Arriving in Amman

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I'm on a one week group tour with Exodus to Jordan which was fixed at relatively short notice, well about 4 weeks ago. I realised that I hadn't had a holiday since Easter, only business trips, and England is getting cold and depressing.....

So after trawling through the usual suspects online (Exodus, Explore, Adventure Company) I settled on this one week whizz round Jordan. As ever I found my own flight and got the best deal ever with Royal Jordanian -- £266 return. OK, they’re not exactly Emirates but the plane was new, G&T cold and the service friendly.

Great service from the local Exodus agent: he was waiting before passport control and helped me with the visa and immigration chores, then straight off to a waiting car. I arrived one day before the rest of the group and with what I’m finding out today, it seems I made the right choice. I reached the hotel at 2 o’clock this morning: the group are exactly 24 hours behind me, on the same flight. But tomorrow morning we have alarm calls at 7 a.m. and leave the hotel at 8 a.m. I’ll have a good night’s sleep tonight – they’ll all be knackered!!

It seems the itinerary has been switched around, so I think we’re heading out into the desert tomorrow and camping out. From the trip notes, that was supposed to be Day 4 but they always “reserve the right” to re-arrange the schedule.

So a relatively lazy Saturday: late breakfast, then I set off for a walk down the road to a shopping mall which reception assured me wasn’t far……… An hour later, after stopping for a cup of mint tea at a local café and asking directions twice, I decided I would cut my losses and head back to the hotel before I expired in the heat. Most of the time it’s OK but around midday does get just a bit hot! It’s dusk now, 6 p.m and the temperatures dropped to a pleasant 18C.

So no photos yet and no idea where we’re going tomorrow or when I’ll next see an Internet connection but all being well I’ll post more in a couple of days.

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