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Published: September 19th 2009
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Jerash
Looking down the main street from the Oval Plaza As uninspiring as the Desert Castles were yesterday the trip to Jerash made up for it. I decided to take public transportation all of the way and if things worked was going to try to make it Ajloun. The bus station that serves the areas to the north of Amman is very easy to negotiate. The buses are clearly marked and the drivers bark out the destination to get the bus full of passengers since they don't leave until they have a full load.
After waiting about thirty minutes we finally hit the road. It was an uneventful ride and there are several places to hop off the bus in and around the main gate into Jerash. I went past Hadrian's arch a bit since I wanted to get my bearings if I decided to press on later in the day. I hit a market in the town of Jerash and found some fresh made tamarhindi(dates) juice and bought a bottle to bring back to the hotel to share with Ayman in the club room who has been sharing some of his Iftar meals with me.
To think that the Romans built this is pretty amazing. I haven't seen
Jerash
The Plaze many of the other Roman ruins, but this is pretty impressive. My one political question about Jordan is that it surprises me that they haven't done or don't do a better job with their national treasures. Since it is a resource poor country relative to most other Middle Eastern countries, its people and historical treasuries are a major part of the economy. The King needs to take a page out of the Phoenix Sheriff's playbook and get the chain gangs out there to pick up all of the trash. I have never seen so many bags and bottles in my entire life thrown on the side of the road up to Jerash. It really is a shame, but once you are inside you are pretty much free to roam around and not pestered by guides or people trying to sell you things.
After spending about two hours in Jerash I felt confident enough in my Arabic to try another bus ride. Once you are in Jerash it is confusing as to where the main bus station is located since there are buses parked everywhere picking and letting people off. I went back to where I initally got off of
the bus and in my best Arabic asked one of the drivers where I could find the next bus that would be departing to Ajloun. He pointed me to another bus and I asked the "yeller" and he said this would take me to the main station and from there I could get another bus to Ajloun. So I piled on a bus full of women and as custom a male usually does not sit with a women that isn't his wife or family member, but the insisted that I sit.
The main bus station is smaller, but similar to the north station in Amman and I walked around looking for a bus or sing that said Aljoun, but could not find anything. So round two with finding the bus to Aljoun and I asked a man and he said the bus to Ajloun was around the corner on the street and did not leave from the station. So of I went, but no luck. So after walking around and asking I got a bit frustrated and decided to head back to Amman. There is an Amman stand in the bus station so I went back and waited and
South Theatre
Looking down from the top no bus. Finally one of the white buses zoomed by and he asked if I wanted to go to Amman and I said yes so I jumped aboard. I thought he was the bus, but turns out he was just being nice and took me to where the buses actually leave to Amman which is not from the bus station. They leave from a spot parked along side the road just South of Hadrian's Arch. Needless to say the public transportation system is a bit of a mystery.
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