. It does take a couple windy roads that are not in the best condition to get to the place where you feel completely away from the city, but I was still able to drive my Mitsubishi Lancer, and it made it fine. There are enough of flat plots of land in the area that you can gather large groups of people together to enjoy a camping trip together. I went up with seven other couples and their children and I was still able to find a nice isolated place where I could feel like I was away from the crowds if I needed to be.
This is also the location where many of the goat herders hang out with their herds as well. A couple of times I ran into the huge herds, and one of the times they walked through our camp on to greener pastures. They will very respectable and it just made for a moment of fun anytime they came through. There was other wildlife out in the forest as well. We also encountered a large chameleon underneath a rock. I was surprised that we came across it, but it just added to the flavor of being out in this neighborhood camping.
I feel like I am discovering a whole new side of Jordan by heading up north instead of always going down to the more touristy sights in the southern part of the country. It just makes me realize that Jordan has a lot more to offer than just Wadi Rum and Petra. There is diversity in this country that makes it a wonderful place to visit, and I look forward to enjoying the other surprises that the country has to offer.
Until next time, find those hidden gems in your corner of the world, and please share them with the rest of us.
It has been another year around the sun, and it is time to look back and reflect on those moments that made this year great. It has been nice to know that the recent lockdowns brought on by the pandemic are behind us, and the world has opened up again. This means that travel is back, and many people took advantage of this fact to get out there and see many places on their bucket lists. I was no different. I was in eight different countries last year, three of which I have never been in before. During that time, I was able to tell you all about my experiences in this blog, and what follows are the posts from last year that connect with you the most.
Every year my siblings get together during the summer to go camping some place in the Colorado mountains. It has always been one of my favorite trips of the year because I get to visit with my family in one of my favorite places in the world, the Rocky Mountains. Usually, we get site at the state park close to Golden, Colorado, and spend our time hiking, cooking, and hanging around a campfire. It is a great place to visit if you find yourself in Colorado during the summer, and one I would recommend looking into.
It had been a few years since I had made it to Vietnam, and the last time I was out there, they were still putting in place the infrastructure to turn it into the tourist destination it has become today. Even before this, the Old Quarter in the heart of one of its greatest cities, Hanoi, held a fond memory in my mind. It is the place where all of the Vietnamese people converge to enjoy a night out. It has amazing food, jazz can be heard playing on the street corners, and there are tons of shops to find that perfect souvenir. I didn’t think it was possible, but it had become even busier than the first time I had gone out and visited, but still was worth the effort to make it back to.
There were many highlights from my trip to Scotland, but the one that stood out the most had to be the Isle of Skye. We arrived by ferry, and left by bridge, but spent the whole time exploring every nook and cranny that this island had to offer. Some of the best hikes in the country can be found here with views of mountains, rock formations, and the ocean that stretches out beyond. I was lucky enough to be out there during the off-season, but even then, we had to plan ahead to make sure we got reservations at restaurants, but still there were many times where it felt like we had the island to ourselves. It is one of those places that I know I will come back to visit again some day, and it holds some of the fondest memories from the year for me.
This was one of two poems I posted this year that made the list. It had been one of my favorite ones that I have written because it highlights one of the biggest reasons why I started this blog in the first place. I wanted to share those memories with people out there, and inspire them to go out and collect some of their own.
This was the first post I added this last year, and the second sonnet to appear on this list. It reflects on the time that I spent last holiday season in Oman, and like many poems I write at the end of the year and the start of a new one, it had me thinking about where my life had taken me. I know that nothing really changes on New Year’s Day, but it still is a nice time to take reflection of our lives, and think about where the next step in them will take. It is the reason you see so many posts like this one at the end of the year.
Edinburgh is easily one of my favorite large cities in the world. It is so atmospheric, and it reminds me of walking into a Charles Dickens’s story. One of the spots that I enjoyed the most stood at the edge of town. At this spot, a big hill, or small mountain, (depending on your perspective) beckons for you to hike to its top. Of course, I had to heed that call with a bunch of other people on one of the coldest days I experienced while out there. They call it Arthur’s Seat even though it has no connection to this legendary king. It is still worth the effort to see the view from the top.
