Blogs from Jordan, Middle East - page 111

I dont understand how Jordan can be so poor and yet have one of the strongest currencies in the world. the Jordinian Dinar, is almost worth as much as the British pound - and they loooove getting you to hand over more of them than you need to. there's no real structure to the public transport so getting around is quite a mission. for example, there might be a bus going from A to B, but it doesn't leave untill it's full of punters, and if there aren't enough punters then you might get told to wait till the next next day. so we hitched around quite a bit and always seemed to get picked up pretty quick, thats where travelling with a girl comes in handy I guess. you'll see some photos of Justine in ... read more

New blog, this time from the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. I'm writing this blog from Aqaba, which is Jordan's only port city at the southernmost tip of the country. This is my last stop in Jordan, as I will shortly be leaving Jordan and entering Israel, hopefully. It still remains to be seen what the Israeli border guards will think of my Syrian visa and border stamps, but I'm hopeful they will let me in, although probably not without some sort of search. But, with regards to Jordan, I've been in the country for about 5 days. As with all the countries I've visited, a very interesting place. Compared to Syria, which I just came from, it is much more westernized. Foreign investment is widespread, and there is not as much as an aversion to being ... read more

Tuesday August 8, 2006 - Got up today with no particular plans, as my trip to the Dead Sea was canceled. Of course it was canceled, it was a little too good to be true. He had "training" today. Oh well. Instead I tried to get in touch with the Russian and Chinese embassies in Istanbul in order to get correct visa information. Let me just take an aside and say that I am ready to leave Jordan. Although it's not nearly as bad as Egypt was, I am still uncomfortable here as a woman and it gets worse everyday. I seem to attract crazy amounts of unwanted attention. Just lucky I guess. For example, there is a man from Syria who stays in my hotel and finds all kinds of excuses to come to my ... read more

Sunday, August 6, 2006 - Today was a classic. I got up early in order to be at the Chinese embassy when they opened at 9am. I took a relatively expensive cab ride there and then couldn't figure out how to get in. The police man on duty led me around to the back entrance with his big gun and then I spoke to the woman about getting a visa. Turns out I need a letter from my embassy and about $75. So I walked out and will hope for better luck in Turkey. I went next to Turkish Airlines to buy my ticket to Turkey next week. The cab driver got lost and had to ask for directions a few times, and this got on my nerves because we were using the meter and this ... read more

Friday August 4, 2006 - I woke up this morning and talked to my new roommate while she packed - she was headed to Madaba, a nearby town. I decided to go to Jerash, an Ancient Roman city that is still being excavated. Went to buy some water and felafel and found myself waiting for a service taxi to the bus station with my roommate. So we got a taxi and said good bye at the bus station. I got on a bus to Jerash that was just leaving (good luck) and sat next to a girl who decided to smoke even though the windows didn't open (bad luck). The ride was an hour or so and when I got off the bus I noticed one other tourist. I spoke to him and we ended up ... read more