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Published: September 19th 2008
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Ollie and Toby
From Germany and Switzerland respectively Woke up at the Ghazal house after a good night sleep and found out that the dorm was now full (it was empty when I had gone to sleep).
The Ghazal was a bit expensive but that might have been because it was the capital 500 Syrian pounds (roughly 6 sterling).
I was originally going to stay in Damascus for two nights but the city life was dragging me down and I had seen the main sights anyway so I left early with Aina and Martin for Amman.
When we got to the bus station the ticket office said there ws not a bus until 15:00 as it was Friday (the muslims day of rest). I sensed Deja Vu, but it is more difficult to go across the border so after some serious haggling the three of us got into a service taxi for 1300 syrian pounds between us. On the way the driver stopped at a shop and gestured us to get out and buy a card, this is not in any of the guides but nowadays you have to buy an exit card for 500 SP.
After about an hour and a half at the
Marc and Alex
From France, but in Beirut border (you can only pay for the Jordanian Visa in Jordanian Dinars.
It took approx 4 hours to get to Amman and to be honest there is very little here, just the Ampitheatre. Therefore this will give me a good opportunity to ramble.
Re Ramadan, for those of you that don't know it last for a month and during it muslims cannot eat from sunrise to sunset as a result all the shops shut and it is virtually impossible to buy and food as I type now it has been 22 hours since I last ate anything!! At sunset a canon goes off and imediately the muezzin starts and then everybody starts their meal which is huge but most of the restaurants will still not open until they have finished eating so the earliest a tourist can eat is 20:00 ish at which time the muezzin starts again. It does also effect transport as the locals tend to travel less during Ramadan so less buses are available.
Re Syria - the people are great as are their sights but there is rubbish everywhere which is a slight shame but you do get used to it after a
bit. When I was walking the streets with Carina virtually every bloke was staring at her - I was starting to get worried if they were staring at me as they all had moustaches:-).
Aina was wearing a headscarf and she doesn't get as much attention so that seems the right way to go I'll just have to find one now that suits my hair:-)
We have booked on an tour to Petra down the Kings Highway tomorrow with the Palace hotel.
PS the Palace hotel is very grubby and quite expensive at 17 JD about 20 english pounds - the tour is 23 JD but lasts 9 hours. I haven't seen anywhere else but my guess is they will be as grubby ut a bit cheaper.
Haven't took any photos today so will upload pictures of some of my new friends that I have met on the way.
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