Like a lot of people, during the Covid years, I got back into board gaming. It was something that I enjoyed a lot during my youth, and now that there are a bunch of games being created with adults like me in mind, it was the perfect time to get back into the hobby. Since then, I have spent some time with the games I have been adding to my collection by writing reviews about them. This year, I wrote about a classic light role playing game, Betrayal at House on the Hill. This wasn’t going to make the list this year, but right around Christmas time, it got a surge of hits as people started to wonder if this was a good gift or not. I just hope my review was helpful to them in deciding whether or not it was.
Though many of my travel posts come from other countries that I live near, I still do some traveling in the country I live in. I discovered a hidden spot this past year that has easily become one of my favorite in Jordan. It is not as dramatic as Petra, or Wadi Rum. It is not as touristy as the Dead Sea, or Aqaba. It is not as historic as Jerash, or Amman. But it is the place that many of the people of Jordan go to in order to unwind. Hidden in the mountains near the Dead Sea is a hot spring call Ma’in that I have found is the perfect place to unwind.
I travelled with my school’s track and field team to compete in a meet in Chennai, India this last year. It was a really busy trip, and I spent most of my time going back and forth between the school and the hotel with the team. I did have a short amount of time where I was able to get away to do some shopping for my wife for Valentine’s Day, and got to ride in a tuk tuk to get that shopping done. It was not the most unique experience of my life time, but it did make me reminiscent of my time spent living in Thailand.
It always surprises me what becomes the most popular post of the year. I usually think it would have to do with the ones I spend a lot of time on, and have deep philosophical things that I contemplate on. And then there are ones like this one where I got stuck waiting in Denver International Airport while waiting for the late arrival of my wife’s plane. I used to work at this airport, and it is currently undergoing a renovation, but it still has retained its weird nature. This post talked about how proud I am of my hometown as it retains its strangeness in this iconic airport.
Summer Break is one of the greatest perks for teachers. It is a time for them to unwind from a busy school year, and recharge their batteries so they can be ready for their students in the fall. For some teachers, it is a time to take on some projects that they have forgotten about during the regular school year. For others, it is a time to travel around the world and create those memories that they can think back to when things get tough. For an international school teacher, it is a time to travel back to the places they left behind and catch up with loved ones, and friends.
This creates a strange dichotomy for those international teachers, and it gets weirder the longer that they stay abroad. There is a life that they return to for a couple of months every year, and though they will fall back into those routines that they used to live, they are still guests to a life they used to live. On the other hand, when they are back at their respective schools in various places around the world, they are leaving behind their home town and the identity that they built over the years of living there. It is almost like they are living two lives, and throughout the course of the year, they experience those two sides of themselves.
Some people would claim that this is true for anybody that moves away from their home town to a new location, and there is some truth to this. Those people have those moments where they head back to where they are from when they are trying to pick up what they left behind. But it is like holding on to the ocean as it laps against the shore. There is no way that they are going to be able to hold on to it because it keep drifting away from them. They can experience it for that short moment that they are back home, but as soon as they leave, it will be gone again.
Though international teachers have the same problem when they are back in their home towns, there is a little more permanence to their trips. A lot of that time is spent catching up with those people that are still there, but they have more time to settle in. It is not just a week or two of vacation, but a couple of months where they still have things they have to attend to in their other life. I have been back in the States on numerous occasions where I have had to work on professional development, or create plans for the upcoming school year. Any teacher will tell you that their work does not end during the summer vacation. They might not work as much, but they are still working. It takes away this notion of being on a two month vacation where you are visiting friends and family, and it turns into you living in that place where you came from for a period of time.
It is not like it is a bad voyage, returning to this life that you left behind, but it means that the life that you are living is the one that you left behind. I spent two months this summer living out of a suitcase, moving from place to place, trying to get little things done for the upcoming school year, and watching videos of my puppy that were sent by the boarding facility where she was staying. The life I have been living over the last nine years was placed on hold.
