Amazing Amman

Well im glad i didn't hop in the taxi to Beirut! "Welcome to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan!" Says King Abdullah II and his Palestinian Queen Rania as you cross the border! Of course not in real life but on big massive propaganda posters! The king really is amazing! He can do anything! Everyone loves him here! There are so many photos of him and his family plastered around Amman! Its really fascinating to observe !



AND Amman is Amazing! The city itself has a much more relaxed vibe to it. Its not so bustling, once away from the main strips and up onto the surrounding mountains, the little windy streets and multiple stairs in Amman is a nice tranquil contrast to the rest of the cities in the middle east. It makes me think why civilisations decided to set up city in the middle multiple crevasses, central Amman is literally built along a flat part, then this urban sprawl happened along the windy mountains surrounding the city. Its amazing! The housing and buildings are piled on top of one another make for some good photos as well!AND the people are much nicer (and cleaner) here! ;)



The first afternoon i arrived from Damascus i walked to the Roman theatre and climbed up its steep stairs. I decided to lie down in the sun and ended up falling asleep for at least an hour! I was awoken by the attendant blowing his whistle indicating that the theatre was now closing! AND i didnt even get to see the museum inside! HA! Then i walked up to the Citadel opposite the theatre! Which is under controversial renovations. See their making the site more tourist friendly, infact alot of Amman is under construction for tourism. But at the citadel apparently their actually building over important undiscovered archilogical sites. When i entered there was this shonky dude at the gate, i couldnt find the ticket office, and he reckoned the site was closed (it was 5.30pm) So i was about to walk off until he said "BUT ill let you in for 10 minutes" Okayyy.... Then his friend said "BUT when you return please remember to be verrrryyyyy NICE to him" (TIP? i assume) Piss off! After walking around the site it was obvious that the others still walking in where wandering around for free! It occurred to me after that those dudes where perhaps just the construction workers! (Apparently tourism complaints are taken very seriously by the king!) It was hard to appreciate the Citadel in amongst so much construction, but the views where good!


I returned to the Hostel (The owner of the Bedewi hostel (for travellers reading) is a very interesting character! I think he genuinely means well but doesn't have proper people skills and can seem pretty schizophrenic at times! But im going to give the hostel itself a good review on hostelworld.com) Syria didn't have any hostels, well, none i could find and it was great to meet other travellers again! Daniel and Brad where in my dorm, and for the next day i hung out with Daniel, lazing around Amman. It was refreshing to do nothing! Actually felt like a holiday!Amman itself really doesn't have much to offer in sites, though walking around was pretty cool and we just hung out in a fancy cafe along one of the third circle mountains, watching Arabic music channels, smoking Nargelli and sipping Lemon and Mint frappes! (no alcohol here) Its great, music is everywhere in Jordan (unlike syria) it pours out from the streets and cafes and restaurants! I LOVE IT! In the evening we stumbled upon a cafe that had great food and live music! It was a fantastic environment! This dude was plucking his 'Oud and pelting out the notes! I loved it!!!

The next day, after much haggling with Ali the hostel owner, we organised a "tour" of surrounding Madaba, Mt Nebo and the Dead sea. I say "tour" because our driver, though very nice, didn't know the way, and was hardly a tour guide as he couldn't speak English! Though the ease of getting to the sites and the freedom leaving when we felt like was defiantly worth the 18JD's each. (Jordan is actually rather expensive, their dollar is equal to the Pound for Aussies in terms of conversion, though nothing is as expensive as London)


The Othordox church in Madaba was interesting, its main highlight is a mosaic map discovered purely by chance on the floor of the church. The Mosaic Map is an index map of the region dating from the 6AD with Jerusalem being in the centre of the map. After pushing our way through the older tour groups, we returned back to the car and was about to head off to Mt Nebo when our tier popped! GREAT! But it was all good, our driver quickly changed the tier, made a stop at a Mechanic to patch the inside tube up (i didnt know tiers had inside tubes like old school bicycles) and then we where on the way, arhh, after a few wrong turns and directions from people off the street.




We then arrived to Mt Nebo, where Moses climbed to the top of the Mountain, viewed the promise land, then died at 120years old. Moses was buried on Mt Nebo mountain by God Himself and his final resting place is unknown. Mt Nebo had a very tranquil ambience to it, but again, some of the site was closed due to construction. Annoyed, i jumped the fence to the closed off part to take some photos of the views and the serpentine cross! I did pay a whole 1JD for entrance! It was a shame though to think that Jerusalem was so close, yet so hard to get to from Amman. EVEN IF i was to attempt the King Hussein border crossing south of Amman, i would get the shit interrogated out of me , having visited Iran and Syria, and carrying a Lebanese ID. Then id risk ever being allowed into Lebanon again if the Lebanese catch on to the exit stamps from Jordan. I would have to ask the Israelis nicely once at the border to not stamp my Passport and to put the Israeli Visa on a separate piece of paper. Though the stamping and entry to Jerusalem would be entirely left up to the discretion of the Israeli border Security, which, i hear, aren't too friendly... If only Jordan still had Jerusalem in its possession, this country would be the ultimate tourist destination!



After a greasy lunch at a luxurious fast food chain (all the fast food restaurants like Burger King, KFC and CHILLI DOG in the middle east are always soo plush and clean and for the rich who can afford to eat a $10US dollar meal) We where then off to the Dead sea. The dead sea is 1,385 ft below sea level and is the lowest point on the Earth's surface! On the drive down from Mt Nebo, your ears actually pop ! Amazing! Originally our lovely hostel manager suggested we swim in the free part of the dead sea, (he assumed we where tight arses after haggling so much) But when arriving to the free section of the sea, it was clear that the sea was not clean and there was no showers to rinse the salty water off, so we decided to pay the entry of a plush Beach Resort.



Without a doubt, swimming in the dead sea has to be one of the major highlights in my trip! The experience was amazing! I was soo excited to see water after being in the middle east for over a month now! Its amazing how you just bob around in the water, it wast uncomfortable lying on your stomach as the water pushes your arms and legs up and contorts your spine! Luckily i had no cuts on your body but apparently if you do, the water stings the shit out of your cuts! Its almost 9 times as salty then ocean and has only 1 living specie in the sea, some weird plant. I decided to taste the water and it was soo.... sooo salty it was bitter! We bobbed around the water, then rinsed the salty slime off our bodies, then jumped into the chorine pool, where it felt like you where drowning after being able to float so easy in the Dead Sea. Actually the pool became really tiring as paddling around was just too much effort, as opposed to literally, just lying on your back in dead sea as sif you where about to go to sleep. It was great to just lie on your back with your arms behind your head for a cushion and then just floating along the water with the wind! It was amazing! I loved it!

...Though, ill share this piece of information with you, my anus started to sting after floating in the water for over an hour!


We watched sunset at the Dead Sea then returned to our hostel. We should have freshen up but decided to go straight to dinner, and took the suggestion of a Lebanese restaurant from these tourist we met who worked for the UN in Jordan. We caught a cab to the restaurant and it was clear that the place was well above our level of standard. We where greeted by the manager at the door in a sharp suit who looked at our salty caked skin, kaki pants and thongs, and said "im sorry, we are full"... But we are tourist right? and of course that means we have money! So take your time in finding a table as we are more then happy to sit and wait and drink your fine local Jordanian wine we've heard so much about!... Somewhat 4 hours later, we where the last to leave the posh-suit wearing-ultra-trending-cigar-smoking restaurant! The massive banquet of food and the amazing wine and nagrelli was well worth pricey bill!

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