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Published: November 4th 2008
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The terrace of my hotel in Madaba
This is where I was quitely sitting having breakfast when the news of my next adventure came through. More on that later...... The flight over to Jordan was a pleasant way to while away the hour or so, although it's the only flight I've been on that's had a bouncer at the door as you got on the plane. I'm guessing that they take security a little serious in this part of the world as this miniature man mountain got on the plane and sat down beside me at the last moment, after the seatbelt light was switched off he vanished down the back of the plane only to return when he strolled up the aisle sussing everyone out. Come time to land and he was down the back of the plane somewhere with the crew.
Being the adventurous sort that I am I had a driver waiting at the airport waiting to take me to Madaba to my almost swanky hotel room. The Jordanians have their dinar pegged against the USD which means that it's about 2 AUS to 1 Dinar. Which sort of means that my JD25 a night hotel room is a bit of a bargain considering it is right in the centre of town straight across from the Greek Orthodox Church with the famous Madaba mosaic. Being a
bit peckish after I got in I went strolling to get my bearings and to find some food. What you notice is that there's a stack of clothes shops, barbers and no food. I eventually found a place only to be told it was booked out (looking at all the empty tables this wasn't exactly enduring the maitre de to me at this stage). So it was more aimless wondering and feeling a bit like Jordan wasn't a good idea after all. But it all come good when I found a little kebab shop, in my best Arabic I manged to order this rolled up chicken wrap in English times two. All for the incredible sum of JD2.50, it turned out that I'd managed to order two chicken wrap snack packs complete with salad and chips. Stroll on back to the hotel via the quickie mart on the way and grabbed a drink (JD0.75) before heading up to the room. The first bright light in Jordan was when I bought the drink and gave them JD1 and said oh it's ok don't worry about the change, but they kept insisting that I take it. The second bright star was when
The mosaic in St George church
Showing parts of Jerusalum and the Mediterranean Sea I got back to the hotel and sat down on the lounge the owners said go up to the terrace. How good was that sitting around on the roof top watching the world go by.
Madaba is a small place but a good base to see things from. I managed to stretch out all the sites into half a day. They are big on mosaics with more than a few scattered around the place. The biggie in this part of town is the Mosaic Map in the St Georges Church dating back to 560AD. It shows Jerusalem, the Dead S Wadi Hasa, Mount Sinai and Karak castle. One of the bizarre highlights of the day was standing in another quickie mart chatting to the owner about the US election, he was in the states when Bush was elected last time and was riveted to the TV coverage. The other non archaeological highlight of the day was eating lunch at the now not fully booked out restaurant. It turned out to be a feast and a half, plus the glass of local red was much more bearable, heaps better than the dodgey Turkey red paint stripper from Angora that was
masquerading as wine, which by the way is ten fold better than the Istanbul Blue alleged vodka a couple of the crew got while we were there. But back to the oven roasted chicken with potato and fresh baked flat breads absolutely delish. Even better that the whole package was only JD15 including the glass of red.
Day 2 in Madaba was an adventure north with a Spanish couple and my trusty driver from the airport. It turned out to be a mamoth day with some notable highlights. First stop was Umm Qais, a roman ruin, they're big on Roman ruins in this part of the world. From the top of the ruins you look out across the Gallilee, the Golan and somewhere in the distance was meant to be Lebanon. The standout here was the basalt columns with the dark stone making a contrast to all the other lighter coloured stone around. From there it was off to Jerash, which is what I really wanted to see. Lets just say I wasn't dissapointed, this place is amazing. Having trekked around a Roman ruin or fifteen in the last couple of years this one is the standout. It's a
huge site that even has demonstration chariot races if you're there at the right time. We weren't but we did get to see the Jordanian Piped Band playing a few Scottish tumes on the bagpipes in the majestic South Theatre. The main drag Cardo Maximus just keeps going and going and from what I can see there were no roundabouts or speed humps in Roman times. Although the Jordanians have the hang of the speed hump, they are everywhere.
Day 3 was the trip down to Wadi Musa and Petra, a three hour drive in a minibus that turns into a seven hour trip when you stop off at Karak castle on the way. So as you can see I'm struggling ok over here in Jordan, in the morning it's Petra.
More photos later, the internet and I are having a minor disagreement it must be the Celine Dion music being played in the background!!!! Minor disagreement resolved.
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Gary Yeates
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memories
That's all I have left now 10 months after arriving back, memories. It was just about this time last year that we were where you are now. Check out www.colvinyeates.zenfolio and double click on the Jordan thumbnail then click slideshow. Feel free to plagiarise.