This is not to say that I did not enjoy my time in the United States. It is always a pleasure to go back and get to spend this time with my family. At the same time, there comes a moments where I want to get back to the place where I spend most of my life right now. I am looking forward to get home. When I feel this way, I know that the holiday has been a good one. It has gotten me to the place where I need to be, a place where I am excited to get back to work and refreshed after a long break with the ones I love. I also will not have to lead this duel existence again until the next trip out to the United States when I am ready to go back.
So, I would like to thank America for the great summer as I say great to see you again to Jordan. I can’t wait to get back to my original home, but it is also nice to be back home at the same time.
It has been a family tradition for the last fifteen years. My siblings and their families pick a campsite somewhere in the state of Colorado, and we go camping over the weekend. Sometimes we are all able to attend, and on other occasions, only a few of us are able to go. It has led to some memorable moments over the last fifteen years as we have endured violent rain storms, wandering moose, hot sunny days, and strange neighbors. No matter what stories are created during these trips, it is always worth going on.
I was able to go this year, and the place we went was one that I had been to a couple of times, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds. It is a popular campground because it is less than an hour away from the western part of the Denver Metro Area, and its quick location to both Black Hawk, and Central City, two small mountain towns which offer casinos for people to play in. The campground is also an attraction to this area.
Other than the regular setting up a tent, and cooking meals, Reverend’s Ridge Campgrounds offers campers many other things that they can do while they are there. The campground’s center schedules many different people to come in to talk about the wildlife, flora, and night skies that can be seen around the sites. A little ways away are a couple of ponds that are always well stocked with fish offering a chance for anybody with a license to catch one. Also, a series of trails wind themselves through the wilderness that offers many levels of hikes. The most common one, Panorama Point, offers beautiful views of the surrounding Rocky Mountains, and it is common to see both hikers and mountain bikers on the trail.
Another trail, the coyote trail, hooks up with the Panorama Point trail, but it is better to take a short drive to hook up with it a little further down the mountain. It is the one that I enjoyed the most, and I would describe it as a moderate trek. Despite the challenge, it boasts two locations that are worth seeing. The first is an old cabin where bootleggers used to make what they called skunk whiskey during Prohibition. The other place is not as preserved as well. It is a homestead that was developed by a man named John Frazer, but was left to fall apart when he passed away.
It is a great place to go camping, but like any sites in Colorado, the campsites fill up quickly. If you are interested in coming here or any campsite in the state, you need to reserve your spot early. The spots usually open up for the next year in December, and I have applied to reserve spots the day they opened on Reserve America. They are usually gone within that first week especially for the weekends or the holiday periods. I know that means that you have to be on top of things during a busy holiday season, but it is worth the five minutes to make the reservation. It just means that you will have a perfect spot waiting for you when the summer months roll around.
Thank you for reading, and keep getting out there to have those adventures. Until next time.
There are many wadis, or canyons, that you can hike through in Oman, but probably the most famous of them all is one that you hike along the rim of it. It is connected to Oman’s tallest peak, Jebel Shams. It is a sacred peak for many of the people in Oman because it is the first place every day to see the sunrise. It is also a great location to go to for a hike, and during the month of December, the temperatures are perfect for making the attempt.
It may look scary from the pictures I am showing, but in reality, it is not that hard or stressful of a hike. There is more stress involved by making your way to the start of the hike as you need to drive 17 km on a bumpy dirt road that is sometimes so narrow that only one car can fit through it. But the hike itself has very little elevation gain. In fact, the way in is mostly downhill, and it is a gradual uphill hike to get back out. It says it takes four hours to go to the end and back, but it only took us three, and we had a stop for lunch. I guess it depends on how fast you want to move, and how many stops you are willing to make on the way.
