Blogs from North, Jordan, Middle East - page 3

Today we have a day of travelling from our mountain retreat here in Oman, to Amman in Jordan. We’re very sad to be leaving Oman, which we both think has now become our new favourite country. There seems to be more gunfire than ever coming from the army base across the canyon this morning, and we suspect that this is likely to get even worse when half the British Army arrives here in a few days time to join in with the training exercises. I wonder if any tourists have ever been hit by stray bullets while they were staying here. Maybe it’s just as well we’re leaving today. We take the long drive down the mountain and along the highway back to Muscat airport, and board our plane for the three hour flight to Amman. ... read more

Day 18: 'Dougie at the Mosque' is how I shall remember today. While a quick tour of Doha was good (and eerily quiet of tourist's), and having company (Kaitlyn) helps majorly with logistics, I think my 40 minutes with 'Dougie the converted' will resonate for years. Entered the national mosque to be met with dismissive Arabians who said I cannot enter due to my shorts being 2cm too high - a lower waistband in it by my reckoning. Then my Lord and saviour, Dougie from Surrey, comes out and says he'd take on the burden of potential backlash from elders. Thick British accent, grey-browny hair to the top of shoulders and strawy beard (no moustache though). Surprisingly colloquial chat, but great to learn about the place. Then the speakers roared into action and the chat was ... read more

Sorry it has taken so long to post this first blog and that our silence has caused some of you some concern. We're well and having a super time but have had some difficulty getting regular, reliable internet access. I'm blaming the Himalayas for blocking the signals! So here's Blog One of this trip, in haste and without photos (because I'm struggling to upload them, hopefully they'll follow in due course) just to give reassurance that we're still alive and kicking .... There's this thing about travelling for extended periods - it takes a lot of planning. And that takes hours and hours of research before deciding where to go, how to get there, where to stay and what to see and do, followed up by all the bookings and documentation. Sensibly, I leave all of ... read more

Our last day of the tour, we left the hotel around 8am and got to Jerash around 9am. Jerash is a very large ancient Roman site on par with Ephesus in Turkey. I didn’t even know about it until we had booked this tour. They even have a chariot race and gladiators show in the Hippodrome, but we didn’t have time for that. Lana took us all the way through the complex which took over 2 hours. Lana showed us a spot in the amphitheatre in the centre where you stand and your voice comes back amplified. This explained why we saw the group of youths singing in that spot in the Amman amphitheatre. We left Jerash around 11:30 and drove through Amman again to get to the Dead Sea around 1pm. All the resorts here ... read more

Early morning arrival in Doha, Qatar airport after a 15 hour flight where we managed to get some sleep thanks to new travel pillows just purchased from Kathmandu. I'm not sure why I never tried them before as it's the first time I woke up without a stiff neck after a long flight. Food was good on Qatar and the hostesses were very nice and accommodating. 3 hour wait in Doha went quick while we had coffee in an Illy cafe and had free wi-fi. Plane took off on time for the 3 hour flight to Amman, our final destination. There was a money changer just before you get to Passport Control where you buy your visa but there is also an ATM where I managed to successfully withdraw cash using our Citibank Debit card. Also ... read more