Blogs from Amman, North, Jordan, Middle East - page 6

After finishing the previous day’s blog at about five in the morning, with that stupid donkey chiming in every twenty minutes, I did manage to fall back into a deep restful sleep with my phone charging in the other room by the two only available outlets in the entire suite (okay, at eh Pilgerhaus retreat they refer to these two room units as apartments). Apartments with twin beds at that. There are plenty of great reasons to stay at the Pilgerhaus when you are on Pilgrimage in the Holy Land and are staying on the Sea of Galilee; but, if you don’t like being raised from a sound sleep in the middle of the night by donkeys, then this may not be the retreat for you! If you don’t like door keys that fail when you ... read more

16 April 2014 Arriving in Jordan I thought the first exercise (after visa formalities and exiting the airport) would be a synch. The hostel, after all, provided its street name and two nearby landmarks with which to navigate. But, as is sometimes the way with a tourist finding their accommodation, things can go astray. The ride into the city was fine, my elderly driver abused other drivers who cut in front and had forgotten the bus he himself had cut off at the first roundabout soon after exiting the airport. We were nearing downtown Amman, clogged in traffic, hillsides clogged with concrete houses rising up in a cream mosaic. Random buildings that probably housed baquet halls lined the roads into the central city. And lines of businesses of similar industry, not competitions but rather cooperatives. And ... read more

Geo: 31.9494, 35.9329I left Jordan in June of 1993, so nearly 21 years had passed when our flight made the very slow approach and landed at Queen Alia Airport. I had read that a brand-new billion-dollar airport had opened in the last year to replace the aging former airport, but I was unprepared for all of the shine and glimmer (and order) which welcomed us upon arrival. I remember a dark, smoke-filled cavern of an airport -- nothing like the gleaming new (and rather empty) terminal.After hitting the ATM (which surprised me in that it even worked), we got in line to purchase our visas and go through immigration. After paying the visa fee -- which had just doubled in the last week...grrrrr -- we each had our iris's scanned. The two agents behind the counter ... read more

Jordan – the rest. 12th february Yesterday we had a nice lie in as didn’t have to leave until 10am. Packed our cases and also had to make sure we had our day pack with suitable things in as we were going to stay for a night in Wadi Rum desert! So had to take lots of layers and our alcohol! 1st stop was this Bakery around the corner from our hotel in Wadi Masa (Silk road hotel). This bakery was incredible. They were making flat(pitta) bread by hand and there were so many delights, boths sweet and savory. I then nipped into a small shop for water and tried to pay with a 10 dinnar note – they don’t tend to hold much change and prefer dealing in 5 or 1 dinnar notes and change ... read more

Hello and good health to all you fellow travellers! Well, this trip is just full of surprises! From hail falling on our heads in Aqaba to freezing our small butts off in the desert and now I find myself slogging through snow in Amman. This morning started with us making our way to the JETT Bus Station where we find out that the roads to Amman was still closed due to the snow but they thought that it might be possible to leave later though. The nice guy behind the counter put us on a list and told us to return one and a half hour later to see if it was possible to make the trip today. We used the time to go and get some breakfast. On our way back from breakfast the pushy ... read more