There are a few goats that you will run into a long the way as well. Most of the time, they will leave you alone unless you pull out some food. This one ran all the way down a cliff in the hopes of getting some food as some as we had some lunch. Just like any wildlife, they do not need to be fed. There is plenty of food around for them to much on, and at numerous occasions, we came across goats high in the trees eating the branches that were higher up. I never knew that goats could climb trees, but this was not an uncommon sight on this hike.
There are domesticated goats around as well. At the beginning of the hike, there is a small ranch, and they must have just had a litter of kids because there were a bunch of them running around. Everywhere I turned, I was able to see them playing around with each other or jumping around the pens that were set up for them. The people that run the ranch have set up a small shop at the start of the hike where they sell key chains and bracelets made from the hair of the goats and sheep that they raise. They will also sell you some bottled drinks if you need some of that for the hike. I did not find them to be too pushy, but they will work in a way to talk to whoever starts or ends the hike.
The end of the hike will take you to a waterfall. I did not get to see the waterfall. It was December when I was taking the hike, and the waterfall had run dry, but I could definitely see the place where it would usually comes down. Even missing this sight this time around did not take away from the hike, and it was the perfect weather to be doing it at this time of the year. I could imagine it being a little too hot if I were to do it at any other time of the year.
And for those of you who are campers, there are many places around where you can pitch your tent after the hike. Oman does not regulate where you can camp, so you can find the perfect place for the sunset. If you want a little more comfort there are a couple of resorts, but they are a little overpriced, and service is an afterthought at them, so do not expect a lot if you plan at staying at one of them. Whereas, the price for camping is free, and you can set up right next to them. This was you can see that the last thing the sun hits in the country of Oman is the same place that it hits when it comes up in the morning, Jebel Shams.
I can once again find west. All I have to find the mountains and I know which direction I am pointing. It makes a Colorado boy feel like they are home. During the summer, another part of home for a person that grew up on the south side of Denver is visiting the place where all of our water comes from, Chatfield Reservoir. Any time I came out here to visit, it meant that I had reached the farthest spot in the south west portion of the metropolitan area. There were a couple of buildings past the waters that were collected here, but they were highly restricted areas owned by Martin Marietta, but a lot has changed since I have been back. The boom in the area has caused housing to spring up all over the place, but nothing has been able to touch this treasure because long ago, the ones in charge decided to give this big plot of land state park status.
It has always held the distinction of being one of Denver’s playgrounds during the summer months. There are other reservoir that people flock to depending on where they are located in this ever-growing city, but for those of us on the south side, it was always Chatfield. The water rises and lowers depending on how much rain the state is getting, and when I went out there, it was the deepest I have ever seen it. Most of the time the man made beaches would stretch past a line of cottonwood trees, but the water had reached the roots of these trees. Apparently, Colorado has received an excess of rain this year, and all of the reservoirs are reaching the same levels. It was almost as if the dry weather that Colorado usually gets was traded to Oregon this summer for its rain.
People are taking advantage of this fact this year and Chatfield was also a lot more crowded than I remember it being. It could also have been that it was a long holiday weekend and people were getting in their last hurrahs before heading back to work the next day. I hung out at the Roxborough Cove where many kayakers and paddle-boarders come to spend the day. There are a lot of places along the coast where people can set up their day camps as they go out on the water and come back in for a little bit of time. Most of the people bring their own boards or kayaks, but they are available for rent as well. I would suggest to reserve them ahead of time because they are not always available if you just show up. They even have instructors that will give you a couple of pointers before yo shove off.
This is not the only activity that happens at the reservoir. Many people bring their motor boats out and spend the day on them. There are a bunch of no wake zones, mainly Roxborough Cove and the Gravel Pools, but motor boats can still slowly make their way into these areas even though I rarely see that. Most of the time they come out to speed around the center of the water as they take people out waterskiing. Or they look for the deeper parts of the reservoir where they can catch a few fish as there is always a good amount of them in the water.
Some people take the trip even further and make plans to spend a couple of days there. There are some campsites available. I haven’t used them in a long time, and I remember them not being that great. They do have all the facilities that a camper could need, but the rest of the city is always around you and the shrubbery does not lend itself to a beautiful landscape. But if you are there to get to the water quickly in the morning, it is a great option to have.
Chatfield Reservoir is a great getaway spot for a hot summer’s day. It is not far from anybody living on the south end of Denver, so there are always people flocking to this spot. There is a fee for anybody wishing to bring their car in, but they let bikes and runners just blow past the check-in station. It beats sitting around the house all day and it brought back many memories by making it out there again while also seeing how it has grown and matured over the years. It will always remain a staple of southwest Denver, and I can’t wait to get back there again some day.
There are many pass-times that the state of Colorado has to offer from seeing concerts at Red Rocks Amphitheater, to catching a game at one of the many sporting events, from skiing at one of the world renowned resorts, to hiking up one of the over fifty 14ers, but the one that I think symbolizes the fun that can be had in the state the most is camping. It is when I hang out in the mountains with my favorite friends and family that supplies me with the greatest memories of this part of the United States. There are so many great locations that it is hard to just pick one that embodies what it means to go camping. You can go to some of the national parks, such as Rocky Mountain or the Great Sand Dunes; you can find spots within the miles of national forrest, such as the Poudre River or Eleven Mile Canyon; or you can head to one of the many state parks, such as Golden Gate Park, or Mueller State Park.
I have camped in many different locations during my years living in Colorado, and each one of them has their own special charm, but one of the places I enjoy camping at is Mueller State Park outside of Divide, Colorado. It is easy to find. You just take Highway 24 out of Colorado Springs until you reach Divide and then you take a left on Highway 67 for six miles and it will be on your right hand side. I do recommend looking ahead and reserving a campsite before you go especially during the summer. I would recommend doing this with any place you camp at during the summer. We had made reservations way back in February, and they were already filling up at that time.
The campsites are very comfortable there and far enough away from other campsite so it does not feel like you are camping on to of another person. There are plenty of site that accommodate campers, but most of the people that we saw there were just tenting it. The weather was perfect for this as well. Mueller State Park sits over 9,000 feet above sea level so it will always be a little cooler there than Colorado Springs or Denver. It is the perfect way to escape the heat of the summer. Each site comes with a table, and a grill over a fire pit, and there is a bathroom facility that is central to the campgrounds that offers laundry options, and showers. Even though you find yourself camping, the comforts of home are within walking distance, and you will never feel like you are really roughing it.
The nicest thing about camping here is that you are close to many fun things to do. There is a wolf sanctuary close by, as well as a mine that you can explore. There are many places where you can go fishing, mountain biking, horseback riding and of course, hiking.
There are many trails around the park that offer spectacular views, but you do not even need to leave the park to find a place where you can enjoy a nice hike. As soon as you enter the park, the ranger will give you a map to all of the trails that the park has to offer. Some are easier than others, but all of them will take you to an exciting place in the park.
The one that I took while I was out there led me to Cheesman Ranch, an old settlement on the valley floor of this part of Colorado. There were a series of ranch style homes that were left behind when the first people from the east came out to this part of Colorado and decided that they would try their hand at ranching, and the state has done a great job of maintaining the outside of these buildings. The preservation of history makes it feel as if you were a part of this household when you make it to this part of the trail. It is the small things that you notice such as the metal siding used as the roof and the new paint job that makes you know that somebody cares about making sure that this is here for anybody that decides to take this hike.
The insides of the building were a little different, but it is one small step at a time, and it is the small ranch house on the plain surrounded by mountains that make this hike worth it, but that can be said for any hike that is taken in Colorado. There is always some reward at the end of the hike such as a water fall or the beautiful view of the mountains. There are also little treasures along the way as well, whether that is people you meet along the way or being able to see the wildlife, a hike in the mountains is always an adventure.
I have camped all of the world, but there is something about being able to do it in Colorado, and I am glad that I got to experience it while I was out here this summer.
John Collings 